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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a carry-out tray for food and beverage and more particularly to a carry-out tray formed from paperboard material capable of being folded from a collapsed condition prior to use into an erect usable condition.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Carry-out trays and cartons for carrying foods and beverages from fast food restaurants and food vendors such as those at ball parks are widely used. The trays are generally made of a paperboard sheet material folded to form various food and beverage compartments. The compartments are designed to separate different food items and to allow individuals to carry several food items while preventing spillage. Such trays in the past have been designed to be stored in flat configurations and then manipulated just prior to use by a food service supplier into an upright or erect position thus allowing efficient storage and quick conversion to a food carrying tray product.
However, prior art designs had defects such that the trays became unstable when several food products and beverages were placed into the tray, often leading to spillage of the food and beverage products. Additionally, the prior art trays oftentimes required significant manipulation in order to be transformed from the lay flat configuration to the erect usable condition. Also, once in a usable condition the prior art food service trays did not automatically lock into an upright usable position resulting in additional food service supplier time to ready the tray for carry-out use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The carry-out tray of the present invention is capable of being easily and quickly manipulated from a collapsed condition prior to use into an erect usable condition. When in its erect condition, a substantially planar top wall is foldably connected at its opposite edges and in substantially perpendicular relationship with a pair of sidewalls substantially parallel to each other. The tray additionally includes a substantially planar bottom wall having an opening wherein the bottom wall of the erect tray is foldably connected in substantially perpendicular relationship to each of the pair of sidewalls. The tray further includes a slidable compartment member which is adjacent the bottom wall when the tray is erect. An integral lock tab of the compartment member is adapted to be extended into the opening of the bottom wall. The erect tray is also provided with an end member substantially perpendicular to the top wall and foldably connected to the compartment member wherein the end member is hingedly secured to each of the pair of sidewalls. An intermediate member foldably connected to the top wall and spaced from and substantially parallel to the end member is provided and is attached to the compartment member to form an open compartment. The intermediate member further includes an integral guide tab depending therefrom to deflect the compartment member lock tab into the opening of the bottom wall for locking the tray in its upright and erect position.
It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide an improved carry-out tray, blank and method which overcome the limitations of the prior art.
It is a further object to provide a carry-out tray which may be converted from a lay flat collapsed condition into a positively locked, useable tray in an upright and erect condition by a method requiring minimal manipulation.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a carry-out tray that automatically locks in its erect position to keep the tray from inadvertently collapsing.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the present invention reference should now be made to the embodiments illustrated in greater detail in the accompanying drawings and described below by way of example of the invention. It should be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to the particular embodiments illustrated herein but is defined by the appended claims.
IN THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a carry-out tray in an erect and useable position according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a top perspective view of a carry-out tray according to the present invention showing the slidable compartment wall locking the tray into its erect position.
FIG. 3 is a bottom perspective view illustrating the automatically locking tabs of the carry-out tray according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a side sectioned view of a carry-out tray in a substantially erect position according to the present invention and interengaging motion of components in phantom.
FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmented side sectioned view of a portion of FIG. 4 illustrating the automatically locking tabs according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a plan view of a paperboard blank useful for making the tray according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The basic tray structure which is illustrated in the drawings is formed from a blank 10 of paperboard or similar foldable sheet material and has a generally typical overall construction as seen in FIG. 6. The specific blank 10 which is illustrated includes a sidewall portion 11 foldably connected to a bottom wall portion 12 along fold line 13. The bottom wall portion 12 is provided with one or more spaced openings 54. Suitable means such as an adhesion flap 14 defined by a fold line 15 are included to secure to the bottom wall portion 12 to other portions of the blank.
A top wall portion 16 is foldably connected to sidewall portion 11 along fold line 17. End flap portions 18, 19 and 20, 21 foldably connected to respective edges of the bottom, side, and top wall portions along a fold line 22 can be included to provide material which generally interlocks to form one end of a tray formed from the assembled blank.
The top wall portion 16 is provided with one or more die cut food storage sections 23, 24 made up of foldably connected panels 25 of the top wall 16. A food storage section can be generally octagonally shaped and can include a pair of substantially rectangular die cut portions 26, 27 to provide varied sizing and/or shaping of food storage sections when in use. An intermediate wall portion 30 is foldably connected to the top wall portion 16 along fold line 31. The intermediate wall portion 30 is provided with suitable securement means such as adhesion flaps 32, 33 foldably connected to the intermediate wall portion 30 along fold line 34. Illustrated flaps 32, 33 are provided with integral die cut guide tabs 35 deflectable away from the adhesion flaps 32, 33 and foldably connected to the intermediate wall portion 30 along score line 34. Another sidewall portion 44 is foldably attached to the top wall portion 16 along fold line 53.
In the illustrated embodiment, a compartment wall portion 36 is foldably connected to an outer end wall portion 37 along a fold line 38. The compartment wall portion 36 includes die cut tabs 39, 40. A spacer wall portion 41 is foldably connected to the outer end wall portion 37 along a fold line 42 and is foldably connected to the sidewall portion 11 along a fold line 43 and the sidewall portion 44 along a fold line 45. An inner end wall portion 46 is foldably connected to the spacer wall portion 41 along a fold line 47. A suitable connecting member such as adhesion flange 48 is provided foldably connected to the inner end wall portion 46 along a fold line 49 and is adapted to be attached to the surface of the compartment wall 36 portion.
When the blank 10 of FIG. 6 is folded and glued and erected into the configuration as shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, a carry-out tray 50 is provided. During such a procedure, the blank 10 is folded along fold lines 15, 13, 17 45, and 53 in order to attach the adhesion flap 14 to the sidewall 44. End flaps 18, 19 are glued to end flaps 20, 21 at each corner. Compartment wall portion 36, inner end wall portion 46 and outer end wall portion 37 are folded along fold lines 38, 42, 47 in order to insert the compartment wall portion 36 into the interior area defined by the now attached and formed top wall 16 and bottom wall 12. The intermediate wall portion 30 is then folded along the fold line 31 and the adhesion flaps 32, 33 are folded along the score line 34 in order to glue the adhesion flaps 32, 33 to the top surface of the compartment wall portion 36. The adhesion flange 48 of the inner end wall portion 46 is folded along the fold line 49 in order to glue the adhesion flange 48 to the top surface of the compartment wall portion 36. The thus assembled tray 50 is stored in a substantially flat configuration until it is set up for use in an erect position as shown in FIG. 1.
It should be noted that the substantially flat configuration of the carry-out tray 50 in its glued and folded condition is a generally flattened square section in order to maximize packaging transport and storage efficiency. In one embodiment of this substantially flat configuration, outer end wall 37 is substantially parallel to the inner end wall 46 and generally coplanar with the compartment wall 36. Additionally, intermediate wall 30 is substantially parallel with the top wall 16 and the bottom wall 12 and sandwiched between the top and bottom walls.
When a food service supplier or the like desires to transform the flattened carton into the erect carry-out tray, the flattened carton initially is squared for use by shifting the top wall 16 from a position parallel and substantially adjacent to the bottom wall 12 to a position parallel to and spaced from the bottom wall 12. Sidewalls 11 and 44 are shifted from positions substantially parallel with the top wall 16 to positions substantially perpendicular to the top wall 16. At the same time, end flaps 18, 19 and 20, 21, when provided, become engaged in a manner well known in the art in an interleaved configuration substantially perpendicular to the top wall 16 forming an end wall 52. At this stage, intermediate wall 30, outer end wall 37, and inner end wall 46 are disposed in angled relationship to the top wall 16 as shown by phantom lines A in FIG. 4 at which guide tab 35 is located beyond opening 54 (to the right as viewed in FIG. 4).
Pressure is then supplied by the food service supplier as shown in FIG. 2 to move the outer end wall 37, intermediate wall 30, inner end wall 46 and compartment wall 36 to a pre-insertion position as shown by phantom lines B in FIG. 4 at which guide tab 35 has swung back past the opening 54 (to the left as shown in FIG. 4). It should be understood that the outer end wall 37, intermediate wall 30, and inner end wall 46 swing angularly while the compartment wall 36 is moved substantially laterally. This movement is necessary in this embodiment in order to position the lock tab 39, 40 so that it can be automatically inserted into the opening 54 of the bottom wall 12. Once position B is attained, intermediate wall 30, outer end wall 37, inner end wall 46 and the compartment wall 36 are then moved or slid in the opposite direction (to the right as shown in FIG. 4) such that the lock tab 39, 40 extends through the opening 54 of the bottom wall 12 locking the side wall 30, inner end wall 46 and the outer end wall 37 in substantially perpendicular alignment with the top wall 16 to provide the assembled condition shown in solid lines in FIGS. 4 and 5. It should be noted that the guide tab 35 depends downwardly from the intermediate wall 30 to engage the lock tab 39, 40 angling and extending the lock tab 39, 40 downwardly from the compartment wall 36 to ensure that it extends into the opening 54 of the bottom wall 12.
Alternatively, in a second collapsed configuration embodiment, the glued and folded flattened carton may be configurated such that the inner end wall 46 is substantially parallel with the outer end wall 37 and substantially coplanar with the compartment wall 36. Additionally, intermediate wall 30 is substantially parallel with the bottom wall 12 and substantially coplanar with the top wall 12.
In this second collapsed configuration embodiment, the flattened carton is transformed into the erect tray 50 by shifting the top wall 16 from a position parallel with and adjacent the bottom wall 12 to a position parallel to and spaced from the bottom wall 12. Sidewalls 11, 44 are shifted from a position substantially parallel with the top wall 16 and the bottom wall 12 to a position substantially perpendicular to the top and bottom walls 16 and 12. At the same time, end flaps 18, 19 and 20, 21, when provided, become engaged in a manner well known in the art in an interleaved configuration substantially perpendicular to the top wall 16 forming an end wall 52. At this stage the outer end wall 37, the inner end wall 46 and the intermediate wall 30 are in a position shown by phantom lines B in FIG. 4. A food service supplier then moves the outer end wall 37, the inner end wall 46 and the intermediate wall 30 inwardly (to the right as shown in FIG. 4) such that the lock tab 39, 40 of the compartment wall 36 is deflected downwardly by the guide tab 35 in order to engage and protrude through the opening 54 in the bottom wall 12.
In the upright and erect position as shown in FIG. 1, the carry-out tray 50 is capable of accepting various food and beverage products. Area 51 of the carry-out tray 50 formed from intermediate wall 30, sidewalls 11, 44, compartment wall 36 and inner wall 46 is large enough to hold a large entre such as a sandwich or a hot dog. The food storage sections 23, 24 are capable of holding a variety of different sized food packages, such as beverages or french fries. It will be appreciated that panels 25 of sections 23, 24 when deflected below the surface of top wall 16 provide lateral support to prevent items such as cans or cups of beverages from spilling or moving laterally. Additionally, portions 26, 27 of section 23, also deflectable below the surface of top wall 16, provide additional space and support for oblong or rectangularly shaped items to prevent their movement and spillage.
It will thus be seen that the present invention provides a new a useful carry-out tray for food and beverage formed from a blank of paperboard material which tray and blank have a number of advantages and characteristics, including those pointed out herein and others which are inherent in the invention. Preferred embodiments of the invention have been described by way of example, and it is anticipated that modifications may be made to the described form without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.
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A blank and carry-out tray for carrying a variety of food products are provided and the tray is capable of transformation from a storage condition of a substantially flat configuration to an erect and upright useable condition by manipulation of a plurality of foldably connected portions that move similarly to a parallel linkage arrangement and which are provided with a locking mechanism that automatically lock the tray in its upright and useable condition.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to article identification and protection and pertains more particularly to tags having size adaptiveness to articles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One type of article identification device having security aspects and having virtual universal applicability to articles is the so-called “seal”, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,055. The seal of the '055 patent comprises a plastic body having a flexible cord passing through and secured in the body and extending outwardly of the body to a cord free end which has hooks secured thereto and of configuration providing for irreversible insertion in the plastic body. In addition to the body and the cord, the seal of the '055 patent has plates bearing logo/article indication applied to the plastic body to close the same. In use, the hook and cord are passed through an opening of, e.g., a watch band, and the hook is then inserted into the plastic body.
A widespread further practice in article security is the use of so-called anti-theft tags which incorporate electronic article surveillance (EAS) markers. Such tags are secured to articles and are removed or rendered inactive at checkout. Where fraudulent avoidance of checkout (shop-lifting) occurs, the markers are sensed by EAS systems, e.g., at store exits, and suitable alarm is generated.
One form of EAS marker in widespread use is in the form of a flat, thin, flexible, rectangular member which is applied adhesively to flat or curved surfaces of articles.
In pending, allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/088,839, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,909, commonly-assigned herewith, there is shown a seal incorporating therewithin an EAS marker.
Known seals, such as those above discussed, have a common shortcoming in that they are not adaptive to the size of articles with which they are assembled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the subject invention is to provide tags which are adaptive to the size of articles with which they are assembled.
In broad aspect, the invention provides tags, the article engaging elements of which can tightly circumscribe articles of different sizes. To this end, the invention provides tags having first and second separately fabricated housings having respective locking means for securing the housings to one another with articles of varying sizes securable interiorly of the secured housings.
More particularly, an article protection tag in accordance with the invention comprises a first housing defining a compartment therein, an EAS member disposed in the compartment and a second housing separate from the first housing, the first and second housings jointly defining means for locking the first housing to the second housing with any one of a plurality of predetermined fixed spacings between facing surfaces of the first and second housings interiorly of the locking means.
In another aspect, the invention comprises, in combination, an article of manufacture having a constituent component generally rectangular in cross-section and an article protection tag comprising a first housing defining a compartment therein, an EAS member disposed in the compartment and a second housing, the first and second housings jointly defining means for locking the first housing to the second housing, one of the housing means for locking including first and second locking members mutually spaced by at least a first dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section and having lengths exceeding a second dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section.
The invention will be further understood from consideration of the following description of preferred embodiments thereof and from the drawings where like reference numerals identify like parts throughout.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a wristwatch mounted on a display member and bearing a first article protection tag in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 2 is a left side elevation of FIG. 1 .
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the housings of the article protection tag of FIG. 1 with one housing broken away in part and the other housing shown transparently to show interior details thereof.
FIG. 4 is a front elevation of the housings of FIG. 3 secured to one another without the wristwatch secured therewith.
FIG. 5 is a front elevation of a wristwatch mounted on a display member and bearing a second article protection tag in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 6 is a left side elevation of FIG. 5 .
FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of the housings of the article protection tag of FIG. 5 .
FIG. 8 is a front elevation of the housings of FIG. 7 secured to one another without the wristwatch secured therewith.
FIG. 9 is a front elevation of a wristwatch mounted on a display member and bearing a third article protection tag in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 10 is a left side elevation of FIG. 9 .
FIG. 11 is a top plan view of the FIG. 9 showing.
FIG. 12 shows the housings of the FIG. 9 tag without the wristwatch therewith secured to one another in a first mutual spacing.
FIG. 13 shows the housings of the FIG. 9 tag without the wristwatch therewith secured to one another in a second mutual spacing.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to FIGS. 1-4, wristwatch 10 is supported on display member 12 and has tag 14 secured therewith. Tag 14 is comprised of first and second, separately fabricated, housings 16 and 18 . Housing 16 defines an interior compartment 20 in which EAS member 22 is secured. Housing 16 is elongate and has ratchet members 24 and 26 extending longitudinally from facing surface 16 a thereof, a preselected transverse spacing S being provided between the ratchet members.
First and second openings 18 b and 18 c are provided in facing surface 18 a of housing 18 at transverse spacing S, the housing preferably being hollow or otherwise having channels permitting free movement of ratchet members 24 and 26 therethrough. Openings 18 b and 18 c are of transverse width less than the transverse width of teeth 24 a and 26 a of ratchet members 24 and 26 , whereby only unidirectional movement, vertical upward movement in FIG. 3, of the ratchet members into housing 18 is permitted.
As will be appreciated, housings 16 and 18 are securable in either one of two mutual spacings of facing surfaces 16 a and 18 a , i.e., a first spacing as defined by the uppermost teeth of ratchet members 24 and 26 being detented against downward movement by housing 18 surface bounding openings 18 a and 18 b and a second spacing as defined by the second uppermost teeth of ratchet members 24 and 26 being detented against downward movement by housing 18 surface bounding openings 18 b and 18 c . The second spacing is shown in FIG. 4 .
As is seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, the strap 10 a of wristwatch 10 is of generally rectangular cross-section, having width 10 b and thickness 10 c . Per the invention, in the means for locking the first housing to the second housing, one of the housing means for locking includes first and second locking members mutually spaced by at least a first dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section and having lengths exceeding a second dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section. To this end, ratchet members 24 and 26 are mutually spaced by transverse spacing S which exceeds width 10 b of strap 10 a and have lengths exceeding the thickness 10 c of strap 10 a.
In assembling tag 16 with wristwatch 10 , housing 16 is placed interiorly of strap 10 a , as shown in FIG. 2, with facing surface 16 a engaging the interior surface of strap 10 a and with rachet members 24 and 26 on opposite sides of the strap margins. Housing 18 is now placed outwardly of the strap with openings 18 b and 18 c aligned with ratchet members 24 and 26 . Housing 18 is now forced downwardly onto the strap until ratchet members 24 and 26 are secured within housing 18 .
Referring to FIGS. 5-8, wristwatch 10 is supported on display member 12 and has tag 28 secured therewith. Tag 28 is comprised of first and second, separately fabricated, housings 30 and 32 . As in the case of housing 16 , housing 30 defines an interior compartment in which an EAS member (not shown) is secured. Housing 32 has ratchet members 34 and 36 extending downwardly from facing surface 32 a thereof, the preselected transverse spacing S being provided between the ratchet members.
Housing 30 is elongate and has openings 30 b and 30 c formed in its facing surface 30 a at transverse spacing S. Housing 30 is preferably hollow or otherwise has channels permitting free movement of ratchet members 34 and 36 therethrough. Openings 30 b and 30 c are of transverse width less than the transverse width of the teeth 34 a and 36 a of ratchet members 34 and 36 , whereby only unidirectional movement, vertical downward movement in FIG. 6, of the ratchet members into housing 30 is permitted.
As in the case of the tag embodiment of FIGS. 1-4, housings 30 and 32 are securable in either one of two mutual spacings of facing surfaces 30 a and 32 a , i.e., a first spacing as defined by the lowermost teeth of ratchet members 34 and 36 being detented against downward movement by housing 30 surface bounding openings 30 b and 30 c and a second spacing as defined by the second lowermost teeth of ratchet members 34 and 36 being detented against downward movement by housing 30 surface bounding openings 30 b and 30 c . The second spacing is shown in FIG. 8 .
As is seen in FIGS. 5 and 6, the strap 10 a of wristwatch 10 is of generally rectangular cross-section. Per the invention, in the means for locking the first housing to the second housing, one of the housing means for locking includes first and second locking members mutually spaced by at least a first dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section and having lengths exceeding a second dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section. To this end, ratchet members 34 and 36 are mutually spaced by transverse spacing S which exceeds the width of strap 10 a and have lengths exceeding the thickness of strap 10 a.
Referring to FIGS. 9-13, wristwatch 10 is supported on display member 12 and has tag 38 secured therewith. Tag 38 is comprised of first and second, separately fabricated, housings 40 and 42 . As in the case of housing 16 , housing 40 defines an interior compartment in which an EAS member (not shown) is secured. Housing 40 is elongate and has ratchet members 44 and 46 extending transversely from facing surface 40 a thereof, the aforementioned transverse spacing S being provided between the ratchet members.
First and second openings 42 b and 42 c are provided in facing surface 42 a of housing 42 at transverse spacing S, the housing preferably being hollow or otherwise having channels permitting free movement of the ratchet members 44 and 46 therethrough. Openings 42 b and 42 c are of transverse width less than the transverse width of the teeth of ratchet members 44 and 46 , whereby only unidirectional movement, to the left in FIG. 12, of the ratchet members into housing 42 is permitted.
As will be appreciated, housings 40 and 42 are securable in either one of two mutual spacings of facing surfaces 40 a and 40 a , i.e., a first spacing as defined by the outermost teeth of ratchet members 44 and 46 being detented against separating movement in FIG. 12 by housing 42 surface bounding openings 42 b and 42 c and a second spacing as defined by the second outermost teeth of ratchet members 44 and 46 being detented against separating movement in FIG. 12 by housing 42 surface bounding openings 42 b and 42 c . The first spacing is shown in FIG. 13 and the second spacing is shown in FIG. 12 .
As is seen in FIGS. 9 and 10, the strap 10 a of wristwatch 10 is of generally rectangular cross-section. Per the invention, in the means for locking the first housing to the second housing, one of the housing means for locking includes first and second locking members mutually spaced by at least a first dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section and having lengths exceeding a second dimension of the article of manufacture cross-section. To this end, ratchet members 44 and 46 are mutually spaced by transverse spacing S which exceeds the width of strap 10 a and have lengths exceeding the thickness of strap 10 a.
Various changes may be introduced in the disclosed preferred embodiments without departing from the invention. For example, while the plurality of spacings defined between the lockable housings is two, this number may be expanded to include other spacings simply by expanding the number of teeth on the ratchet members. Accordingly, it is to be appreciated that the true spirit and scope of the invention is set forth in the following claims.
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An article protection tag comprises a first housing defining a compartment therein, an EAS member disposed in the compartment and a second housing fabricated separately from the first housing, the first and second housings jointly defining structure for locking the first housing to the second housing with any one of a plurality of predetermined fixed spacings between facing surfaces of the first and second housings interiorly of the locking structure.
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This is a division of application Ser. No. 09/075,190, filed May 11, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,649 which is incorporated herein reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sleeve for abutting, aligning, and retaining opposed ferrules for use in an optical connector to be used for connecting optical fibers and a method for the production thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, the connecting part in an optical connector is composed of ferrules having connected thereto a sheathed optical fiber completed by coating the basic thread of an optical fiber with a sheath and a sleeve shaped like a hollow cylinder and adapted to, admit opposed ferrules in an aligned state. Particularly unlike the electric connector, the optical connector is required to ensure exact accord between the relative positions of two optical fibers to be connected. It, therefore, becomes necessary to fix an optical fiber in coincidence with the center of a ferrule having the outside diameter thereof and the inside diameter of the part thereof for allowing insertion of the basic thread of an optical fiber finished in respectively specified sizes and then insert a pair of such ferrules into a sleeve through the opposite ends thereof until mutual abutment, and center the axes of the optical fibers. As means for effecting this centering, the methods of the so-called adjusting type which rely on adjusting mechanisms to carry out fine adjustment and the methods of the no-adjusting type which are aimed at heightening the dimensional accuracy of ferrules and sleeves are available. Recently, the methods of the no-adjusting type have been predominating.
Heretofore, most of the ferrules which have been in popular use are those made of such ceramic substances as zirconia. By the same token, the sleeves which are made of such ceramic substances as zirconia have been in popular use.
Published Japanese Patent Application, KOKAI (Early Publication) No. (hereinafter referred to briefly as “JP-A-”) 6-27,348, for example, discloses a ceramic sleeve which is formed by providing a tubular body with ridges raised from at least three points on the inner wall surface of the tubular body and extended from one to the other end of the length of the tubular body. The ridge has an upper face formed in a concave circular arc included in a circle centering about the axis of the tubular body, namely a concave arcuate cross section facing the axis of the tubular body. The ridges and the inner wall surface of the tubular body are interconnected with gentle curves. The patent literature mentioned above further discloses a method for the production of the sleeve. This method comprises a step of manufacturing such a ceramic raw material as zirconia or alumina into a tubular body of such a geometric shape as described above, a step of calcining the resultant tubular body, and a step of polishing the upper faces of the ridges on the inner wall surface of the calcined tubular body. When the sleeve is a split type, the method further comprises a step of inserting a slit in the tubular body fresh from the polishing step throughout the entire length thereof in the longitudinal direction.
The ceramic sleeve constructed as described above is generally produced by subjecting the raw material first to primary forming in a cylindrical shape as by powder extrusion or injection molding and then to degreasing. and sintering treatments and machining works for grinding the outer surface of the tubular body and abrading the inner wall surface of the tubular body. The process of production, therefore, includes many steps and incurs an enormous cost inevitably. Further, since the raw material is brittle and rigid, the product brings about such problems as shedding chips and leaving the finish of surface polishing at the mercy of the grain size of crystals. Since the ceramic sleeve is rigid and deficient in elasticity, the ridges raised from the inner wall surface of the sleeve tend to inflict scratches on the outer faces of the ferrules and the sleeve and the ferrules, on repeating their mutual attachment and detachment, tend to backlash possibly to the extent of inducing a deviation from the axial alignment of the optical fibers. The ceramic substance, therefore, is not perfectly fit as a material for the sleeve in the optical connector which is prone to frequent attachment and detachment of the ferrules.
Further, since the ceramic sleeve inevitably contracts when it is sintered subsequently to the primary formation, it must be ground to prescribe dimensions by all means. When the ridges are formed as extended in the longitudinal direction on the inner wall surface of the tubular body, therefore, the upper faces of the ridges are ground in a concave arcuate shape along the axis of the tubular body as disclosed in JP-A-6-27,348 mentioned above. When these ridges are formed at three points on the inner wall surface of the tubular body, it is not the concave arcuate faces of the ridges but the opposite lateral edges of these faces in the longitudinal. direction that are actually exposed to contact with the outer peripheral surfaces of the ferrules which have been inserted into the sleeve. When the component ridges of the sleeve are exactly in agreement in size, therefore, the sleeve is fated to fix the ferrules in position in a state such that the opposite lateral edges (located at a total of six points) are held in contact with the outer surfaces of the ferrules. When the ridges involve a dimensional error, even if slightly, the contact occurs only at part of the points mentioned above. As a consequence, the possibility arises that the ridges will give rise to a deviation in contact and fixation at the points mentioned above in relation to the ferrules inserted into the sleeve opposite each other and the terminals of the optical fibers being connected consequently will inevitably deviate from their mutual axial alignment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a sleeve for optical connector ferrules which is capable of accurately abutting, aligning, and retaining opposed optical connector ferrules while incurring only sparingly such problems mentioned above as causing a deviation from axial alignment of the connected optical fibers and suffering the sleeves to shed chips.
A further object of the present invention to provide a method which, owing to the combination of a technique based on the conventional metal mold casting process or molding process with the quality of an amorphous alloy exhibiting a glass transition region, allows a sleeve for optical connector ferrules satisfying a predetermined shape, dimensional accuracy, and surface quality to be mass-produced with high efficiency by a simple process and, therefore, enables to omit or diminish markedly such machining steps as grinding and consequently provide an inexpensive sleeve for optical connector ferrules excelling in durability, strength, resistance to impact, and elasticity expected of the sleeve.
To accomplish the object mentioned above, the first aspect of the present invention provides a sleeve for abutting, aligning, and retaining opposed optical connector ferrules, which sleeve is characterized by being manufactured from an amorphous alloy instead of a ceramic material or metallic material which has been heretofore used.
The first embodiment of the sleeve for optical connector ferrules according to the present invention is characterized by being manufactured from an amorphous alloy possessing at least a glass transition region, preferably a glass transition region of a temperature width of not less than 30 K. In a preferred embodiment, the sleeve is characterized by being formed of a substantially amorphous alloy having a composition represented by the following general formula and containing an amorphous phase in a volumetric ratio of at least 50%:
X a M b Al c
wherein X represents either or both of the two elements, Zr and Hf, M represents at least one element selected from the group consisting of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu, and a, b, and c represent such atomic percentages as respectively satisfy 25≦a≦85, 5≦b≦70, and 0<c≦35.
The second embodiment of the sleeve according to the present invention, in view of the ease with which the optical connector ferrules and the sleeve used for abutting, aligning, and retaining the terminals of the ferrules succumb to deformation, is characterized by being manufactured from an amorphous alloy more susceptible of elastic deformation than the material for the optical connector ferrules lest the repetition of attachment and detachment of the sleeve and the ferrules should inflict injury on the ferrules or compel the ferrules to develop backlash.
The second aspect of the present invention, to give a sleeve a geometric shape fit for the purpose of abutting, aligning, and retaining opposed optical connector ferrules and to prevent the ferrules from being injured, consists in providing a sleeve characterized by having a tubular body provided at three points on the inner wall surface thereof with ridges extending from one to the other end of the tubular body in the longitudinal direction thereof, the ridges being so formed that the upper faces thereof may have an arcuate cross section which curves toward the axis of the tubular body.
The sleeve according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is characterized by the fact that the tubular body mentioned above is provided throughout the entire length in the longitudinal direction thereof with such a slit as enables the optical connector ferrules to be elastically retained and preclude the occurrence of backlash even when the attachment and detachment of the sleeve and the ferrules are repeated.
Another aspect of the present invention consists in providing methods for the production of the sleeve for use with optical connector ferrules as mentioned above.
One mode of the methods is characterized by comprising the steps of melting an alloying material capable of producing an amorphous alloy in a melting vessel having an upper open end, forcibly transferring the resultant molten alloy into a forced cooling casting mold disposed above the vessel and provided with at least one molding cavity, and rapidly solidifying the molten alloy in the forced cooling casting mold to confer amorphousness on the alloy thereby obtaining the product made of an alloy containing an amorphous phase.
In a preferred embodiment of this method, the melting vessel is furnished therein with a molten metal transferring member adapted to forcibly transfer the molten alloy upward, the forced cooling casting mold is provided with at least two identically shaped molding cavities and runners severally communicating with the cavities, and the runners are disposed on an extended line of a transfer line for the molten metal transferring member.
Another method is characterized by comprising the steps of providing a vessel for melting and retaining an alloying material capable of producing an amorphous alloy possessing a glass transition region, providing a metal mold provided with at least one cavity of the shape of the product aimed at, coupling a hole formed in, for example, the lower or upper part of the vessel with a sprue of the metal mold, for example by disposing the metal mold beneath or on the vessel, applying pressure on a melt of the alloy in the vessel thereby enabling a prescribed amount of the melt to pass through the hole of the vessel and fill the cavity of the metal mold, and solidifying the melt in the metal mold at a cooling rate of not less than 10 K(Kelvin scale)/sec. thereby giving rise to the product of an alloy containing an amorphous phase.
In any of the methods described above, as the alloying material mentioned above, a material capable of producing a substantially amorphous alloy having a composition represented by the aforementioned general formula: X a M b Al c , and containing an amorphous phase in a volumetric ratio of at least 50% is advantageously used.
Still another method of the present invention is characterized by comprising the steps of heating an amorphous material formed of the alloy represented by the general formula mentioned above until the temperature of a supercooled liquid region, inserting the resultant hot amorphous material into a container held at the same temperature, coupling with the container a metal mold provided with a cavity of the shape of the product aimed at, and forcing a prescribed amount of the alloy in the state of a supercooled liquid into the metal mold by virtue of the viscous flow thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken together with the drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating one embodiment of the sleeve the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the sleeve shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view illustrating one mode of the use of the sleeve of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a cross section taken through FIG. 3 along the line IV—IV;
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view illustrating another mode of the use of the sleeve of the present invention;
i FIG. 6 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view schematically illustrating one embodiment of the apparatus to be used for the production of the sleeve of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a cast article manufactured by the apparatus shown in FIG. 6; and
FIG. 8 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view schematically illustrating another embodiment of the apparatus to be used for the production of the sleeve of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention, the sleeve which abuts, aligns, and retains the opposed optical connector ferrules as described above is manufactured from an amorphous alloy. The amorphous alloy manifests low hardness and high elasticity as compared with a ceramic material, exhibits high tensile strength and high bending strength, and excels in durability, impact resistance, surface smoothness, etc. and, therefore, constitutes itself the optimum material for the sleeve which abuts the opposed optical connector ferrules, aligns them without involving any deviation from axial alignment, and infallibly retains them. The sleeve which has been manufactured from the amorphous alloy possessed of such characteristic properties as described above is such that the ridges of a semicircular cross section, for example, to be formed on the inner wall surface thereof, therefore, do not easily injure the outer surfaces of the ferrules or do not easily develop backlash after the repetition of the attachment and detachment of the ferrules to and from the sleeve but allow stable connection between the opposed ferrules.
Further, the amorphous alloy possesses highly accurate castability and machinability and, therefore, allows manufacture of a sleeve of smooth surface faithfully reproducing the contour of the cavity of the mold by the metal mold casting method or molding method. The sleeve made of a ceramic material must be ground to a prescribed size by all means after the step of sintering because this sleeve, on being sintered subsequently to primary formation, yields to contraction as described above. In sharp contrast, the sleeve made of an amorphous alloy permits omission of a step for adjustment of size or adjustment of surface coarseness or allows copious curtailment of such a step because this sleeve obviates the necessity for a sintering step and consequently precludes the possibility of the produced sleeve from sustaining contraction due to sintering. The sleeve which satisfies dimensional prescription, dimensional accuracy, and surface quality, therefore, can be manufactured by a single process with high mass producibility.
The material for the sleeve of the present invention does not need to be limited to any particular substance but may be any of the materials which are capable at all of furnishing a product formed substantially of amorphous alloy. Among other materials answering this description, the Zr-TM-Al and Hf-TM-Al (TM: transition metal) amorphous alloys having very wide differences between. the glass transition temperature (Tg) and the crystallization temperature (Tx) exhibit high strength and high corrosion resistance, possess wide supercooled liquid ranges (glass transition ranges), Δ Tx=Tx−Tg, of not less than 30 K, and extremely wide supercooled. liquid ranges of not less than 60 K in the case of the Zr-TM-Al amorphous alloys. In the above temperature ranges, these amorphous alloys manifest very satisfactory workability owing to viscous flow even at such low stress not more than some tens MPa. They are characterized by being produced easily and very stably as evinced by the fact that they are enabled to furnish an amorphous bulk material even by a casting method using a cooling rate of the order of some tens K/s. The aforementioned Zr-TM-Al and Hf-TM-Al amorphous alloys are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,196 issued Jul. 16, 1991 to Masumoto et al., the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference. After a further study in search of uses for these alloys, the inventor has ascertained that by the metal mold casting from melt and by the molding process utilizing the viscous flow resorting to the glass transition range as well, these alloys produce amorphous materials and permit very faithful reproduction of the shape and size of a molding cavity of a metal mold and, with the physical properties of the alloys as a contributory factor, befit the optical connector ferrules and the sleeve for connecting them.
The Zr-TM-Al and Hf-TM-Al amorphous alloys to be used in the present invention possess very large range of Δ Tx, though variable with the composition of alloy and the method of determination. The Zr 60 Al 15 Co 2.5 Ni 7.5 Cu 15 alloy (Tg: 652K, Tx: 768K), for example, has such an extremely wide a Δ Tx as 116K. It also offers very satisfactory resistance to oxidation such that it is hardly oxidized even when it is heated in the air up to the high temperature of Tg. The Vickers hardness (Hv) of this alloy at temperatures from room temperature through the neighborhood of Tg is 460 (DPN), the tensile strength thereof is 1,600 MPa, and the bending strength thereof is up to 3,000 MPa. The thermal expansion coefficient, α of this alloy from room temperature through the neighborhood of Tg is as small as 1×10 −5 /K, the Young's modulus thereof is 91 GPa, and the elastic limit thereof in a compressed state exceeds 4-5%. Further, the toughness of the alloy is high such that the Charpy impact value falls in the range of 6-7 J/cm 2 . This alloy, while exhibiting such properties of very high strength as mentioned above, has the flow stress thereof lowered to the neighborhood of 10 MPa when it is heated up to the glass transition range thereof. This alloy, therefore, is characterized by being worked very easily and being manufactured with low stress into minute parts and high-precision parts complicated in shape. Moreover, owing to the properties of the so-called glass (amorphous) substance, this alloy is characterized by allowing manufacture of formed (deformed) articles with surfaces of extremely high smoothness and having substantially no possibility of forming a step which would arise when a slip band appeared on the surface as during the deformation of a crystalline alloy.
Generally, an amorphous alloy begins to crystallize when it is heated to the glass transition range thereof and retained therein for a long time. In contrast, the aforementioned alloys which possess such a wide Δ Tx range as mentioned above enjoy a stable amorphous phase and, when kept at a temperature properly selected in the Δ Tx range, avoid producing any crystal for a duration up to about two hours. The user of these alloys, therefore, does not need to feel any anxiety about the occurrence of crystallization during the standard molding process.
The aforementioned alloys manifest these properties unreservedly during the course of transformation thereof from the molten state to the solid state. Generally, the manufacture of an amorphous alloy requires rapid cooling. In contrast, the aforementioned alloys allow easy production of a bulk material of a single amorphous phase from a melt by the cooling which is effected at a rate of about 10 K/s. The solid bulk material consequently formed also has a very smooth surface. The alloys have transferability such that even a scratch of the order of microns inflicted by the polishing work on the surface of a metal mold is faithfully reproduced.
When the aforementioned alloys are adopted as the alloying material for the sleeve, therefore, the metal mold to be used for producing the formed article is only required to have the surface thereof adjusted to fulfill the surface quality expected of the sleeve because the molded product faithfully reproduces the surface quality of the metal mold. In the conventional metal mold casting method or molding method, therefore, these alloys allow the steps for adjusting the size and the surface roughness of the molded article to be omitted or diminished.
The characteristics of the aforementioned amorphous alloys including in combination relatively low hardness, high tensile strength, high bending strength, relatively low Young's modulus, high elastic limit, high impact resistance, smoothness of surface, and highly accurate castability or workability render these alloys appropriate for use as the material for the sleeve for the optical connector ferrules. They even allow these alloys to be molded for mass production by the conventional molding method.
The amorphous alloys represented by the general formula, X a M b Al c , mentioned above manifest the same characteristics as mentioned above even when they incorporate such elements as Ti, C, B, Ge, or Bi at a ratio of not more than 5 atomic %.
The advantages derived from adopting these alloys for the sleeve will be described more specifically below.
The first advantage resides in allowing mass-production of formed articles of high accuracy. The inside diameter of the sleeve which directly retains an optical connector ferrules or the diameter of a circle which passes the points of contact with the ferrule at the upper ends of the ridges thereof is required to approximate as closely to the outside diameter of the ferrule as possible. The formed article heretofore obtained by injecting, degreasing, and sintering a ceramic material fails to satisfy the dimensional accuracy and the surface quality of a sleeve. It has been customary, therefore, to produce a molded article in a size allowing for machining and then finish it by complicated polishing treatments including abrasive finishing of the inside diameter by wire lapping using a diamond abrasive paste and abrasive finishing of the outside diameter. In the present invention, the use of a properly prepared metal mold in the casting and in the viscous flow forming (glass shaping) as well allows the formed articles to be mass-produced without requiring a finish polishing or with a supplementary simple finish treatment. The method of the present invention is highly effective in producing sleeves satisfactory in terms of the roundness of the through-hole and the finish of the inner surface of the hole. The lengthy process of manufacture using a ceramic material, therefore, can be curtailed in a great measure.
The second advantage consists in such mechanical properties of the sleeve as strength and toughness. Since the optical connector ferrules are frequently attached to and detached from the sleeve repeatedly, the sleeve must not settle, abrade, or crack. The hardness, strength, and toughness of the alloy mentioned above are enough to preclude the defects mentioned above.
According to the present invention, as described above, the sleeves satisfying the dimensional accuracy and the surface quality required of the sleeves for optical connector ferrules can be manufactured with high productivity at a low cost by the metal mold casting method or molding method using the amorphous alloys having a wide glass transition region such as the Zr-TM-Al and Hf-TM-Al amorphous alloys. Further, since the amorphous alloy to be used for the present invention excels in strength, toughness, and resistance to corrosion, the sleeves manufactured from this amorphous alloy withstand long service without readily sustaining abrasion, deformation, chipping, or other similar defects.
The amorphous alloy possessed of the characteristics mentioned above can be advantageously utilized for the ferrule and other component parts of the optical connector and for the precision parts for micromachines as well as for the sleeve.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, the sleeve is manufactured from an amorphous alloy more susceptible of elastic deformation than the material of the optical connector ferrules, namely an amorphous alloy having Young's modulus lower than that of the ferrule by about 3-30 GPa, preferably 5-15 GPa. Owing to this specific choice of material, the sleeve allows opposed ferrules to be stably retained easily in a state aligning the axes thereof without the possibility of suffering the ferrules to sustain injury or develop backlash even when the ferrules are repeatedly attached to and detached from the sleeve.
As the material for ferrules to be used, ceramics and metals may be used. Among other materials, an amorphous alloy, particularly the amorphous alloy having a composition represented by the aforementioned general formula: X a M b Al c , and containing an amorphous phase in a volumetric ratio of at least 50% proves to be particularly desirable in terms of the mechanical properties, castability, and workability thereof as mentioned above. By the use of such an amorphous alloy, ferrules can be mass-produced by the metal mold casting method or molding method (glass shaping) without requiring a finish polishing or with a supplementary simple finish treatment. The use of the amorphous alloy is highly effective in producing ferrules satisfactory in terms of the roundness of the cross section of the minute fiber-insertion hole and the finish of the inner surface of the hole. The PC polishing which is usually performed on the leading end of a ferrule to impart the spherical convex surface thereto for the purpose of ensuring intimate contact of glass fibers is no longer necessary. It suffices to perform the final polish after the optical fiber has been set in position. The lengthy process of manufacture using a metallic material and a ceramic material, therefore, can be curtailed in a great measure. The same remarks hold good for the outside diameter of the ferrule and the coincidence between the axis of the outside diameter and the axis of the minute fiber-insertion hole of the ferrule.
In the second aspect of the present invention, the sleeve is vested with such a geometric shape as fits the purpose of retaining the opposed ferrules as aligned mutually to the axes thereof without inflicting injury on the ferrules.
Now, the shape of the sleeve of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings annexed hereto.
FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate one preferred mode of embodying the sleeve of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a plan view of the sleeve and FIG. 2 a perspective view thereof.
This sleeve 1 comprises a tubular body 2 , ridges (elongate elevations) 3 raised from the inner wall surface of the tubular body 2 at three points as extended from one to the other end thereof in the longitudinal direction, and a slit 4 formed in the wall of the tubular body 2 throughout the entire length in the longitudinal direction thereof.
The ridges 3 , for the purpose of avoiding infliction of injury on the ferrules, are required to have an arcuate upper face convex toward the axis of the tubular body 2 and a cross section such as, for example, a substantially semicircular cross section, a substantially semielliptic cross section, a triangular cross section containing a rounded upper end, etc. Preferably, the ridges 3 assume such a substantially semicircular cross section as is illustrated in FIG. 1 . By having the ridges 3 of this description provided on the inner wall surface of the tubular body 2 at three points as extended in the longitudinal direction, the sleeve 1 is, enabled to retain the ferrules therein in a state nipped at three points of the ridges contacting the outer wall surfaces of the ferrules. As a result, the sleeve 1 is capable of stably retaining the abutted ferrules as mutually aligned to the axes of the ferrules (and consequently of the optical fibers being connected) without inflicting injury on the ferrules. When the ridges have an acute upper end for the sake of the point contact mentioned above, they are at a disadvantage in suffering the upper ends to concentrate the load exerted thereon and tend to inflict injury on the outer surfaces of the ferrules. When the ridges are provided at four or more points on the inner wall surface of the sleeve, they tend to cause deviation in the points of contact and fixation of the opposed ferrules inserted in the sleeve and tend to disrupt the coincidence of the axes of the optical fibers being connected.
The ridges are preferred to be disposed as equally spaced at three points on the inner wall surface of the tubular body 2 , though a slight deviation in the regular spacing is tolerable. Though the height of the ridges 3 has only to satisfy the requirement that the ridges 3 be capable of stably retaining the ferrules, it is generally preferred to be in the range of about 0.1-1.0 mm (about 0.1-1.0 mm in radius in the case of the ridges having a semicircular cross section). While the ridges 3 are preferred to be a continued elevation, they may discontinuously extend throughout the entire length of the tubular body as occasion demands.
The sleeve 1 , as described above, has the slit 4 formed in the wall thereof throughout the entire length in the longitudinal direction. Even with a precision sleeve which is not furnished with this slit, the present invention attains the aforementioned effect due to the use of such an amorphous alloy as the material as mentioned above and the effect due to the formation of the ridges mentioned above. The provision of the slit 4 , however, is advantageous in enhancing the elasticity of the sleeve 1 , enabling the sleeve to nip stably the opposed ferrules elastically as aligned mutually to their axes even in the presence of more or less dispersion of dimensional accuracy, and permitting the ferrules to be repeatedly attached to and detached from the sleeve without rendering the development of backlash in the state of retention of ferrules.
As respects the mechanical properties of the material itself for the sleeve 1 , the sleeve 1 is preferred to manifest a Young's modulus in the approximate range of 90-99 GPa and an elastic limit in the approximate range of 1% to several %. The sleeve of the present invention is manufactured from an amorphous alloy, a material sharply contrasted to the ceramic material of the conventional sleeve such as, for example, zirconia which is nearly devoid of elasticity. This sleeve, therefore, excels in elastic properties such that it fully tolerates the repeated attachment and detachment of ferrules.
FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 illustrate one mode of the use of the sleeve 1 of the present invention in optical connectors. The sleeve 1 presumes use of ferrules 10 each of a one-piece construction comprising a capillary part 11 and a flange part 12 .
Specifically, this ferrule 10 is composed of the capillary part 11 which has formed along the axis thereof a through-hole 13 of a small diameter intended for the insertion of an optical fiber 17 (or the basic thread of an optical fiber coated with a plastic thin film) and the flange part 12 which has formed along the axis thereof a through-hole 14 of a large diameter intended for the insertion of a sheathed optical fiber 16 (the optical fiber coated with a sheath 18 ). The through-hole 13 of the small diameter and the through-hole 14 of the large diameter are connected into each other through a tapered part 15 .
The attachment of the optical fiber to the ferrule 10 of this construction is fulfilled by stripping the leading end part of the sheathed optical fiber 16 of the sheath 18 to expose the optical fiber 17 in a prescribed length, applying an adhesive agent to the exposed optical fiber and the leading end part of the sheathed optical fiber, inserting the exposed optical fiber 17 into the through-hole 13 of the small diameter in the ferrule 10 from the flange part side thereof, and allowing the leading end parts of the optical fiber 17 and the sheathed optical fiber 16 to be immobilized with the adhesive agent in the through-holes 13 and 14 of the ferrule 10 .
The connection of a pair of optical fibers 17 , 17 is attained by inserting into the sleeve 1 through the opposite ends thereof the ferrules 10 , 10 having the optical fibers already inserted and joined therein and then abutting the end parts of the ferrules 10 , 10 . As a result, the optical fibers 17 , 17 are allowed to have their leading end parts abutted and j joined in a state having the axes thereof aligned to each other.
The circle 5 (FIG. 1) which passes the upper ends of the ridges 3 at the three points of the sleeve 1 has a diameter slightly smaller than the outside diameter of the capillary part 11 of the ferrule 10 . When the ferrules 10 , 10 are inserted into the sleeve 1 through the opposite ends thereof, therefore, the sleeve 1 is slightly pushed open and ultimately enabled to retain the capillary parts 11 , 11 in an elastically nipped state.
FIG. 5 illustrates another mode of using the sleeve 1 of the present invention in optical connectors. A ferrule 10 a uses a capillary part 11 a and a flange part 12 a as separate components.
Specifically, this ferrule 10 a is composed of the capillary 11 a which has formed along the axis thereof a through-hole 13 a of a small diameter intended for the insertion of the optical fiber 17 and the flange 12 a which has formed along the axis thereof a through-hole 14 a of a large diameter for the insertion of the sheathed optical fiber 16 . It is assembled by fixing the end part of the capillary 11 a enclosing a tapered hole 15 a therein in an leading end hole part 19 of the flange 12 a by virtue of tight fit or adhesion. The through-hole 13 a of the small diameter in the capillary 11 a and the through-hole 14 a of the large diameter in the flange 12 a are joined through the medium of a tapered hole part 15 a.
The method for joining the optical fiber to the ferrule 10 a and the mode of attachment of the sleeve 1 and the ferrules 10 a , 10 a are the same as those of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 .
FIG. 6 schematically illustrates one mode of embodying an apparatus and method for the production of the sleeve of the present invention by the metal mold casting technique.
A forced cooling casting mold 20 is a split mold composed of an upper mold 21 and a lower mold 26 . The upper mold 21 has a pair of molding cavities 22 a , 22 b formed therein and adapted to define the outside dimension of a sleeve. Inside these cavities 22 a , 22 b , cores 25 a , 25 b for defining the inside dimension of the sleeve are formed respectively. These cavities 22 a , 22 b intercommunicate through the medium of a runner 23 such that the molten metal flows through the leading ends of such parts 24 a , 24 b of the runner as half encircle the peripheries of the cavities 22 a , 22 b at a prescribed distance into the cavities 22 a , 22 b . On the other hand, a sprue (through-hole) 27 communicating with the runner 23 mentioned above is formed at a pertinent position of the lower mold 26 . Underneath the sprue 27 is formed a depression 28 which is shaped to conform with a cylindrical raw material accommodating part or pot 32 constituting itself an upper part of a melting vessel 30 .
The cores 25 a , 25 b , when necessary, may be formed integrally with the lower mold 26 . While the forced cooling casting mold 20 can be made of such metallic material as copper, copper alloy, cemented carbide or superalloy, it is preferred to be made of such material as copper or copper alloy which has a large thermal capacity and high thermal conductivity for the purpose of heightening the cooling rate of the molten alloy poured into the cavities 22 a , 22 b . The upper mold 21 may have disposed therein such a flow channel as allow flow of a cooling medium like cooling water or cooling gas.
The melting vessel 30 is provided in the upper part of a main body 31 thereof with the cylindrical raw material accommodating part 32 and is disposed directly below the sprue 27 of the lower mold 26 in such a manner as to be reciprocated vertically. In a raw material accommodating hole 33 of the raw material accommodating part 32 , a molten metal transferring member or piston 34 having nearly the same diameter as the raw material accommodating hole 33 , is slidably disposed. The molten metal transferring member 34 is vertically moved by a plunger 35 of a hydraulic cylinder (or pneumatic cylinder) not shown in the diagram. An induction coil 36 as a heat source is disposed so as to encircle the raw material accommodating part 32 of the melting vessel 30 . As the heat source, any arbitrary means such as one resorting to the phenomenon of resistance heating may be adopted besides the high-frequency induction heating. The material of the raw material accommodating part 32 and that of the molten metal transferring member 34 are preferred to be such heat-resistant material as ceramics or metallic materials coated with a heat-resistant film.
Incidentally, for the purpose of preventing the molten alloy from forming an oxide film, it is preferred to dispose the apparatus in its entirety in a vacuum or an atmosphere of an inert gas such as Ar gas or establish a stream of an inert gas at least between the lower mold 26 and the upper part of the raw material accommodating part 32 of the melting vessel 30 .
The production of the sleeve of the present invention is effected by first setting the melting vessel 30 in a state separated downwardly from the forced cooling casting mold 20 and then charging the empty space overlying the molten metal transferring member 34 inside the raw material accommodating part 32 with the alloying raw material A of a composition capable of yielding such an amorphous alloy as mentioned above. The alloying raw material A to be used may be in any of the popular forms such as rods, pellets, and minute particles.
Subsequently, the induction coil 36 is excited to heat the alloying raw material A rapidly. After the fusion of the alloying raw material A has been confirmed by detecting the temperature of the molten metal, the induction coil 36 is demagnetized and the melting vessel 30 is elevated until the upper end thereof is inserted in the depression 28 of the lower mold 26 . Then, the hydraulic cylinder is actuated to effect rapid elevation of the molten metal transferring member 34 through the medium of the plunger 35 and injection of the molten metal through the sprue 27 of the casting mold 20 . The injected molten metal is advanced through the runner 23 , 24 a , 24 b , introduced into the cavities 22 a , 22 b and compressed and rapidly solidified therein. In this case, the cooling rate exceeding 10 3 K/s can be obtained by suitably setting such factors as injection temperature and injection speed, for example. Thereafter, the melting vessel 30 is lowered and the upper mold 21 and the lower mold 26 are separated to allow extraction of the product.
The shape of the cast product manufactured by the method described above is illustrated in FIG. 7 . The sleeves 1 possessed of a smooth surface faithfully reproducing the cavity surface of the casting mold as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are obtained by severing runner parts 42 a , 42 b from sleeve parts 41 a , 41 b of a cast product 40 and grinding the cut faces of the sleeve parts remaining after by the severance.
The high-pressure die casting method described above allows d casting pressure up to about 100 MPa and an injection speed up to about several m/s and enjoys the following advantages.
(1) The charging of the mold with the molten metal completes within several milliseconds and this quick charging adds greatly to the action of rapid cooling.
(2) The highly close contact of the molten metal to the mold adds to the speed of cooling and allows precision molding of molten metal as well.
(3) Such faults as shrinkage cavities possibly occurring during the shrinkage of a cast article due to solidification can be allayed.
(4) The method allows manufacture of a formed article in a complicated shape.
(5) The method permits smooth casting of a highly viscous molten metal.
FIG. 8 illustrates schematically the construction of another mode of embodying the apparatus and method for producing the sleeve of the present invention.
In FIG. 8, the reference numeral 60 denotes a vessel for melting an alloying material capable of producing such an amorphous alloy as mentioned above and holding the produced melt therein. Beneath this vessel 60 is disposed a split metal mold 50 having cavities 52 a , 52 b of the shape of a product aimed at. Any of such known heating means (not shown) as, for example, the high-frequency induction heating and the resistance heating may be adopted for heating the vessel 60 .
The construction of the metal mold 50 is substantially identical with the mold 20 illustrated in FIG. 6 mentioned above except that the vertical positional relation is reversed. Specifically, an upper mold 56 has formed in the upper part of a sprue (through-hole) 57 a depression 58 for accommodating the lower end part of the vessel 60 and corresponds to the lower mold 26 shown in FIG. 6 . Meanwhile, a lower mold 51 is identical with the upper mold 21 shown in FIG. 6 except that molding cavities 52 a , 52 b , runners 53 , 54 a , 54 b , and cores 55 a , 55 b have their shapes and modes of disposition reversed from those of FIG. 6 . This metal mold 50 , when necessary, may have the cores 55 a , 55 b formed integrally with theupper mold 56 .
The production of sleeves are carried out by connecting a small hole 61 formed in the bottom part of the vessel 60 to the sprue 57 of the metal mold 50 , applying pressure to the molten alloy A′ in the vessel 60 through the medium of inert gas thereby forwarding the molten alloy A′ from the small hole 61 in the bottom of the vessel 60 through the runners 53 , 54 a , and 54 b into the cavities 52 a , 52 b until these cavities are filled with the molten alloy A′ to capacity, and solidifying the molten alloy at a cooling rate preferably exceeding 10 K/s to obtain the sleeve made of an alloy consisting substantially of an amorphous phase.
By the procedure just described, the sleeve can be produced which manifests a dimensional accuracy, L, in the range of ±0.0005 to ±0.001 mm and a surface accuracy in the range of 0.2 to 0.4 μm.
The method, as described above, manufactures two cast products by a single process using a metal mold provided with a pair of molding cavities. Naturally, the present invention can manufacture three or more cast products by using a metal mold provided with three or more cavities therein.
Besides the alloy casting method described above, the extrusion molding is also available for the manufacture of the sleeve. Since the amorphous alloy mentioned. above possesses a large supercooled liquid region Δ Tx, the sleeve can be obtained in a prescribed shape by heating a material of this amorphous alloy to a temperature in the supercooled liquid region, inserting the hot material in a container retained at the same temperature, connecting this container to the metal mold provided with the cavity of the shape of a sleeve product aimed at, pressing a prescribed amount of the heated alloy into the cavity by virtue of the viscous flow of the supercooled liquid, and molding the alloy.
Now, the present invention will be described more concretely below with reference to working examples which have demonstrated the effect of the present invention specifically.
EXAMPLE 1
By using the apparatus shown in FIG. 6 and employing the production conditions of an injection temperature of 1273 K, injection speed of 1 m/s, casting pressure of 1 MPa, and loading time of 100 milliseconds, a sleeve of an amorphous alloy having a composition of Zr 65 Al 10 Ni 10 Cu 15 and the shape shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 with an inside diameter of 2.5 mm, an outside diameter of 3.1 mm, and a curvature radius of ridges of 0.3 mm was manufactured.
The sleeve obtained was a product having an outstanding surface smoothness faithfully reproducing the contour of the cavity of the metal mold. It was found to manifest a Young's modulus of 80 GPa, bending strength of 2,970 MPa, Vicker's hardness of 400 (DPN), and a thermal expansion coefficient, α, of 0.95×10 −5 /K.
By the same method, a ferrule of an amorphous alloy having a capillary part and a flange part formed integrally as shown in FIG. 3 was manufactured. This ferrule was found to have a composition of Zr 60 Al 15 Co 2.5 Ni 7.5 Cu 15 and manifest a Young's modulus of 91 GPa. When each end of two optical fibers was joined to two such ferrules manufactured as described above and the two ferrules were fit into the sleeve mentioned above through the opposite ends thereof, the optical fibers could be stably connected without causing any deviation from the axial alignment of the optical fibers.
EXAMPLE 2
Various alloys including Zr 60 Al 15 Co 2.5 Ni 7.5 Cu 15 and shown in the following table were manufactured by melting relevant component metals. They were each placed in a quartz crucible and melted thoroughly by high-frequency induction heating. The melt was injected under a gaseous pressure of 2 kgf/cm 2 through a slender hole formed in the lower part of the crucible into a copper casting mold provided with a cylindrical cavity, 2 mm in diameter and 30 mm in length, and kept at room temperature to obtain a rod-like specimen for the determination of mechanical properties. The results of this determination are shown in the
TABLE
α
10 −5 /K
Tensile
Bending
(room
strength
strength
temperature-
E
Hardness
Tg
Tx
Alloy used
(MPa)
(MPa)
Tg)
(GPa)
Hv
(K)
(K)
Zr 67 Cu 33
1,880
3,520
0.8
99
540
603
669
Zr 65 Al 7.5 Cu 27.5
1,450
2,710
0.8
93
420
622
732
Zr 65 Al 7.5 Ni 10 Cu 17.5
1,480
2,770
0.9
92
430
630
736
Zr 60 Al 15 Co 2.5 Ni 7.5 Cu 15
1,590
2,970
1.0
91
460
652
768
It is clearly noted from the table that the produced amorphous alloy materials showed such magnitudes of bending strength as notably surpass the magnitude (about 1,000 MPa) of the partially stabilized zirconia heretofore adopted as the material for the sleeve, such magnitudes of Young's modulus as approximate one half, and such magnitudes of hardness as approximate one third thereof, indicating that these alloy materials were vested with properties necessary as the material for the sleeve.
EXAMPLE 3
A metal mold of steel as illustrated in FIG. 6 and a metallic extruder were connected and a sleeve was manufactured by extruding the same alloy as used in Example 1. For the extrusion, amorphous billets, 25 mm in diameter and 40 mm in length, of the same alloy prepared separately by casting were used. The billets were preheated to 730 K and the container of the extruder and the inlet part and the molding part of the metal mold were similarly preheated to 730 K. The hot billets were inserted into the container of the extruder and then injected into the metal mold. The metal mold was cooled. Then the formed article was removed from the mold, deprived of the inlet part, and inspected. The outward appearance, the dimensional accuracy, the surface roughness, etc. of the formed article were found to be nearly equal to those of the sleeve obtained in Example 1.
While certain specific embodiments. and working examples have been disclosed herein, the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The described embodiments and examples are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are, therefore, intended to be embraced therein.
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Disclosed are a sleeve for abutting, aligning, and retaining opposed optical connector ferrules and methods for the production thereof. The sleeve has a tubular body provided at three points on the inner wall surface thereof with ridges of an arcuate cross section extending from one to the other end of the tubular body in the longitudinal direction thereof and a slit formed therein in the longitudinal direction thereof. The sleeve is formed of an amorphous alloy possessing at least a glass transition region, preferably a glass transition region of not less than 30 K in temperature width. Preferably the sleeve is formed of an amorphous alloy having a composition represented by the following general formula and containing an amorphous phase in a volumetric ratio of at least 50%:
X a M b Al c
wherein X represents either or both of two elements, Zr and Hf, M represents at least one element selected from the group consisting of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu, and a, b, and c represent such atomic percentages as respectively satisfy 25≦a≦85, 5≦b≦70, and 0<c≦35. Such a sleeve can be manufactured with high mass-producibility by a metal mold casting method or molding method.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Scope of Invention
This invention generally relates to bookbinding and more particularly to a uniquely configured signature and method of folding which increased bookbinding efficiency.
2. Prior Art
Sequentially paged products such as books, pamphlets and magazines derive their origin of manufacture from ancient times, even before movable type, when calligraphic art and hand illuminating art were used by monks to tediously reproduce manuscript pages. The term "signature" is derived from the fact that the calligrapher and hand illuminator of a "quad", a single large sheet containing four to eight pages, identified his work by signing his name to the full sheet containing these pages. Therefore, the original building block of sequential page order still in use is the signature or the process of folding large sheets of paper containing pages into smaller, manageable units so that each page is held in a desired sequential order until bound together.
After the signature-in-the-flat has been completed, they are passed to a folding machine in which the large sheets are folded halfway down their length a number of times until the correct page size for the book and the correct sequence of page numbering is obtained. Thereafter, the folded signatures are placed in receiving hoppers of collating machines or gatherers and are withdrawn one at a time from each of as many hoppers as there are separate signatures in the book. Thus, from each hopper, one signature at a time is withdrawn from the bottom of each stack of signatures in each hopper and deposited on a traveling belt which then moves each signature along to the next hopper where the next signature is deposited on the first and so forth.
By conventional signature folding, this structure affords two important elements, both in the form of what is called the backbone or binding side. The backbone is first used for its multiple layer folded page strength to withdraw each signature one at a time from the bottom of the signature stack within each hopper. The backbone is then utilized to bind the signatures together to form the book.
Three separate methods of combining or binding the signatures together are utilized. The first and most popular method is by simply sewing the stacked signatures together to create combined pages. Another method utilized is "perfect or patent" binding wherein, after gathering, all of the backbones or binding sides are eliminated as by shearing so that the center pages of each signature are exposed. All of the exposed page edges are then joined to each other by applying adhesive thereto. A variation of the perfect or patent binding is entitled "burst binding" in which the folded sheets of each signature have perforations applied to the folded or binding side in an upstream process. These perforations allow certain types of adhesives to penetrate to the center pages. However, this process is limited to certain types of paper and adhesives and is generally limited to certain magazine and catalog productions due to the restrictions on paper, adhesives and drying time. The third method utilizes staples through the backbone in lieu of sewing for relatively small books.
During the signature folding process, each time the sheet must be turned or changed in direction to accommodate a fold orthogonal or perpendicular to the last, the fold speed is reduced considerably. In folding a signature by conventional means as above described, the material must be reoriented for each successive fold. By utilizing the present invention, only one change of direction is required which is estimated to increase press speeds and therefore production by as much as twenty percent (20%).
In addition, the present invention provides for perforations along fold lines in some selected folds so as to completely eliminate the need for a sheering or cutting process of the binding edge prior to effecting gluing thereof in perfect or patent binding. Perforated folds also reduce the size if the signature in the flat for added paper savings.
Downstream operations of each signature assembly require proper orientation so that the background preparation may be completed. This position requires that the folded edge of the assembled signatures normally in the long dimension, be turned to a suitable position for downstream tasks. One type of assembly machine requires that the signatures be reoriented with the backbone facing forwardly in the direction of travel, while other assembly machines require that the gathered signatures be turned or reoriented with the backbone facing rearwardly. The present invention provides a perforated binding edge along either side edge and thus accommodates either form of assembly equipment.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to an improved fully folded signature for subsequent use in gathering and combining or binding in bookbinding. The fully folded signature includes uniquely positioned perforated folds and sequences of folding which reduces folding time, alter folded signature orientation during gathering, and eliminates the need for having a conventional backbone.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a method of folding a signature which minimizes the need for reorienting after each fold, thus reducing sequential folding time.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method of folding a signature which eliminates the need for sheering the folded backbone or binding side prior to perfect or patent binding which utilizes adhesive.
It is still object of this invention to provide a method of folding a signature which reduces paper waste in bookbinding.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a uniquely folded signature which may be utilized in conjunction with bookbinding assembly equipment which orients the binding side in either forwardly or rearwardly direction for use with all existing equipment.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide an improved signature for use in bookbinding.
In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of conventional signature folding and signature gathering equipment.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the conventional signature folding sequence.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of alternate methods of combining or binding signatures together to form a book.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the signature folding sequence of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a plan view of a conventionally folded and trimmed signature in the flat.
FIG. 6 is a plan view of a signature in the flat folded and trimmed by teachings of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of conventional folded signature gathering.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of improved folded signature gathering using the present invention.
FIGS. 9 and 10 are side elevation schematic views of alternate modes of reorienting assembled signatures in preparation for final binding.
FIG. 11 is a schematic view comparing signature transport spacing of the present invention and conventional signatures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings, the techniques and equipment utilized in conventional signature folding, gathering and binding are shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. In FIG. 1, signature sheets in-the-flat 16 are received from stacks 12, each signature in-the-flat 16 having pages of viewable and/or readable indicia 16b printed thereon.
Each signature in-the-flat 16 is received into a folding machine shown generally at numeral 10 in which each signature is folded halfway down its length a number of times until the current page size for the book is obtained. The first stage of folding at 14 occurs about fold line 16a to become once folded signature 20. Thereafter, at 18, the once folded signature 20 is folded about fold line 20a to become twice folded signature 22. Thereafter, the twice folded signature 22 is folded about fold line 22a and conveyed from the folding machine 10 as a completely folded signature 24. This folding sequence is shown in perspective in FIG. 2. The fully folded signature 24 further defines a backbone or binding edge 24a for use in later gathering and binding processing and assembly. Note that each signature must be rotated 90° three times, once for each fold, increasing fold time.
Each book normally includes or is made up of several folded signatures. When stacked one atop another in a proper sequence, the folded signatures thus define properly ordered sequential pages which define the end book product.
Still referring to FIG. 1, after all of the signatures 24 are folded, they are stacked in individual hoppers of a collating machine or gatherer shown generally at numeral 30. The gatherer 30 has as many hoppers as needed to accommodate corresponding number of signatures in the book being gathered. From each hopper, one folded signature 24 (typ.) at a time is deposited on a traveling belt which then moves it along to the next hopper, where the next signature is deposited on the first and so forth.
In FIG. 3, the methods of combining or binding the assembled signatures are there shown. For simplicity, only two signatures 24 and 24' are shown to form the assembled book. The first arrangement 28 demonstrates the well-known and still widely used assembly process of sewing wherein stitching at 26 (typ.) secures or binds the signatures 24 and 24' through the folded backbone 24a (typ.).
The binding process known as perfect or patent binding of two signatures 24 and 24' to produce the book 30 utilizes a layer of adhesive 32 applied after the folded backbone has been sheered off to produce a straight cut surface 24b. A variation of this gluing method known as burst binding produces book 34. In burst binding, perforations 36 have previously been applied to the folded or binding side 24a (typ.) to enhance adhesive penetration. However, burst binding process is limited to specific adhesives, paper content and drying time.
Referring now to FIG. 4, the improved folded signature 52 and the method of folding same are there depicted. The signature in-the-flat, moving in the direction of the arrow within the folding machine 10 of FIG. 1, is initially folded along fold lines 44 and 46 which are transversely oriented to the length of the signature and spaced one quarter of the overall length of the signature from each end thereof to define a twice folded signature 40. Thereafter, the signature is folded again about fold line 48 transversely oriented and centrally positioned from each end of the signature in-the-flat. This produces a three-times folded signature 45. Lastly, the signature is folded into its final form 52 by folding along fold line 50 positioned halfway between the length of the three-times folded signature 45. Alternately, the twice-folded signature 40 may be folded about fold line 48a in the opposite direction to produce three-times folded 45' within the scope of the invention. Note that the signature only needs to be rotated through 90° once as the first three folds at 44, 46 and 48 are parallel to one another.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 4 resulting in the fully folded signature 52, all of the fold lines 44, 46, 48, 48a and 50 are perforated as well. The primary objective of the perforations along these folds is to produce a side binding edge 48 or 44/46 which eliminates the need for further preparation in accomplishing a glued perfect or patent-bound edge. The perforations allow adhesive penetration in conjunction with specific paper types. However, where folding equipment may be selectively structured, only one former fold 48 or 44/46 need be perforated, that being the fold which will form the to-be-glued biding edge.
Comparing FIGS. 5 and 6, the paper savings feature of the present invention resulting in the utilization of perforations for adhesive binding is there shown. In FIG. 5, the conventionally folded signature in-the-flat 16 shows that, after necessary trimming, strips 64 and 68 are eliminated as a result of sheering and binding, while strips 62, 66, 54 and 60 are also removed as a result of trimming all three remaining page edges. In FIG. 6, only strips 78 and 80 are removed as a result of page trimming, along with strips 70, 72, 74, and 76 as a result of trimming remaining page edges. The net result of this paper size savings is that, to achieve a conventional final page size of 81/2"×11", the required overall signature in-the-flat size is reduced in length from 35" to 341/2" and in width from 223/4" to 221/2". This represents a paper savings of 2.5%.
In pulling each folded signature 24 from the bottom of a stack thereof within the corresponding hopper of the collating machine 30, these mechanisms depend upon the strength of the folded binding edge 22a of the conventionally folded signature 24 as best seen in FIGS. 1 and 2. A finger is utilized to pass between the central panels of the folded signature 24 and then withdraws that signature for further assembly. The present invention provides this folded edge structure at fold 50 even though this fold 50 does not ultimately become the binding edge of the folded signature 52.
Some of the important operational assembly benefits of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 7 to 11. In FIG. 7, the removal of each conventionally folded signature 24 from each signature stack 82 within hopper 86 is effected by a rotary drum 88 having a vacuum source 90 and a gripper 92. As this drum 88 rotates, the binding side 24a of each folded signature 24 is thus deposited onto a transport channel or conveyor 94 and pushed along by pusher 96. Note that the longest dimension of the folded signature 24 is oriented longitudinally with respect to the transport channel 94 in the direction of travel.
In FIG. 8, the present invention provides the improved folded signature 52 positionable within hopper 86 in stacks 100 so that the folded edge 50, being the longest dimension, is oriented transversely to the direction of the flow of movement on transport channel 94. By this arrangement, the length of time to gather the signatures is significantly reduced while still presenting a necessary folded edge 50 to effect the signature removal in the gathering equipment.
This is perhaps more easily understood as shown in FIG. 11 wherein the arrangement of four conventionally folded signatures 24 are shown as they would appear on a transport channel along side four folded signatures 52 in accordance with the present invention. The overall transport length is reduced from multiples of 22 down to multiples of 17, assuming at least two folded signatures are required to complete the book.
In FIGS. 9 and 10, another unique benefit of the present invention is there shown in terms of the options for orienting the gathered assembled signatures shown for convenience at 52. These operations downstream of gathering require on conventional existing equipment that the assembled signatures be positioned so that backbone preparation can take place. This position requires that the binding edge 48 or 44/46 of the folded signatures 52 (refer back to FIG. 4) be turned to either a forwardly or a rearwardly orientation, depending upon the particular existing binding equipment 102 chosen. Thus, utilizing the improved folded signature structure of the present invention, the gathered signatures may be rotated in either direction, regardless of equipment chosen or available in the process of effecting binding.
While the instant invention has been shown and described herein in what are conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the invention, which is therefore not to be limited to the details disclosed herein, but is to be afforded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent apparatus and articles.
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An improved fully folded signature for subsequent use in gathering and combining or binding in bookbinding. The fully folded signature includes uniquely positioned perforated folds and sequences of folding which reduces folding time, alter folded signature orientation during gathering, and eliminates the need for having a conventional backbone.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a finely-divided powder spray apparatus for discharging finely-divided powders together with a gas stream so that the powders are sprayed onto a member to be sprayed as a substrate.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A spacer spray apparatus is known as a representative example of finely-divided powder spray apparatuses, the apparatus uniformly spraying a prescribed amount of spacers for liquid crystal displays (spacer beads) as the finely-divided powders having a uniform particle size between substrates constituting a liquid crystal display panel for liquid crystal display devices, for example, between a glass substrate and a glass or plastic substrate so that the spacers are formed into a single layer.
In the liquid crystal display panel of a liquid crystal display device and the like, particles (spacer beads such as plastic particles and silica particles) having a uniform particle size of about several microns to several tens of microns are sprayed or coated as spacers as uniformly as possible in an amount of 10 to 2000 particles per unit area of 1 mm 2 to form a single layer between substrates, for example, between glass substrates, between plastic (organic glass, etc.) substrates other than the glass substrates, and between the plastic substrate and the glass substrate, (hereinafter the glass substrate will be described as a representative example and the aforementioned member to be sprayed are simply referred to as the glass substrate as a whole) so that the space to charge liquid crystals is formed.
Some conventional spacer spray apparatuses spray spacer particles onto the glass substrate by transporting the fine spacer particles together with a gas flow of air, nitrogen, etc., through a thin pipe (transportation pipe) and discharging the particles from a swinging spray nozzle pipe together with the gas stream. The spacer particles are finely-divided powders having a size of several microns to several tens of microns, and liable to float. They are various types of plastic particles or silica particles, and liable to be charged. Therefore, it is difficult to spray the spacers onto the glass substrate at a prescribed density with excellent repeatability. These apparatuses can charge the spacer particles in accordance with a charged polarity (electrostatic polarity) and ground the glass substrate and a table so as to reliably spray the spacer particles onto the glass substrate at the prescribed density.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Recently, the size of a liquid crystal display panel has been increased gradually and a plurality of liquid crystal display panels have often been made of a single glass substrate. It is therefore required to fix a larger glass substrate on a table disposed in a chamber of the spacer spray apparatus. In general, the glass substrate is fixed onto the table by vacuuming the substrate from the side of the table. However, the density of the spacers deposited at one spot, where the glass substrate is fixed, is different from the densities at other spots depending on a strength of vacuuming the glass substrate, i.e., the spacers cannot be uniformly sprayed. Further, if a difference in electric field strengths generates on the surface on the glass substrate, the spacers cannot be uniformly sprayed out in some cases.
An object of the present invention is to provide a finely-divided powder spray apparatus which can adjust a density of finely-divided powders such as spacers for liquid crystal displays to be sprayed onto a member such as a glass substrate.
The finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention having a spray nozzle pipe for discharging the finely-divided powders from the tip together with a gas stream, which is disposed at a prescribed distance from a member to be sprayed, and comprising:
a moving-speed control factor entry means which enters moving-speed control factors for controlling a moving-speed of the spray nozzle pipe in a prescribed area of the surface of the member to be sprayed; and
a moving-speed control means which controls the moving-speed of the spray nozzle pipe in the prescribed area of the surface of the member to be sprayed, based on the control factor entered by the moving-speed factor entry means.
In the finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention, the moving-speed control factor entry means is provided to enter the moving-speed control factor for each prescribed area on the surface of the member to be sprayed and the moving-speed control means is provided to control the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe depending on the area of a spray point, at which the finely-divided powders are sprayed, based on the control factor entered for the prescribed area.
According to the finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention, the moving-speed factor is entered by the moving-speed control factor entry means for each prescribed area of the member to be sprayed. Based on the result of a test spray, for example, the moving-speed control factor for decreasing the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe is entered for the prescribed area having a lower density of finely-divided powders deposited, whereas a moving-speed control factor for increasing the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe is entered for the prescribed area having a higher density of finely-divided powders deposited. Further, the moving-speed control means controls the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe based on the moving-speed control factor entered by the moving-speed factor entry means, and thus the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe can be controlled in the prescribed area on the surface of the member to be sprayed in order to achieve a uniform density over the whole surface of the member to be sprayed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a finely-divided powder spray mechanism used for the finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view along the line A—A of FIG. 2 showing in detail a swing mechanism for swinging a spray nozzle pipe in the finely-divided powder spray mechanism of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view along the section B—B of FIG. 3 showing the swing mechanism of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view along the section C—C of FIG. 3 showing the swing mechanism of the present invention.
FIGS. 6A, 6 B, 6 C and 6 D are illustrative views showing the swing of the spray nozzle pipe by the movements of the linearly-moving actuators in the finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is an illustrative view showing the system configuration of the finely-divided powder spray system including the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is an illustration showing the spray conditions for spraying the finely-divided powders in a trial spray using the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a table showing the measured densities of the deposited spacers in the individual lattice-like areas of the whole surface of the glass substrate, the spacers being sprayed by the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention in the trial spray.
FIG. 10 is a graph showing the distribution of the densities of the deposited spacers on the whole surface of the glass substrate, the spacers being sprayed by the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention in the trial spray.
FIG. 11 is an illustrative view showing the conditions for spraying the spacers by the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 12 is a table showing the densities of the deposited spacers in the individual lattice-like areas, the spacers being sprayed by the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 13 is a graph showing the distribution of the densities of the deposited spacers on the whole surface of the glass substrate, the spacers being sprayed by the spacer spray apparatus of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
A finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention will be described below in detail based on the preferable embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention.
In the figure, a spacer spray apparatus 10 as the finely-divided powder spray apparatus of the present invention has a glass substrate 16 as a member to be sprayed, which is fixed to a table 14 disposed in a lower portion of a hermetically-sealed chamber 12 . The table 14 is grounded and thereby grounds the glass substrate 16 mounted on it so that spacers 20 as charged finely-divided powders are surely deposited on the surface of the grounded glass substrate.
A spray mechanism 22 having a splay nozzle pipe 18 for spraying the spacers 20 is disposed above the table 14 . The spray nozzle pipe 18 discharges the spacers 20 transported through a flexible tube 24 together with a gas stream of air, a nitrogen gas, etc. and sprays the spacers 20 onto the glass substrate 16 . The spray nozzle pipe 18 can be swung in any of prescribed first direction and second direction perpendicular to the first direction, for example, in any of an X-axis direction and a Y-axis direction. The spray nozzle pipe 18 discharges the spacers 20 together with the gas stream while inclining in a prescribed direction, whereby the spacers 20 can be sprayed out at a prescribed position of the glass substrate 16 .
FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing the spray mechanism 22 for the spacers 20 in the spacer spray apparatus 10 of the present invention.
In the figure, the spray mechanism 22 is arranged so that two linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 are disposed on a mounting table 26 in parallel with each other in the Y-axis direction. Second joint units 32 and 34 composed of adjustable joints (spherical joints) are disposed on the inner sides of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 , respectively. The spray nozzle pipe 18 is disposed in back of the two linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 along the centerline therebetween so that the spray nozzle pipe 18 can be swung in any of the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction and inclined in an arbitrary direction. The linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 have sliders 28 a and 30 a , and guides 28 b and 30 b disposed in parallel with the Y-axis direction, respectively, wherein the sliders 28 a and 30 a reciprocate in the Y-axis direction along the guides 28 b and 30 b , respectively. The linearly-moving actuators used in the present invention are not particularly limited and an AC-servo-driven linear actuator, a linear stepping motor and the like can be used.
A first joint unit 35 is attached to the upper end of the spray nozzle pipe 18 . In the figure, adjustable joints (universal joints) 36 and 38 , which project toward both the sides in the X-axis direction, are employed as the first joint 35 . The second joint units (adjustable joints) 32 and 34 , which are disposed on the inner sides of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 , are coupled with the adjustable joints 36 and 38 of the first joint unit 35 attached to the upper end of the spray nozzle pipe 18 through two rods 40 and 42 , respectively.
FIG. 3 . is a sectional view along the line A—A of FIG. 2 to show in detail a swing mechanism for swinging the spray nozzle pipe 18 . FIG. 4 is a perspective view along the section B—B of FIG. 3 showing the swing mechanism. FIG. 5 is a perspective view along the section C—C of FIG. 3 showing the swing mechanism. The spray nozzle pipe 18 placed at the center in FIG. 3 is composed of a hollow pipe, has the flexible tube 24 (not shown in FIG. 3) connected to the upper end thereof, and discharges the finely-divided powders (spacers) 20 (not shown in FIG. 3) from an opening at the lower end thereof together with the gas stream. The spray nozzle pipe 18 is disposed on the mounting table 26 through a support unit (universal joint unit) 50 disposed at the center of the pipe 18 in the longitudinal direction thereof and can be swung in any of the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction shown in FIG. 2 .
As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the support unit 50 of the spray nozzle pipe 18 is equipped with a joint ring 58 in the center hole of a joint base 52 fixed to the mounting table 26 , which is supported through two support pins 54 disposed in parallel with a Y-axis and ball bearings 56 having the support pins 54 inserted, so that the joint ring 58 can rotate on the Y-axis. Further, the joint ring 58 supports the spray nozzle pipe 18 in the center hole through two support pins 60 disposed in parallel with the X-axis and the ball bearings 62 having the support pins 60 inserted, so that the joint ring 58 can rotate on the X-axis. Accordingly, the spray nozzle pipe 18 can be swung in any of the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction and cannot be rotated on the centerline thereof.
The adjustable joints 36 and 38 of the first joint unit 35 are attached to the upper end of the spray nozzle pipe 18 and couple the pipe 18 with the second joint units 32 and 34 disposed on the inner sides of the linear-moving actuator 28 and 30 shown in FIG. 2 through the rods 40 and 42 . As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 5, the adjustable joints (universal joints) 36 and 38 are attached to the upper end of the spray nozzle pipe 18 so as to project toward both the sides of the upper end in the X-axis direction. They are composed of two rotary rings 68 mounted on the upper end of the spray nozzle pipe 18 through ball bearings 66 which rotate in a horizontal direction and a joint arm 72 connected to the rotary rings 68 through ball bearings 70 . When it is not necessary to so much increase the inclining angle of the spray nozzle pipe 18 , spherical joints using spherical bearings may be employed in place of the adjustable joints 36 and 38 of the first joint unit 35 as the universal joints.
The rod 40 ( 42 ) is fixed to the joint arm 72 and coupled with the second joint unit 32 ( 34 ) of the linearly-moving actuator 28 ( 30 ) through the rod 40 ( 42 ), so that the movement of the linearly-moving actuator 28 ( 30 ) is transmitted to the spray nozzle pipe 18 . The adjustable joints of the second joint units 32 and 34 of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 may be the same as the adjustable joints 36 and 38 , or any adjustable joints such as spherical joints may be employed.
The joint base 52 is fixed to the mounting table 26 through a mounting ring 74 . The mounting ring 74 has an adjusting mechanism 76 for adjusting the position of the spray nozzle pipe 18 . The lower end of the spray nozzle pipe 18 is inserted into a rubber cover 78 for hermetically sealing the chamber 12 as well as permitting the spray nozzle pipe 18 to swing. The outer periphery of the rubber cover 78 is fixed to the mounting table 26 through a fixing ring 80 . When the spray mechanism 22 is driven, there is a possibility that dust and dirt are generated from the support unit 50 of the spray nozzle pipe 18 and the like although their amount may be negligible. The rubber cover 78 is attached to prevent the invasion of the dust and dirt other than the spacers into the chamber 12 .
In the spray mechanism 22 arranged as described above for spraying the spacers 20 , the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung as described below by the movement of the linearly-moving actuator 28 ( 30 ), more specifically, by the movement of the slider 28 a ( 30 a ) thereof along the guide 28 b ( 30 b ).
FIGS. 6A to 6 D are illustrative views showing the swing of the spray nozzle pipe 18 by the movements of the slider 28 a ( 30 a ) of the linearly-moving actuator 28 ( 30 ), respectively. FIG. 6A shows the spray nozzle pipe 18 being located at the center (vertical position) of a moving area. FIG. 6B shows the positions of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 , more specifically, the positions of the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 when the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung to the limit position of the moving area in the Y-axis direction. FIG. 6C shows the positions of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 (sliders 28 a and 30 a ) when the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung to the limit position of the moving area in the X-axis direction. FIG. 6D shows the spray nozzle pipe 18 being located in the corner of the moving area.
As illustrated in FIGS. 6A, 6 B and 6 C, when the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung in the Y-axis direction, two linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 simultaneously move in the same direction, and when the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung in the X-axis direction, the two linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 simultaneously move in the opposite direction each other. When the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung at any other angle, it can be moved at any rate in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction by synthesizing the moving direction and speed of the two linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 , whereby the spacers 20 can be sprayed out to any position of the glass substrate 16 .
FIG. 7 is a schematic view showing a system configuration of a finely-divided powder spray system 90 including a spacer spray apparatus 10 . The finely-divided powder spray system 90 is composed of the spray apparatus 10 , an actuator driver 92 electrically connected to the spray apparatus 10 , more specifically, to the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 of the spray mechanism 22 for controlling them, a sequencer 94 electrically connected to the driver 92 , and a touch panel 96 electrically connected to the sequencer 94 for operating the spray apparatus 10 , especially entering the control factor to swing the sequencer 94 .
It is described below how the spacers 20 are sprayed onto the glass substrate 16 . Before the spacers 20 are sprayed onto the glass substrate 16 , the spacers 20 must be sprayed onto a sample glass substrate 16 by way of trial. In this case, data such as a locus along which the spray nozzle pipe 18 moves, a size of the glass substrate 16 (width×height: for example, 720 cm×600 cm) and a condition for spraying the spacers 20 is entered by the touch panel 96 .
FIG. 8 is an illustration showing the conditions for spraying the sample spacers 20 in a trial spray. As shown in the figure, the surface of the glass substrate 16 to be sprayed are divided into a matrix of 12×10 (row×column) lattice-like areas, and a control factor C is entered for each lattice-like area to make the conditions in a trial spray. The control factor “ 5 ”, indicates that no correction is made to the spray condition. Any of the control factors “ 6 ”-“ 9 ” indicates that the correction is made so as to increase a spray density (so as to decrease the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe) as a larger factor is specified. Any of the control factors “ 1 ”-“ 4 ” indicates that the correction is made so as to decrease the spray density (so as to increase the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe) as a smaller factor is specified. Since no correction is made in the trial spray, the control factor “ 5 ” is entered for all the 12×10 (row×column) lattice-like areas.
The entered data such as the locus along which the spray nozzle pipe 18 moves, the size of the glass substrate 16 , and the condition for spraying the spacers 20 is transferred through the sequencer 94 to the actuator driver 92 , which in turn determines the locus to be drawn by an extension from the tip of the spray nozzle pipe in the X-Y coordinate system on the glass substrate 16 . An origin of the X-Y coordinate system, in which corresponding locations on the glass substrate 16 are represented, is assumed to be an intersection of the perpendicularly-directed extension from the tip of the spray nozzle pipe 18 and the glass substrate 16 . The locus drawn by the extension from the tip of the spray nozzle pipe 18 on the glass substrate 16 can be determined as a continuity of plural control points ((x 1 , y 1 ), (x 2 , y 2) , (x 3 , y 3 ), (x 4 , y 4 ), . . . (x n , y n )).
The actuator driver 92 calculates an incline angle of the spray nozzle pipe 18 in the X-Y direction from the locus drawn in the X-Y coordinate system on the glass substrate 16 , and converts the control points in the X-Y coordinate system into the corresponding positions of the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 in the L 1 -L 2 coordinate system ((L 1 1 , L 2 1 ), (L 1 2 , L 2 2 ), (L 1 3 , L 2 3 ), (L 1 4 , L 2 4 ), . . . (L 1 , L 2 n )). In the L 1 -L 2 coordinate system, sliding positions of the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 are represented.
Next, the actuator driver 92 operates the spacer spray apparatus 10 , and changes the incline angle of the spray nozzle pipe 18 so as to shift the spray position along the determined locus at a temporary speed (V) while sequentially moving the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 to the positions ((L 1 1 , L 2 1 ), (L 1 2 , L 2 2 ), (L 1 3 , L 2 3 ), (L 1 4 , L 2 4 ), . . . (L 1 n , L 2 n )), whereby the spacers 20 are sprayed onto the sample glass substrate 16 in the trial spray.
After the trial spray, densities of the spacers 20 deposited on the sample glass substrate 16 are measured by a spacer counter (not shown in the figure). FIG. 9 is a table showing measured values (spacers/mm 2 ) of densities of the deposited spacers 20 in all the 12×10 (row×column) lattice-like areas, the spacers being sprayed on the whole surface of the substrate 16 having a size of 20 cm×600 cm, (the densities are measured at the centers of the lattice-like areas). FIG. 10 is a graph showing a distribution of the densities of the deposited spacers (spacers/mm 2 ) on the whole glass substrate 16 based on the measured values shown in FIG. 9 .
The conditions for spraying the spacers 20 are then entered by the touch panel 96 with reference to the graph of FIG. 10 showing the distribution of the spacers deposited on the whole surface of the glass substrate 16 .
As seen in this graph of the distribution of the densities, the densities are low in the right and left parts of the glass substrate 16 whereas the densities are high in the upper and lower parts thereof, and therefore, the values of the spray conditions are entered as shown in FIG. 11 . In other words, since the densities of the deposited spacers are low in the right and left parts of the glass substrate 16 , the control factor “ 8 ” (indicating that the correction is made so as to increase the density (so as to decrease the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe)) is entered, and since the densities of the deposited spacers are high in the upper and lower parts of the glass substrate 16 , the control factor “ 4 ” (indicating that the correction is made so as to decrease the density (so as to increase the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe)) is entered.
Subsequently, the actuator driver 92 calculates the moving-speed of a spray point, at which the extension of the spray nozzle pipe 18 intersects with the glass substrate 16 between control points in the X-Y coordinate system. The moving-speed of the spray point between the control points (x 1 , y 1 ) and (x 2 , y 2 ) is determined depending on where the control point (x 1 , y 1 ) is located among the 12×10 lattice-like areas of the glass substrate 16 . In other words, the moving-speed of the spray point between the control points (x 1 , y 1 ) and (x 2 , y 2 ) is calculated by multiplying the moving-speed (temporary speed V) of the spray point in the trial spray by the control factor entered for the area of the control point (x 1 , y 1 ). In the case that the control factor entered for the area of the control point (x 1 , y 1 ) is C 1 (any of “ 1 ”-“ 9 ”), the moving-speed can be calculated by the expression (C 1 ×V).
In the same manner, the moving-speed of the spray point between the control points (x 2 , y 2 ) and (x 3 , y 3 ) is determined depending on where the control point (x 2 , y 2 ) is located among the 12×10 lattice-like areas of the glass substrate 16 . If the control factor entered for the area of the control point (x 2 , y 2 ) is C 2 (any of “ 1 ”-“ 9 ”), the moving-speed of the spray point between (x 2 , y 2 ) and (x 3 , y 3 ) can be calculated by the expression (C 2 ×V). Further, the moving-speed (C 3 ×V) of the spray point between (x 3 , y 3 ) and (x 4 , y 4 ), and the moving-speed (C n-1 ×V) of the spray point between (x n-1 , y n-1 ) and (x n , y n ) can also be calculated in the same manner.
The actuator driver 92 further calculates the moving-speeds of the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuator 28 and 30 based on a distance between the control points and the moving-speed of the spray point in the X-Y coordinate system. More specifically, the actuator driver 92 calculates the moving-speeds of the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuator 28 and 30 between (L 1 1 , L 2 1 ) and (L 1 2 , L 2 2 ), based on a distance between the control points (x 1 , y 1 ) and (x 2 , y 2 ) and the moving-speed (C 1 ×V) of the spray point between the control points (x 1 , y 1 ) and (x 2 , y 2 ). In the same manner, the actuator driver 92 calculates the moving-speeds of the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuator 28 between (L 1 2 , L 2 2 ) and (L 1 3 , L 2 3 ), between (L 1 3 , L 2 3 ) and (L 1 4 , L 2 4 ), and between (L 1 n-1 , L 2 n-1 ) and (L 1 n , L 2 n ), respectively.
Next, the glass substrate 16 , onto which the finely-divided powders is actually sprayed, is positioned and fixed on the table 14 installed in the hermetically-sealed chamber 12 . The glass substrate 16 must be fixed at the same position as the sample glass substrate used in the trial spray of the spacers 20 .
Next, the actuator driver 92 operates the spacer spray apparatus 10 to spray the spacers 20 on the glass substrate 16 while sequentially moving the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 to the points (L 1 1 , L 2 1 ), (L 1 2 , L 2 2 ), (L 1 3 , L 2 3 ), (L 1 4 , L 2 4 ), . . . (L 1 n , L 2 n ) at the calculated speed. Accordingly, the spacers 20 can be sprayed onto the glass substrate 16 while shifting the spray point between the control points (x 1 , y 1 ) and (x 2 , y 2 ) at the moving-speed of (C 1 ×V), the spray point between the control points (x 2 , y 2 ) and (x 3 , y 3 ) at the moving-speed of (C 2 ×V), the spray point between the control points (x 3 , y 3 ) and (x 4 , y 4 ) at the moving-speed of (C 3 ×V), and the spray point between the control points (x n-1 , y n-I ) and (X n , y n ) at the moving-speed of (C n-1 ×V), respectively.
FIG. 12 is a table showing the measured densities of the spacers (spacers/mm 2 ) deposited in the individual 12×10 (row×column) lattice-like areas on the whole surface of the glass substrate 16 when spraying the spacers 20 on the glass substrate 16 in accordance with the entered spray conditions (the densities of the spacers 20 were measured at the centers of the lattice-like areas). FIG. 13 is a graph showing a distribution of the densities of the deposited spacers 20 on the whole surface of the glass substrate 16 based on the measured densities of the deposited spacers 20 shown in FIG. 12 . As apparent from the measured values shown in FIG. 13, the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe 18 is locally controlled, the spacers 20 can be uniformly sprayed on the whole surface of the glass substrate 16 . After one glass substrate 16 has been sprayed with the spacers 20 , another glass substrate 16 will be sprayed with the spacers 20 subsequently in the same manner.
According to the spacer spray apparatus 10 of the present invention, the control factors are entered individually for the prescribed areas. For example, depending on the measurement results, the control factor is entered for decreasing the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe 18 in the prescribed area in which the density of the deposited spacers is low, whereas the control factor is entered for increasing the moving-speed of the tip of the pipe 18 in the other prescribed area in which the density of the deposited spacers is high, whereby the spray densities of the spacers 20 deposited on the whole surface of the glass substrate 16 can be uniform.
In the aforementioned embodiment, the spacer spray apparatus 10 sprays the spacers 20 onto the glass substrate 16 positioned and horizontally fixed on the table 14 by swinging the spray nozzle pipe 18 disposed above the glass substrate so that the spacers 20 are uniformly sprayed downward. However, the present invention is by no means limited to the aforementioned embodiment. Any types of finely-divided powders which should be a uniformly sprayed can be used, for example, powder paints, toner, etc. in addition to the spacers. Any members to be sprayed can also be used, for example, objects to be coated by powder paints in addition to the glass substrate. They are not limited to those horizontally fixed on the table 14 , and can be, for example, those not mounted on the table, vertically-disposed substrates and parts to be painted, and inclined substrates and parts to be painted. The direction in which the spacers are sprayed onto the member to be sprayed is also not limited to the aforementioned embodiment and the spacers may be sprayed onto the horizontally-disposed or inclined member in any of the perpendicularly-downward and oblique directions as well as onto the vertically-disposed or inclined member in any of the horizontal and oblique directions.
In the aforementioned embodiment, the spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction by controlling the sliders 28 a and 30 a of the linearly-moving actuators 28 and 30 . However, the present invention may be applied to a spacer display apparatus of which spray nozzle pipe 18 is swung in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction through a crank or an eccentric cam linked to the motor.
Further in the aforementioned embodiment, the surface of the glass substrate 16 to be sprayed is divided into 12×10 lattice-like areas, for which the control factors are individually entered to control the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe 18 . However, the number of the divided areas may be varied, if necessary.
According to the present invention, the control factors may be entered by the control factor entry means individually for the prescribed areas of the member to be sprayed, and thus the density of the deposited finely-divided powders may be partially changed easily by the touch panel and the like.
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The present invention provides a finely-divided powder spray apparatus having a spray nozzle pipe for discharging spacers for liquid crystal displays from the tip together with a gas flow, which is disposed at a prescribed distance from a member to be sprayed, and comprising: a touch panel which enters control factors for controlling the moving-speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe at individual spray points the surface of the glass substrate; and an actuator driver which controls the moving speed of the tip of the spray nozzle pipe in accordance with the control factor entered by the touch panel.
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RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. 119(e), of the provisional application filed Oct. 5, 2010 under 35 U.S.C. 111(b), which was granted Ser. No. 61/389,755, which has since expired. This provisional application is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a catalyst mixture and also a method for the production of a polyester melt with high viscosity, the granulate obtained therefrom having an intrinsic viscosity of >0.70 dl/g and an L* colour >70 and the b* colour being between −5 and +5. The catalysts being used during the production are not based on heavy metals but on titanium compounds. Also no components of catalysts based on heavy metal are added. The granulate can be processed further in any way, e.g. to form bottles, containers, films, foils or fibres.
The invention relates to the production in particular of polyethylene terephthalate, subsequently termed PET. PET belongs to the group of polyesters which are characterised by the reaction of a dicarboxylic acid or esters thereof with a diol to form molecules with a long-chain construction. In the case of PET, the dicarboxylic acid is terephthalic acid, subsequently termed TPA, or the ester is dimethylterephthalate and the diol ethylene glycol, subsequently termed EG. At present, the world-wide PET production is approx. 36,000,000 metric tons per year and is used in particular in bottle production, the packaging industry, fibre production and in engineering polymer.
In 1937, Wallace H. Carother applied for a patent for the production of polyesters, in 1949 Whinfield and Dickson for polyesters based on TPA.
The production of polyesters at this time was produced exclusively in the batch method. Only after 1960 were continuous methods introduced, which made production on an industrial scale possible.
All continuous methods consist of the reaction steps of esterification and polycondensation. In the case of esterification, TPA and EG react to form a diester, termed bishydroxyethylterephthalate, in simplified terms BHET. This reaction is self-catalysed by the presence of H+ ions of the reaction partners and therefore requires no further externally supplied catalysts.
In the case of the subsequent polycondensation, essentially the carboxyl- and hydroxyl end groups present react with the emission of EG to form long molecule chains. The reaction speed of this reaction is influenced by increased temperature, dwell time, pressures in the vacuum range, surface renewal rates and very crucially by catalysts.
Whilst in 1949 Whinfield and Dickson still achieved higher molecular PET without the addition of catalysts after 72 hours dwell time, it was in fact soon recognised that catalysts based on antimony and titanium could reduce the dwell time to a few hours.
In the book Polyester Fibres, Chemistry and Technology, of 1975, Ludewig mentions the catalysts known up till then for polymerisation. Thereafter, the various catalysts, usually metal acetate salts, are subdivided into different reactivities. Catalysts, such as antimony-, germanium-, and titanium compounds, are thereby of the highest quality catalytically. Second-class catalysts for the polymerisation reaction are based on elements of the 1 st and 2 nd main group, in addition aluminium, lead and manganese.
In addition to the reactivity of a catalyst, the selectivity is however also of interest with respect to secondary reactions. In the case of PET, the mainly proceeding secondary reactions produce undesired yellow colourations or increased acetaldehyde- and diethylene glycol generation. With respect to selectivity, germanium and antimony should be mentioned in the first place and both catalysts, in particular the more reasonably priced antimony, have therefore been able to hold their ground over many decades relative to the more reactive titanium compounds.
A further important aspect in the use of catalysts is their complete or partial deactivation since all catalysts also catalyse degradative reactions to some extent, which become noticeable already in production or also only later in further processing or even only in the end product. As deactivation means, more commonly termed stabilisers, phosphorus compounds of all types have thereby proved their worth.
Continuous industrial processes for the production of PET divide the polymerisation to form high-molecular PET into two steps, melt polymerisation and solid-state polymerisation. In the first step, PET is polymerised in a melt with a molecular weight up to approx. 18,000 g/mol, which corresponds to approx. 100 monomer units or an intrinsic viscosity of approx. 0.60 dl/g.
Direct processing to form foils or fibres is effected subsequently or the polymer melt is supplied for granulation in order to obtain defined small PET granulate particles. This granulate is then supplied for solid-state postcondensation (subsequently termed SSP (solid state postcondensation)). Adjusting the molecular weight is effected by the level of the chosen temperature, generally between 210 and 225° C., and the dwell time. In order that the PET chips experience no oxidative damage, nitrogen is taken as carrier gas for heat input and for removal of the resulting reaction products. The level of the final molecular weight depends upon the desired end application. In the case of PET granulates for the production of PET bottles, the molecular weight is approx. 26,000 g/mol, which corresponds to approx. 140 monomer units or an intrinsic viscosity of approx. 0.80 dl/g.
Only since 2007 has there been a continuous industrial process by the company Uhde Inventa-Fischer in which a molecular weight of approx. 26,000 g/mol is already achieved in the melt. Hence the second complex SSP process is dispensed with and only conditioning with air in order to produce for example PET suitable for bottles is required.
In the last 10 to 20 years, great interest has been shown in catalysts for PET which are free of heavy metals, detectable in many discussions in world-wide PET congresses and a large number of patent applications relating to this topic. Not only can greater human and environmental acceptability thereby be detected as driving force but likewise an improvement in PET product qualities. In addition to antimony, also cobalt and bismuth count as heavy metals.
In order to replace antimony as catalyst, there are found in the patent literature all the elements and their compounds or combinations thereof mentioned already for preference in Ludewig, generally in combination with a P component. As varied and specific as all indicated antimony-free formulations are, they all however deal with a formulation for the production of high-molecular PET in the melt polymerisation up to a maximum intrinsic viscosity of approx. 0.60 dl/g and subsequent solid-state postcondensation.
In the state of the art, reference is made very explicitly to the huge difficulties, for highly-viscous polymer melts of approx. 0.80 dl/g, with yellow discolouration and acetaldehyde formation when using catalysts which are not based on antimony.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,368,522 relates to a method with antimony as catalyst, an intrinsic viscosity of at least 0.75 dl/g in the polymer melt (i.e. without SSP) with simultaneously good colours and a short reaction time being intended to be achieved. U.S. Pat. No. 7,368,522 thereby conjectures that this cannot be achieved with titanium formulations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,271 B2 discloses a formulation based on titanium compounds in combination with cobalt which can also be used in addition up to 280° C. In this formulation, cobalt acts both as co-catalyst and as blue colourant in order to control the yellow tone. In order that the acetaldehyde contents can be controlled, the catalysts are deactivated with a P compound and in addition substances which bind acetaldehyde are used. This formulation can be used for higher molecular weights in the melt of 0.63 to 1.00 dl/g intrinsic viscosity but it is not free of heavy metals.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,094,863 B2 claims an antimony-free catalyst formulation for the production of in particular bottle granulate. In particular the improved product properties, such as clarity and dimensional stability for hot filling applications, are thereby highlighted. However, in addition to cobalt, also antimony contents up to 50 ppm are allowed in the formulation. The invention relates to the polyester production by means of SSP. Hence no high viscosities in the polymer melt are achieved with this formulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,544,762 B2 describes a formulation which is free of heavy metals and has good colours and low acetaldehyde contents, based on a titanium-phosphorus component. The maximum achieved viscosities of the melt are indicated at 0.64 dl/g.
US 2004/0044173 A1 describes a formulation which is free of heavy metals and has good colours and low acetaldehyde contents, based on a titanium-phosphorus component and the addition of element compounds of the group Ia, IIa, Mg, Fe or Co. The maximum achieved viscosities of the melt are indicated at 0.64 dl/g and require an SSP in order to achieve higher viscosities.
WO 2004/065452 A1 uses a Ti—Na-glycolate as catalyst system and reaches viscosities in the melt of 0.63 to 0.66 dl/g. Here also, an SSP is used to increase the molecular weight.
EP 1 013 692 uses a solid Ti catalyst, obtained by dehydrogenation of a titanium-halogen compound and reaction with a P compound and use of an Mg compound as co-catalyst. As an alternative to the Mg, elements of the IIa group and many heavy metals are mentioned. The achieved viscosities in the melt are at approx. 0.65 dl/g and require an SSP to achieve higher viscosities.
Furthermore, US 2007/010648 A1 relates to the use of a combination of Ti, Zr or Hf with 2-hydroxy-carboxylic acids and a quaternary ammonium compound instead of the normal Ti alkoxides. Here also the achieved viscosities in the melt are only at approx. 0.62 dl/g and require an SSP to achieve higher viscosities.
Qi et al. (EP 2 006 315) likewise use a titanium, phosphorus and co-catalyst system for the production of PET, the co-catalyst preferably being a mixture of Mg, Mn, Ca and Co. With Co, this mixture is also not free of heavy metals. Although also titanium compounds with lactic and citric acid are used, only a viscosity of approx. 0.67 dl/g in the melt is demonstrated with this system.
WO 2008/150350 A1 describes a Ti-based catalyst system with subsequent P addition for the PET production, with which a high viscosity in the melt can be achieved in a reduced reaction time with a low acetaldehyde content. The use of an SSP is thereby regarded as no longer required. The patent describes in addition the use of further additives, inter alia also the use of TiN. In contrast to the described process technology, only simple batch tests are however indicated in the examples. In contrast to commercial reality, extremely high quantities of toner (red 7-9 ppm, blue 13-18 ppm) are used and the colour values achieved are consequently extremely adulterated.
In the case of the catalysts known from the state of the art, it has however always been problematic to date that the obtained products have either sufficiently high viscosity, which led however to problems with discolouration, or had good colour values which led however to problems with viscosity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Starting herefrom, it is the object of the present invention to indicate a catalyst mixture which can be used for the production of polyester melts, which ensures sufficiently high viscosity of the polyester melt and with which good colour values of the polyester melts can be achieved at the same time.
This object is achieved by the features of patent claim 1 with respect to the catalyst mixture, and by the features of patent claim 7 with respect to the method for the production of a polyester. The respective dependent patent claims thereby represent advantageous supplements.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, a catalyst mixture is hence provided which has, as minimum components, at least one catalyst selected from the group consisting of titanium-containing compounds, at least one co-catalyst selected from the group consisting of alkali- and/or alkaline earth metal-containing compounds and also at least one inorganic blue toner.
There are included thereby in the titanium-containing compounds used according to the invention as catalyst, all compounds in which titanium is present as compound with further atoms or molecules, for example titanium salts, titanium organyls etc. However titanium nitride is excluded herefrom.
The co-catalyst used according to the invention is thereby derived from compounds of the alkali- or alkaline earth metals, i.e. likewise inorganic or organic compounds of these metals, such as for example salts, organyls etc.
According to the invention, an inorganic blue toner is used: organic blue toners, such as for example colourants (e.g. blue toners, such as Polysyntren™ Blue RBL which are known from the state of the art) are not included herein.
Surprisingly, it was able to be established that, when using such a catalyst mixture in the polycondensation of corresponding educts for the production of polyesters, very good colour values and high viscosities of the produced polyester melt could be observed at the same time.
A preferred embodiment of the catalyst mixture according to the invention provides that, relative to the sum of the catalyst a) and of the co-catalyst b), the at least one catalyst is comprised at 1 to 90% by weight, preferably at 3 to 80% by weight, particularly preferred at 5 to 50% by weight, and/or the at least one co-catalyst at 99 to 10% by weight, preferably at 97 to 20% by weight, particularly preferred at 95 to 50% by weight. The quantities of catalyst or of co-catalyst are thereby selected independently of each other.
It is further advantageous if, relative to the sum of the at least one catalyst a) and of the at least one co-catalyst b), the at least one blue toner is comprised at 0.1 to 200% by weight, preferably at 1 to 100% by weight, further preferred at 5 to 50%, in particular at 10 to 30% by weight.
According to this preferred embodiment, the blue toner can be comprised in very small quantities, but, in the total content, can also exceed the content of catalyst and co-catalyst together.
It is particularly preferred if in addition at least one phosphorus-containing compound is comprised, preferably in a weight ratio at 5 to 700% by weight, further preferred at 10 to 300% by weight, particularly preferred at 20 to 100% by weight, in particular at 25 to 50% by weight, the content of phosphorus-containing compound being relative to the sum of the catalyst a) and of the co-catalyst b).
It is particularly preferred if, with respect to the materials, the previously mentioned components are selected from the following compounds:
a) the at least one catalyst a) from the group consisting of titanium citrate, titanium tartrate, titanium oxalate, titanium alkoxides, such as tetra-n-propyl-titanate, tetra-i-propyl-titanate, tetra-n-butyl-titanate, sodium titanate and potassium titanate, b) the at least one co-catalyst b) from the group consisting of alkali- and/or alkaline earth metallic salts of organic carboxylic acids, in particular magnesium acetate, lithium acetate, sodium acetate, potassium acetate and calcium acetate, c) the blue toner from the group consisting of main group metal- and/or transition metal nitrides, in particular titanium nitride and/or d) the at least one phosphorus-containing compound from the group consisting of organic phosphates, in particular triethylphosphate, trimethylphosphate, triethylphosphonoacetate, phosphoric acid, mono-, di- or triesters of phosphoric acid with mono-, di- or triethylene glycol, phosphonic acid, mono- or diesters of phosphonic acid with mono-, di- or triethylene glycol, phosphinic acid, phenylphosphinic acid, esters of phosphinic acid with di- or triethylene glycol, polyphosphoric acid, esters of polyphosphoric acid with alcohols.
A particularly suitable catalyst mixture is distinguished by the following composition:
a) at least one catalyst a) at 3 to 12 parts by weight, b) at least one co-catalyst b) at 5 to 100 parts by weight, c) at least one blue toner c) at 1 to 10 parts by weight, and also d) at least one phosphorus-containing compound d) at 10 to 50 parts by weight,
the quantities of components a) to d) being calculated such that they add up to 100% by weight.
The catalyst composition according to the invention is in particular free of heavy metals and/or heavy metal compounds. According to the invention, there is understood by a heavy metal, a metal with a density ρ>4.5 g/cm 3 and also the compounds thereof. In particular, of concern hereby are Pb, Cd, Zn, Sb, Bi, Cu or Co and also compounds derived herefrom.
According to the invention, a method for the production of a polyester is likewise provided, in which a previously described catalyst mixture is used. The production method of the polyester can thereby be implemented by polycondensation of a mixture, comprising at least one sort of an organic dicarboxylic acid and at least one sort of an organic diol. It is crucial in the method according to the invention that a previously described catalyst mixture is added to the mixture used during the polycondensation. An addition of the catalyst mixture is likewise possible in the postesterification step, i.e. after conclusion of the polycondensation. The catalyst mixture can also be provided in both steps. There should be understood hereby the possibility, on the one hand, that the complete catalyst composition is added respectively in both steps; however also that the catalyst composition is added distributed over both steps in its individual components so that all the components of the catalyst composition add up to the entire composition only in the postesterification step.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the addition of the catalyst mixture is effected in steps, firstly a catalyst mixture being added to a mixture of the educts, which catalyst mixture is free of a phosphorus-containing compound, and the phosphorus-containing compound being added at a later time.
An example of this preferred embodiment is that firstly a diacid with a diol is esterified for example in a polycondensation method. The catalyst mixture is then added without the phosphorus-containing compound into the postesterification step/prepolymerisation step and the phosphorus-containing compound is added at the end of the postesterification step/prepolymerisation step. The mixture is then supplied for polycondensation.
It is particularly preferred if, relative to the quantity of mixture used in the polycondensation, 1 to 10,000 ppm, preferably 5 to 1,000 ppm, particularly preferred 10 to 200 ppm, of the catalyst mixture are used. The concentration data relate thereby to weight relations.
The method is suitable in particular for polycondensation of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol.
If necessary, the mixture used during the polycondensation can comprise at least one sort of a polybasic carboxylic acid and/or of a carboxylic acid ester derived herefrom and/or at least one sort of a polybasic alcohol.
Furthermore, it is preferred if, subsequent to the polycondensation, a granulation or pelletisation of the obtained polyester is effected, the obtained granulate or the pellets having an intrinsic viscosity of at least 0.70 dl/g, measured according to DIN 53728.
In particular, it is thereby advantageous that the obtained polyester has a b* colour, measured according to DIN 5033, of −5 to +5 and/or an L* colour, measured according to DIN 5033, of at least 70.
Advantages result also with respect to the fact that the obtained polyester is free of heavy metals.
The present invention is explained in more detail with reference to the subsequently cited examples without restricting the invention to the special parameters represented there.
Comparative Example Esterification Route PTA/EG
This example relates to a pilot plant for the continuous production of 50 kg/h polyethylene terephthalate (subsequently termed PET) with a standard antimony (Sb)- and phosphorus (P) formulation.
Terephthalic acid (subsequently termed PTA), isophthalic acid (subsequently termed IPA) and monoethylene glycol (subsequently termed EG) are placed together in a container with an agitator as a paste and supplied for an esterification step. The mass flow of the PTA is thereby 43.0 kg/h, the mass flow of the IPA 0.75 kg/h and the mass flow of the EG 32.7 kg/h.
The paste is supplied continuously for an esterification step with in total 76.45 kg/h, in which esterification step, at 274° C. and with excess pressure of 160 kPa, the PTA, IPA and EG react with each other to form a monomer with formation of water. The formed water is withdrawn from the reactor together with excess EG as vapours, the formed monomer is supplied for a postesterification step.
In the postesterification step, the polymerisation catalyst antimony in the form of antimony triglycolate (subsequently termed ATG), which is dissolved in EG, is metered into the end product for 270 ppm Sb at 274 to 278° C. and a pressure of 70 kPa. Resulting water and excess EG are withdrawn from the reactor as vapours.
After the postesterification step, the condensed monomer together with triethylphosphate dissolved in EG is supplied for the pre-polymerisation step for 16 ppm P in the end product.
In the pre-polymerisation, the monomer is condensed further to form an oligomer at 280° C. and 1 kPa, the PET polymer chain length thereby increases to approx. 15 basic units.
After the pre-polymerisation, the oligomer is supplied to a DISCAGE® polymerisation reactor in which the final polymer chain length of approx. 140 basic units is reached at 280° C. and 0.1 kPa.
The polymer melt is then supplied for underwater granulation by means of a pump where the melt is re-shaped into granules by means of water cooling and a cutting knife. The granules are separated from the adhering water in a centrifuge and supplied to a conditioning silo.
In the silo, the granulate is conditioned in a light air stream at approx. 170° C. for several hours.
EXAMPLE
This example relates to a pilot plant for the continuous production of 50 kg/h polyethylene terephthalate (subsequently termed PET) with an alternative catalyst formulation comprising titanium citrate, magnesium acetate, titanium nitride and triethylphosphate.
Terephthalic acid (subsequently termed PTA), isophthalic acid (subsequently termed IPA) and monoethylene glycol (subsequently termed EG) are placed together in a container with an agitator as a paste and supplied for an esterification step. The mass flow of the PTA is thereby 43.0 kg/h, the mass flow of IPA 0.75 kg/h and the mass flow of EG 32.7 kg/h.
The paste is supplied continuously for an esterification step with in total 76.45 kg/h, in which esterification step, at 274° C. and with excess pressure of 160 kPa, the PTA, IPA and EG react with each other to form a monomer with formation of water. The formed water is withdrawn from the reactor together with excess EG as vapours, and the formed monomer is supplied for a postesterification step.
In the postesterification step, titanium citrate is then dissolved in EG at 274 to 278° C. and a pressure of 70 kPa for 8 ppm Ti in the end product, magnesium acetate is dissolved in EG for 30 ppm Mg in the end product and titanium nitride is metered for 2.5 ppm in the end product. Resulting water and excess EG are withdrawn from the reactor as vapours.
After the postesterification step, the condensed monomer together with triethylphosphate dissolved in EG is supplied for the pre-polymerisation step for 20 ppm P in the end product.
In the pre-polymerisation, the monomer is condensed further to form an oligomer at 280° C. and 1 kPa, the PET polymer chain length thereby increases to approx. 15 basic units.
After the pre-polymerisation, the oligomer is supplied to a DISCAGE® polymerisation reactor in which the final polymer chain length of approx. 140 basic units is reached at 280° and 0.1 kPa.
The polymer melt is then supplied for underwater granulation by means of a pump where the melt is re-shaped into granules by means of water cooling and a cutting knife. The granules are separated from the adhering water in a centrifuge and supplied to a silo.
In the silo, the granulate is conditioned in a light air stream at approx. 170° C. for several hours.
TABLE
After the silo, the following product qualities are measured:
Comparative example
Example
intrinsic viscosity
0.76
0.77
[dl/g]
colour L*
78.0
78.0
colour a*
−1.6
−2.0
colour b*
0.9
2.0
Surprisingly, the obtained colour values of the example with high viscosity are comparably good; a slight increase in the viscosity could even be observed with otherwise identical conditions.
Determination of the Relative Viscosity
Determination of the relative viscosity is a standard method in quality control for the production of PET. The calculated intrinsic viscosity (subsequently termed IV) is in relation to the degree of polymerisation and the molecular weight.
Dry PET granulate (<0.5% by weight H 2 O) is dissolved with agitation with approx. 200±0.2 mg for the determination in 40 ml of a 1:1 mixture comprising phenol and 1,2-dichlorobenzene at 130° C. for 30 minutes. After cooling and filtering the solution, the flow time of this solution is measured in a clean Ubbelohde capillary viscometer corresponding to DIN 51562 with a capillary diameter of 0.84 mm at exactly 25±0.1° C. The number of measurements is at least five successive measurements in which the time difference amongst each other is less than 0.2 seconds.
In the calculation of the result, firstly the relative viscosity is calculated from the flow time of the solution in relation to the flow time of the pure solvent. In order to preclude the influence of gravity, also the “Hagenbach-Couette time corrections” must be withdrawn. These factors can be deduced from the Ubbelohde capillary viscometer handbook.
η
rel
=
t
-
Δ
t
t
0
-
Δ
t
0
t: flow time of the solution [s]
Δt: “Hagenbach-Couette time correction” for the solution [s]
t 0 : flow time of the pure solvent [s]
Δt 0 : “Hagenbach-Couette time correction” for the pure solvent [s]
The intrinsic viscosity can then be calculated as follows:
IV
=
-
1
+
1
+
4
*
KH
*
(
η
rel
-
1
)
2
*
KH
*
c
[
dl
/
g
]
KH: HUGGINS constant, for this determination method KH=0.33
c: concentration of the PET granulate in the solvent [mg/ml]=[g/dl].
Determination of the Colour Values L*, a* and b*
The determination of the colour coordinates L*, a* and b* of crystalline PET granulate is effected in the CIE-LAB system with a colour spectrophotometer by Minolta in the wavelength range of 400 to 700 nm. The principle is that light from a standardised source is reflected by the surface of the PET granulates and the intensity of the reflected light is compared photoelectrically against a white standard body.
Before the measurement, the glass cell used must be cleaned, i.e. absolutely free of dust particles, other dirt or fingerprints. The glass cell is filled up to a level of approx. 1 cm. The colour spectrophotometer is used with the standard illumination type D65 and a standard observer of 10°. No gloss subtraction is effected. Thereafter, the actual measurement can be effected according to the operating manual by Minolta. The measurement is thereby effected three times, the glass cell being rotated by respectively 90°. In total, the glass cell is filled three times. The result is then averaged from nine measuring values.
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Provided are a catalyst mixture and also a method for the production of a polyester melt with high viscosity, the granulate obtained therefrom having an intrinsic viscosity of >0.70 dl/g and an L* color >70 and the b* color being between −5 and +5. The catalysts being used during the production are not based on heavy metals but on titanium compounds. Also no components of catalysts based on heavy metal are added. The granulate can be processed further in any way, e.g. to form bottles, containers, films, foils or fibers.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/216,386, filed Mar. 17, 2014, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/791,807 filed Mar. 15, 2013, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates to cartridges for gas operated firearms used by the military, police units, and special operations, and methods of operating said firearms.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] A common rifle for military and police are gas operated firearms. These include, but are not limited to, AR10, AK-47, AK-74, M14 M16, M16A2, M4, FN SCAR family, M110, MK11, and others. These gas operated rifles have been produced by numerous manufacturers. These weapons, typically shoot, but are not limited to, 5.45 mm, 5.56 mm, 6.8 mm, and 7.62 mm bullets which provide very high bullet velocities.
[0004] These gas operated gas operated-style rifles utilize either a direct gas impingement system or a gas and push rod system for operating their ejection and loading mechanisms, in an automatic mode and a semi-automatic mode. The expanding gas from the cartridge propellant is tapped from a port in the barrel intermediate the chamber and the muzzle end of the barrel. In the direct gas impingement system, a conduit extends from the port to the upper receiver and into the region of the bolt carrier. In the gas and pushrod system, the gas impinges against the push rod which extends to the upper receiver and into the region of the bolt carrier. During the initial firing of the cartridge, the bolt is locked into the barrel extension, the gas forces the bolt carrier backward a short distance to unlock the bolt. As the bolt carrier moves toward the butt of the gun, a bolt cam pin, forces the bolt to rotate, by this time the bullet has left the barrel. The inertia of the bolt and bolt carrier continues the rearward motion causing the bolt to extract the fired empty cartridge. A spring absorbs the rearward motion of the bolt and bolt carrier forcing the bolt and bolt carrier forward to engage the next cartridge in the magazine and push same into the chamber ready for firing.
[0005] The gas pressures for operating the gas operated style weapons are significant and with the 5.56 mm cartridges the exit velocities, typically in excess of 2700 fps, way exceed the sound barrier (about 1,126 fps). Associated with these velocities are high bullet travel distances, in excess of 2 miles, and noise levels, including from the bullet breaking the sound barrier that cannot be effectively suppressed.
[0006] Modifications have been developed for these gas operated weapons to shoot low mass rounds at low velocities that utilize telescoping cartridges—practice ammunition. Typically the cartridges have very low mass, compared to lethal rounds, and may also have frangible projectiles with marking media. The modifications include a bolt and bolt carrier modification that allows the bolt to retract entirely by the propulsion of the expanding telescoping cartridge with no assist from the gas port, effectively changing the function of the weapon from a direct gas impingement system to a direct blowback system. The bolt does not lock into place rearward of the chamber. The energetics in these cartridges is minimal compared to a normal lethal round. For certain manufacturers, the primer contains the entire energetic load for launching the projectile and operating the ejection mechanism by the force from the telescoping cartridge. See Force on Force™ ammunition available from Federal Cartridge Company, the owner of the instant invention. See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,931,978; 6,178,889; 6,564,719; 6,625,916; 6,439,123; 5,677,505; 5,492,063; 5,359,937; 6,625,916; 7,278,358; 8,146,505; 7,225,741; 7,621,208; 7,984,668; U.S. Publ. Nos. 2010/0269724.
[0007] In certain instances, it would be desirable to have lethal cartridges that may effectively operate the gas operated style ejection mechanism and that travel below the speed of sound. Such cartridges could effectively be mixed with normal high velocity lethal rounds without gun modification. The lower velocity rounds could then be effectively used with suppressors. Attempts to manufacture such ammunition have not yet been entirely successful. For example, simply lowering the amount of propellant to reduce the exit velocity of the bullets results in less gas pressure to reliably operate the weapon. Also, using lower amounts of propellant results in lower ignition pressures, which in turn results in very dirty propellant burn and/or incomplete combustion which causes gun malfunctions. Although weapon modifications are possible to utilize less powerful ammunition, then switching back to the regular full energy ammunition is problematic and certainly cannot reasonably done in a combat situation.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] In a gas operated rifle, low velocity ammunition that travels below the speed of sound and reliably actuates the ejection mechanism without weapon modification utilizes a telescoping cartridge casing with staged propellants in different chambers of the casing.
[0009] In an embodiment of the invention, a telescoping cartridge has a forward casing component and a rearward casing component that are slidingly engaged. In an unfired state, they are telescoped together in a retracted state. After firing, the two components remain connected and extended. The forward portion has a reduced diameter neck portion defining a projectile recess that secures the projectile therein, side wall portions therebelow that define, along with the rearward face of the projectile, a forward projectile propellant chamber. The rearward portion of the forward casing component is slidingly engaged with the forward portion of the rearward casing component. The rearward casing component has a rearward end with a primer attached thereto in a primer recess, and a rearward expandable chamber defined above the primer in the rearward casing, defined by side walls of the rearward portion and also defined by a rearward facing surface of the forward casing portion. The rearward chamber expands when the pressure increases therein from the firing of the primer, presuming it is not retained in place, such as by a locked bolt. A conduit having a reduced diameter portion, such as a flashhole, extends between the rearward expandable chamber and the forward casing.
[0010] In another embodiment of the invention, a telescoping cartridge has a forward casing component and a rearward casing component that are slidingly engaged. In an unfired state, they are telescoped together in a retracted state. After firing, the two components remain connected and extended. The forward portion has a reduced diameter neck portion defining a projectile recess that secures the projectile therein, side wall portions therebelow that define, along with the rearward face of the projectile, a forward projectile propellant chamber. The rearward portion of the forward casing component is slidingly engaged with the forward portion of the rearward casing component. The rearward casing component has a rearward end with a primer attached thereto in a primer recess. A rearward expandable chamber has propellant therein and is defined by the interface between the forward and rearward casing components. A direct flash pathway is provided to the forward projectile propellant chamber from the primer. The rearward expandable chamber is not directly coupled with a direct flash pathway from the primer. Rather a delay is provided in the ignition of the propellant in the rearward expandable chamber such as by an additional flash pathway from the forward propellant chamber to the rearward expandable chamber.
[0011] A feature and advantage of embodiments of the invention is that a telescoping cartridge provides an assist for operating the ejector in a gas operated firearm allowing use of cartridges with less propellant.
[0012] In an embodiment of the invention, an AR style gas operated rifle, is operated conventionally utilizing gas bled from the barrel from a fired cartridge to unlock the bolt and the gas and the force from a cartridge telescoping rearwardly is utilized to completely operate the ejection mechanism and to chamber the next cartridge.
[0013] In an embodiment of the invention, an AR style gas operated rifle is equipped with a magazine of rounds having both full power non telescoping cartridges, and telescoping cartridges that fire subsonic projectiles. In an embodiment of the invention, an AR style gas operated rifle has a plurality of magazines, one with subsonic cartridges and one with supersonic cartridges which may be operated interchangeably and selectively without modification to the rifle.
[0014] In an embodiment of the invention, an AR style gas operated rifle, is operated initially utilizing gas bled from the barrel from a fired cartridge to at least unlock the bolt and the force from a rear component of a cartridge telescoping rearwardly is utilized to operate the ejection mechanism and to chamber the next cartridge.
[0015] In an embodiment of the invention, an AR style gas operated rifle is in combination with a telescoping cartridge, the gas cartridge having a projectile and sufficient projectile propellant to unlock the bolt on the chamber of the rifle, the cartridge providing sufficient gas pressure and force provided by the telescoping piston to operate the ejection and chambering mechanism of the rifle.
[0016] In embodiments of the invention the amount of projectile propellant utilized in combination with the weight of the projectile, keeps the projectile sub sonic, below the speed of sound. Moreover, the propellant utilized and the telescoping cartridge, provide an unlocking and recycling of the bolt. Also, the energy is maintained to be at least 70 ft-lbs; in other embodiments at least 100 ft-lbs; in other embodiments at least 150 ft-lbs; in other embodiments at least 180 ft-lbs, in other embodiments at least 210 ft-lbs.
[0017] In embodiments of the invention, a telescoping cartridge has a forward projectile chamber with projectile propellant and a rearward piston chamber with piston propellant, a primer and ducts that are arranged to first ignite the projectile propellant and then ignite the piston propellant. This delays the peak pressurization of the piston chamber to advantageously utilize same to efficiently drive the piston back after the bolt has been unlocked by the gas from the main propellant charge.
[0018] In an embodiment of the invention, a method of operating a gas operated automatic or semi-automatic weapon that has a bolt that locks by a partial rotation of the bolt with respect to a bolt carrier, the bolt carrier in communication with a gas port on the barrel of the weapon, the method comprising utilizing the gas pressure from a cartridge received from a port in the barrel to unlock the bolt, and utilizing the expansion of a telescoping cartridge in the chamber to recycle the weapon after the bolt is unlocked. In embodiments the cartridge is a 5.56 mm cartridge. In embodiments, the propellant driving the projectile does not provide enough gas pressure to recycle the weapon and the telescoping cartridge supplements the needed power for recycling sufficient to accomplish the recycling.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0019] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a telescoping cartridge in a retracted position in accord with embodiments of the invention herein.
[0020] FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0021] FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the telescoping cartridge of FIG. 2 .
[0022] FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0023] FIG. 5 is an elevational view of the telescoping cartridge of FIG. 4 in an extended state with the projectile having left the casing.
[0024] FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view of the telescoping cartridge of FIG. 4 in an extended state with the projectile having left the casing.
[0025] FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0026] FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view of the telescoping cartridge of FIG. 7 in an extended state with the projectile having left the casing.
[0027] FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0028] FIG. 10 is a cross sectional view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0029] FIG. 11 is a cross sectional view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0030] FIG. 12 is a cross sectional view of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0031] FIGS. 13A and 13B are cross sectional views of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0032] FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C are cross sectional views of a telescoping cartridge in accord with embodiments of the invention.
[0033] FIG. 15 is a gas operated rifle in combination with telescoping cartridges and a suppressor in accord with the inventions herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0034] Referring to the Figures, various embodiments of a telescoping cartridge 10 suitable for firing in a rifle with a gas operated ejection and chambering mechanism. The cartridge comprises generally a casing 12 and a projectile 14 . The casing has a reduced neck portion 16 and a flange utilized by the ejection mechanism, and a casing body 20 . The casing is further comprised of a forward component 24 and a rearward component 26 that are slidably engaged and extend axially upon the cartridge being fired. The forward component may be comprised of a H-shaped, in cross section, tubular section defining a housing 30 having a central narrowed or bridging portion 32 with a passage way therethough configured as a flashhole 34 . The tubular section may be formed of convention metals such as brass or aluminum or other suitable materials such as polymers. A forward portion 35 of the forward component has exterior walling 36 comprising an axially extending forward wall portion 38 defining a recess 39 and an interior duct 40 , and an exterior axially extending rearward wall portion 44 defining an interior duct 46 . The interior duct has a first rearward portion that is cylindrical bore and a wider cylindrical recess thereabove for receiving the bullet or projectile 14 . The two ducts are in communication with each other through the flash hole 34 . The exterior walling has an exterior surface 50 with a taper going toward the forward end 52 of the bullet. The forward component is further comprised, in this embodiment, of an insert 56 seated permanently in the recess 39 . The insert may be formed of a polymer, such as nylon, various metals such, as aluminum, or ceramic materials or other suitable materials. The insert has an opening or axial duct 58 defined by an interior wall surface 60 in the recess.
[0035] The interior wall surface 60 , the tail end surface 64 of the projectile and the surface 66 of the bridging or narrowed portion 32 surrounding the flashhole form a projectile expansion chamber 68 and includes propellant 70 .
[0036] A rearward portion 72 of the forward component has the walling 36 with side walls 72 with interior wall surfaces 74 defining a piston chamber 76 into which the rearwardly component 26 , configured as a piston, is slidingly received. The rearwardly facing wall surface 78 of the narrowed or bridging portion and the inside facing wall surfaces 80 and the piston, define a primer expansion chamber 82 . The rearward component comprises the piston and the flange and the primer 90 . An O-ring 84 may facilitate sealing of the piston in the cylinder defined by the rearward portion of the forward component. The ends 86 of the side walls may be crimped for retaining the piston in the cylinder after retraction. The primer 90 may be conventional and is received and retained in a recess 91 in the rearward end 92 of the piston.
[0037] Referring to FIGS. 7 and 8 , a further embodiment of the invention is illustrated. The forward component 24 has the narrowed neck portion as integral or unitary with the walling 36 . The projectile propellant expansion chamber 68 is defined by the top surface 94 of the bridging portion 32 , the side walls, and the projectile 14 . The propellant 70 for the projectile 14 is positioned above the flash hole 34 in the chamber 68 . The projectile is seated in the recess 94 defined by the neck portion 96 . The primer expansion chamber is configured as described in FIGS. 1-4 .
[0038] FIG. 9 illustrates a further embodiment wherein the forward component 102 is inserted into the rearward component 104 , that is, the rearward portion 106 of the forward component is configured as a piston and the rearward component is the cylinder. The forward component may be formed from a polymer, such as nylon. Other materials may be suitable. Similar to the previous embodiments, an axial pathway 108 or duct runs the entire length of the casing between the primer and the projectile 14 . The narrowest portion of the duct being at the flashhole 34 . At a widened portion 112 , the projectile propellant is placed, just behind, rearward of, the projectile. The projectile propellant expansion chamber 116 is defined by the rearward surface 64 of the projectile, and the walling, specifically the inside surface 118 of the duct 108 . The primer expansion chamber 122 is defined by the rearward face 126 of the piston, the walling 36 , and the forward facing surface 128 of the end portion of the rearward component.
[0039] In embodiments, the above configurations have propellant and projectile weights matched to be between about 80 and 280 ft-lbs of energy whilst maintaining bullet speed at subsonic levels. In other embodiments, between 60 and 300 ft-lbs at subsonic levels. In other embodiments, between 300 and 670 ft-lbs of energy. The weight of the projectiles, the bullets will weigh between 40 and 120 grains. In other embodiments between 60 and 140 grains. In other embodiments between 70 and 120 grains. In other embodiments between 120 and 300 grains. In other embodiments for other calibers.
[0040] The above embodiments function as conventional ammunition in gas operated rifles such as the AR-15 and M16A2 designs. When the round is chambered, the bolt is locked in place by a partial rotation, the firing pin ignites the primer which pressurizes the rearward or primer chamber and a gas jet passes through the flashhole igniting the projectile propellant. Ignition of the projectile propellant launches the projectile and provides a high pressure wave of gas behind the projectile as it travels down the barrel. The pressurized gas enters the port in the barrel to return to the upper receiver to drive back the cammed bolt carrier which partially rotates the bolt to unlock it. The pressurization of the rearward chamber then allows the piston to be driven rearwardly in driving or assisting in driving the bolt rearwardly to eject the cartridge. The bolt cycles back to chamber another round. See U.S. Pat. No. 6,931,978 which is incorporated by reference. Significantly, the advantages of a telescoping practice round is being utilized to cause recycling of the ejection chambering mechanism in the presence of the bolt lock. In previously known gas operated rifles, the bolt was replaced with a non-locking bolt to allow retraction of the bolt by the much lesser energy charges associated with practice ammunition.
[0041] In embodiments of the invention, the propellant utilized in the primer and/or projectile propellant are slow burning sufficient to maintain sufficient pressurization of the piston and cylinder until the bolt is unlocked by the pressure transferred from the barrel to recycle the weapon.
[0042] Referring to FIGS. 10-12 , additional embodiments are illustrated. FIGS. 10 and 11 utilize a piston 150 as the rearward component 152 of the two slidingly engaged components of the telescoping cartridge. The forward component 154 includes the cylinder 156 at its rearward portion 160 . FIG. 12 is an embodiment where the piston 164 is defined by the rear portion 166 of the forward component 167 , similar to the embodiment of FIG. 9 above. In the embodiments of FIGS. 10-12 , the forward projectile propellant 168 is ignited first to launch the projectile 14 . The ignition from the primer 90 is transferred by way of a flash tube 172 past the rearward piston chamber 176 so that the piston chamber does not pressurize or significantly pressurize. The ignition of the main or forward projectile propellant launches the projectile which allows the pressurized gas to travel down the barrel and enter the return port to pressurize and partially retract the bolt carrier which unlocks the bolt. The ignition of the main projectile propellant then provides burning gas through the orifices or reverse secondary flash passage ways 182 to the rearward piston chamber igniting the piston chamber propellant with some delay from when the main projectile propellant was ignited. This delay allows the unlocking of the bolt before the peak pressurization of the piston chamber, or before significant dissipation of the pressurization. In embodiments, the passageways can have propellant therein. The propellants are suitably selected to provide proper timing of pressurizations and level of pressurizations.
[0043] FIGS. 13A and 13B illustrate an embodiment with apertures 190 in the flash tube 172 extending between the projectile propellant chamber 199 and the primer 90 . In this embodiment there is a delay in the pressurization of the casing expansion chamber in that there is not a direct pathway to the propellant 176 in the expansion chamber 194 to the primer. Thus the initial jet from the primer impacts the projectile propellant but bypasses the expansion chamber propellant but the propellant is eventually ignited.
[0044] FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C illustrate a further embodiment where the flash tube 172 extends into an upper region of the projectile propellant chamber which will cause the burn of the main projectile propellant to be rearwardly, delaying the flash extending to the propellant chamber igniting the propellant. Other embodiments do not have propellant in the casing expansion chamber but utilize a delayed transfer of pressure, for example from the main projectile chamber as illustrated in FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C . Thus an embodiment is as illustrated in FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C without the propellant 176 .
[0045] FIG. 15 illustrates a gas operated rifle, such as an AR-15, that has a magazine with telescoping cartridges and a suppressor. The combination may fire bullets with subsonic speed with lethal energy levels and still properly recycle the ejection and chambering mechanisms.
[0046] Apparatus and methods of operating gas operated rifles and cartridges, including telescoping cartridges are disclosed in the following patents and publications which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in there entireties: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,931,978; 6,178,889; 6,564,719; 6,625,916; 6,439,123; 5,677,505; 5,492,063; 5,359,937; 6,625,916; 7,278,358; 8,146,505; 7,225,741; 7,621,208; 7,984,668; U.S. Publ. Nos. 2010/0269724.
[0047] The above references in all sections of this application are herein incorporated by references in their entirety for all purposes.
[0048] All of the features disclosed in this specification (including the references incorporated by reference, including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.
[0049] Each feature disclosed in this specification (including references incorporated by reference, any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings) may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.
[0050] The invention is not restricted to the details of the foregoing embodiment (s). The invention extends to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any incorporated by reference references, any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so disclosed The above references in all sections of this application are herein incorporated by references in their entirety for all purposes.
[0051] Although specific examples have been illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose could be substituted for the specific examples shown. This application is intended to cover adaptations or variations of the present subject matter. Therefore, it is intended that the invention be defined by the attached claims and their legal equivalents, as well as the following illustrative aspects. The above described aspects embodiments of the invention are merely descriptive of its principles and are not to be considered limiting. Further modifications of the invention herein disclosed will occur to those skilled in the respective arts and all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the invention.
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A method of operating a gas operated automatic or semi-automatic weapon that has a bolt that locks by a partial rotation of the bolt with respect to a bolt carrier, the bolt carrier in communication with a gas port on the barrel of the weapon, the method comprising utilizing the gas pressure from a cartridge received from a port in the barrel to unlock the bolt, and utilizing the expansion of a telescoping cartridge in the chamber to recycle the weapon after the bolt is unlocked. In embodiments the cartridge is a 5.56 mm cartridge. In embodiments, the propellant driving the projectile does not provide enough gas pressure to recycle the weapon and the telescoping cartridge supplements the needed power for recycling sufficient to accomplish the recycling. The invention include the telescoping cartridge providing a projectile with lethal energy and recycle capability for gas operated rifles. The subsonic cartridge may have at least 80 ft lbs of energy and operates subsonically.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is a commercial, thermal enhanced oil recovery (“EOR”) process. The SAGD process uses saturated steam injected into a horizontal well, where latent heat is used to heat bitumen in the reservoir. The heating of the bitumen lowers its viscosity, so it drains by gravity to an underlying parallel, twin, horizontal well completed near the reservoir bottom.
[0002] Since the process inception in the early 1980's, SAGD has become the dominant, in situ process to recover bitumen from Alberta's bitumen deposits (Butler, R., “Thermal Recovery of Oil & Bitumen”, Prentice-Hall, 1991). Today's SAGD bitumen production in Alberta is about 300 Kbbl/d with installed capacity at about 475 Kbbl/d (Oilsands Review, 2010). SAGD is now the world's leading thermal EOR process.
[0003] FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART) shows the “traditional” SAGD geometry, using twin, parallel horizontal wells 2 , 4 drilled in the same vertical plane. There is a 5-metre spacing between the horizontal wells 2 , 4 , which are about 800 metres long with the lower well 1 to 2 metres above the (horizontal) reservoir floor. Circulating steam 6 in both wells starts the SAGD process. After communication is established, the upper well 2 is used to inject steam 6 , and the lower well 4 produces hot water and hot bitumen 8 . Fluid production is accomplished by natural lift, gas lift, or submersible pump.
[0004] After conversion to “normal” SAGD operations, a steam chamber 10 forms around the injection 2 and production wells 4 where the void space is occupied by steam 6 . Steam 6 condenses at the boundaries of the chamber 10 , releases latent heat (heat of condensation), and heats bitumen, connate water and the reservoir matrix. Heated bitumen and water 8 drain by gravity to the lower production well 4 . The steam chamber 10 grows upward and outward as bitumen is drained.
[0005] FIG. 2 (PRIOR ART) shows how SAGD matures. A “young” steam chamber 10 has bitumen drainage from steep chamber sides and from the chamber ceiling. When the chamber growth hits the top of the reservoir, ceiling drainage stops, bitumen productivity peaks, and the slope of the side walls decreases as lateral growth continues. Heat loss increases (and steam-to-oil ratio (“SOR”) increases) as ceiling contact and the “surface area” of the steam chamber increases. Drainage rates slow down as the side wall angle decreases. Eventually, the economic limit is reached, and the end-of-life drainage angle is small (10-20°).
[0006] Produced fluids are near saturated-steam temperature, so it is only the latent heat of steam that contributes to the process in the reservoir. But, some of the sensible heat can be captured from surface heat exchangers (a greater fraction at higher temperatures), so a useful rule-of-thumb for net heat contribution of steam is 1000 BTU/lb. for the P, T range of most SAGD projects ( FIG. 3 PRIOR ART).
[0007] The operational performance of SAGD can be characterized by measurement of the following parameters: 1) saturated steam P, T in the steam chamber ( FIG. 4 PRIOR ART); 2) bitumen productivity; 3) SOR, usually at the well head; 4) sub-cool target, the T difference between saturated steam and produced fluids; and 5) Water Recycle Ratio (“WRR”), the ratio of produced water to steam injected.
[0008] During the SAGD process, the SAGD operator has two choices to make: 1) the sub-cool target T difference and 2) the operating pressure in the reservoir. A typical sub-cool of about 10 to 30° C. is meant to ensure no live steam breaks through to the production well. Process pressure and temperature are linked ( FIG. 4 PRIOR ART) and relate mostly to bitumen productivity and process efficiency.
[0009] Bitumen viscosity is a strong function of temperature ( FIG. 5 ). SAGD productivity is proportional to the square root of the inverse viscosity ( FIG. 6 PRIOR ART) (Butler (1991)). Conversely if pressure (and T) is increased, the latent heat content of steam drops rapidly ( FIG. 3 ). More energy is used to heat the rock matrix and is lost to the overburden or other non-productive areas. So, increased pressure increases bitumen productivity but harms process efficiency (increases SOR). Because economic returns can be dominated by bitumen productivity, the SAGD operator usually opts to target operating pressures higher than native or hydrostatic reservoir pressures.
[0010] Despite becoming the dominant thermal EOR process, SAGD has some limitations and detractions. The requirements for a good SAGD project are:
a horizontal well completed near the bottom of the pay zone to effectively collect and produce hot draining fluids. the injected steam, at the sand face, has a high quality (latent heat drives the process). the process start up is effective and expedient. the steam chamber grows smoothly and is contained. the reservoir matrix is good quality (porosity (φ)>0.2); Initial Oil Saturation (SO io )>0.6; Vertical permeability (k v )>2D). net pay is sufficient (>15 metres). proper design and control must achieved to simultaneously; 1) prevent steam breakthrough to the production well and injector flooding; 2) stimulate steam chamber growth to productive zones; and 3) inhibit water inflows to the steam chamber. there must be absence of significant reservoir baffles or barriers.
[0019] If these conditions are not attained or other limitations are experienced, SAGD can be impaired, as follows:
[0020] (1) The preferred dominant production mechanism is gravity drainage, and the lower production well is horizontal. If the reservoir is slanted, a horizontal production well will strand significant resources.
[0021] (2) The SAGD steam-swept zone has significant residual bitumen content that is not recovered, particularly for heavier bitumens and low pressure steam ( FIG. 7 ). For example with a 20% residual bitumen (pore saturation) and a 70% initial saturation, the recovery factor is only 71%, not including stranded bitumen below the production well or in the wedge zone between recovery patterns.
[0022] (3) To contain a SAGD steam chamber, the oil in the reservoir must be relatively immobile. SAGD cannot work on heavy (or light) oils with some mobility at reservoir conditions. Bitumen is the preferred target.
[0023] (4) Saturated steam cannot vaporize connate water. By definition, the heat energy in saturated steam is not high enough quality (temperature) to vaporize water. Field experience also shows that heated connate water is not usually mobilized sufficiently to be produced in SAGD. Produced Water-to-Oil Ratio (“PWOR”) is similar to SOR. This makes it difficult for SAGD to breach or utilize lean zone resources.
[0024] (5) The existence of an active water zone—either top water, bottom water or an interspersed lean zone within the pay zone—can cause operational difficulties or project failures for SAGD (Nexen Inc., “Second Quarter Results”, Aug. 4, 2011) (Vanderklippe, N., “Long Lake Project Hits Sticky Patch”, CTV News, 2011). Simulation studies concluded that increasing production well standoff distances can optimize SAGD performance with active bottom waters, including good pressure control to minimize water influx (Akram, F., “Reservoir Simulation Optimizes SAGD, American Oil and Gas Reporter, September 2010).
[0025] (6) Pressure targets cannot (always) be increased to improve SAGD productivity and SAGD economics. If the reservoir is “leaky”, as pressure is increased beyond native or hydrostatic pressures, the SAGD process can lose water or steam to zones outside the SAGD steam chamber. If fluids are lost, the Water Recycle Ratio (WRR) decreases, and the process requires significant water make-up volumes. If steam is also lost, process efficiency drops and SOR increases. Ultimately, if pressures are too high, if the reservoir is shallow, and if the high pressure is retained for too long, a surface breakthrough of steam, sand, and water can occur (Roche, P., “Beyond Steam”, New Tech. Mag., September 2011).
[0026] (7) Steam costs are considerable. If steam “costs” are over-the-fence for a utility including capital charges and some profits, the costs for high-quality steam at the sand face is about $10 to 15/MMBTU. High steam costs can reflect on resource quality limits and on ultimate recovery factors.
[0027] (8) Water use is significant. Assuming SOR=3, WRR=1, and a 90% yield of produced water treatment (i.e. recycle), a typical SAGD water use is 0.3 barrels (bbls) of make-up water per barrel (bbl) of bitumen produced.
[0028] (9) SAGD process efficiency is poor, and CO 2 emissions are significant. If SAGD efficiency is defined as [(bitumen energy)−(surface energy used)]/(bitumen energy), where 1) bitumen energy=6 MMBTU/bbl; 2) energy used at sand face=1 MMBTU/bbl bitumen (SOR˜3); 3) steam is produced in a gas-fired boiler at 85% efficiency; 4) there are heat losses of 10% each in distribution to the well head and delivery from the well head to the sand face; 5) usable steam energy is 1000 BTU/lb ( FIG. 3 PRIOR ART); and 6) boiler fuel is methane at 1000 BTU/SCF, then the SAGD process efficiency=75.5% and CO 2 emissions=0.077 tonnes/bbl bitumen.
[0029] (10) Practical steam distribution distance is limited to about 10 to 15 km (6 to 9 miles), due to heat losses, pressure losses, and the cost of insulated distribution steam pipes (Finan, A., “Integration of Nuclear Power . . . ”, MIT thesis, June 2007), (Energy Alberta Corp., “Nuclear Energy . . . ”, Canada Heavy Oil Association, pres., Nov. 2, 2006).
[0030] (11) Lastly, there is a natural hydraulic limit that restricts well lengths or well diameters and can override pressure targets for SAGD operations. FIG. 8 shows what can and has happened. In SAGD, a steam/liquid interface 12 is formed. For a good SAGD operation with sub-cool control, the interface is between the injector 2 and producer wells 4 . The interface is tilted because of the pressure drop in the production well 4 due to fluid flow. There is little/no pressure differential in the steam/gas chamber. If the fluid production rates are too high (or if the production well is too small), the interface can be tilted so that the toe 14 of the steam injector is flooded and/or the heel 16 of the producer is exposed to steam 6 breakthrough ( FIG. 8 ). This limitation can occur when the pressure drop in the production well 4 exceeds the hydrostatic head between steam injector 2 and fluid producer 4 (about 8 psi (50 kPa) for a 5 metre spacing).
[0031] In some cases, for deeper bitumen reservoirs, SAGD has the following issues:
[0032] (1) Hydrostatic and native reservoir pressures increase. The critical pressure for water/steam is 218 atm (3208 psia, 22 MPa (Table 3)). This corresponds (at 0.5 psi/ft hydrostatic gradient) to a hydrostatic depth of about 6416 feet or 1955 metres. Beyond this depth, a steam EOR process, at hydrostatic pressure, would need to use supercritical steam ( FIGS. 3, 9 ).
[0033] (2) Because SAGD produced fluids, including water, are near saturated steam temperature, the SAGD process operates by delivering (net) latent heat to the reservoir. FIG. 9 shows steam latent and sensible heat content as a function of reservoir depth, assuming that SAGD operates with saturated steam pressures equal to hydrostatic reservoir pressures. FIG. 9 shows how SAGD becomes inefficient as depth increases. For example, if 1 MMBTU of latent heat per barrel of bitumen produced needs to be delivered, at 300 metres reservoir depth 1325 lbs. of steam is needed, while at 1500 metres in depth, 2778 lbs. of steam (a factor or more than two) is needed.
[0034] (3) Not only is more steam required as depth increases, but as pressure increases, the cost of steam generation and water treatment increases significantly (Smith (2005)).
[0035] (4) Heat losses in the vertical well bore section of the wells also increase significantly for two reasons—1) the pipe length and residence time of steam is increased and 2) steam temperature is increased. Vertical well bore heat losses can be a strong function of steam temperature (Radiation losses are proportional to T 4 ).
[0036] (5) Capital expense (“Capex”) increases because the wells are longer, unit steam demand is increased, and steam/water capex increases with pressure.
[0037] (6) Operating expense (“Opex”) increases because SAGD efficiency drops, heat losses increase, and steam/water opex increases with pressure.
[0038] Other steam EOR processes (e.g. ISC SF, CSS . . . ) that don't rely totally on latent heat transfer can still work in reservoirs of increasing depth. But heat transfer via conduction and bitumen flow by flooding is slower and/or less efficient than steam condensation and/or gravity drainage.
[0039] For deep (>500 metres) heavy oil or bitumen resources where thermal EOR is the preferred recovery process and steam EOR is the perceived preferred process choice, heat losses from steam injection tubing have been a serious, long-time issue. The issue is complex with the following highlights:
(1) The traditional steam injection geometry is the use of centralized tubing to inject steam into the reservoir. Injection down the annulus has significantly higher heat losses. Heat losses from the tubing to the annular fluid to the casing and through the casing to the overburden can be significant. Heat losses can amount to over 20% for steady-state design conditions and much worse for non-design operations such as start-up (Herrera, J. O. et al, “Wellbore Heat Losses in Deep Steam Injection Wells,” The Society of Petroleum Engineers Regional Mtg., Apr. 12, 1978), (2) Prior to start-up, for a simple completion without a packer, the annulus contains water. If saturated steam is injected, some steam condenses to provide for heat losses. But, as long as some steam survives at bottom hole, the saturated steam temperature remains constant. Currently there is no down hole instrument that can measure steam quality, so the operator cannot determine heat loss by simple down hole measurements (Satter, A. “Heat Losses during Flow of Steam Down a Wellbore,” The Journal of Petroleum Technology, July 1965). Water in the annulus is vaporized (contributing to slow start-up), so that most of the annulus will be filled with steam. (3) Heat transfer for heat loss in this simple system is due to conduction, convection, and radiation from the outside of the steam tubular to the casing wall. Considering these mechanisms, early analysis showed that heat losses were dominated by radiation (Huygen, H. A. et al. “Wellbore Heat Losses and Leasing Temperatures during Steam Injection,” APRI meeting April 1966). Since radiative losses are proportional to surface area, larger sized steam tubing increases heat losses. Also at lower steam flows, fractional heat losses increase because of increased residence times. Radiation is a strong function of temperature (˜T 4 ), so heat losses also increase with increased steam temperature and pressure. (4) A simple solution to reduce heat losses was to paint the outside of the steam tubular with a low emissivity paint, such as aluminum paint (Huygen (1966)) (Pacheco, E. F et al. “Wellbore Heat Losses and Pressure Drop in Steam Injection,” The Journal of Petroleum Technology Feb. 12, 1972). (5) This can reduce radiative heat losses by about a factor of two, but, unless the paint is applied in situ, it can easily be scraped off during installation and reduce the effectiveness considerably (Huygen (1966)) (Pacheco (1972)). (6) Another way to reduce heat losses is to place a thermal packer downhole to isolate the annulus and steam tubulars. The packer can prevent steam from entering the annulus. Packers are best for cyclic steam processes (CSS) where the packer can reduce casing temperature increases and reduce the chance of casing failure. But, thermal packers are expensive and are known to leak (Satter, A. “Heat Losses During Flow of Steam Down a Wellbore,” Journal of Petroleum Technology July 1965) (Willhite, G. P. et al. “Wellbore Refluxing in Steam Injection Wells,” The Journal of Petroleum Technology March 1987). (7) The simplest and most direct way to reduce heat losses is to insulate steam tubulars on the outside, reducing conduction losses and radiation heat losses. It has been shown that insulation can reduce heat losses by about ⅔ considering simple conduction, convection, and radiation mechanisms (Huygen (1966)). However, insulation is expensive. It may be difficult to install. Also, it can be ineffective if it is wet. (8) So far, heat losses due to steam reflux in the annulus have been ignored, although this mechanism has been shown to be important (Willhite (1987)) (Satter (1964)). If steam is in the annulus, it can condense on casing walls, thus releasing latent heat as well as running downward by gravity until it finds a hot spot where it is re-vaporized. Hot spots can be uninsulated (or poorly insulated) gaps, couplings, and collars (etc.) in contact with the steam tubular. This reflux mechanism can cause heat losses three to six times higher than anticipated if only conduction, convection, and radiation are considered (Willhite (1987)). (9) A potential solution to reduce reflux heat losses is to install a packer to isolate steam tubulars from the annulus and to fill the annulus with a (pressurized) gas (e.g. nitrogen) that has low heat conductivity. The purpose of the gas is to have a lower heat transfer than steam and to keep steam out of the annulus. But, packers have some leakage, and field experience shows that the annulus did not dry out for such systems. Water continued to reflux in the annulus (Willhite (1987)). (10) A potential further solution is to continuously inject inert gas (e.g. nitrogen) into the annulus, with or without a packer or insulated tubing, to dry out the annulus. This can minimize annular water reflux heat losses and dry out insulation (if used).
[0050] Carbon dioxide (“CO 2 ”) is the primary non-condensable gas product of in situ combustion (excluding inert N 2 in air). CO 2 is partially soluble in reservoir fluids (oil and water). Deep heavy oil reservoirs have higher native pressures than shallow resources. For example, a 2000-metre deep reservoir has a hydrostatic pressure of about 3280 psi (22.5 MPa), while a 200-metre deep reservoir has a hydrostatic pressure of only 328 psi (2.3 MPa).
[0051] CO 2 solubility in reservoir fluids is not an important issue for shallow resources. But, increased pressure can significantly increase the impact of dissolved gases on thermal EOR processes. Solubility behaviour is not necessarily intuitive for dissolution into water. The normal expectation is that gas solubility in fluids (e.g. water) drops as temperature increase ( FIGS. 10, 11, 12 ), based on the “soda-pop” visualization of gas dissolution in water. However, even at fixed pressures, as temperature is increased beyond about 200° F. (i.e. near the boiling point of water), gas solubility can increase substantially ( FIG. 13 ). If pressures are also increased to follow the saturated pressure curve of water, gas solubility can increase even more with temperature.
[0052] FIGS. 10, 11, and 12 show that CO 2 is much more soluble in water than other gases by a factor of about 25 compared to methane. FIG. 14 shows that for elevated pressures and temperatures (above about 3000 psia or 20.5 MPa), CO 2 solubility in water is expected to be more than 160 SCF/bbl (Lake, L. W. “Enhanced Oil Recovery,” Prenctice Hall 1989). For deep thermal EOR processes involving CO 2 production, dissolution of CO 2 in water can be a significant sink.
[0053] CO 2 is also soluble in oil and dissolved CO 2 can significantly reduce oil viscosity to improve oil mobility. FIGS. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 shows that CO 2 solubility in oils (including heavy oils) is expected to be about double the solubility in water (Issever, K. et al. “Use of CO 2 to Enhance Heavy Oil Recovery,” No. 1998. 14.1, 1998), (Bennion, D. B. et al “The Use of CO 2 as EOR Agent for Heavy Oil,” Joint Canadian Romania Heavy Oil Symposium, March 1993), (Lake (1989)). Again, for deep thermal EOR processes involving CO 2 production, dissolution of CO 2 in oil can be a significant sink for CO 2 ( FIG. 20 ).
[0054] As discussed above, CO 2 dissolved in oil has the added benefit of reducing oil viscosity ( FIG. 21 ). However, in order to get reasonable bitumen productivity, in situ viscosity has to be dropped to about 20 cp or about 5 orders of magnitude for the bitumen shown in FIG. 5 (Nexen (2011)). By itself, CO 2 dissolution can reduce bitumen or heavy oil viscosity by about one order of magnitude ( FIG. 17 ).
[0055] FIG. 16 shows that the saturate (paraffinic) fractions of oil are more effective dissolving CO 2 , so one would expect that paraffinic crudes would have the highest CO 2 solubility (Marufuzzanan, M. “Solubility and Diffusivity of Carbon Dioxide, Ethane, and Propane in Heavy Oil” University of Regina, M.A.Sc. Thesis November 2010).
[0056] FIG. 21 shows the combined effects of heat and CO 2 dissolution to reduce bitumen viscosity (Bennion (1993)). As temperature is increased, CO 2 solubility is decreased, so that viscosity reductions due to CO 2 decrease.
[0057] The combination of CO 2 +steam for thermal EOR has also been evaluated using simulation models for CSS EOR (Balog (1982)). A mixture of 7% (v/v) CO 2 in steam was injected in a CSS process using a simulator and a Cold Lake Alberta reservoir. Compared to steam alone, the CO 2 increment increased bitumen productivity by 35%, and after 3 cumulative cycles, bitumen production increased by over 50%. Further, reservoir CO 2 inventory was established equal to about 2 MSCF/bbl bitumen produced. The inventory could either be blown down at project end or sequestered. ( FIGS. 20 and 22 ). Reservoir pressure was about 1200 psi.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0058] The current invention involves application and simplification of the SAGDOX process applied to deep, high-pressure bitumen reservoirs. Shallow (<500 metres) average depth reservoirs employing SAGDOX processes require separate removal of non-condensable combustion gases (mostly CO 2 ) using vent gas wells or segregated vent gas sites. But, for deep reservoirs, preferably having a depth average greater than about 500 metres in depth from surface level, the non-condensable vent gas generated by the SAGDOX process may be left to dissolve in the reservoir or production fluids, so that separate (non-condensable) gas removal is not necessary. In addition, CO 2 dissolution in bitumen can reduce viscosity and increase bitumen productivity.
[0059] According to one aspect, there is provided a process to recover hydrocarbons, from a hydrocarbon reservoir having a bottom, using a substantially horizontal production well, preferably said substantially horizontal production well has a toe and a heel, said process comprising:
(1) injecting oxygen into said hydrocarbon reservoir, said horizontal production well having at least one perforation zone, for contact with said reservoir;
[0061] (2) injecting steam into said hydrocarbon reservoir;
[0062] said oxygen producing in situ heat and in situ carbon dioxide by combustion and said steam producing in situ heat by conduction and condensation; said in situ carbon dioxide dissolving into the liquid hydrocarbon, lowering its viscosity;
[0063] (3) recovering said reservoir liquid hydrocarbon using said substantially horizontal production well; and
[0064] (4) optionally conveying said recovered liquid hydrocarbon to the surface; wherein said process is absent a removal step of any non-condensable gas from said reservoir.
[0065] In one embodiment, said hydrocarbon reservoir comprises at least one characteristic selected from the group consisting of:
[0066] i) an average depth greater than about 500 metres;
[0067] ii) an average pressure greater than about 800 psia, and combinations thereof.
[0068] According to another aspect, there is provided a process to recover liquid hydrocarbons, from a hydrocarbon reservoir, using a horizontal production well, wherein:
(1) the horizontal production well is used to produce water and liquid hydrocarbons and is completed within 2 metres of the reservoir bottom; (2) oxygen gas is injected into the hydrocarbon reservoir within 50 metres from the horizontal production well and with a perforation (reservoir contact) zone less than 50 metres in length; (3) steam is injected within 20 metres from the horizontal production well; (4) the oxygen gas produces in situ heat and in situ carbon dioxide by combustion and steam produces in situ heat by conduction and by condensation; (5) carbon dioxide dissolves into the reservoir hydrocarbon, lowering its viscosity; (6) in situ heat causes the liquid hydrocarbon to be heated, also lowering its viscosity; (7) the lower-viscosity reservoir liquid hydrocarbon drains by gravity to the horizontal production well where it is conveyed (or pumped) to the surface; and (8) the process pressure (in the reservoir) is greater than 800 psia.
[0077] In one embodiment, the oxygen to steam injected is controlled so that produced water to oil (v/v liquid) has a ratio greater than 0.5, preferably the ratio of produced water to oil (v/v liquid) is between 0.5 and 2.0.
[0078] In another embodiment, the hydrocarbon reservoir is positioned at least 500 metres below the ground surface.
[0079] In another embodiment, said steam is injected within 10 metres from the horizontal well, preferably said steam is injected using a parallel horizontal well in the same vertical plane as the horizontal production well and located about 3 metres to 8 metres above the well, more preferably said steam is injected into the reservoir using at least one substantially vertical well selected from the group consisting of a single well or a plurality of substantially vertical wells.
[0080] In one embodiment, said oxygen is injected into the reservoir using at least one well selected from the group consisting of a single substantially vertical well or a plurality of substantially vertical wells.
[0081] In one embodiment, said steam and oxygen are comingled on the surface and injected into the reservoir.
[0082] In another embodiment, said steam and oxygen are segregated, preferably using packers, and injected separately into the reservoir, preferably said steam and oxygen are segregated using concentric tubing and packers with steam in a central tubing of said concentric tubing surrounded by oxygen in an adjacent annulus and said oxygen is injected at a higher elevation of said steam injected into the reservoir.
[0083] In yet another embodiment, said steam and oxygen are injected into said reservoir using a single substantially vertical well, wherein said single substantially vertical well is completed within 50 metres from the toe of the horizontal production well.
[0084] According to one of the embodiments of the invention the pressures of the process are sufficient so that substantially no free CO 2 is produced in the liquid production well. More preferably, the operating in situ pressure and the ratio of oxygen/steam (v/v) are adjusted so there is substantially no free CO 2 gas found in the horizontal section of the horizontal production well.
[0085] These and other benefits of the invention will be apparent from the review of the illustrations, descriptions and the claims of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0086] FIG. 1 illustrates the “traditional” SAGD geometry.
[0087] FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the SAGD life cycle.
[0088] FIG. 3 illustrates the properties of saturated steam.
[0089] FIG. 4 illustrates saturated steam conditions.
[0090] FIG. 5 illustrates bitumen viscosity vs. temperature.
[0091] FIG. 6 shows the equation for SAGD bitumen productivity.
[0092] FIG. 7 depicts residual bitumen in the steam swept zone.
[0093] FIG. 8 schematically illustrates the hydraulic limitations of the SAGD Process.
[0094] FIG. 9 illustrates the properties of saturated steam.
[0095] FIG. 10 illustrates Carbon monoxide solubility in water at different temperatures.
[0096] FIG. 11 illustrates Methane solubility in water at different temperatures.
[0097] FIG. 12 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility in water at different temperatures.
[0098] FIG. 13 illustrates Nitrogen solubility in water at different temperatures.
[0099] FIG. 14 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility in water at different pressures.
[0100] FIG. 15 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility in bitumen at different pressures.
[0101] FIG. 16 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility in heavy oil at different pressures.
[0102] FIG. 17 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility and viscosity reduction.
[0103] FIG. 18 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility in bitumen.
[0104] FIG. 19 illustrates Carbon dioxide solubility in oil.
[0105] FIG. 20 illustrates CSS retention of Carbon dioxide.
[0106] FIG. 21 illustrates bitumen viscosity dependent on Carbon dioxide.
[0107] FIG. 22 illustrates CSS using steam and Carbon dioxide.
[0108] FIG. 23 illustrates In Situ combustion minimum air flux rates.
[0109] FIG. 24 depicts SAGDOX mechanisms.
[0110] FIG. 25A ,B,C depicts SWSAGDOX piping schemes using centralized packers.
[0111] FIG. 26 illustrates the connection of Oxygen requirements on peak temperature.
[0112] FIG. 27 illustrates correlation between Oxygen Pressure and Carbon gas content.
[0113] FIG. 28 illustrates a preferred SAGDOX geometry.
[0114] FIG. 29 illustrates a preferred SAGDOX geometry.
[0115] FIG. 30 illustrates the basic geometry of a SAGDOX process.
[0116] FIG. 31 illustrates the basic geometry of a SAGDOX process with packers.
[0117] FIG. 32 illustrates a preferred geometry of a SAGDOX process with packers on the injection and production wells.
[0118] FIG. 33 illustrates a first preferred embodiment of the Deep well SAGDOX geometry with packers on the injector well.
[0119] FIG. 34 illustrates a second preferred embodiment of the Deep well SAGDOX geometry.
[0120] FIG. 35 illustrates a combustion heat release chart.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0121] SAGDOX is an improved thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process for bitumen recovery. The process can use geometry similar to SAGD ( FIG. 31 ), but it also has versions with separate vertical wells or segregated sites for oxygen injection and/or non-condensable vent gas removal ( FIGS. 28, 29, 30, and 32 ). The process can be considered as a hybrid SAGD+ISC process.
[0122] One objective of SAGDOX is to reduce reservoir energy injection costs, while maintaining good efficiency and productivity. Oxygen combustion produces in situ heat at a rate of about 480 BTU/SCF oxygen, independent of fuel combusted ( FIG. 35 Butler (1991)). Combustion temperatures are independent of pressure and they are higher than saturated steam temperatures ( FIGS. 3, 26 ). The higher temperature from combustion vaporizes connate water and refluxes some steam. Steam delivers EOR energy from latent heat released by condensation with a net value, including surface heat recovery of about 1000 BTU/lb. ( FIG. 3 ).
[0123] Table 1 presents thermal properties of steam+oxygen mixtures. Per unit heat delivered to the reservoir, oxygen volumes are ten times less than steam, and oxygen costs including capital charges are one half to one third the cost of steam.
[0124] The recovery mechanisms are more complex for SAGDOX than for SAGD. The combustion zone is contained within the steam-swept zone 170 . Residual bitumen, in the steam-swept zone 170 , is heated, fractionated and pyrolyzed by hot combustion gases to produce coke that is the actual fuel for combustion. A gas chamber is formed containing steam combustion gases, vaporized connate water, and other gases ( FIG. 24 ). The large gas chamber can be subdivided into a combustion-swept zone 100 , a combustion-zone, a pyrolysis zone 120 , a hot bitumen bank 130 , a superheated steam zone 140 and a saturated steam zone 50 ( FIG. 24 ). Condensed steam drains from the saturated steam zone 150 and from the ceiling and walls of the gas chamber. Hot bitumen drains from the ceiling and walls of the chamber and from the hot bitumen zone 130 at the edge of the combustion front 110 ( FIG. 24 ). Condensed water and hot bitumen 8 are collected by the lower horizontal well 4 and conveyed (or pumped) to the surface ( FIG. 30 ).
[0125] Combustion non-condensable gases are collected and removed by vent gas 22 wells or at segregated vent gas sites ( FIGS. 29, 30, 31, 32 ). Process pressures can be controlled (partially) by vent gas 22 production, independent of fluid production rates. Vent gas 22 production can also be used to influence direction and rate of gas chamber growth.
[0126] Because SAGDOX delivers both steam and oxygen energy and oxygen gas has 10 times the energy density as steam (Table 1), pipe/tubing sizes for SAGDOX can be smaller (and less costly) than SAGD or other steam EOR processes. This can also reflect on production well sizes because reduced steam injection (with SAGDOX) results in less water production compared to SAGD.
[0127] Table 5 shows calculated pipe diameters for various SAGD and SAGDOX streams. Design criteria are presented in the table. When fluids use concentric pipe systems and annular flow, the total size of the combined pipe is indicated by brackets.
[0128] Often pipe costs are proportional to the diameter of the pipe. The total of pipe diameters can also be proportional to total costs. Table 5 shows total pipe diameters can be reduced by using SAGDOX and related processes.
[0129] Cumulative SAGDOX pipe diameters are 82% of SAGD for the case studied (35% oxygen in gas mix). THSAGDOX cumulative pipe diameters are 59% of SAGD, and SWSAGDOX cumulative diameter is only 42% of SAGD
[0130] Preferred parameters in SAGDOX geometries include:
[0131] (1) Use Oxygen (Rather than Air) as the Oxidant Injected
If the cost of treating vent gas to remove sulphur components and to recover volatile hydrocarbons is factored in, even at low pressures the all-in cost of oxygen is less than the cost of compressed air, per unit energy delivered to the reservoir. Oxygen occupies about one fifth the volume compared to air for the same energy delivery. Well pipes/tubing is smaller and oxygen can be transported further distances from a central plant site. In situ combustion (ISC) using oxygen produces mostly non-condensable CO 2 , undiluted with nitrogen. CO 2 can dissolve in bitumen to improve productivity. Dissolution is maximized using oxygen. Vent gas, using oxygen, is mostly CO 2 and may be used for sequestration. There is a minimum oxygen flux to sustain HTO combustion ( FIG. 23 ) It is easier to attain/sustain this flux using oxygen
[0138] (2) Keep Oxygen Injection at a Concentrated Site
Because of the minimum O 2 flux constraint from in situ combustion ( FIG. 23 ), the oxygen injection well (or a segregated section) should have no more than 50 metres of contact with the reservoir
[0140] (3) Segregate Oxygen and Steam Injectants, as Much as Possible
Condensed steam (hot water) and oxygen are very corrosive to carbon steel. To minimize corrosion, either 1) oxygen 26 and steam 6 are injected separately ( FIGS. 30, 31, and 32 ) 25 ); 2) comingled steam 6 and oxygen 26 have limited exposure to a section of pipe that can be a corrosion resistant alloy; 3) the section integrity is not critical to the process ( FIG. 25( a ) ); or 4) the entire injection string is a corrosion resistant alloy ( FIG. 25( a ) ).
[0143] (4) The Vent Gas Well (or Site) is Near the Top of the Reservoir, Far from the Oxygen Injection Site
Because of steam movement and condensation, non-condensable gas concentrates near the top of the gas chamber. The vent gas well should be far from the oxygen injector to allow time/space for combustion.
[0146] (5) Vent Gas Should not be Produced with Significant Oxygen Content
To mitigate explosions and to foster good oxygen utilization, any vent gas production with oxygen content greater than 5% (v/v) should be shut in.
[0148] (6) Attain/Retain a Minimum Amount of Steam in the Reservoir
Steam is added/injected with oxygen in SAGDOX because steam helps combustion. It preheats the reservoir so ignition, for HTO, can be spontaneous. It adds OH − and H + radicals the combustion zone to improve and stabilize combustion ( FIGS. 26 and 27 , Moore (1994)). This is also confirmed by the operation of smokeless flares, where steam is added to improve combustion and reduce smoke (Stone (2012), EPA (2012), Shore (1996)). The process to gasify fuel also adds steam to the partial combustor to minimize soot production (Berkowitz (1997)). Steam also condenses and produces water that “covers” the horizontal production well and isolates it from gas or steam intrusion. Steam condensate adds water to the production well to improve flow performance—water/bitumen emulsions—compared to bitumen alone. Steam is also a superior heat transfer agent in the reservoir. When one compares hot combustion gases (mostly CO 2 ) to steam, the heat transfer advantages of steam are evident. For example, if one has a hot gas chamber at about 200° C. at the edges, the heat available from cooling combustion gases from 500° C. to 200° C. is about 16 BTU/SCF. The same volume of saturated steam contains 39 BTU/SCF of latent heat—more than twice the energy content of combustion gases. In addition, when hot combustion gases cool, they become effective insulators impeding further heat transfer. When steam condenses to deliver latent heat, it creates a transient low-pressure that draws in more steam—a heat pump, without the plumbing. The kinetics also favour steam/water. The heat conductivity of combustion gas is about 0.31 (mW/cmK) compared to the heat conductivity of water of about 6.8 (mW/cmK)—a factor of 20 higher. As a result of these factors, combustion (without steam) has issues of slow heat transfer and poor lateral growth. These issues may be mitigated by steam injection. Since one can't measure the amount of steam in the reservoir, SAGDOX sets a steam minimum by a maximum oxygen/steam (v/v) ratio of 1.0 or alternately 50% (v/v) oxygen in the steam and oxygen mix.
[0154] (7) Attain (or Exceed) a Minimum Oxygen Injection
Below about 5% (v/v) oxygen in the steam and oxygen mix, the combustion swept zone is small and the cost advantages of oxygen are minimal. At this level, only about a third of the energy injected is due to combustion.
[0156] (8) Maximum Oxygen Injection
Within the constraints of (6) and (7) above, because per unit energy oxygen is less costly than steam, the lowest-cost option to produce bitumen is to maximize oxygen/steam ratios.
[0158] (9) Use Preferred SAGDOX Geometries
Depending on the individual application, reservoir matrix properties, reservoir fluid properties, depth, net pay, pressure and location factors, there are three preferred geometries for SAGDOX ( FIG. 28 a - c ). FIGS. 28 b (THSAGDOX) and 28 c (SWSAGDOX) are most preferred for thinner pay resources, with only one horizontal well required. Compared to SAGD, THSAGDOX and SWSAGDOX have a reduced well count and lower drilling costs. Also, internal tubulars and packers should be usable for multiple applications.
[0161] (10) Control/Operate SAGDOX By:
Sub-cool control on fluid production rates where produced fluid temperature is compared to saturated steam temperature at reservoir pressure. This assumes that gases, immediately above the liquid/gas interface, are predominantly steam. Adjust oxygen/steam ratios (v/v) to meet a target ratio, subject to a range limit of 0.05 to 1.00. Adjust vent gas removal rates so that the gases are predominantly non-condensable gases, oxygen content is less than 5.0% (v/v), and to attain/maintain pressure targets. Adjust steam and oxygen injection rates (subject to (ii) above), along with (iii) above, to attain/maintain pressure targets.
[0166] Preferred parameters in SAGDOX for deep reservoirs include the following:
[0167] 1. Increased Pressures
[0168] For shallow reservoirs, because of the risk of fluid losses and the risk of surface blowouts, thermal EOR processes operate close to native reservoir pressures (Roche (2011). As reservoirs become deeper, there is less risk of surface blowouts, but fluid losses can still be an issue.
[0169] At a 0.5 psi/ft hydrostatic gradient, shallow reservoirs (200-300 m depth) have hydrostatic pressures of 330 to 490 psia (2.5 to 3.4 MPa). For deep reservoirs (500-2000 metres), hydrostatic pressures are much higher (820 to 3280 psia, 5.6 to 22.5 MPa).
[0170] If saturated steam is used (or is a component) and latent heat delivery is important (i.e. SAGD), there is an efficiency loss as pressure is increased ( FIG. 9 ). For a pure steam process (i.e. SAGD), if 1 MMBTU of latent heat is needed, at 300 metres depth 1325 lbs. of steam is needed, while at 1500 metres depth 2778 lbs. steam is needed—a factor of more than two.
[0171] For SAGDOX, a mixture of steam 6 and oxygen 26 gas is injected ( FIG. 29 ), or the mixture forms quickly in the reservoir ( FIGS. 30, 31, 32 ). Post-combustion steam is diluted by a similar volume of CO 2 . This has the immediate effect of reducing the partial pressure of steam in the reservoir and increasing the latent heat content of the steam fraction, so it can be a better heat transfer fluid using latent heat. This effect is partially mitigated because combustion will reflux some steam. Even in deep reservoirs, combustion temperature at 550° C. ( FIG. 26 ) is significantly higher than steam (<370° C.).
[0172] 2. CO 2 EOR
[0173] Carbon dioxide is produced as a result of in situ combustion. If oxygen gas is used, CO 2 /O 2 ratios varying from about 0.85 to 0.96 are expected, depending on the fuel consumed and the reaction stoichiometry (Table 4). Some carbon monoxide may form, but it is likely to be converted to CO 2 in the reservoir ( FIG. 10 ).
[0174] CO 2 will dissolve into bitumen to reduce its viscosity and increase bitumen productivity. By itself at high pressures (2000 psia), CO 2 can reduce bitumen (heavy oil) viscosity by about an order of magnitude ( FIG. 17 ). If CO 2 dissolution is combined with heat, it can still contribute to bitumen viscosity reduction, particularly in the periphery of the reservoir where heat has not fully penetrated ( FIG. 21 ).
[0175] 3. Carbon Dioxide (Retention)
[0176] High operating pressures can drive gases (non-condensable gases) into solution in reservoir fluids (bitumen and water). Let's assume we use 1 MMBTU of combustion energy per bbl bitumen produced. Per MMBTU of combustion energy injected into the reservoir, 2083 SCF of oxygen is injected, and 1910 SCF CO 2 (in the worst case assuming a fuel consumed as CH 0.5 (Table 4)) is produced. If assume that produced fluids have a WOR=1.5 with some steam injection and some connate water production, CO 2 solubility in produced hot water is expected to be about 160 SCF/bbl hot water ( FIG. 14 , at ˜4000 psi.) (27 MPa), and CO 2 solubility in produced bitumen is expected to be about 200 SCF/bbl or more ( FIGS. 15, 17 ). So, 1910 SCF CO 2 for 1 MMBTU of combustion energy is produced, and our produced fluids can remove about 440 SCF CO 2 . This leaves 1470 SCF CO 2 that either resides in the gas chamber in the reservoir, or more likely dissolves in remaining reservoir fluids that are on the periphery of the gas chamber. FIG. 20 shows a CO 2 gas retention in the reservoir of about 1500 SCF/bbl bitumen produced (or more) for a lower pressure (˜2000 psia) process.
[0177] Based on the above example, no free CO 2 gas will be produced in the horizontal section of the production well. If free CO 2 gas is produced and if it is deemed harmful to the process, gas production can be reduced/eliminated by increasing SAGDOX reservoir pressures or by reducing O 2 /steam ratios, eliminating the need for infrastructure venting non-condensable gases, in particular for venting CO 2 gas.
[0178] 4. Heat Losses
[0179] As depth increases and saturated steam temperatures increase, heat losses from the vertical well sections to the overburden increase. As previously discussed, the optimum design to minimize heat losses, in this section, is to insulate the central steam injector with an annulus of continuously injected gas. For SAGDOX, this gas is oxygen, and the preferred designs are shown in FIGS. 29 and 32 .
[0180] 5. Carbon Monoxide
[0181] The combustion of in situ residual hydrocarbons and oxygen can produce a mixture of CO 2 and CO non-condensable gases (Table 4). Combustion tests ( FIG. 27 ) show that CO can be produced in the combustion zone. Based on Le Chatelier's Principle, increased pressures should reduce CO formation, assuming some of the reaction steps are reversible. Also, in a reservoir (not a lab combustion tube), there is sufficient residence time and excess of steam (i.e. in SAGDOX) so that water-gas-shift reactions (CO+H 2 O→CO 2 +H 2 ) can occur, removing CO from the produced non-condensable gas mixture. Any hydrogen produced can then dissolve in bitumen and react with some components, so that for ISC projects CO is rarely seen in produced gases, and H 2 is even more rarely seen (Sarathi (1999)).
[0182] Nonetheless, the worst case CO production is about 140 SCF/MMBTU (Table 4). Assume CO solubility in water is similar to N 2 ( FIG. 13 ) and Henry's law applies, at 600° F. (316° C.) and 2000 psia (13.7 MPa) the hot water solubility of CO in water is about 58 SCF/bbl water. As a worse case, assume cold-water solubility to be similar. So if 140 SCF of CO needs to be removed, 2.4 bbls of water needs to be contacted and saturated. This limit can be extended by changing Oxygen/steam ratios or by increasing system pressures.
[0183] In any case, undissolved CO should either be controllable or should not build up to levels that inhibit injectivity.
[0184] 6. Deep SAGDOX Geometry
[0185] Because CO 2 need not be removed using separate vent wells or a segregated well section, the preferred geometry for deep SAGDOX processes can be simplified to three preferred cases:
the basic SAGDOX process with twin horizontal wells 2 , 4 can be simplified by removing the vent gas 22 annulus in FIG. 31 . similarly, the THSAGDOX version is also simplified as shown in FIG. 33 the SWSAGDOX version is also simplified as shown in FIG. 34 .
[0189] Some of the differences between the prior art SAGDOX and the SAGDOX for deep reservoirs include:
SAGDOX has at least one vent gas well to remove non-condensable combustion gases; SAGDOX for deep reservoirs does not require same; The target is deep, high pressure reservoirs (>500 m average depth or >800 psia average pressure); and Non-condensable gas, preferably CO 2 is dissolved in bitumen; SAGDOX prefers venting of said gas.
[0193] Even further, SAGDOX for deep reservoirs allows for the following:
no vent wells required to remove non-condensable combustion gases; pressure and oxygen/steam ratios can be adjusted, allowing for CO 2 being substantially dissolved in reservoir fluids hydrocarbon recovery from deep reservoirs (>500 m average depth from surface) hydrocarbon recovery from reservoirs with average pressure (>800 psia) use of oxygen gas to insulate steam injector two examples of preferred geometries as illustrated in FIGS. 33 and 34
[0000]
TABLE 1
SAGDOX Injection Gases
% (v/v) Oxygen in Steam + Oxygen Mixes
0
5
9
35
50
% heat from O 2
0
34.8
50.0
84.5
91.0
BTU/SCF mix
47.4
69.0
86.3
198.8
263.7
MSCF mix/MMBTU
21.1
14.5
11.6
5.0
3.8
MSCF O 2 /MMBTU
0.0
0.7
1.0
1.8
1.9
MSCF Steam/MMBTU
21.1
13.8
10.6
3.3
1.9
Where:
Steam @ 1000 BTU/lb.
Oxygen @ 480 BTU/SCF
[0000]
TABLE 2
MW OF OILS
Elemental Composition of Oils
Composition (wt %)
Atomic ratios
Source
C
H
S
Molecular Weight
H/C
S/C
Italy
81.7
11.4
5.6
520
1.67
0.026
81.1
11.3
5.9
506
1.67
0.027
81.0
10.9
3.3
398
1.61
0.015
84.1
12.7
3.1
550
1.81
0.014
82.3
12.5
2.3
600
1.82
0.010
74.3
9.6
3.9
335
1.55
0.020
78.0
10.6
3.1
388
1.63
0.015
83.7
12.1
1.4
428
1.73
0.006
87.3
11.7
0.2
293
1.76
0.001
86.4
12.8
—
270
1.78
—
86.9
12.3
0.3
329
1.70
0.001
86.7
13.1
—
263
1.81
—
85.2
13.1
0.1
265
1.85
0.001
85.7
13.1
—
305
1.83
—
87.5
12.1
0.1
318
1.66
0.001
86.1
13.2
0.3
336
1.84
0.001
85.2
13.9
0.2
210
1.96
0.001
87.6
11.4
0.3
300
1.56
0.001
86.1
13.0
0.2
295
1.81
0.001
84.4
11.0
4.2
380
1.56
0.019
83.8
12.5
2.6
286
1.79
0.012
84.8
12.3
1.4
295
1.74
0.006
Kuwait
83.7
11.6
3.9
—
1.66
0.017
Venezuela
82.8
11.7
2.3
—
1.70
0.010
Speight (1991)
Avg. M.W. = 358
[0000]
TABLE 3
Critical Properties of Reservoir Gases
Tc (° C.)
Pc (atm)
Gc (g/cm 3 )
Air
−140.6
37.2
0.313
Co 2
31.04
72.85
0.468
CO
−140.23
34.53
0.301
CH 4
−82.60
45.44
0.162
O 2
−118.38
50.14
0.419
H 2
−239.91
12.80
0.031
Ar
−122.44
48.00
0.5307
N 2
−146.89
33.54
0.311
H 2 S
100.4
88.9
0.310
C 2 H 6
32.28
48.16
0.203
H 2 O
374.2
218.3
0.325
Where: Lange, “Handbook of Chemistry”, McGraw Hill, 1973
[0200] As many changes therefore may be made to the embodiments of the invention without departing from the scope thereof. It is considered that all matter contained herein be considered illustrative of the invention and not in a limiting sense.
|
A process to recover hydrocarbons, from a hydrocarbon reservoir having a bottom, using a substantially horizontal production well, the substantially horizontal production well having a toe and a heel, the process including:
(a) injecting oxygen into the hydrocarbon reservoir, the horizontal production well having at least one perforation zone for contact with the reservoir; (b) injecting steam into the hydrocarbon reservoir; the oxygen producing in situ heat and in situ carbon dioxide by combustion and the steam producing in situ heat by conduction and condensation; the in situ carbon dioxide dissolving into the liquid hydrocarbon, lowering its viscosity; (c) recovering the reservoir liquid hydrocarbons of lowered viscosity using the substantially horizontal production well; and (d) optionally conveying the recovered liquid hydrocarbons to the surface; where the process is absent a removal step of any non-condensable gas from the reservoir.
| 4
|
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to vibration isolation systems and, in particular, to a seismic restraint assembly for limiting the forces transmitted to equipment supported on isolators to amounts substantially less than the maximum input forces that might be generated by a seismic event.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is common practice to mount various types of equipment, such as engines, machine tools, fans, blowers, pumps, compressors, turbines, indeed all manner of vibration-producing equipment, on vibration isolators for minimizing the transmission of vibration from the equipment to a supporting structure. On occasion, vibration isolation systems are used to minimize the transmission of vibration from the supporting structure to the equipment (a use often referred to as "negative isolation"); such is the case with delicate scientific equipment that is sensitive to ambient vibration generated by equipment in the building and vehicular traffic and other sources around the building.
In various installations of vibration isolated equipment, it is desirable to include restraint devices to prevent the equipment from moving relatively large distances in response to seismic events (earthquakes); if the natural frequency of the isolation system should be matched by an earthquake, possibly damaging high amplitude, transient vibrations of the equipment may occur. Moreover, the input force of the seismic event may be magnified substantially. Energy-absorbing stops may be adequate in many cases to reduce the excursion, but the stops always magnify the input forces.
The inventor of the present invention has previously disclosed an improved seismic restraint device in U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,590 (assigned to the assignee of the present invention), and that device is now in commercial use. That device employs friction elements to limit the maximum force transmitted to the isolated equipment to the input force of the earthquake. The device permits unrestrained, normal vibration of the equipment (normal operation of the isolators), while preventing magnification of seismic input forces. The friction elements limit the force transmitted to the equipment to an input force of a selected amount, and if the input force exceeds the restraining friction forces, the friction elements slip, and after a small movement, the equipment is stopped from further movement by resilient energy-absorbing stops, which absorb the remaining input energy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
There is provided, in accordance with the present invention, a seismic restraint assembly that enables the force (acceleration) imposed on equipment supported on isolators to be kept substantially below the maximum input force of an earthquake. This invention uses friction elements that are resiliently loaded to generate friction forces substantially less than the maximum input forces and provides for relatively large total displacement of the equipment over the duration of the earthquake. After each cycle of an input force that causes movement of the equipment on the support, the equipment has been displaced by a small amount (i.e., does not return to the initial position at the start of that cycle). Therefore, the equipment tends to "walk" on the support in the course of the earthquake, and hence it is important to allow for such total displacement. Based on work done at MIT, it is possible to predict approximately the maximum total displacement of the isolated unit with respect to the support for certain typical earthquakes of various intensities. The MIT work is reported in a technical article entitled "Accumulated Slip of a Friction-Controlled Mass Excited by Earthquake Motions" by S. H. Crandall, S. S. Lee and J. H. Williams, Jr., published in Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Paper No. 74-WA/APM-16 (1974).
In particular, the invention relates to a seismic restraint assembly for use in a vibration isolation system in which equipment is mounted on a support by means of a number of vibration isolators. In many instances, the vibration-isolated equipment is mounted on an inertia block or base, which in turn is mounted on the isolators, so the term "unit" is used herein to refer to the equipment and any inertia block or base forming part of the isolated and supported mass. The support may, of course, be a foundation, piers, beams, and all manner of structures by which the unit is supported.
The seismic restraint assembly, according to the present invention, comprises a vertical frame that is attached to either the supported unit or the support and having vertical guide bearings which receive a vertical damper element for vertical movement, and preferably two friction elements acting in opposition, relative to the frame. At least one friction element, and preferably two friction elements acting in opposition, is mounted on the frame, and there is a resilient device that holds each friction element in engagement with the vertical damper element to generate a predetermined vertical frictional restraining force acting on the vertical damper element. The vertical restraining force is substantially less than the vertical component of the maximum input force of a seismic event (earthquake). It is generally believed, at the present time, that the maximum input force of an earthquake is about 1.0 "g". Usually, the vertical seismic input is about two-thirds of the horizontal. Accordingly, disregarding the magnifying effect of a vibration isolation system, the maximum force imposed on a mass in an earthquake will be approximately equal to the weight of that mass. The present invention provides, first, for restraining in the vertical direction the vertical damper element with a force that is substantially less than the weight of the supported unit (i.e., supported equipment and any inertia block or base).
A horizontal damper element is coupled to the vertical damper element in a manner that provides both vertical and horizontal lost motion, i.e., vertical and horizontal movements of the horizontal damper element relative to the vertical damper element, corresponding to selected normally expected vibratory movements of the unit, relative to the support, on the isolators. Apart from the lost motion, the horizontal damper element is engageable both vertically and horizontally with the vertical damper element when a relative movement between the horizontal damper element and the vertical damper element exceeds the selected normal movements. A horizontal frame is connected to the other of the unit and the support--that is to say that if the vertical frame for the vertical damper element is attached to the support, then the horizontal frame is connected to the unit. Put even more simply, the seismic restraint assembly can be mounted upside down. The horizontal frame has guide bearings that guide the horizontal damper element for horizontal movement relative to the horizontal frame in any direction. At least one horizontal friction element carried by the second frame is held by a resilient device in engagement with the horizontal damper element to generate predetermined horizontal frictional restraining forces acting between the horizontal frame and the horizontal damper element that are substantially less than the maximum input force of a seismic event, i.e., substantially less than about 1.0 "g" times the mass of the supported unit. The restraint assembly further includes, finally, vertical and horizontal stops for limiting the total displacement of the unit in all directions relative to the support.
The lost motion between the horizontal and vertical damper elements allows for normal vibration of the unit on the supporting isolation system or, in the case of negative isolation, normal vibration of the support relative to the isolated unit. The seismic restraint assembly does not, therefore, affect the normal function of the isolators by which the unit is mounted on the support. In the event of an earthquake that generates an input force having a vertical component that is less than the vertical frictional restraining forces acting between the vertical friction element and the vertical damper element, the input forces will be transmitted directly and undiminished from the support to the unit through the restraint assembly. Similarly, the horizontal component of the input force will be transmitted directly and undiminished to the unit due to the frictional restraint of the second frame by the horizontal damper element. The vertical and horizontal components of seismic forces that exceed the respective frictional restraining forces cause the friction elements to slip. The respective damper elements will, therefore, move relative to the frames, but the energy of the input force is absorbed by the work done as the damper elements slide against the restraining friction elements. Provision is made for substantial total displacement of the damper elements relative to the frames. Only after substantial total displacement (the sum of small displacements that occur during some cycles of the earthquakes) are the vertical and horizontal stops brought into play to stop further displacement. It is expected that the normal operation of the seismic restraint assembly will be such that the stops never function.
In a preferred embodiment of the system, there is a pair of vertical friction elements which engage oppositely located surfaces of the vertical damper element, and the resilient device connects the friction elements and pulls them toward each other into engagement with the vertical damper element. Preferably the resilient device consists of a multiplicity of tie rods, each of which includes a spring, such as a stack of disc or Belleville (dish-shaped) springs, compressed between an abutment on the tie rod and the outer face of one of the friction elements. Threaded tie rods received in fixed nuts on the other friction element permit the spring force, and therefore the frictional force, to be adjusted.
In a preferred embodiment, the horizontal damper element is a flat plate and the horizontal frame comprises a pair of interconnected members located on opposite sides of the damper plate. The horizontal guide bearings comprise a multiplicity of spaced-apart pads of low-friction material on each plate member. Each of the frame members carries a multiplicity of friction elements which are urged by springs toward the damper plate. The damper plate is, therefore, sandwiched between the spring loaded friction elements. Advantageously, the spring force of the springs that urge the frictional elements into engagement with the damper plate can be adjusted by installing shim washers adjacent the spring.
The stops that limit the vertical and horizontal total displacement of the supported unit may be either independent of the restraint assembly, for example, resilient pads located on the device or the support and positioned to stop total displacement of the equipment or resilient elements associated with the damper elements and frames of the assembly. In a preferred embodiment, the vertical resilient limit stops comprise an abutment on the vertical damper element and abutments associated with the vertical frame that are engageable in the limit positions of relative motion of the vertical damper element and frame, resilient pads being provided to cushion and absorb the energy of the deceleration when further vertical displacement is stopped. The horizontal stops may comprise a cylindrical portion of the vertical damper element that is normally centrally located within a hole in the lower plate of the horizontal frame. The vertical damper element receives a cylindrical resilient pad that engages a portion of the hole in the frame plate and cushions and absorbs the energy of deceleration when further horizontal displacement is stopped.
For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be made to the following description of exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the figures of the accompanying drawings.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a vibration isolation system comprising isolated equipment mounted on an inertia block which, in turn, is supported on isolators and employs seismic restraint assemblies according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an end elevational view of the system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the vertical damper subassembly of one embodiment of the seismic restraint assembly, a portion being broken away in cross section as represented by the lines 3--3 in FIG. 4;
FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of the vertical damper subassembly shown in FIG. 3, a portion being broken away in cross section as indicated generally by the lines 4--4 in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the vertical damper subassembly of FIGS. 3 and 4, a portion broken away in cross section as indicated generally by the lines 5--5 in FIG. 3 and another portion broken out;
FIG. 6 is a top cross-sectional view of the vertical friction elements and vertical damper rod of the vertical damper subassembly shown in FIGS. 3 to 5;
FIG. 7 is a plan view of the horizontal damper subassembly of the restraint assembly shown in phantom lines in FIG. 4, a portion being broken away in cross section as indicated generally by the lines 7--7 in FIG. 8;
FIG. 8 is a broken, front cross-sectional view of the horizontal damper subassembly shown in FIG. 7, the section being represented by the lines 8--8 of FIG. 7;
FIG. 9A is a fragmentary cross-sectional detail of an upper friction element and spring, the location of the detail being indicated in FIG. 8;
FIG. 9B is a fragmentary cross-sectional detail of a lower friction element, the location of the detail being shown in FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of a horizontal guide bearing as indicated in FIG. 8;
FIG. 11 is a plan cross-sectional view of a portion of an alternative design for the vertical damper subassembly;
FIG. 12 is a plan, half cross-sectional view of an alternative design for the horizontal damper subassembly, taken along the lines 12--12 of FIG. 13 with a portion of the horizontal damper plate broken away;
FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of the horizontal damper subassembly shown in FIG. 12, taken generally along the lines 13--13 of FIG. 12;
FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view of the subassembly shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 taken generally along the lines 14--14 of FIG. 12; and
FIG. 15 is a front, half cross-sectional view of the lower portion of a modified vertical damper subassembly in which vertical stops have been incorporated.
DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
In a typical installation of a vibration-isolated unit, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the equipment 20, which is shown schematically and which is typically some sort of machine which produces vibration or may be scientific or other equipment which is to be isolated from ambient vibration, is supported on an inertia block 22. Depending on the problem involved and the design of the system, the inertia block 22 or some sort of base may or may not be used. As a matter of convenience and to reflect the fact that isolators are used in systems with and without inertia blocks, the term "unit" is used herein as a general designation of a mass that is supported on vibration isolators. In particular, in the arrangement shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the unit, i.e., the isolated equipment 20 and the inertia block 22 in this example, are supported by a multiplicity of vibration isolators 24 which, in turn, are supported on a foundation 26 which represents any suitable support for the unit.
In the example shown in FIG. 1 the isolators 24 are the pneumatic type and have the characteristic of a very low natural frequency, say 1-2 cycles per second. Depending upon the isolation problem involved, various types of isolators having various natural frequencies are selected, and the present invention is useful throughout a wide range of isolation systems. Ordinarily, the isolators 24 support the unit, and in the example selected, negative isolation, the unit is isolated from ambient vibration. For example, electron microscopes are highly sensitive to ambient vibration, and it is highly desirable, if not essential, to mount them on isolators. For costly or essential equipment which is subject to damage of failure in the event of an earthquake, it will often be advisable to provide for protection of the equipment in the event of an earthquake. In many cases, it is sufficient to provide resilient limit stops to prevent the equipment from oscillation excessively. However, these limit stops always magnify the input force of the earthquake minimum by three times and often greater than up to eight and more depending on the input frequency, clearance or gap at stops, and their stiffness. In accordance with the present invention, however, seismic restraint is provided by seismic restraint assemblies 28. One such assembly is mounted near each corner of the inertia block 22 and, as described in more detail, is secured to the foundation 26 and the inertia block 22.
The exemplary embodiment of the seismic restraint assembly that is shown in FIGS. 3 to 10 comprises a vertical restraint subassembly 30 (FIGS. 3 to 6) and a horizontal restraint subassembly 32 (FIGS. 7 to 10). The vertical restraint subassembly 30 comprises a vertical frame 34 that includes a lower plate 36, an upper plate 38 and a pair of vertical tubular columns 40 joining the upper and lower plates. The components of the frame are welded together, and the frame further comprises two sets of vertical plates 42 welded along the columns 40 and to the upper and lower plates, and splice plates 44 joining the upper and lower outer edges of the plates 42 to the top and bottom plates 38 and 36. Stiffener gussets 46 are installed between the columns 40 and the top plate 38, and a lower bearing support plate 48 is welded to each of the columns 40.
The bearing support plates 48 receive a lower bearing assembly 50 that comprises a square outer frame 52 that is welded to a pair of mounting bars 54, one on each side, which span the space between the support plates 48 and are fastened to the support plates by cap screws 56. Within each leg of the square frame 52 is a backup bar 58 that has a cylindrical or beveled surface against the bearing frame so that the bearing plates can rock to accommodate bending deformation of a vertical damper rod 90 and tilting of the rod because of operating clearances in its guide bearings. (The rocking and bending should be taken into account in other parts of the assembly.) The guide bearings for the rod 90 include a bronze bearing pad 60 received inwardly of the backup plate 58 and one or more shims 62 between the backup plate and bearing pad is used to set the bearing fit for each of the bearing pads 60. The backup plate 58, shim or shims 62 and bearing pads 60 are retained on the frame 52 by upper and lower retainer plates 64 and 66 that are bolted to the frame.
A mounting plate 70 of an upper bearing assembly 72 is fastened to the upper plate 38 of the vertical damper subassembly frame by cap screws 74. A frame 76 of the bearing assembly is welded to the mounting plate 70, and each face of the vertical damper rod is engaged by a bronze bearing pad 78 that is backed up by one or more shims 80 and a backup plate 82. Upper and lower retainer plates 84 and 86 fastened together by screws 88 retain the bearing pad, shims and backup plates at each face of the damper rod in place.
The major portion of the vertical damper rod 90 is square in cross section, and the rod 90 is slidably supported adjacent the ends for vertical movement by the upper and lower bearing assemblies. Normally, the vertical damper rod 90 is restrained against vertical movement by a friction assembly that includes a pair of friction elements 92 and 93, each of which includes a brake shoe 94 and 95 and a friction pad 96 and 97 bolted to the respective brake shoe 94 or 95. The two brake shoes 94 and 95 are retained in position vertically between the upper and lower bearing assemblies, but are free to shift transverse to the rod for adjustment, and are resiliently pulled into frictional engagement with opposite faces of the damper rod by spring-loaded tie rods or bolts 98. A vertical row of tie bolt assemblies is located on either side of the damper rod 90 (see FIGS. 4 and 6). Each tie bolt 98 receives a lock washer 100, a spring backup washer 102, a series of Belleville springs 104 and a second spring retainer washer 106 between the bolt head and one of the brake shoes 95. The shank of the bolt extends across the space between the friction elements, passes through the other brake shoe 94, and is threaded into a nut 108 that is welded to the brake shoe 94. The amount of compression of the springs required to produce the desired vertical friction force between the vertical brake elements and the vertical damper rod is predetermined, and spacer tubes 110 and 112 automatically set the desired compression into the springs when the tie bolts 98 are installed and tightened. The spacer tube 112 may be of any selected length, thereby enabling adjustment of the compression force in the spring to adjust the vertical friction force.
The upper end of the vertical damper rod 90 receives a large bolt 114, and a lower spacer ring 116, an upper spacer ring 118, a lower washer 120 and an upper washer 122 are installed between the upper end of the damper rod 90 and the head of the bolt 114. This upper assembly of rings and washers serves to connect the damper rod 90 to the horizontal damper subassembly 32, which is shown in detail in FIGS. 7 to 10. The horizontal damper subassembly 32 comprises a circular damper plate 124 having a central hole 126 that is received on the spacer ring 118 between the washers 120 and 122. The coupling between the horizontal damper plate 124 and the bolt and spacer coupling assembly at the top of the vertical damper rod 90 provides lost motion which allows both vertical and horizontal movement between the horizontal damper plate and the vertical damper rod. When the restraint assembly is initially assembled and installed in the isolation system, shims or other means are used to adjust small vertical clearances "V" (FIG. 4) between the damper plate 124 and the washers 120 and 122 and annular clearance "H" between the spacer ring 118 and the hole 126, the amounts of such clearances being predetermined to provide for a selected maximum normal vibration of the support 26 relative to the supported unit (the inertia block 22 and the equipment 20).
The horizontal damper plate 124 is sandwiched between a top plate 128 and a bottom plate 130 of a horizontal damper subassembly frame. A spacer block 132 is fastened by screws 134 and tie welding to the underside of the upper frame plate 128 near each corner, and the lower frame plate 130 is fastened to the spacer block 132 by screws 135. Spacer plates 136 are welded to the upper surface of the upper frame plate 128, and screws 138 accessible through cutouts 140 in the bottom frame plate 130 are used to fasten the horizontal damper subassembly frame to the underside of the inertia block 22.
Four bearing pads 142 are installed between the upper frame plate and the damper plate and a corresponding group of four bearing pads 144 are installed between the lower frame plate and the damper plate. As shown in FIG. 10, each bearing pad 142 or 144 (FIG. 10 is representative of both sets of pads 142 and 144) is backed up by a resilient disc 146, to equalize the loads on the bearing pads and to set the sliding fit, and is attached to the frame plate by a screw 150.
Also installed between the respective upper and lower frame plates 128 and 130 and the horizontal damper plate 124 are friction elements which are spring-loaded into engagement with the damper plate to produce a predetermined horizontal friction force acting in all directions for restraining relative movement between the damper plate and the frame.
As shown in FIG. 9A, each upper friction element 152 comprises a friction pad 154, and a retainer 156. A stack of Belleville springs 158 urges the pad against the plate 124. A countersunk bolt 160 secures the pad to the retainer. A nut 162 has a plate 164 welded to its upper face, which serves as a keeper to prevent the friction assembly from falling out of the socket in the frame plate between preassembly and final assembly of the device.
The lower frame plate 130 (FIG. 9B) receives a series of lower friction elements 166, each having a friction pad 168, and a retainer 170. A stack of Belleville springs 172 urge the pad against the plate 124 and a countersunk screw 174, secures the pad to the retainer. The upper and lower spring assemblies 152 and 166 can easily be adjusted to provide a desired spring force and, therefore, a desired horizontal frictional restraining force by installing shims in the sockets which receive the assemblies.
The seismic restraint assembly is bolted to the foundation 26 by bolts (not shown) installed through holes 176 in the bottom plate 36 (see FIG. 3) of the frame of the vertical subassembly. As mentioned above, the seismic restraint assembly normally performs no function, and the equipment is supported entirely on the isolators 24 which permit normal relative motion between the support 26 and the supported unit; in particular, any vibration of the support due to ambient vibration is transmitted from the vertical subassembly frame 34 through the vertical friction elements to the vertical damper rod 90, and any relative motion of the horizontal subassembly frame may occur freely both horizontally and vertically because of the clearances H and V (FIG. 4) between the horizontal damper plate and the coupling assembly at the top of the vertical damper rod 90. The horizontal friction assemblies 152 and 166 lock the horizontal damper to the horizontal frame, and the vertical friction assemblies lock the vertical damper rod 90 to the vertical frame 34. The lost motion in the coupling between the vertical and horizontal assemblies allows normal vibration of the support relative to the unit (in the negative isolation example in question).
In the event of an earthquake, the vertical component of the input force acts from the support 26 on the vertical frame 34. The vertical friction assembly is spring-loaded to produce a frictional force substantially less than the input force. The input force can be expressed as a "g" force and, as mentioned above, is considered to be approximately 1.0 "g" maximum. Assume, for example, that it is desired to transmit only one-half of the maximum input force from the support to the supported unit in the vertical direction. The vertical friction assembly will, in this example, be spring-loaded to produce a vertical frictional restraining force equal to one-half of the weight of the supported unit.
If the maximum vertical input acceleration of the support 26 due to the earthquake is less than about 0.5 "g", the vertical friction subassembly will transmit the vertical component to the vertical damper rod 90 which, in turn, will transfer it to the horizontal damper assembly 32 through the coupling at the upper end of the rod. Hence a vertical input force of less than the selected magnitude will be transmitted directly to the supported unit by the seismic restraint assembly.
If the vertical component of an input acceleration of seismic origin exceeds the selected maximum that is to be transferred by the restraint assembly to the supported unit (in this example, more than about 0.5 "g") the frictional force loaded into the vertical friction elements 92 will be exceeded, and the vertical damper rod will be allowed to slip and move relative to the vertical frame 34. The vertical force transmitted by the restraint assembly to the supported unit will be equal to the frictional force, and the excess of the input force over the frictional force will produce relative motion of the damper rod and vertical frame.
The energy generated by the excess of the input force over the frictional force is dissipated by the work done as the damper rod moves relative to the vertical frame in opposition to the vertical frictional force, and the damper rod will stop after only a small amount of movement after each cycle of the earthquake. Over the entire series of cycles of input acceleration due to the earthquake, the unit may have displaced a substantial total distance, however, so provision is made for such movement in the design of the restraint assembly.
The embodiment of the seismic restraint assembly shown in FIGS. 3 to 11 does not include vertical stops. Instead, as shown in FIG. 2, resilient stop pads 178 are installed on the bottom of the support 26, (see FIGS. 1 and 2) below the inertia block 22 to stop total downward displacement of the supported unit, and upper resilient stop pads 180 are installed on structures adjacent the unit to stop upward motion. Based on the MIT research referred to above, the restraint assembly should be designed for displacement of the unit up to the total expected amount, and the stops should be located where they do not function unless the expected displacement is exceeded.
The horizontal restraint subassembly 32 works in essentially the same way as the vertical restraint subassembly. The horizontal component in any direction of a seismic input force is transmitted by the vertical frame 34 to the vertical damper rod 90 by the bearing assemblies 50 and 72, and the damper rod transmits the horizontal component of the input force to the horizontal damper plate 124 through the coupling assembly. The upper and lower horizontal friction elements 152 and 166 transmit up to the selected maximum horizontal component to the horizontal frame, and, therefore, to the supported unit. The horizontal component of a seismic input force greater than the selected maximum to be transmitted produces slippage of the horizontal damper plate 124 relative to the frame. The upper and lower frame plates 128 and 130 have relatively large circular holes 182 and 184, respectively, so that the horizontal frame can move relative to the horizontal damper plate 124 in any direction within those holes. Should the total displacement exceed the clearance between the coupling assembly and the hole 184 in the lower frame plate 130 (an unlikely event), a resilient stop sleeve 186 glued to the spacer 116 engages the wall of the hole 184 and stops further displacement of the horizontal frame relative to the damper plate 124.
It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous variations and modifications may be made in the particular design of the vertical and horizontal restraint subassemblies, the arrangement of bearings, friction elements and, certainly, the frame system of the restraint assembly. An example of such a modification is shown in FIG. 11, namely the substitution of a vertical damper element 200 of circular cross section for the square cross section element of the embodiment of FIGS. 3 to 10. The vertical friction subassembly 202 includes arcuate friction elements 204 and 206. The vertical friction assembly can also, of course, be a plate or of any other form that enables frictionally restrained vertical sliding motion.
FIGS. 12 to 14 show a modified horizontal restraint subassembly 300 that can be substituted for the subassembly 32 shown in FIGS. 7 to 10. The subassembly 300 comprises upper and lower peripheral frames 302 and 304 that are welded up from tubular members, separated by spacer blocks 306 and fastened to each other and to the supported unit by screws 308. Upper and lower bearing pads 310 and 312 are installed on each leg of each frame 302 and 304 opposite each other for sliding engagement with arms 314 of a cross-shaped horizontal damper plate 316. The damper plate 316 is frictionally engaged by a friction assembly 318 that is composed of upper and lower brake plates 320 and 322, upper and lower friction pads 324 and 326 fastened to the plates in positions for frictional engagement with the respective four arms 314 of the damper plate 316, and spring assemblies 328 of substantially the same type as shown in FIG. 6 to urge the brake plates toward each other and provide a predetermined horizontal frictional force between the brake shoes and the damper plate. The brake plates have circular holes 330 and 332 that leave a substantial clearance for movement of the frame and brake plates relative to the damper plate, but such movement is limited by engagement of a resilient stop sleeve 334 with the wall of the hole 332. Clearances are left between the damper plate 316 and the coupling assembly at the top of the vertical damper rod 90 to allow normal vibratory motion of the support relative to the supported device. The operation of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 12 to 14 is the same as the operation of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 to 10, and further description is unnecessary.
FIG. 15 illustrates an alternative way of stopping vertical motion of the vertical damper rod relative to the vertical frame. The vertical restraint subassembly 400 shown in FIG. 15 is the same as the one shown in FIGS. 3 to 6 except that it has a stop abutment in the form of a plate 402 fastened to the bottom of the vertical damper rod 90. An annular resilient upper stop pad 404 is installed on the top of the abutment 402 and stops upward motion of the damper rod 90 relative to the vertical frame by engaging the lower bearing mounting plate 48 (see also FIG. 4). The lower frame plate 36 has a central hole 406 somewhat larger than the stop plate 402, and a resilient lower stop pad 408 is glued to the support and stops the total downward displacement of the damper rod 90. Obviously, the lower stop pad 408 could be installed on a lower frame plate that does not have a central hole.
The foregoing embodiments, variations and modifications are merely exemplary of those which will readily occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. All such variations and modifications are intended to be within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
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A vibration isolation system includes a seismic restraint assembly that attenuates forces above a chosen magnitude transmitted to a unit from a support during a seismic event. Vertical friction elements on a vertical frame engage and support a vertical damper element. Horizontal friction elements on a horizontal frame engage and retain a horizontal damper element. One frame is connected to the unit, the other to the support. The vertical and horizontal damper elements interconnect, but lost motion spacing between these elements ordinarily prevents low level vibrations being communicated therethrough. Each of the vertical and horizontal friction elements is spring biased into a predetermined frictional engagement with its associated damper element. The force of the engagement is adjustable to adjust the level at which higher than ordinary forces that are being transmitted through the assembly will begin to be attenuated by slippage of the frictionally engaged elements.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority from Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/753,137 filed on Dec. 22, 2005.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Paper formed without a sizing or binder tends to have low wet tensile strength. Various binders and sizings have been used in paper and other nonwovens (nonwoven constructions) to increase the tensile properties. The binders and sizings can co-react with the fibers of the nonwoven construction. A property of particular interest in characterizing the tensile properties of papers and other nonwovens is wet to dry tensile ratio, a comparison between the strength of the bound paper/matt in the wet state versus a dry state.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,929,495 and 5,021,529 teach carboxylated acrylate polymers for nonwoven fabric and formaldehyde-free self-curing interpolymers for paper and other nonwoven fabrics respectively. Crosslinlking of the latex binder may be brought about after latex drying to obtain the highest tensile properties. Crosslinking approaches employing methylol groups, either incorporated into the polymer binder, or through addition of a crosslinking agent, for example, melamine-formaldehyde resin, are commonly used. Methylol chemistry produces formaldehyde during curing, which can be objectionable. Further, relatively high temperatures (approximately 150° C.) are typically required to initiate the methylol crosslinking reactions. The high temperatures needed for some crosslinking reactions limit processing speeds, and add to energy costs in producing the bound paper or nonwoven.
Water dispersible polyisocyanates, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,252,696 and 5,563,207, from reacting polyisocyanates with monofunctional polyether alcohols containing ethylene oxide repeating units are known components in coating compositions where they can react with isocyanate reactive groups in aqueous coating compositions. Under proper reaction conditions, these materials can be dispersed in water without a significant amount of less desirable side reaction between the isocyanate group(s) and water occurring in the normal time period for use of the dispersed isocyanate containing mixture. In coating compositions, the inclusion of the water dispersible polyisocyanates results in higher crosslink density than in similar coating compositions without water-dispersible polyisocyanates.
Blocked polyisocyanates are used in water containing compositions to prevent the reaction of the isocyanate group(s) with water. Subsequent to water removal by evaporation, the blocked isocyanates can be unblocked, such as with heat, and regenerate the reactive isocyanate group that can then react with active Zerewitinoff hydrogen containing compounds. One such blocked polyisocyanate is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,921.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,268,419 discloses a fast curing binder for cellulose comprising a solution copolymer of an olefinically unsaturated organic compound having at least one carboxylate groups, which is reacted with a primary or secondary amide of an olefinically unsaturated carboxylic acid. The product of said reaction is admixed with a non-formaldehyde containing latex carrier to produce a binder composition which reaches substantially fully cured wet strength in 8 seconds or less. U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,507 teaches emulsion binders which do not generate formaldehyde during cure. They utilize 2-20 parts meta or para-isopropenyl-α,α-dimethyl benzyl isocyanate. The products are heat resistant flexible products for use in roofing, flooring and filtering materials as well as facings and other applications in general purpose nonwoven products.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It was unexpectedly found that small amounts of blocked or water dispersible polyisocyanate compounds when added to non-oleophilic fibrous materials and dispersed polymer binders, resulted in high tensile properties, in particular wet tensile strength and higher ratio of wet:dry tensile in several paper and/or nonwoven constructions. It was noted that the higher tensile strength and lower elongation to break were achieved without extensive curing of the nonwoven and binder at elevated temperatures. While not wanting to be bound by theory, it would seem that the blocked or water dispersible polyisocyanates are acting to improve the interaction between the fibrous material and the dispersed polymers. When so used, they generate earlier tensile properties and/or higher ratios of wet:dry tensile properties, perhaps by reacting with the paper fibers and/or the polymer binder, or perhaps by modifying the fiber surface to strengthen physical interactions between the polymer binder and the fibers. It is noted that both the wet and dry samples (when cured) are cured for the same time so differences in extent of crosslinking of the polymer should be minimal when looking at the ratio of wet:dry tensile strength. It is noted that the polymer binder need not have substantial amounts of reactive hydroxyl or amine groups, which is typically needed for isocyanate crosslinking reactions at lower temperatures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Binder compositions comprising a dispersed polymer phase in water in combination with dispersible polyisocyanate compounds, blocked isocyanates, or combinations thereof are described. When non-oleophilic fibrous materials in any form such as sheet, bundle, dispersion, etc., are added to the binders, higher tensile properties earlier in the initial cure of the polymer and higher ratios of wet:dry tensile at various levels of cure are observed in several paper and/or nonwoven constructions. The binders are very different from films and coatings from polymer dispersions as the binders modify the fibrous construction by adhering the fibers together, with fibers being the strength imparting agent. In films and coatings, the polymer is often a primary stress bearing element and any fibers or particulate in the film only toughens the film or coating. Also in coatings, the polymer is generally the major component and fibers or particulate are minor components. In fibrous constructions, the fibers are the major component and the binder is generally a minor component relative to the fibers.
A benefit of the combination of binder and blocked and/or dispersible polyisocyanates is that one can more quickly after assembly handle the fibrous construction and/or apply stress and strain to the fibrous construction without as much concern about tearing or deforming the fibrous construction. When it is necessary to handle, transport or process the fibrous construction after exposure to solvent or water, the increased ratio of wet:dry tensile strength minimizes a) concern and processing difficulties, b) deformed constructions, and/or c) torn constructions. There is also a possibility of using less binder or a lower binder to fibrous material ratio to achieve equivalent dry or wet strength in the fibrous construction.
The dispersed polymer phase in water can be from a variety of sources. Typically, it is a commercial polymer having major amounts of a) acrylic or acrylate monomers therein; b) acrylonitrile in combination with other monomers such as styrene, butadiene, or acrylate; or c) styrene or a substituted styrene in combination with a diene such as butadiene. These polymers typically have a major amount of the listed monomers and minor amounts of a variety of other monomers to impart various particular properties. They generally have a glass transition temperature as measured by DSC of from about −70° C. to about 120° C., depending largely on the end-use stiffness requirements for the fibrous construction. A sandpaper construction may require a stiffer binder than a wet wipe construction. These dispersed polymer phases can be made by emulsion polymerization or dispersion polymerization processes. The water phase (aqueous media) may contain water soluble hydrocarbons and or the dispersed polymer may contain water insoluble hydrocarbon diluents (e.g., plasticizer or coalescents). Typically, these dispersions have a polymeric or lower molecular weight surface active compound of the anionic, cations, nonionic type or blends thereof to help maintain the dispersed polymer phase during formation and storage of the dispersion of polymer. The surface active compound may also play a role in dispersing the polyisocyanate into the system.
The monomers used to make the polymeric binder can be selected from a large list of ethylenically unsaturated (including diene monomers in this description) monomers well known to the art that polymerize through reactions of carbon to carbon double bonds. Common monomers used in major amounts these applications include the acrylic and acrylate monomers represented by the formula C(R 1 )(R 2 )═C(R 3 )COOR 4 where R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , and R 4 are H, linear or branched alkyls or alkenyls of 1 to 20 carbon atoms. When used in major amounts in preferred embodiments, R 1 and R 2 are typically H, R 3 is typically an H or a lower alkyl such as C 1 -C 4 alkyl and R 4 varies from H and C 1 -C 8 or C 12 alkyls. These may also be referred to as C 1 -C 8 alkyl(alk)acrylates of acrylics with the (alk) term meaning the R 3 component may be hydrogen (absent any alkyl groups) or a lower alkyl of 1 to 4 carbon atoms. When R 4 is H, the molecule is specifically an acrylic monomer and when R 4 is an alkyl the molecule is specifically an acrylate. Minor amounts of other acrylic and/or acrylate type monomers may also be present such as those where R 4 includes an epoxy group, a hydroxyalkyl group, an amine, etc., or COOR 4 (ester linkage) is replaced by an amide linkage, etc. Minor amounts of other specialty monomers such as those containing phenones, polycarboxylic acids (e.g., itaconic acid, maleic acid, maleic anhydride, etc.), vinyl acetate, isocyanate containing monomers (optionally with the isocyanate being blocked), etc., may be included. Major or minor amounts of acrylonitrile and various alkyl substituted acrylonitriles may be in the polymer. Major or minor amounts of the styrene and various alkyl substituted styrenes (e.g., para or alpha alkyl, etc.) may be included. Major or minor amounts conjugated dienes of 4 to 8 carbon atoms (such as butadiene, isoprene, etc.) could be included. Major amounts of a particular monomer or monomer type for the purpose of this application will be thirty (30) percent or more by weight based on the total polymer weight for the purposes of this application. These and other suitable monomers are listed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,718 in column 1 , line 50 through column 2 , and line 19 .
The polymer of the binder can exist as a dispersed phase due to a variety of circumstances. Many of the polymers are made as latexes via emulsion polymerization processes, which are well known to the art. This typically involves starting with a continuous phase and monomers and nucleating polymer particles in the continuous phase and growing those particles by the addition of monomer to the particles and polymerization of the monomer into polymer. Many acrylic and styrene-butadiene polymers such as used in the examples are made by such processes. Polymer dispersions may be made by polymerizing the monomers in other polymerization processes and then physically dispersing the polymers in a continuous phase. Solution polymerization processes, followed by removal of the solvent and dispersing in aqueous media can also be used to form suitable polymer binders. Mixtures of polymers dispersions formed by different processes or containing significantly different polymers may be used. It is particularly anticipated that the polymers may possess blocked isocyanates or other isocyanate functionality (such as in the water-dispersible polyisocyanates) to facilitate interaction with the added polyisocyanate components.
The non-oleophilic fibers or fibrous material can be a variety of polymers or high modulus polymer-like materials, e.g., carbon fibers that are not pure hydrocarbons. Excluded are polyethylene, polypropylene, etc., which are known as olefin polymers and consist almost entirely of carbon and hydrogen. It is not anticipated that dispersible or blocked polyisocyanates would improve properties for fibrous constructions for these very oleophilic fibrous substrates. Included in fibrous materials that would benefit from the dispersible or blocked polyisocyanates are cellulose including various variations such as wood fibers, cottons, processed cellulose, modified cellulose; condensation polyesters from polyacids and polyols or from hydroxycarboxylic acids; polyester from chain polymerizations such as acrylics and/or acrylates; acrylic polymers containing acrylonitriles repeat units, condensation polyamides (such as nylons), fiberglass, carbon fibers, etc. Preferred fibers in one embodiment are those of wood, cotton, and processed or modified cellulose. Preferred fibers in another embodiment are the polyesters, acrylates, and acrylics. Preferred fibers in a third embodiment are fiberglass. These are generally characterized by heteroatoms such as nitrogen or oxygen, in addition to carbon and hydrogen being present in each repeat unit. While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is theorized that these more polar (less oleophilic) fibers could be more easily wet and the binder could more readily spread on the fiber surfaces if an intermediate such as dispersible or blocked polyisocyanates were present. Additionally, the presence of isocyanate reactive groups on the fibers, for example, hydroxy or amine groups may result in chemical linkage of the isocyanate component to the fiber(s) via a urethane or urea type linkage.
The various dimensions of the fibers (an essential component of the fibrous construction) are not considered critical to the improvement imparted by the dispersible or blocked polyisocyanates. Thus, the aspect ratio (generally length to some diameter type measurement), overall length, diameter, distribution of lengths or diameter will be only briefly discussed in relationship to those parameters necessary or desirable to make good fibrous constructions. It is generally the case that the diameters of the fibers are larger, in some embodiments one, two or three orders of magnitude or more than diameters of the polymer dispersions used as binder.
To qualify as fibers the material of the fibrous construction would have to have a length to diameter ratio of at least 2:1 and possible 5:1 or more, 10:1 or more, or 100:1 or more. Different fiber lengths and fiber properties are desired for different properties in the fibrous construction. High tensile strength fibers with low modulus to bending would provide a supple fibrous construction that would be strong but flexible. This might be a reinforcing element for a plastic composite or a fabric for use in a personal care item. Low tensile strength fibers with high modulus to bending would form a weaker mass in tensile but with more stiffness. This might be a roofing felt. Of course, the fiber properties could be optimized for any final application. The fibers of the fibrous construction can be obtained from a variety of sources. The cellulosic fibers, wool, cotton, etc., have been commercially available prior to synthetic polymers. The synthetic polymers are often formed into fibers by spinning process or extrusions of molten fibers.
The amount of binder in the fibrous composite can also affect the strength and feel of the fibrous mass. High loadings of binder throughout the mass would tend to form the stiffer and stronger fibrous construction than lower loadings of binder, other variables remaining constant. One could intermittently apply the binder in various patterns to specific portions of the fibrous mass. This would tend to reduce both strength and stiffness by allowing binder to glue some intersections of the fibers together while allowing other intersections of fibers not to be glued or adhered together. The glass transition temperature of the binder would also have an effect on the stiffness of the nonwoven construction, higher glass transition temperature binders would result in stiffer constructions.
The binder could be applied to the fibers while the fibers were discrete fibers and before they were collected into a fibrous mass. The binder could be applied to the fibers as a blend of fibers and binders and then excess binder could be removed. The fibers could be formed into a fibrous mass and then the binder could be saturated or printed onto the fibrous mass. The binder could be added in a salvation process or a beater-add process. These and a variety of other commercially practices methods of assembling the fibrous mass and binder are contemplated.
When a water or solvent based binder is used with a fibrous composite, usually the binder and fibers will be brought together by one of the methods described above and then the water or solvent will be removed be evaporation. The nonwoven fibrous construction can optionally be made in a fourdrinier machine from a slurry of fibers, where an endless screen or roll press forms a sheet which is optionally dewatered and dried over drying cans, cooling cans, calendar and wound on a reel. These are common in papermaking. The dispersed polymer phase will coalesce in the crevices between the fibers and onto the fibers. It is anticipated that many disperse polymer particles might coagulate near an interface between two fibers and form an adherent layer or mass between two fibers. Alternatively, the binder may coat all of the fibers and form an adhesive mass where the coated fibers overlap each other. The fibers may contain a sizing or tie layer prior to applying the binder.
The polyisocyanate may be selected from a variety of sources having two or more isocyanate groups per molecule, or in the case of blocked polyisocyanates, where two or more isocyanate groups per molecule can be generated by heating reactions that regenerate isocyanate groups and the blocking molecule from chemically blocked isocyanate groups. The polyisocyanate can include both water dispersible aspects and blocked isocyanate aspects such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,921. Blocked isocyanates rely on particular blocking groups that temporarily react with the isocyanate groups to form thermally unstable bonds. At elevated temperatures, the thermally less stable bonds between the isocyanate and blocking agent break releasing the original starting materials. This allows the polyisocyanates to be in contact with water while blocked and then after removal of any water the isocyanate groups can be regenerated. Examples of compounds that can be reacted with isocyanate groups to provide chemical blocking include but are not limited to secondary or tertiary alcohols such as isopropanol and tertiary butanol, active methylene compounds such as dialkyl malonate, acetylacetone and alkyl acetoacetate, oximes such as acetoxime, methyl ethyl ketoxime and cyclohexanone oxime, lactams such as ε-caprolactam, phenols such as phenol, chlorophenol, cresol, p-tert.-butylphenol, p-sec.-butylphenol, p-sec.-amylphenol, p-octylphenol and p-nonylphenol, heterocyclic hydroxyl compounds such as 3-hydroxypyridine, 8-hydroxyquinoline, 8-hydroxyquinaldine and the like. Water dispersible polyisocyanates rely on a slight variation from the chemical blocking reaction. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,252,696 and 5,563,696 teach two different water dispersible polyisocyante compounds developed by Bayer that illustrate how dispersible polyisocyanates can be assembled without chemically converting the isocyanate groups to blocked isocyanate groups. They involve reacting an excess of reactive isocyanate groups with a deficiency of water dispersible reactive hydroxyl terminated poly(alkyleneoxide). Other companies manufacture dispersible isocyanates by other processes. The polyisocyanates desirably have a significant excess over two of isocyanate groups to hydroxyl groups so that after reaction with a poly(alkyleneoxide) that in excess of two isocyanate groups remain per water dispersible molecule. Many of the possible polyisocyanate compounds are dimerized, trimerized, or subjected to other coupling mechanisms that increase the number of reactive isocyanates per molecule before reacting with the hydroxyl terminated poly(alkyleneoxide). The references also teach utilizing isocyanate groups of different reactivity (e.g., aliphatic versus aromatic isocyanate molecules) with hydroxyl groups to allow better control of the isocyanate with hydroxyl reaction products. Apparently, the poly(alkyleneoxide) molecules sterically protect the free isocyanate groups of the dispersible polyisocyanates from reaction with water molecules similarly to the way that blocking groups chemically protect the isocyanate groups in blocked isocyanates.
The fibrous material is the main building block of the fibrous constructions. The binder will typically be present on calculated as dry binder (e.g., less volatile organics and water) weight from about 0.1 to about 50 wt. %, in some embodiments from 0.1 to 40 wt. %, and in still other embodiments from about 0.1 to about 20, 10, or 5 wt. % based on the weight of the dry fibers. The polyisocyanates, either water dispersible, blocked or both water dispersible and blocked, are generally present from about 0.01 to about 20 wt. % based on the dry binder weight, in some embodiments from 0.1 to about 10 wt. %, and in still other embodiments from about 0.1 to about 5 wt. %. Other conventional components to binders for nonwovens can also be added in conventional amounts. These include curatives (e.g., formaldehyde free or those using formaldehyde based reactants), UV blockers, fillers and extenders, pigments and colorants, oxidative stabilizers, adhesion promoters, sizing or tie material, scents, primers, antioxidants, biocides, and/or flocculants.
The purpose of increasing the strength and the ratio of wet strength to dry strength is to provide a) fibrous masses with lower amounts of binder and accordingly at lower cost; b) to provide fibrous masses with higher wet strength in some applications; such as personal care where body fluids may come in contact with the fibrous mass, industrial applications where the fibrous mass may be processed in water or solvent, paper towels, etc; c) increase wet strength without increasing stiffness of the fibrous mass; d) increase strength without switching to more costly fibers; and/or e) increase strength during initial manufacturing so that production rates can be reduced or curing times reduced, f) increased processing speeds by utilizing lower processing temperature or shorter temperature exposure, yet maintaining original target tensile properties; etc. While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is anticipated that better binding of the adhesive to the fibers results in better strength and better wetting and interpenetration of the fibers by the binder during coagulation and drying results in better ratios of wet strength to dry strength. Losses of strength on exposure to water and surfactants may be indicative of a weak interaction at the binder fiber interface that is partially replaced by water or surfactant when exposed to surfactant.
When the fibrous constructions were tested in tension, these adherent binder layers or masses would prevent the fibers from moving relative to each other to reduce the applied stress. Since the fibers tend to be significantly higher modulus than the binder, there is a phenomenon called strain amplification that occurs to binder phase. The binder phase has to disproportionately deform because the fibers, after any bends and slack in the fiber structure is eliminated tend to deform less than the binder.
Coalescent compounds may be present in the dispersed polymer or in the continuous phase to promote coalescence of the polymer particles into larger domains. The glass transition temperature (lower glass transition temperatures promote faster coalescence) and the application temperature (higher application or drying temperatures promotes faster coalescence) and drying temperatures will also affect the amount of coalescence of the particles of the binder. After coalescence of the polymer particles, it may be desirable in some applications to crosslink the polymers. This can be achieved via a variety of temperature, radiation, etc., activated crosslinking reactions well known to the industry. Most crosslinking reactions increase the tensile strength of the polymer itself but not the adherence between the binder and the fibers. Some crosslinking reactions may increase binder to fiber adherence.
The failure mode in the tensile properties (both dry and wet) will vary between fracture of the fibers, release of the fibers from the binder, and fracture in the binder under the high stress. If failure occurs at the fiber to binder interface or within the binder, this will allow the fibers to slide past each other and will eventually fracture the construction. It was unexpected that the dispersible polyisocyanates significantly increase wet tensile strength and the ratios of wet:dry tensile strength of the fibrous constructions. The poly(alkyleneoxide) of the dispersible polyisocyanates is typically seen as a surfactant. Typically, surfactants reduce adhesion of binder to fibers. Similarly, it was unexpected that the blocked polyisocyanates increase wet tensile strength and the ratio of wet:dry tensile strength. The data indicates that the wet tensile strength and wet:dry tensile strength ratios increase before the normal deblocking temperatures for the blocked isocyanate are even achieved. The precure increase in tensile strength suggests something other than simple crosslinking of the binder phase is occurring and causing the increased tensile strength and improved ratio of weight tensile to dry tensile strength.
The following examples illustrate the operation of the invention with various commercially available polymers (acrylic and styrene-butadiene). Tensile properties were evaluated using commercial Whatman® 3MM Chr Chromatography paper as the fibrous construction (base paper). The substrate was saturated on a padder using 10 psi pressure. The binder bath solids were approximately 30%. The sheets were dried after binder application on a steam can for one minute at 99° C. The dry polymer binder add-on was generally about 30% based on the weight of the substrate. The paper was conditioned at 21° C. and 50% relative humidity prior to testing for dry tensile strength and elongation. Paper properties were tested on the as-dried paper and after aging (curing) for three-minutes at temperatures of 121° C., 149° C., 177° C., or 204° C. Tensile properties were evaluated using a Thwing-Albert Intelect II tensile tester. One inch wide samples were die cut in the machine direction and pulled at twelve inches per minute using a two inch gauge length. Wet tensile was evaluated after soaking the samples for twenty minutes at room temperature in a 1% Tritone® X-100 in water solution. An average of testing four samples was recorded for each polymer.
TABLE 1
Acrylic Latex Modified with Dispersible and Blocked Polyisocyanate
Cure
Cure
Dry Tensile
Wet Tensile
Wet/Dry
Time
Temp
Strength
Elongation
Strength
Elongation
Tensile
Binder
min
° C.
kN/m
%
kN/m
%
Ratio
23.25 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.23
9.40
0.95
7.06
0.08
3
121
11.07
9.04
1.43
8.90
0.13
3
149
11.13
8.42
3.25
11.52
0.29
3
177
11.40
8.65
5.55
12.10
0.49
3
204
9.14
6.33
5.13
8.65
0.56
24.57 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.58
9.21
4.86
12.60
0.42
0.25% Bayhydur XP-7063
3
121
11.44
8.48
4.93
11.79
0.43
3
149
11.79
8.29
5.80
13.32
0.49
3
177
11.75
736
6.46
12.18
0.55
3
204
9.76
5.33
5.47
8.44
0.56
24.30 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.61
8.71
5.91
12.27
0.51
0.73% Bayhydur XP-7063
3
121
11.77
7.86
6.33
12.19
0.54
3
149
12.38
7.91
6.88
14.58
0.56
3
177
12.17
7.03
7.14
12.45
0.59
3
204
10.33
5.75
6.45
8.82
0.62
23.49 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
10.85
9.23
1.08
6.27
0.10
0.23 wt % Repearl MF
3 121
10.99
9.11
1.99
9.39
0.18
3
149
11.30
8.85
4.84
11.60
0.43
3
177
10.99
8.35
5.42
11.36
0.49
3
204
10.27
7.27
6.25
11.61
0.61
24.20 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.01
8.61
1.39
7.19
0.13
0.73 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
11.05
8.44
2.62
9.03
0.24
3
149
11.85
8.95
6.81
12.93
0.57
3
177
11.83
8.31
7.40
13.75
0.63
3
204
11.07
7.57
7.37
11.53
0.67
Bath solids - 33-35%, Binder Add-on 32% +/− 2%
TABLE 2
Styrene-Butadiene Latex Modified with Dispersible and Blocked Polyisocyanate
Cure
Dry Tensile
Wet Tensile
Wet/Dry
Time
Temp
Strength
Elongation
Strength
Elongation
Tensile
Binder
min
° C.
kN/m
%
kN/m
%
Ratio
21.88 wt % Good-
RT
8.81
5.66
0.65
1.70
0.07
Rite SB-1168
3
121
9.91
6.62
2.99
7.16
0.30
3
149
11.59
7.96
5.01
9.17
0.43
3
177
11.54
7.00
5.45
8.20
0.47
3
204
8.95
4.77
3.99
5.27
0.45
22.02 wt % Good-
RT
8.76
5.70
0.79
1.77
0.09
Rite SB-1168
3
121
11.00
7.69
3.63
8.07
0.33
0.22 wt % Repearl
3
177
12.29
7.46
6.81
8.77
0.55
MF
3
204
9.02
4.73
4.82
5.87
0.53
22.35 wt % Good-
3
RT
8.86
5.70
0.84
1.77
0.09
Rite SB-1168
3
121
11.33
7.21
4.13
8.61
0.36
0.67 wt % Repearl
3
149
13.19
8.27
7.58
10.70
0.57
MF
3
177
12.78
7.59
8.00
9.99
0.63
3
204
9.86
4.67
5.69
5.78
0.58
22.78 wt % Good-
RT
10.58
7.72
0.51
1.71
0.05
Rite SB-1177
3
121
11.00
7.93
1.48
4.41
0.13
3
149
11.47
7.93
3.80
8.64
0.33
3
177
11.52
7.68
5.20
8.06
0.45
3
204
8.39
4.01
3.82
4.96
0.46
22.02 wt % Good-
RT
10.89
7.47
0.68
2.22
0.06
Rite SB-1177
3
121
11.66
7.68
2.64
6.70
0.23
0.22 wt % Repearl
3
149
11.93
7.97
6.29
9.07
0.53
MF
3
204
8.69
4.01
4.43
5.44
0.51
22.46 wt % Good-
RT
11.02
7.21
0.87
2.61
0.08
Rite SB-1177
3
121
12.01
8.09
3.36
7.60
0.28
0.67 wt % Repearl
3
149
12.61
8.51
6.72
10.80
0.53
MF
3
177
12.40
7.76
7.46
9.71
0.60
3
204
9.44
4.33
5.15
5.66
0.55
Bath solids - 33-35% by weight polymer
Binder Add-on 32% +/− 2% based on fiber matt weight
TABLE 3
Acrylic Latex Modified with Dispersible and Blocked Polyisocyanate
Cure
Cure
Dry Tensile
Wet Tensile
Wet/Dry
Time
Temp
Strength
Elongation
Strength
Elongation
Tensile
Binder
min
° C.
kN/m
%
kN/m
%
Ratio
23.02 wt % Hycar 26469
RT
10.51
7.51
1.13
5.52
0.11
3
121
10.53
7.21
2.75
8.95
0.26
3
149
11.40
8.15
4.50
10.70
0.39
3
177
11.49
8.00
5.87
10.90
0.51
3
204
10.30
6.65
5.41
9.02
0.53
21.72 wt % Hycar 26469
RT
10.44
7.47
1.29
5.77
0.12
0.22 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
10.93
7.55
3.49
9.96
0.32
3
149
11.70
7.85
5.25
11.00
0.45
3
177
11.67
7.71
6.58
10.60
0.56
3
204
11.19
6.73
6.44
9.09
0.58
21.77 wt % Hycar 26469
RT
10.63
7.34
1.56
6.62
0.15
0.65 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
11.51
7.54
4.26
10.30
0.37
3
149
11.96
8.05
6.27
11.30
0.52
3
177
12.15
7.92
7.41
10.80
0.61
3
204
11.03
6.11
7.34
9.67
0.67
21.94 wt % Hycar 26106
RT
14.92
5.88
2.71
4.45
0.18
3
121
15.71
6.39
7.16
7.61
0.46
3
149
16.32
6.67
8.83
7.65
0.54
3
177
15.27
5.38
7.97
7.40
0.52
3
204
12.61
3.05
5.08
4.09
0.40
21.94 wt % Hycar 26106
RT
15.10
5.69
3.03
4.52
0.20
0.22 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
15.73
6.16
7.48
7.93
0.48
3
149
17.09
6.90
9.35
5.89
0.55
3
177
16.04
5.70
9.53
7.76
0.59
3
204
13.38
3.46
6.37
4.85
0.48
21.94 wt % Hycar 26106
RT
15.04
6.04
2.92
5.52
0.19
0.67 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
16.11
6.28
7.79
8.95
0.48
3
149
16.71
6.24
9.18
10.70
0.55
3
177
16.43
6.02
10.09
10.90
0.61
3
204
13.27
3.51
7.27
9.02
0.55
Bath solids - 33-35% by wt.
Binder Add-on 32% +/− 2% based on weight of fiber matt
TABLE 4
Fibers Substrate with Blocked Isocyanate, Latex, and Blend of Latex with Blocked Isocyanate
Cure
Cure
Dry Tensile
Wet Tensile
Wet/Dry
Time
Temp
Strength
Elongation
Strength
Elongation
Tensile
Binder
min
° C.
kN/m
%
kN/m
%
Ratio
0.45 wt. % Repearl MF
RT
4.35
2.14
0.51
1.67
0.12
3
121
4.49
2.13
0.91
1.99
0.20
3
149
5.31
2.53
1.82
3.37
0.34
3
177
5.04
2.18
2.09
3.46
0.42
3
204
4.92
1.95
2.53
4.09
0.52
1.43 wt % Repearl MF
RT
3.54
1.53
0.46
1.75
0.13
3
121
4.08
1.85
1.05
2.52
0.26
3
149
4.20
1.75
2.43
3.95
0.58
3
177
5.28
2.23
2.79
4.17
0.53
3
204
5.50
1.18
2.77
3.94
0.50
25.5 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.10
7.6
1.08
4.15
0.10
3
121
11.54
7.6
1.63
5.59
0.14
3
149
11.59
7.17
3.62
9.48
0.31
3
177
11.64
7.16
5.93
10.01
0.51
3
204
9.48
5.08
5.12
6.79
0.54
25.35 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.85
7.74
2.82
7.84
0.24
0.25 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
12.06
7.87
5.49
8.69
0.46
3
149
12.21
7.6
5.75
10.66
0.47
3
177
11.56
7.02
6.75
10.56
0.58
3
204
9.86
6.07
5.54
6.8
0.55
25.12 wt % Hycar 26552
RT
11.93
7.42
3.57
9.38
0.30
0.75 wt % Repearl MF
3
121
11.93
7.69
4.70
9.77
0.39
3
149
12.38
7.84
6.62
10.95
0.54
3
177
12.06
7.07
7.55
10.82
0.63
3
204
9.86
4.89
5.67
6.8
0.58
Hycar ® 26552 is a commercially available acrylic latex with an acid number of approximately 23 ml of 1 N KOH/g of sample, glass transition temperature of −15° C. and solids content of 47.5% available from Noveon, Inc., 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44141-3247.
Repearl ™ MF is a commercially available blocked isocyanate supplied as a dispersion with active content of approximately 29%, available from Mitsubishi International Corporation, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022. Its debolking termperature is believed to be about 135° C.
Bayhydur ® XP-7063 is a commercially available water-dispersible polyisocyanate based on hexamethylene diisocyanate available from Bayer Corporation, 100 Bayer Road, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15205.
Good-Rite ® SB-1168 is a commercially available self crosslinking styrene-butadiene latex with an acid number of approximately 5, glass transition temperature of −6° C. and solids content of 50.0% available from Noveon, Inc., 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44141-3247.
Good-Rite ® SB-1177 is a commercially available styrene butadiene latex with an acid number of approximately 25, glass transition temperature of −23° C. and solids content of 52.0% available from Noveon, Inc., 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 4414 1-3247.
Hycar ® 26469 is a commercially available acrylic latex with an acid number of approximately 18, glass transition temperature of −4° C. and solids content of 47.5% available from Noveon, Inc., 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44141-3247.
Hycar ® 26106 is a commercially available self-crosslinking acrylic latex with an acid number of approximately 8, glass transition temperature of +29° C. and solids content of 47.5% available from Noveon, Inc., 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44141-3247.
Hycar ® 1562x28 is a commercially available acrylonitrile-butadiene latex with a glass transition temperature of −25° C. and solids content of 41.0% available from Noveon, Inc., 9911 Brecksville Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44141-3247.
The data in the first part of Table 1 indicates that 0.25% or 0.73% of Bayhydur™ XP-7063 (water dispersible polyisocyanate) with Hycar™ 26552 (an acrylic latex) has a positive effect on wet:dry tensile strength. The samples with 0.25% or 0.73% of the polyisocyanate achieved about 0.50 wet:dry tensile after curing 3 minutes at only 149° C. or room temperature (23-25° C.) as compared with 3 minutes cure at 177° C. without the polyisocyanate. The later part of Table 1 shows a lesser benefit with the cure temperatures with 0.23% or 0.73% Repearl™ MF (blocked polyisocyanate) resulting in the 0.50 ratio of wet:dry tensile at cure temperatures of 177° and 149° C. respectively as compared to 177° for the control without a polyisocyanate.
The data in Table 2 shows the required curring temperature to achieve the 0.50 ratio of wet:dry tensile strength was achieved with 0.22% or 0.67% Repearl™ MF (blocked polyisocyanate) with Good-Rite™ SB-1168 after 3 minutes at 149° (both samples) as compared to 177° C. without the polyisocyanate. Similarly with Good-Rite™ SB-1177 the addition of the Repearl™MF polyisocyanate resulted in the cure temperature going down from 204° to 177 and 149° C. respectively to achieve the 0.50 wet:dry tensile ratio.
The data in Table 3 shows that 0.22% or 0.65% Repearl™ MF when used with Hycar™ 26469 resulted in a decrease of the required cure temperature to achieve a 0.50 ratio of wet:dry tensile from 177° to 149° C. (both samples). The results with Repearl™ with Hycar™ 26106 indicated the cure temperate to achieve 0.50 wet:dry tensile ratio remained at 149° C. with and without Repearl™ MF, a slight increase in both wet tensile and dry tensile occurred with the polyisocyanate.
The data in Table 4 illustrates the effect of using Repearl™MF as the sole binder for fibers as compared to using Repearl™MF in combination with a polymeric binder such as Hycar™ 26552 of Table 1. The controls and some duplicates of Table 4 duplicate well the results in Table 1. The amount of Repearl™MF when used as the sole binder is slightly higher (0.45 wt. % or 1.43 wt. % Repearl™MF) than when used in combination with a polymeric binder (0.25% or 0.75% Repearl™MF). The wet tensile strength of the fibers alone is considered near zero. When the Repearl™MF (blocked isocyanate) is used without high temperature curing, it is anticipated to act more as a gummy non-reactive binder than as a coupling agent (one needs to get to 135° C., deblocking temperature, to regenerate the reactive isocyanate groups). As the curing temperature of the samples with Repearl™MF increased the dry tensile strength went from 4.35 kN/m (without elevated temperature curing to 5.31 kN/m and 5.50 kN/m max., an increase of about 1 to 1.1 kN/m. Wet:dry tensile ratio did not increase to the 0.5 value with 0.45 wt. % Repearl™MF as the sole binder until the cure temperature reached 204° C. While the dry tensile strength for Repearl™MF as the sole binder showed a slight binder dosage sensitivity, over the range studied, the wet tensile strength seemed independent of binder dosage. The sample with 1.43 wt. % Repearl™MF reached a 0.50 ratio of wet:dry tensile at 149° C. cure. The wet tensile strength of the samples with Repearl™MF never got above 4.17 kN/m.
The fiber samples with a large amount of polymeric binder got significantly higher dry and wet tensile strengths (max. of 11.64 and 5.93 kN/m, respectively) than those with Repearl MF only. They also showed higher elongation at break (indicating significantly more total deformation before fracture). The samples with combinations of Repearl™MF and polymeric binder showed increases in wet:dry tensile ratio even with room temperature curing (a desirable feature as curing temperatures could be reduced and/or total binder could be reduced). Both the dry and wet tensile strengths of samples with both Repearl™MF and Hycar™ 26552 were increased over samples with either Repearl™MF alone or Hycar™ 26552 alone.
While not wishing to be bound by theory, it is anticipated that the combination of a blocked or water-dispersible polyisocyanate with a polymeric resin may result in a disproportionate amount of the polyisocyanate going to the fiber surfaces where it may compatibilize the fibers and polymer promoting more physical interaction (resulting in stronger dry and wet tensiles without deblocking the polyisocyanate). The blend of polyisocyanate and polymeric binder is much easier and cost effective to apply than a two step process where a binder or size is applied to the fibers (possibly with de-watering and drying) and then a separate binder dispersed in an aqueous phase is applied.
The fibrous constructions of this disclosure can be used in a variety of applications known for fibrous constructions and nonwovens. These include fabrics for a) reinforcing a variety of thermoplastics, thermosets, concrete, shingles, tape, etc; b) for clothing, industrial equipment, personal care products, cleaning applications; and c) paper and board applications. They can be medical nonwovens, masking tapes, sandpaper base, book covers, gasketing, wipes, liquid filter media, air/gas filter media, apparel labels, etc. The fibrous constructions can also be used for filters, ropes, and cords.
While the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that various modifications thereof will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the specification. Therefore, it is to be understood that the invention disclosed herein is intended to cover such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
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A polymeric dispersion in aqueous phase for use as a polymeric binder for paper and other nonwoven articles is described utilizing a polyisocyanate in combination with said polymeric binder to increase the ratio wet tensile/dry tensile strength. The polyisocyanate seems to be functioning by increasing the fiber to binder interaction rather than by simply increasing the strength/crosslink density of the binder. The polyisocyanate can be blocked isocyanate(s) or water dispersible isocyanate(s). The binder may or may not have isocyanate reactive species along the backbone.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/485,686, filed Jul. 13, 2006, as a continuation-in-part application and also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/706,604, filed 9 Aug. 2005, which are hereby incorporated herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Technical Field
[0003] The invention relates generally to a container and more specifically to a container such as a capsule used to deliver dosages of pharmaceuticals, medicines, vitamins, etc. to an individual.
[0004] 2. Related Art
[0005] Standard containers for pharmaceuticals or other powdered, granular, or liquid substances, so-called telescope-type capsules, include a tubular-shaped or cylindrically-shaped first part, namely the cap part, which is closed on one end and open on the other end. A tightly fitting second part of similar shape, but of smaller diameter, can be telescopically inserted into the cap part, the second part being referred to as the main part or body part. FIG. 1 shows an illustrative conventional capsule 100 including a cap 110 and a body 140 . Cap 110 includes an open end 112 and a closed end 114 . Similarly, body 140 includes an open end 142 and a closed end 144 . Open end 142 of body 140 is of a slightly smaller diameter than open end 112 of cap 110 such that body 140 may be partially inserted into cap 110 . A separation of cap 110 and body 140 is prevented by friction and/or various modifications of an exterior surface of body 140 and/or an opposed inner surface of cap 110 . For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,267 to Duynslager et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference, discloses a two-piece telescoping capsule having corresponding connection units on the cap part and body as well as protrusions on an inner surface of the cap part to increase friction between the cap part and the body.
[0006] Usually, the containers are supplied to a filling apparatus in a “prelock” condition in which the body part is telescoped only partially into the cap. The two parts are separated in the filling machine and then fully closed after the filling operation.
[0007] In addition to various locking mechanisms intended to secure the various parts of a multi-part capsule after filling, the parts may alternatively or additionally be sealed by various methods. Generally, such sealing includes the spraying with a liquid or dipping of the capsule parts in a liquid. Such liquid may itself provide adhesive and/or sealing properties. Alternatively, such liquid may result in the partial dissolution or disintegration of portions of the capsule parts, whereby the capsule parts are fused or sealed upon evaporation of the liquid. Illustrative liquid sealing methods and solutions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,721 to Bodenmann et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference. The particular liquid chosen will depend, in part, upon the composition of the capsule parts, but may include, for example, water or an alcohol.
[0008] Capsules may be constructed from a variety of film-forming agents such as gelatin, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), pullulan, etc. A number of defects have been observed in known devices, particularly deformations and microcracks in capsule walls. Deformations may result from a thinning and/or weakening of a capsule wall due to an excess of sealing fluid, which necessarily at least partially dissolves or disintegrates a material of the capsule wall.
[0009] Microcracks generally take the form of small breaks or discontinuities and almost always appear near a locking structure cap, i.e., portions of the cap and body providing a friction fit to prevent opening of the capsule. Microcracks result from stresses upon the capsule parts combined with a locally low loss on drying (LOD), i.e., low moisture content, and thus brittleness. Stresses may result, for example, from an internal capsule pressure, e.g., from the closing and/or heating of the capsule, or stresses placed upon the capsule parts themselves due to the force required to insert the capsule body into the capsule cap. The locally low LOD or brittleness may result, for example, from the presence of an alcohol vapor, which acts as a dehumidifier, in a gap between the cap and the body or from the drying of the capsule material, also attributable to an alcohol in the sealing fluid.
[0010] It has been observed that pullulan is particularly susceptible to these defects. Pullulan capsules experience higher than normal rates of failure after a sealing process, due, at least in part, to the fact that pullulan dissolves in room temperature water. Gelatin forms a phase intermediate between a solid and a liquid upon application of water, wherein the chain structure of the gelatin remains intact. In contrast, upon the application of water, pullulan transitions from a solid to a liquid. As a result, the strength of pullulan is lost locally near the sealing area. In this case, deformations may be common, resulting in the bending, swelling, or rupturing of capsules. Examples of failure include improper sealing, deformation, etc. As a result, current capsule designs are not well suited to allow for the liquid sealing of a pullulan-based multi-piece capsule.
[0011] There is, therefore, a need in the art for a multi-piece capsule design that can be sealed, such as with a conventional alcohol/water spray, and is not susceptible to deformation or failure of the capsule due to a liquid sealing process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] A container and more specifically a container such as a capsule used to deliver dosages of pharmaceuticals, medicines, vitamins, etc. to an individual is disclosed. In one embodiment, the invention includes a container comprising: a cap; a body slidably engagable inside the cap; and a fluid gap positioned between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap, wherein a first channel of the cap and a first channel of the body form a snap fit joint and a second channel of the cap and a second channel of the body form a fluid stop joint whereby a sealing fluid is substantially restricted to the fluid gap by the fluid stop joint.
[0013] A first aspect of the invention provides a container comprising: a cap; a body slidably engagable inside the cap; and a fluid gap positioned between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap, wherein a first channel of the cap and a first channel of the body form a snap fit joint characterized as free of contact with a sealing fluid and a second channel of the cap and a second channel of the body form a fluid stop joint whereby a sealing fluid is substantially restricted to the fluid gap by the fluid stop joint.
[0014] A second aspect of the invention provides a container comprising: a cap having a first channel and a second channel; a body slidably engagable inside the cap, the body having a first channel engagable with the first channel of the cap in a first position and the second channel of the cap in a second position, a second channel engagable with the second channel of the cap in the second position, and a third channel forming an entry gap adjacent an open end of the cap; and a fluid gap between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap.
[0015] A third aspect of the invention provides a container comprising: a cap having a first channel and a second channel; a body slidably engagable inside the cap, the body having a first channel engagable with the first channel of the cap in a first position and the second channel of the cap in a second position, a second channel engagable with the second channel of the cap in the second position, and a third channel forming an entry gap adjacent an open end of the cap; a fluid gap positioned between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap; and a pressure release channel, wherein the first channel of the cap and the first channel of the body form a snap fit joint, the second channel of the cap and the second channel of the body form a fluid stop joint for substantially restricting sealing fluid to the fluid gap, and the pressure release channel is located substantialily within the snap fit joint.
[0016] A fourth aspect of the invention provides a container comprising: a cap having a first channel and a second channel; a body slidably engagable inside the cap, the body having a first channel engagable with the second channel of the cap and a second channel forming an entry gap adjacent an open end of the cap; and a fluid gap between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap, wherein the second channel of the cap and a portion of the body between an open end of the body and the first channel of the body form a pre-lock joint in a first position and the second channel of the cap and the first channel of the body form a fluid stop joint for substantially restricting a sealing fluid to the fluid gap in a second position.
[0017] A fifth aspect of the invention provides a method of sealing a multi-part container comprising: providing a container having: a cap; a body slidably engagable inside the cap; and a fluid gap positioned between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap; closing the container such that a first channel of the cap and a first channel of the body are in contact and a second channel of the cap and a second channel of the body are in contact; applying a sealing fluid to the fluid gap; and drying the container.
[0018] The illustrative aspects of the present invention are designed to solve the problems herein described and other problems not discussed, which are discoverable by a skilled artisan.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] The embodiments of this invention will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, which are not drawn to scale, wherein like designations denote like elements, and wherein:
[0020] FIG. 1 shows a conventional two-piece capsule device.
[0021] FIG. 2 shows a partial cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the invention.
[0022] FIGS. 3 A-D show cross-sectional views of various embodiments of the invention.
[0023] FIG. 4 shows a partial cross-sectional view of an alternative embodiment of the invention.
[0024] FIG. 5 shows a partial cross-sectional view of a second alternative embodiment of the invention.
[0025] FIGS. 6 A-C show cross-sectional views of third and fourth alternative embodiments of the invention.
[0026] FIG. 7 shows a partial cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the invention in a prelock position.
[0027] FIGS. 8 A-B show cross-sectional side views of an alternative embodiment of the invention in prelock and closed positions, respectively.
[0028] FIGS. 9 A-B show cross-sectional side views of an alternative embodiment of the invention in prelock and closed positions, respectively.
[0029] FIGS. 10 A-B show cross-sectional side views of an alternative embodiment of the invention in prelock and closed positions, respectively.
[0030] FIGS. 11 A-B show cross-sectional side views of an alternative embodiment of the invention in prelock and closed positions, respectively.
[0031] FIGS. 12 A-B show cross-sectional side views of an alternative embodiment of the invention in prelock and closed positions, respectively.
[0032] FIG. 13 shows a flow diagram of a method of filling and sealing a container of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0033] Referring to FIG. 2 , a first illustrative embodiment of the present invention is shown. Container 200 comprises cap 210 and body 240 . Each of cap 210 and body 240 includes an open end 212 and 242 , respectively. Open end 212 , 242 may be of any number of cross-sectional shapes, including, for example, circular, ovoid, hexagonal, or square. In one preferred embodiment, each open end 212 , 242 is circular in cross-section. Open end 242 is of a slightly smaller diameter than open end 212 , such that body 240 may be at least partially inserted into cap 210 . Optionally, open end 242 may include an inward taper 243 to facilitate insertion of body 240 into cap 210 , although such a feature is not essential.
[0034] Opposite open end 212 , 242 , each of cap 210 and body 240 includes a closed end 214 , 244 . While somewhat dependent upon the cross-sectional shape of the open end, a closed end may be of any number of shapes, including, for example, hemispherical or pyrimidal. The closed ends of cap 210 and body 240 may have the same or different shapes. In one preferred embodiment, each closed end is hemispherical in shape.
[0035] The cross-sectional shapes of cap 210 and body 240 at points between their open and closed ends may be different than the cross-sectional shapes at either their open ends or closed ends. That is, the cross-sectional shape of cap 210 and/or body 240 may change between their open ends and closed ends. However, since body 240 is ultimately to be at least partially inserted into cap 210 , no cross-sectional shape of either should impede such insertion.
[0036] In order to prevent the separation of cap 210 and body 240 after capsule 200 is assembled, container 200 includes a snap fit joint 270 comprising corresponding channels 220 and 250 on cap 210 and body 240 , respectively. By “corresponding,” it is meant that channels 220 , 250 are of compatible shape and size such that one may rest atop the other. However, channels 220 , 250 need not be identical in shape or size. For example, channel 220 may have a V-shape while channel 250 may have a U-shape. Channels 220 , 250 are each preferably continuous along a circumference of cap 210 and body 240 , respectively, although one or both may also be discontinuous or segmented. Snap fit joint 270 preferably includes a radially-oriented interference gap 271 between cap 210 and body 240 of between about 20 μm and about 60 μm, and more preferably about 40 μm. Snap fit joint 270 preferably has a height (i.e., a length along an axis of container 200 ) of between about ⅙ and about ½, and more preferably between about ⅕ and about ⅓ the height of container 200 when fully closed. For example, for a size 2 container having a closed height of about 18 mm, a height of snap fit joint 272 would be between about 1 mm and about 5 mm, and more preferably between about 1.2 mm and about 2 mm. Other sizes may also be possible.
[0037] A small amount of sealing fluid 290 may enter fluid gap 260 , resulting in the partial dissolution or disintegration of a portion of cap 210 and body 240 and then a fusing of cap 210 and body 240 upon evaporation and/or removal of sealing fluid 290 . As such, the fusing of cap 210 and body 240 provides a seal that is tamperproof or tamper evident, i.e., opening container 200 after such fusing requires destruction of the seal. Fluid gap 260 preferably has a width, i.e., between an internal surface of cap 210 and an external surface of body 240 , between about 20 μm and about 120 μm, and more preferably about 40 μm. Fluid gap 260 preferably has a height (i.e., a length along an axis of container 200 ) of between about 1/10 and about ⅓, and more preferably between about ⅛ and about 2/9 a height of container 200 when fully closed. For example, for a size 2 container 200 having a closed height of about 18 mm, fluid gap 260 preferably has a height between about 2 mm and about 5 mm, and more preferably about 3 mm and about 4 mm. Other sizes may also be possible. The volume of fluid gap 260 is smaller than analogous features of known devices. This smaller volume results in less sealing fluid 290 between cap 210 and body 240 and therefore less deformation of either cap 210 or body 240 following the sealing of container 200 . Fluid gap 260 is preferably substantially uniform in width, i.e., cap 210 is preferably equally spaced from body 240 along a length of fluid gap 260 . The uniformity of fluid gap 260 thus results in less sealing fluid 290 at the open end 212 of cap 210 , as compared to the conical-shaped gaps of known devices, wherein the gap is greater nearer open end 112 ( FIG. 1 ) of cap 110 ( FIG. 1 ).
[0038] In order to prevent excess sealing fluid 290 from entering far into fluid gap 260 between cap 210 and body 240 and weakening one or both of cap 210 and body 240 , container 200 may optionally further include a fluid stop joint 272 comprising corresponding channels 222 and 252 on cap 210 and body 240 , respectively. Channels 222 , 252 are each preferably continuous along a circumference of cap 210 and body 240 , respectively, although one or both may also be discontinuous or segmented. Fluid stop joint 272 preferably includes a gap 273 between cap 210 and body 240 of between about −20 μm and about +10 μm, and more preferably about 0 μm. Fluid stop joint 272 preferably has a height (i.e., a length along an axis of container 200 ) of between about 1/9 and about 1/9, more preferably between about 1/26 and about 1/20, and most preferably about 1/21 a height of container 200 when fully closed. For example, for a size 2 container 200 having a height of about 18 mm when fully closed, fluid stop joint 272 would have a height between about 0.2 mm and about 3.5 mm, more preferably between about 0.7 mm and about 0.9 mm, and most preferably about 0.86 mm. Other sizes may also be possible.
[0039] In a particularly preferred embodiment, container 200 includes both snap fit joint 270 and fluid stop joint 272 . Such an arrangement uncouples the stress and brittleness (due to locally low LOD) defects of known devices. That is, rather than stress and brittleness affecting the same portion of container 200 , a container 200 of this embodiment that includes both a snap fit joint 270 and a fluid stop joint 272 restricts stresses to snap fit joint 270 and eliminates or reduces brittleness by restricting sealing fluid 290 (and therefore alcohol vapors) to fluid gap 260 . In addition, with such an arrangement, fluid stop joint 272 inhibits or stops the capillary action of sealing fluid 290 , resulting in less sealing fluid 290 between cap 210 and body 240 and faster, more efficient drying of container 200 .
[0040] Container 200 may optionally further include one or more pressure release channels 280 on body 240 for allowing the escape of gas within container 200 upon the insertion of body 240 into cap 210 . In one embodiment, pressure release channel 280 comprises a depression within a surface of body 240 . Pressure release channel 280 may have any number of cross-sectional shapes, including, for example, ovoid and circular. In one embodiment, pressure release channel 280 is preferably ovoid in cross-section. Preferably, pressure release channel 280 is located substantially within the area of snap fit joint 270 and is not located within fluid stop joint 272 . Such an arrangement provides a particular advantage over known capsules when used in conjunction with snap fit joint 270 and fluid stop joint 272 . In known devices, pressure release channels permit gas to escape from a capsule during the drying process, wherein the capsule is heated. The escape of gas during this step causes the formation of gas channels within the sealing area, which compromise the integrity of the seal, permitting the leaking of capsule contents and/or failure of the seal. By restricting pressure release channel 280 to the area of snap fit joint 270 and including fluid stop joint 272 , gas is allowed to escape from within container 200 as it is closed but is prevented from escaping by fluid stop joint 272 once container 200 is fully closed. As such, gas does not escape from container 200 during the drying process and gas channels (not shown) do not form in the sealing area. The result is an uninterrupted seal providing increased strength and integrity.
[0041] In addition, it has been found that deformation of body 240 and/or cap 210 may be prevented or reduced by utilizing a body 240 and/or cap 210 of increased thickness. Known containers typically include caps and bodies having wall thicknesses of approximately 100 μm. Utilizing a cap and/or body having a wall thickness of approximately 130 μm has been shown to significantly decrease container deformation.
[0042] FIGS. 3 A-D show cross-sectional views of various alternative embodiments of the invention having different cross-sectional shapes. The shapes of both cap 210 and body 240 are circular in FIG. 3A , ovoid in FIG. 3B , hexagonal in FIG. 3C , and square in FIG. 3D . It should be noted, of course, that cap 210 and body 240 may have different cross-sectional-shapes, provided that the different shapes do not impede the insertion of body 240 into cap 210 .
[0043] Referring now to FIG. 4 , an alternative embodiment of the present invention is shown, wherein container 200 further includes an additional channel 254 on body 240 . Additional channel 254 may have dimensions similar to those of channels 220 , 250 or channels 222 , 252 and is preferably located adjacent open end 212 of cap 210 . Such location of additional channel 254 results in an entry gap 262 between body 240 and open end 212 of cap 210 . Entry gap 262 preferably has a width (i.e., a space between body 240 and cap 210 ) between about 90 μm and about 200 μm, more preferably between about 110 μm and 150 μm, and most preferably about 140 μm. The inclusion of additional channel 254 provides at least three advantages. First, entry gap 262 improves the capillary action of sealing fluid 290 , drawing sealing fluid 290 into fluid gap 260 . Second, entry gap 262 enables better removal of excess sealing fluid 290 , particularly when suction is used. Third, upon heating container 200 , sealing fluid 290 is forced out of fluid gap 260 and retained within entry gap 262 rather than forming a droplet along an edge of open end 212 , as is common with known devices. The formation of such a droplet contributes to capsule deformation in known devices.
[0044] FIG. 5 shows yet another alternative embodiment of a container 200 of the present invention, wherein open end 242 of body 240 is elongated such that open end 242 contacts an inner surface of cap 210 upon complete insertion of body 240 into cap 210 . Open end 242 may still include inward taper 243 . Elongated open end 242 provides a number of advantages over known designs. First, the formation of gas channels in sealing fluid 290 , caused by the escape of gas from inside container 200 upon heating, is reduced or prevented. Second, internal pressure is substantially reduced following closing of container 200 .
[0045] Referring now to FIGS. 6 A-B, two additional alternative embodiments of a container 200 of the present invention are shown in partial cross-section. In FIG. 6A , a pillar 216 has been included on an inner surface 211 of cap 210 near open end 212 . Such pillars 216 are preferably not-continuous along inner surface 211 of cap 210 , but rather are located periodically along inner surface 211 . Such an arrangement results in “pillared areas,” as on the left side of FIG. 6A and capillary channels 218 as on the right side of FIG. 6A . Pillar 216 significantly reduces a gap 261 between cap 210 and body 240 and effectively restricts fluid gap 260 to a location further from open end 212 . As noted above, fluid gap 260 preferably has a width between about 20 μm and about 120 μm, and more preferably about 40 μm. However, pillar 216 preferably changes this width to between an interference of about 30 μm and a gap of about 5 μm, and preferably to an interference of about 25 μm. The inclusion of one or more such pillars provides a number of benefits over known designs. First, pillars 216 result in less total sealing fluid 290 at open end 212 , resulting in less dissolution or disintegration and therefore less deformation at open end 212 . Second, where pillars 216 are located, little or no sealing fluid 290 is present at open end 212 . Third, pillars 216 increase the strength of cap 210 , specifically, and container 200 , generally, in an area that is typically the weakest location in known designs. Fourth, the capillary channels 218 formed between pillars 216 enhance the capillary action of sealing fluid 290 , drawing it further into fluid gap 260 .
[0046] In FIG. 6B , pillar(s) 216 is/are located further inwardly from open end 212 . Such an arrangement provides the increased strength noted above while permitting more sealing fluid 290 immediately beneath open end 212 than the embodiment in FIG. 6A . Such an arrangement may be beneficial, for example, where a stronger seal is required at open end 212 . Pillars 216 may similarly be located elsewhere along an inner surface of cap 210 or an exterior surface of body 240 where increased strength, increased friction, and/or reduced sealing fluid are desirable, such as within fluid stop joint 272 ( FIGS. 2-4 ).
[0047] FIG. 6C shows a cross-sectional view of a particularly preferred embodiment, wherein container 200 includes a plurality of evenly-spaced pillars 216 on the inner surface 211 of cap 210 , forming a plurality of evenly-spaced capillary channels 218 . Most preferably, container 200 includes six evenly-spaced pillars 216 , as shown. Gap 261 between each pillar 216 and body 240 is significantly reduced as compared to fluid gap 260 . It should be recognized that one or more pillars 216 may similarly be located on an exterior surface 241 of body 240 .
[0048] As noted above, capsules are often supplied to a filling apparatus in a prelock condition in which the body part is telescoped only partially into the cap. FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the present invention in such a prelock condition. Specifically, body 240 is telescopically inserted into cap 210 to the point at which channel 250 of body 240 , which corresponds to channel 220 of cap 210 when container 200 is fully closed, contacts channel 222 of cap 210 . That is, when inserted to the prelock position, the channel of body 240 that ultimately makes up part of snap fit joint 270 is instead inserted only as far as channel 222 , the cap 210 component of fluid stop joint 272 . Other prelock positions are possible, of course. For example, body 240 may be inserted into cap 210 such that channel 222 of cap 210 contacts an exterior surface (rather than channel 250 ) of body 240 .
[0049] In such an embodiment, i.e., one that includes both a snap fit joint 270 and a fluid stop joint 272 , the force necessary to disassociate cap 210 and body 240 from the prelock position may be reduced compared to known devices. This decrease in required force is attributable, in part, to the uncoupling of the stress and fluid stop functions noted above. In other words, while known devices typically utilize a single joint to both secure the cap and body and limit the egress of a sealing fluid, those functions are separate in an embodiment of the present invention having both a snap fit joint 270 and a fluid stop joint 272 . As a result, the dimensions of channels making up snap fit joint 270 and fluid stop joint 272 (i.e., 220 , 250 and 222 , 252 , respectively) may be adjusted such that an interaction of channels 222 and 250 , as shown in FIG. 7 , is a more loose connection than that resulting from the interaction of channels 220 and 250 and/or channels 222 and 252 , as shown in FIGS. 2-4 . The result, in a particularly preferred embodiment, is a container 200 with a lower prelock strength, as compared to known devices.
[0050] Prelock strength may similarly be lowered using any of a number of cap and body arrangements according to the invention. For example, FIGS. 8 A-B show cross-sectional side views of a capsule 300 according to an alternative embodiment of the invention in a prelock and closed configuration, respectively. In FIGS. 8 A-B, body 340 is shown having three channels: first channel 350 , second channel 352 , and third channel 354 , similar to the arrangement shown in FIGS. 4-5 . However, first channel 350 is both higher and shallower than shown in FIGS. 4-5 . Cap 310 includes a first channel 320 and second channel 322 . As shown in FIGS. 8 A-B, first channel 320 of cap 310 is substantially triangular in cross-section, although this is not essential.
[0051] The increased height and decreased depth of first channel 350 of body 340 results in a looser connection between first channel 350 of body 340 and second channel 322 of cap 310 when in a prelock position, such as that shown in FIG. 8A . More specifically, an interference between body 340 and second channel 322 of cap 310 is between about −20 μm and about 50 μm, preferably between about −10 μm and 30 μm, and most preferably about 19 μm. Accordingly, a force required to remove cap 310 from body 340 , when in a prelock position such as that shown in FIG. 8A , is preferably between about 5 grams and about 55 grams, preferably between about 5 grams and about 40 grams, and most preferably between about 10 grams and about 30 grams (as an average from a measurement of 10 parts).
[0052] In FIG. 8B , capsule 300 is shown in a closed position, wherein first channel 320 of cap 310 and first channel 350 of body 340 form a snap fit joint 370 and second channel 322 of cap 310 and second channel 352 of body 340 form a fluid stop joint 372 . As in other embodiments described above, snap fit joint 370 includes an interference between cap 310 and body 340 of between about −20 μm and about 60 μm, and more preferably about 40 μm.
[0053] FIGS. 9 A-B show cross-sectional side views of a capsule 400 according to another alternative embodiment of the invention. Here, body 440 contains only two channels 452 , 454 . As compared to the embodiment in FIGS. 8 A-B, the first channel 350 (FIGS. 8 A-B) has been removed. As such, in the prelock position of FIG. 9A , second channel 422 of cap 410 rests not within a channel, as in the embodiments described above, but adjacent a portion of body 440 between channel 452 and the inner taper 443 of the open end of body 440 . As can be seen in FIG. 9A , open ends of cap 410 and/or body 440 may be deflected due to frictional contact in the prelock position. The degree of such deflection will depend, in part, upon the rigidities of cap 410 and body 440 and the degree of frictional contact therebetween.
[0054] In a prelock position, an interference between second channel 422 of cap 410 and body 440 is between about 5 μm and about 80 μm, preferably between about 0 μm and 30 μm, and most preferably about 19 μm. Accordingly, a force required to remove cap 410 from body 440 , when in a prelock position such as that shown in FIG. 9A , is preferably between about 5 grams and about 55 grams, preferably between about 5 grams and about 40 grams, and most preferably between about 10 grams and about 30 grams (as an average from a measurement of 10 parts).
[0055] In a closed position, as shown in FIG. 9B , second channel 422 of cap 410 rests within channel 452 of body 440 , forming fluid stop joint 472 , as in the embodiments described above. However, unlike the embodiments above, snap fit joint 470 is formed by channel 420 of cap 410 deflecting and being deflected by a portion of body 440 between first channel 452 and inward taper 443 . The degree of such deflection will depend, in part, upon the rigidities of cap 410 and body 440 and the amount of frictional contact therebetween. However, in general, less force is required to remove cap 410 from body 440 in the closed position of FIG. 9B than in the embodiments described above. Snap fit joint 470 includes an interference between cap 410 and body 440 of between about −20 μm and about 80 μm, and more preferably about 40 μm.
[0056] Referring now to FIGS. 10 A-B, cross-sectional side views of yet another alternative embodiment of a capsule 500 according to the invention are shown. As in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 A-B, body 540 includes three channels: first channel 550 , second channel 552 , and thrid channel 554 . However, second channel 552 of body 540 is both higher and shallower than first channel 550 of body 540 . Similarly, second channel 522 of cap is both higher and shallower than first channel 520 of cap 510 and, more importantly, is both higher and shallower than first channel 550 of body 540 . As a result, in the prelock position shown in FIG. 10A , second channel 522 of cap 510 does not rest within first channel 550 of body 540 . This results in a looser connection between cap 510 and body 540 in a prelock position. More particularly, in a prelock position, there is an interference between second channel 522 of cap 510 and body 540 of between about 5 μm and about 80 μm, preferably between about 0 μm and 30 μm, and most preferably about 19 μm Accordingly, a force required to remove cap 510 from body 540 , when in a prelock position such as that shown in FIG. 10A , is preferably between about 5 grams and about 55 grams, preferably between about 5 grams and about 40 grams, and most preferably between about 10 grams and about 30 grams (as an average from a measurement of 10 parts).
[0057] FIG. 10B shows capsule 500 in a closed position. As noted above, first channel 520 of cap 510 and first channel 550 of body 540 are similar in shape, as are second channel 522 of cap 510 and second channel 552 of body 540 . Thus, snap fit joint 570 and fluid stop joint 572 are formed as in the embodiments of FIGS. 2, 4 , 5 , 7 , and 8 A-B, with correspondingly-shaped channels in the cap and body and unlike the embodiment of FIGS. 9 A-B. As a consequence, the force required to remove cap 510 from body 540 in the closed position of FIG. 10B is higher than in the embodiment of FIG. 9B .
[0058] FIGS. 11 A-B show cross-sectional side views of yet another alternative embodiment of a capsule 600 according to the invention. Body 640 includes two channels: first channel 650 and second channel 652 . However, unlike other embodiments described above, second channel 652 includes a first portion 652 A having a first depth and a second portion 652 B having a second depth less than the first depth. First portion 652 A is located closer to an open end of body 640 than is second portion 652 B.
[0059] FIG. 11A shows capsule 600 in a prelock position, wherein second channel 622 of cap 610 rests within first channel 650 of body 640 . FIG. 11B shows capsule 600 in a closed position, wherein first channel 620 of cap 610 rests within first channel 650 of body 640 , forming snap fit ring 670 , and second channel 622 of cap 610 rests within second channel 652 of body 640 , forming fluid stop ring 672 . More specifically, second channel 622 of cap 610 rests within first portion 652 A of second channel 652 of body 640 . In such an arrangement, second portion 652 B provides a void beneath an open end of cap 610 , into which a quantity of sealing fluid (not shown) may be contained. Capsule 600 is, therefore, particularly advantageous in ensuring adequate sealing of capsule 600 using a sealing fluid.
[0060] In known capsules, variations in cross-sectional shape and/or thicknesses of the cap and/or body walls can result in the cap and body touching at areas adjacent an open end of the cap, thereby prevening the entry of sealing fluid beneath the cap and providing a thorough seal. By including second portion 652 B, an adequate seal is ensured by the provision of a void beneath an open end of cap 610 into which the sealing fluid may enter.
[0061] It should be recognized that the arrangement of first and second channels on one or both of a cap and body may be applied to any number of capsule arrangements. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,721 to Bodenmann et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a tamperproof capsule having a cap and a body of approximately the same length, the diameter of each being substantially less than its length.
[0062] FIGS. 12 A-B show a capsule 700 according to such an embodiment. In FIG. 12A , cap 710 and body 740 are shown in a prelock position. Cap 710 has a length L 1 approximately equal to a length L 2 of body 740 . Similarly, each of L 1 and L 2 is greater than the diameters of cap 710 , D 1 , and body 740 , D 2 . As described above, D 2 is necessarily equal to or slightly less than D 1 . In FIG. 12B , cap 710 and body 740 of capsule 700 are shown in a closed position, wherein the similarities in length of L 1 and L 2 are more clearly observable.
[0063] In any of the embodiments of the invention, the cap and body may be comprised of any number of materials known in the art including, for example, gelatin, hydroxypropylmethylcellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, hydroxypropyl starch, and pullulan. Pullulan is a particularly preferred material. The cap and body may each be comprised of more than one material and may each be of different materials or combinations of materials.
[0064] As noted above, the cap and the body may be further sealed using a sealing fluid 290 ( FIGS. 2-5B ) capable of at least partially dissolving and/or disintegrating a portion of the cap and/or body. Preferably, such dissolving and/or disintegrating occurs in an area between the cap and body, most preferably in an area adjacent an open end 212 ( FIG. 2 ) of the cap. Any sealing fluid known in the art may be used, based upon the composition of the cap and body. Where the cap and/or body includes pullulan, a preferred sealing fluid contains at least one of water and an alcohol. A particularly preferred sealing fluid contains water and ethanol. As described below with respect to FIG. 13 , excess sealing fluid may be removed by evaporation or suction.
[0065] Referring now to FIG. 13 , a flow diagram is shown of a method of filling and sealing a container of the present invention. At step S 1 , a container according to one embodiment of the present invention is provided in a prelock position, such as that shown in FIGS. 7, 8A , 9 A, 10 A, 11 A, and 12 A. The container may be of any number of shapes and configurations, including those of the embodiments described above.
[0066] At step S 2 , the container is opened such that cap 210 ( FIG. 7 ) and body 240 ( FIG. 7 ) are not in contact. Once opened, a substance may be added to either or both of cap 210 ( FIG. 7 ) and body 240 ( FIG. 7 ) at step 53 . The container of the present invention may be used to contain any number of substances to be delivered to an individual, including, for example, a pharmaceutical, a medicine, or a vitamin. The substance may take one or more of a number of forms, including, for example, a powder, a liquid, or a solid. Preferably, the substance is added only to body 240 ( FIG. 7 ).
[0067] At step S 4 , the container is closed, whereby body 240 is inserted into cap 210 , as shown, for example, in FIG. 2 . At step S 5 , a sealing fluid 290 ( FIG. 2 ) is applied to fluid gap 260 ( FIG. 2 ) between the body and the cap. Sealing fluid at least partially dissolves and/or disintegrates at least one of the cap and the body. At-step S 6 , excess sealing fluid is optionally removed. Such removal may be accomplished, for example, by the application of a suction force to the container. Finally, at step S 7 , the container is dried to substantially remove any remaining sealing fluid and fuse the at least partially dissolved and/or disintegrated portions of the cap and the body. The drying step may include, for example, heating the container. When heating is employed in the drying step, the container is preferably heated to between about 35° C. and about 55° C.
[0068] It should be noted, of course, that a container of the present invention may be provided in an open rather than a prelock position. As such, step S 2 is unnecessary. Similarly, a container of the present invention may be provided in a closed position with a substance already contained therein. As such, steps S 2 through S 4 are unnecessary.
[0069] 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 container and more specifically a container such as a capsule used to deliver dosages of pharmaceuticals, medicines, vitamins, etc. to an individual is discussed. In one embodiment, the invention includes a container comprising: a cap; a body slidably engagable inside the cap; and a fluid gap positioned between the cap and the body adjacent an end of the cap, wherein a first channel of the cap and a first channel of the body form a snap fit joint and a second channel of the cap and a second channel of the body form a fluid stop joint whereby a sealing fluid is substantially restricted to the fluid gap by the fluid stop joint.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Fresh water is an increasingly scarce and expensive natural resource necessary to sustain life. The availability of potable or fresh water frequently is the factor which limits growth of a locality, or even growth within a locality. Not only is the treatment of potable water for consumption expensive, but treatment of the resulting waste water is also of increasing expense on account of treatment and capital costs.
Many modern large facilities, such as office buildings, hotels, stadia and the like, have a demand load for potable water which varies substantially from day to day, and even hour to hour. For example, the demand for potable water during an intermission at a stadium greatly exceeds the demand while the event is underway. Similarly, the demand for potable water on a given floor of a hotel or office building may greatly exceed the demand on other floors.
The ability to expand an existing facility, such as a hospital, is frequently limited by the availability of potable water. Furthermore, the cost of expansion is also related to the water main size which must be provided, and most localities charge access fees of one type or another based upon the meter size required to supply the facility. Frequently, expansion may only occur if the existing water main is removed and replaced by a larger one. In some instances, such as in a hospital, it is not possible to totally deprive the facility of water' thereby prohibiting expansion if the existing water supply is not sufficient.
Current design techniques utilize various factors and extrapolations for estimating the potable water demand of a given facility. Once the demand has been determined, then line size, meter size, main size and the like can be developed based upon this estimated demand. Unfortunately, such estimates are quite crude and do not take into account the wide swings in demand which occur. Furthermore, the resulting line size is generally based upon some percentage of the line size required for total estimated demand because it is accepted that total demand will only infrequently occur. The result of this is, however, that tremendous fluctuations in pressure and flow occur in response to demand, particularly as demand exceeds the percentage factor and approaches 100% demand.
A further complicating factor in sizing water lines is due to the infrequent requirements of the fire and/or water department. For example, utilization of an hydrant will have a tremendous effect on pressure in the main, thereby requiring the water department to place more pumps on line in order to keep pressure constant, or else run the risk of the water main pressure droppinq by too great an amount. Similarly, a broken water main in one location can have an effect on main pressure in another location.
The disclosed invention is a fresh water distribution control system and method which utilizes a plurality of sensors and electromagnetically operated valves in order to precisely control water supply in response to demand. The system and method make maximum utility of the existing water supply in order to smooth out the pressure and flow fluctuations which occur as demand fluctuates The system and method furthermore permit the supply to be adjusted in response to external and internal factors.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the disclosed invention is a fresh water distribution system and method which permits fresh water supply to be more precisely correlated with fresh water demand in order to permit maximum utility of existing supplies to be achieved.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system and method which permits the supply to be regulated aperiodically in response to external and internal factors affecting supply and/or demand.
The method of controlling operation of a plurality of fixtures pursuant to the invention comprises the steps of establishing a maximum fluid flow rate. A determination is then made of which of the fixtures requires operation. The fluid flow rate of the fixture requiring operation is determined. A calculation is then made of whether operation of the fixture requiring operation will cause the maximum flow rate to be exceeded. If the maximum flow rate will be exceeded, then operation of the fixture is prevented, and operation is permitted if the maximum flow rate will not be exceeded.
The method of controlling fluid flow to a plurality of fixtures operably connected to a fluid supply and with each fixture utilizing a predetermined quantity of fluid during operation and each fixture having a remotely operable valve for causing operation thereof and each valve operably associated with a controller and a detector means being operably associated with each of the fixtures for detecting usage thereof and the detector means being operably associated with the controller for signaling the need to operate the associated valve includes the steps of establishing a maximum fluid flow rate for the supply. The controller is signaled whenever the need of one of the fixtures to operate arises. The controller determines the fluid flow rate of the fixture needing operation. A determination is then made of whether any other fixture is operating. A calculation is then made of the fluid flow of the operating fixtures and the fluid flow of the fixture requiring operation in order to generate a required fluid flow. The required fluid flow is compared with the maximum fluid flow. Operation of the fixture requiring operation is permitted if required fluid flow is less than maximum fluid flow, and operation is prevented if required fluid flow exceeds maximum fluid flow.
The method of operating a plumbing system comprises the steps of providing a fresh water supply and a sewage drain. A plurality of urinals are provided, with each urinal having an inlet in fluid communication with the supply and an outlet in fluid communication with the drain. A plurality of toilets are provided, and each toilet has an inlet in fluid communication with the supply and an outlet in fluid communication with the drain. A plurality of sinks are provided, each sink having an inlet in fluid communication with the supply and an outlet in fluid communication with the drain. A maximum water flow for the supply is established. A determination is made of which of the sinks, toilets and/or urinals requires operation. An inquiry is then made into whether any other sink, toilet and/or urinal is operating. A calculation is then made of the water flow required for the sink, toilet and/or urinal which is operating and to this is added the water flow required for the sink, toilet or urinal requiring operation in order to determine required flow. Required flow is then compared with maximum flow. The sink, toilet or urinal requiring operation is operated if required flow is less than maximum flow, and is prevented from operating if required flow exceeds maximum flow.
The method of controlling a fluid system comprises the steps of providing a plurality of first, second and third fluid handling means in operable association with a fluid source and a fluid drain, each of the fluid handling means requiring a predetermined volume of fluid to operate and the first means requiring the capability of operation at all non-emergency times. A maximum fluid flow rate for the supply is established. From the maximum fluid flow rate is subtracted the fluid flow required in the event each of the first means are simultaneously operated and thereby a modified flow rate is derived. A determination is then made of which of the second and/or third means requires operation. A calculation is made as to whether operation of the second and/or third means requiring operation will cause the modified fluid flow rate to be exceeded. Operation of the second and/or third means requiring operation is permitted if the modified fluid flow rate will not be exceeded, and is prevented if the modified fluid flow rate will be exceeded.
A fluid control system in combination with a fluid supply and a fluid drain interconnected by a plurality of first, second and third fluid operating means wherein each of the fluid operating means is operable through a remotely controlled valve comprises a plurality of sensors, with each sensor for operable association with one of the fluid operating means for determining the need of the associated fluid operating means to operate. A control means is for operable association with each of the sensors for identifying the fluid operating means requiring operation and for operable association with each of the valves for causing selective operation thereof. The control means includes first means for establishing a maximum fluid flow rate for the supply, calculating means for determining whether operation of the fluid operating means requiring operation will cause the maximum flow rate to be exceeded, and second means for causing operation of the valve of the fluid operating means requiring operation if the maximum flow rate will not be exceeded, and for preventing operation thereof if the maximum fluid flow rate will be exceeded.
A plumbing system comprises a fresh water supply and a waste water drain. A plurality of water operating means are interposed between the supply and the drain, each operating means including a remotely operable valve means for establishing fluid communication between the supply and the drain. A plurality of sensor means are provided, each sensor means positioned proximate one of the operating means for determining when the associated operating means requires operation. A control means is operably associated with each of the sensor means and with the valve means and includes means for identifying the water operating means requiring operation. The control means includes first means for establishing a maximum fresh water flow rate, calculating means for determining whether operation of the operating means requiring operation will cause the maximum flow rate to be exceeded, and second means for causing operation of the valve of the operating means requiring operation if the maximum flow rate will not be exceeded, and for preventing operation if the maximum flow rate will be exceeded.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent in view of the following description and drawings of the above described invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other objects and advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:,
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a lavatory pursuant to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view partially in schematic of a sink used in the lavatory of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a plurality of lavatories controlled pursuant to the invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the control system of the invention;
FIG. 5 is a logic diagram of the control system of FIGS. 3 and 4; and,
FIG. 6 is an elevational view, partially in section, of a building utilizing the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Lavatory L, as best shown in FIG. 1, has a plurality of toilets T, sinks S and urinals U. While four urinals U and four toilets T are disclosed, those skilled in the art will understand that the invention may be practiced with a greater or fewer number of each, dependent upon the facility involved. Similarly, while three sinks S are disclosed, a greater or fewer number may be utilized pursuant to the invention. Also, while I have disclosed use of the present invention with toilets, sinks and urinals, those skilled in the art will understand that the invention may be practiced with any or all of these, or with other water utilizing fixtures, such as showers, bathtubs, bidets and the like. Furthermore, it is not necessary pursuant to the invention for each of the water operating means to be located in proximity to the others, and it is merely required that there be a plurality of water operating means operable through a Common fresh water supply.
Each of the toilets T, sinks S and urinals U has a detector D positioned proximate thereto in order to determine when the particular toilet T, sink S or urinal U has been used or otherwise requires operation. I prefer that the detectors D be infrared detectors which are based upon generation and detection of a beam of electromagnetic radiation. Other detectors are usable with the invention, but I prefer infrared detectors because an invisible beam of light is utilized. Furthermore, infrared detectors may easily be adjusted with regard to sensitivity and point of detection.
Sink S of FIG. 2 is an exemplary disclosure of the utilization of the detector D in order to provide fresh water from a supply and waste water to a drain. Those skilled in the art will understand that the toilets T and urinals U have similar operating mechanisms analogous to those provided with sink S, and it is belieVed that no further discussion thereof is necessary.
Sink S has a bowl 10 and a top 12 to which detector D is mounted. It can be noted in FIG. 2 that detector D has an oval-shaped eye 14 which is not opaque to infrared radiation in order to permit the beam to be focused onto some point within the area of bowl 10 in order to determine when utilization of sink S is required. Naturally, sink S has a spout 16 and a drain 18.
Fresh water supply lines 20 and 22 are connected with solenoid valves 24 and 26, respectively, and from there to faucet 16 through lines 28 and 30. Preferably, one of the fresh water lines 20 and 22 supplies cold water, while the other of the lines supplies hot water so that warm water issues from faucet 16 into bowl 10. Naturally, toilets T or urinals U would not require a hot water supply line, and would merely require a single solenoid for operation.
Transformer 32 supplies operating power to the solenoid valves 24 and 26 through control unit 34. Conduits 36 and 38 extend between control unit 34 and solenoid valves 24 and 26, respectively, and house the wiring which permits the transformer 32 to supply operating power to the solenoids 24 and 26. The detector D is similarly operably connected to the control unit 34 through conduit 40 so that the need to operate faucet 16 can be signaled to control unit 34, and from there through line 42 to central controller 44. The controller 44, which includes a microprocessor or other similar programmable device, determines, as will be further explained, whether the faucet 16 can be operated and, if so, transmits an operating signal through line 46 to control unit 34. In this way, the faucet 16 can only operate when the controller 44 appropriately instructs the control unit 34, and thereby the solenoid valves 24 and 26.
FIG. 4 discloses a schematic diagram illustrating how the controller 44 determines whether the faucet 16, or any of the toilets T or urinals U may be operated. In this regard, the particular detector D, which is operably associated with the fixture, signals the controller 44 that there is a need for operation of that fixture. I prefer that the sinks S always be operable, except in emergency conditions, when the hands of a user are placed under the faucet 16. Operation of the toilets T and urinals U, on the other hand, should be delayed, at least until after usage thereof has been completed. This prevents excessive usage of water.
Once the detector D of a particular fixture T, S or U senses a need for operation, then the controller 44 is notified. The controller 44 then determines whether any other fixture is operating and if none are, operation of the particular fixture is normally authorized. Should some other fixture be operating, or should there be insufficient water supply for operation, then the operation signal is stored in memory. The operation requests stored in memory are, preferably, sequentially arranged in the order in which the requests are transmitted by the detectors D. This assures that any fixture which operates while any other fixture is prevented from operating will not be capable of subsequent operation until such time as the fixture in memory is operated. In other words, the memory operates on a first in, first out principle which assures that the fixtures operate in the order in which the operation requests are received.
FIG. 5 illustrates a logical flow chart of the algorithm utilized by the controller 44 in determining whether a particular fixture T, S or U may operate when request is made. Naturally, the system is energized and a maximum flow rate for the potable water supply is input by the operator. The algorithm then determines whether any of the solenoid valves requires operation based upon the operation requests transmitted by the detectors D. Should no operation be requested, then the algorithm determines whether the maximum flow rate is being exceeded. If it is, then an alarm is sounded. I have found that the flow limit may be exceeded if a particular solenoid valve does not properly close and thereby stop water flow. This may occur because I utilize a timer for controlling operation of the solenoid valves once the operation signal is transmitted. Therefore, a particular solenoid valve may remain open and this will not be detected by the controller 44 because the controller 44 assumes that the particular solenoid closes when the timer runs out.
Should there be a valve operation request, then the algorithm identifies the valve of interest and queries whether any other valves are operating. If none are operating, then the algorithm determines the water flow required to operate the particular fixture requesting operation and then determines whether sufficient capacity is available from the supply. If there is sufficient capacity, then the particular valve is caused to be operated. Should there not be sufficient capacity, then the operation request is stored so that the valve may be operated when sufficient capacity is available.
Should some other valve be operating, then the algorithm determines the required water flow by adding the water flow of the valves which are operatinq to the water flow of the valve which is requesting operation. The algorithm compares the required water flow with the maximum water flow previously input and, if the maximum flow rate will not be exceeded by combined operation, then the particular valve is caused to operate. If, on the other hand, the required water flow would exceed the maximum flow rate, then the operation request is stored in memory.
Even though valve operation requests are stored in memory, thereby indicating insufficient flow capacity in the supply, the algorithm still queries whether the maximum flow limit is being exceeded. If the maximum flow limitation is being exceeded, such as by a solenoid valve not properly closing, then an alarm is again sounded. The alarm may be audible or visual and will, preferably, be perceivable in some control room remotely located from the lavatory L wherein the controllers 34 are positioned. A technician can then proceed to the lavatory in order to determine the cause of the malfunction and take appropriate corrective action. Preferably, the flow rate is determined by some type of flow meter in line with the fresh water supply line.
I have found that a sink requires approximately one gallon per minute of water in order to operate. A urinal, on the other hand, requires approximately three gallons per minute and a toilet approximately five gallons per minute. The varying flow requirements of the fixtures T, S and U require that the algorithm of FIG. 5 first determine the type of fixture requiring operation in order to calculate required water flow . Merely determining the number of fixtures requiring operation would not be satisfactory, or could be so if flows were uniform.
FIG. 6 discloses office building 0 having floors 8, 50, 52, 54, 56 and 58. Each of the floors has a corresponding lavatory 60, 62, 64, 66, 68 and 70 and the lavatories are similar to the lavatory L of FIG. 1. Fresh water main 72 has an hydrant 74 and a meter 76 in order to determine the water consumption of the office building 0. Naturally, the line 72 feeds each of the lavatories 60, 62, 4, 66, 68 and 70 through appropriate lines. Sewage line 78 leads from the office building 0 in order to communicate waste water from the lavatories 60, 62, 64, 66, 68 and 70 to an appropriate treatment facility.
I have found that the lavatories of an office building may all be controlled through a central controller, rather than requiring a single controller for each particular lavatory. For this reason, as best shown in FIG. 3, I arrange the urinals U, toilets T and, where appropriate, the sinks S into a plurality of groups or operating units, with each group being associated with a particular lavatory or floor. For example, groups 1 and 2 of FIG. 3 represent the toilets T and urinals U, respectively, of a particular lavatory. Groups 3 and 4, on the other hand, represent the toilets T and urinals U, respectively, of some other lavatory, while groups 5 and 6 represent the toilets T and urinals U, respectively, of yet a further lavatory. It can be noted in FIG. 3 that there is no requirement that the groups have the same number of toilets and/or urinals and, further, there is no need for there to be a Common number of toilets and/or urinals or other fixture in a particular group. Likewise, the laVatories may be on various floors or on the same floor depending upon the particular building. It is not unusual for there to be a particular water demand in one part of a building which substantially differs from the demand in some other part, and the system of FIG. 3 can accommodate these competing demands in a manner which maximizes water utility for each and for main 72.
It can be noted in FIG. 3 that the sinks S have been omitted, although they would also be appropriately grouped. This is because I prefer that the sinks S always be capable of operation in view of the need to maintain sanitary, hygienic conditions. It is conventional for urinals to be periodically operated in conventional buildings, and operation of toilets can also be temporarily delayed. Sinks, however, should always be capable of operation except in cases of dire emergency.
It can further be noted in FIG. 3 that the central controller, which corresponds to the controller 44 of FIG. 2, has an input from the fire department. Similarly, there is an input from the local water company. Other inputs may be utilized where appropriate and may communicate with controller 44 by radio, telephone line or the like. The water company and the fire department may advise the central controller of an unusual demand load on the water main 72, such as by the need to operate hydrant 74. The controller 44, when so advised, can thereby automatically decrease the maximum flow for any on all of the groups as a means for maintaining constant pressure and flow. This will assure satisfactory operation of the toilets T, sinks S and urinals U, while also permitting hydrant 74 to operate.
As noted, the central controller 44 first establishes a maximum fresh water flow rate for each of the supply lines leading to the lavatories and/or groups under control. There is no requirement that the maximum flow rate for the lavatories or groups be uniform and, instead, it is preferred that the maximum flow rate for each particular lavatory or group be set based upon its own particular demand. Once the maximum water flow rate has been established, then the central controller 44 may then cause selective operation of any solenoid valve requiring operation based upon the available supply. Furthermore, the controller 44 can, when appropriate, prevent operation of the urinals U, toilets T or even sinks S if an emergency arises. Furthermore, the controller 44 may be programmed to delay operation of a fixture for a selected time, even if supply is available.
Those skilled in the art will understand that utilization of the controller 44 to regulate the maximum flow permitted in any particular supply line is one means of assuring maximum utilization of the available fresh water supply. This capability can be utilized to permit a particular facility to expand even though the available water main is not capable of supplying all of the water which would be required for conventional plumbing operation. Instead, the controller 44 can be programmed to spread out the available water supply by appropriate regulation of the solenoid valves utilized to operate the various fixtures. For example, assuming that a particular water main has a capacity of 100 gallons per minute and the existing facility, based upon conventional estimating techniques, is utilizing 75 gallons a minute then the controller may be programmed to permit the addition of yet a further facility consuming, by conventional estimating techniques, 75 gallons per minute. The controller can regulate utilization of the available 100 gallons per minute in a manner which substantially equates to the prior estimate of 150 gallons per minute. This is possible because the controller 44 can prevent operation of certain of the fixtures for a relatively short period when demand exceeds supply. This delay would be almost imperceptible to the user.
As noted, I prefer that certain of the fixtures, such as the sinks S, always be capable of operation except in certain extreme emergency conditions. In order to permit this to occur, then the water flow which would be required to operate each of the sinks S is subtracted from the maximum water flow rate input to the controller 44 by the operator. The calculating means of controller 44 essentially disregards any operation request from a detector D of a sink S and permits the associated valves of the sink S to be immediately operated. The controller 44 operates the toilets T and the urinals U based upon the modified maximum flow rate which is derived by subtraction of the flow rate required to operate the sinks S. Naturally, as noted, control over the sinks S may be appropriate in emergency conditions. Similarly, it may also be appropriate to assure operation of other fixtures, such as showers, bathtubs or the like.
While this invention as been described as having a preferred design, it is understood that it is capable of further modifications uses and/or adaptations thereof and following in general the principle of the invention and including such departures as come within known or customary practice in the art to which the invention pertains.
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The method of controlling operation of a plurality of fixtures comprises the steps of establishing a maximum liquid flow rate and determining which of the fixtures required operation. A determination is then made of the liquid flow rate of the fixture requiring operation and a calculation is made of whether operation of the fixture requiring operation will cause the maximum flow rate to be exceeded. The fixture requiring operation is caused to operate if the maximum flow rate will not be exceeded and is prevented from operating if the maximum flow rate will be exceeded.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device for drying excess liquid developer and an apparatus for forming an image utilizing the drying device.
The liquid-process type image-forming apparatus, which produces a developed image by using liquid developer, has some important advantages. Firstly, it is able to realize high quality images owing to fine toner particles of sub-microns in diameter. Secondly, it is economical and is able to realize a quality comparable to that of printing (including offset printing), because sufficient image density can be obtained with a small amount of toner. Thirdly, it is able to accomplish energy saving because the toner can be fixed to a paper at a relatively low temperature, etc.
As part of an image forming process with the above-mentioned liquid-process, pressure transfer method can be used to transfer the toner image formed on a photosensitive member to a medium (such as paper) to be transferred to. In this method, adherence of the toner particles is utilized and the photosensitive member is brought into contact under pressure with the medium to be transferred to. With regard to the pressure transfer method, it has been confirmed that transferring can be effectively carried out if the liquid carrier on the surface of the developed image is sufficiently removed. On the other hand, transferring efficiency deteriorates if the surface of the photosensitive member is dampened with the liquid carrier when transferring process is carried out. Therefore, to improve transferring efficiency, excess liquid carrier on the image should be removed sufficiently before transferring process is carried out.
Recently, cutting down the time for removing the excess liquid carrier is required to reduce the time for the image forming process. To remove the excess liquid carrier on the developed image rapidly, a nozzle block 7 has been proposed as shown in FIG. 10 . The nozzle block 7 has plural steps of nozzles 7 b blowing drying air into a covering wall 7 a along the surface of the photosensitive member 6 , and faces to the photosensitive member 6 between the developing device 8 and the pressure-transferring device 9 . In the gap between the covering wall 7 a and the photosensitive member 6 , the nozzle block 7 forms a drying passage 7 c for the drying air to flow through. High speed drying air is blown from the plural steps of the nozzles 7 b . The excess liquid carrier on the developed image is, therefore, rapidly removed by blowing the high speed drying air into the drying passage 7 c.
However, further cut-down of the time for removing the excess carrier is required for further speedup of the image forming apparatus and improvement of the image quality today. Therefore, in spite of using the above-mentioned nozzle block, transfer efficiency by the pressure transfer method could be deteriorated because the excess liquid carrier might not be sufficiently removed before the developed image had reached the pressure transferring device.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to solve the problem mentioned above and is intended to provide a drying device for a liquid developer and an image forming apparatus to obtain high quality images at a high speed. According to the present invention, the excess liquid carrier remaining on the developed image may be removed rapidly and securely before it is transferred, and transferring efficiency by the pressure transfer method may be improved in spite of speedup of the image forming process. Thereby, high quality transferred images can be obtained by avoiding occurrence of transfer defects.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there has been provided a liquid-developer drying device. The device includes a covering wall which has a facing surface covering and facing to part of an image-carrying body with a drying air passage between them. The image-carrying body carries developed image in a first direction along the drying air passage. The developed image includes liquid developer having toner particles and carrier liquid. The covering wall has a plurality of slits formed therein. The slits are distributed in a region with substantially less than half length along the facing surface covering the image-carrying body so as to blow dry air to the drying air passage in a second direction parallel to the first direction. Each of the slits extends across the drying air passage. The liquid-developer drying device also includes an air source which supplies drying air to the slits.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there has been provided an image forming apparatus. The apparatus includes an image-carrying body which carries latent electrostatic image in a first direction. The apparatus also includes a developing device which supplies liquid developer having toner particles and carrier liquid to the latent electrostatic image to form a developed image on the image-carrying body. The apparatus also includes a transferring device which transfers the developed image on the image-carrying body to a medium disposed outside of the image-carrying body. The apparatus also includes a covering wall which has a facing surface covering and facing to part of the image-carrying body with a drying air passage between them. The covering wall is disposed between the developing device and the transferring device. The covering wall has a plurality of slits formed therein. The slits are distributed in a region with substantially less than half length along the facing surface covering the image-carrying body so as to blow dry air to the drying air passage in a second direction parallel to the first direction. Each of the slits extends across the drying air passage. The apparatus also includes an air source which supplies drying air to the slits.
According to the construction mentioned above, high-speed air is blown along the conveying passage of the developed image in order to dry and remove securely the excess liquid carrier before it is transferred. In spite of speedup of the image forming process, the transferring efficiency by the pressure transfer method is improved, and furthermore high quality images can be obtained at a high speed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the discussion hereinbelow of specific, illustrative embodiments thereof presented in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram explaining the principle of the present invention by using a two-step nozzle block;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram explaining the principle of the present invention by using a four-step nozzle block;
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing an image-forming portion of a full-color electro-photographic apparatus of a first embodiment according to the present invention;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the nozzles in the nozzle block and their vicinity shown in FIG. 3 ;
FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the measuring points for the drying air in the drying passage shown in FIG. 4 ;
FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the measuring points for the drying air of a reference case;
FIG. 7 is a table showing the speed of the drying air and the drying efficiency by the nozzle block of the first embodiment according to the present invention and a nozzle block of the reference case;
FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the drying device of a second embodiment according to the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the nozzle block of a modification of the second embodiment according to the present invention; and
FIG. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing a conventional nozzle block.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
First of all, the principle of the present invention will be described. Actual air speed and pressure were measure using a prior-art image forming apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1 , a nozzle block 13 having first and second nozzles 12 a , 12 b located on a covering wall 11 along the surface of photosensitive member 10 was used. Measured speed of drying air generated in the drying passage 14 between the photosensitive member 10 and the nozzle block 13 is shown as a line (α).
Namely, the air speed in region (A) between the first nozzle 12 a and the second nozzle 12 b in the drying passage 14 decreased as compared with the air speeds in the other regions (B) and (C). The reason was that both the drying airs blown from the first nozzle 12 a and the second nozzle 12 b impinged each other and generated a high pressure at the position facing the first nozzle 12 a and the second nozzle 12 b in the drying passage 14 as represented by the line (β) of FIG. 1 . Therefore, the air speed in the region (A) between the nozzle 12 a and the nozzle 12 b decreased relatively.
On the contrary, outlet ends of drying air were free in the regions (B) and (C), and the pressure was lower. Therefore, the air speed was very high, and thereby, drying efficiency became very high at the regions (B) and (C) where the drying air flew at a high speed.
As shown in FIG. 2 , a nozzle block 18 having first to fourth nozzles 17 a , 17 b , 17 c and 17 d located on a covering wall 16 along the surface of photosensitive member 10 was used next. Measured speed of drying air generated in the drying passage 20 between the photosensitive member 10 and the nozzle block 18 is shown by a line (γ).
Namely, the air speed in the region (D) between the first and the fourth nozzles 17 a and 17 d decreased as compared with the air speeds in the both side regions thereof (E) and (F), when steps of nozzles located on the covering wall 16 were increased to heighten density of the air blowing into the drying passage 20 . The reason was that air pressure increases much more at the position facing to the first to the fourth nozzles 17 a , 17 b , 17 c and 17 d in the drying passage 20 due to the drying air blown from the nozzles 17 a to 17 d as denoted by the line (δ) of FIG. 2 . Therefore, the air speed in the region (D) between the nozzles 17 a and 17 b further decreased relatively.
On the contrary, increase of the air speed in response to the increase of nozzle steps was observed in the regions (E) and (F) where outlet ends of drying air were free. Therefore, drying efficiency became higher at the regions (E) and (F) where drying air flew at a very high speed.
As mentioned above, speed of the drying air, which passes between neighboring nozzles of the nozzle block having plural steps of nozzles, is generally suppressed relatively low by intervention of pressure, caused by the air blown from the neighboring nozzles. Thus, in the conventional nozzle block, which has plural steps of nozzles located uniformly on the whole region of the covering wall, speed of the drying air is suppressed low over quite a wide region in the drying passage. Consequently, drying efficiency is suppressed low in spite of the increased flow rate of the air from the nozzles.
The present invention has been accomplished according to the principle mentioned above. Now a first embodiment according to the present invention is explained in detail referring to FIGS. 3 to 5 . FIG. 3 shows an image forming portion 30 of a liquid-process type full-color electro-photographic apparatus i.e. the image forming apparatus of the present invention. The image forming portion 30 has a photosensitive drum 31 including a photosensitive layer of organic system or amorphous silicon system formed on an image-supporting member of an electric conductive substrate such as an aluminum substrate. On the periphery of the photosensitive drum 31 , first to fourth image-forming units 32 Y, 32 M, 32 C and 32 BK are arranged along the rotation of the photosensitive drum 31 in the direction of an arrow h shown in FIG. 3 . The image-forming units 32 Y, 32 M, 32 C and 32 BK form images on the photosensitive drum 31 sequentially with liquid developers of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (BK), respectively.
Although colors of the liquid developers to be used for the image-forming units 32 Y to 32 BK are different from each other, the units have basically the same construction except for the colors. Explanation will be, therefore, carried out referring to the image-forming unit 32 Y of yellow (Y) positioned upstream. With regard to the other image-forming units 32 M, 32 C and 32 BK, explanation will be omitted by giving the same mark and a suffix denoting each color to the same part as that of the unit 32 Y.
The image-forming unit 32 Y of yellow (Y) has a charger 34 Y which may include a well-known corona charger or scorotron charger. The image forming unit 32 Y also has an exposing portion 37 Y, which selectively irradiates a laser beam Y corresponding to the light signal of yellow (Y) emitted from a laser irradiation device (not shown).
The image-forming units 32 Y to 32 BK also have developing rollers 40 Y to 40 BK accommodating liquid developers 38 Y to 38 BK for respective colors and feeding the liquid developers 38 Y to 38 BK to the photosensitive roller 31 to form a developed image. The image-forming units 32 Y to 32 BK also have developing devices 42 Y to 42 BK which include squeezing rollers 41 Y to 41 BK located apart from the photosensitive drum 31 with a slight clearance of 20 to 50 micrometers and removing simultaneously fogs and liquid carriers from the developed image after development.
The liquid developers 38 Y to 38 BK may have toner particles of 0.1 to 0.2 micrometer in diameter having different colors from each other, and liquid carriers to disperse the toner particles. As the liquid carriers, non-polar solvent of petroleum system such as ISOBAR L (Product of Exxon Inc.) may be utilized, for example.
A porous elastic roller 46 or a liquid-removing member to remove excess liquid carriers remaining in the photosensitive drum 31 after development is provided at the downstream side of the image-forming units 32 Y to 32 BK on the periphery of the photosensitive drum 31 . Furthermore, a drying device 47 is provided in the region between the porous elastic roller 46 and a transferring device 48 transferring the developed image under pressure. The drying device 47 dries and removes the excess liquid carriers remaining on the photosensitive drum 31 by the aid of drying air.
The porous elastic roller 46 has a fine porous elastic surface having electric conductivity for preventing the toner particles from sticking, and accelerates sucking rate of the liquid carrier by the aid of the capillary phenomenon. Preferably, a rubber system material with elasticity such as polyurethane sponge may be used for the porous elastic material, for example. The liquid-removing member is not limited to the porous elastic roller but may be used with the photosensitive member being in contact with a roller formed of oleophilic material such as silicon rubber.
The transferring device 48 has a pressing roller 48 a and an intermediate transfer roller 48 b pressed against the photosensitive drum 31 by the pressing roller 48 a with a pressure force of approximately 0.5to 50 kgf/cm 2 (or 0.049 to 4.9 MPa). The transferring device 48 transfers primarily the toner image of toner particles formed on the photosensitive drum 31 to the intermediate transfer roller 48 b by utilizing adherence of the toner particles, and then transfers the image secondarily to a paper P or a member to be finally transferred to. Additionally, a cleaner 50 removing the toner particles remaining on the photosensitive drum 31 and an erasing lamp 51 erasing charges remaining on the photosensitive drum 31 are disposed at the downstream side of the transferring device 48 along the periphery of the photosensitive drum 31 .
The drying device 47 for drying and removing excess liquid carrier remaining on the photosensitive drum 31 is now described in detail. The drying device 47 has a nozzle block 52 and a blower 53 that is an air source sending air to the nozzle block 52 . The nozzle block 52 has a covering wall 52 a , which covers the surface of the photosensitive drum 31 between the porous elastic roller 46 and the intermediate transfer roller 48 b . A drying passage 52 b of approximately 2 mm in width is formed between the covering wall 52 a and the photosensitive drum 31 .
Drying air flows in the direction of arrow h, which is the same direction as the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 31 , and flows near the surface of the photosensitive drum 31 in the drying passage 52 b . The surface of the covering wall 52 a is formed in a smooth shape without roughness so that the drying air may pass the drying passage 52 a without generating turbulence. The covering wall 52 a may be made of aluminum or stainless steel buffed with a file of fineness JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) No. 600 or so, and formed in a cylindrical concave surface to fit substantially coaxially with the surface of the photosensitive drum 31 .
On the covering wall 52 a , nozzles 52 c or openings to blow the drying air onto the surface of the photosensitive drum 31 are formed in four steps. The nozzles 52 c have the shape of slits extending in the axial direction of the photosensitive drum 31 or perpendicular to the circumferential direction of the photosensitive drum 31 . The nozzles 52 c are supplied with airflow from the blower 53 through a pipe 53 a . The four step nozzles 52 c are distributed only in the upstream side (or the side closer to the porous elastic roller 46 ) in the drying passage 52 b , preferably within approximately a quarter of the total length L of the covering wall 52 a.
Operation of the first embodiment is now described. The photosensitive drum 31 rotates in the direction of arrow h after image-forming process starts. The photosensitive drum 31 is charged by the charger 34 Y at the image-forming unit 32 Y, and then is selectively irradiated by a laser beam 36 Y emitted from a laser device (not shown) corresponding to the image information of yellow. Thus, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to yellow (Y) image is formed.
Toner particles of the liquid developer 38 Y of yellow (Y) are fed into the clearance between the photosensitive drum 31 and the developing roller 40 Y located in non-contact manner with the photosensitive drum 31 . Then the toner particles are adsorbed by electrophoresis, and the toner image of yellow (Y) is formed on the photosensitive drum 31 .
Thereafter, the squeeze roller 41 Y removes extended toner particles. The squeeze roller 41 Y may scrape liquid carrier in the liquid developer, which remains on the photosensitive drum 31 when the developing process is carried out, to reduce the quantity of excess carrier liquid in advance.
Similarly, toner images of magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (BK) are sequentially superimposed by succeeding image-forming units 32 M to 32 BK, and a full-color developed image is formed on the photosensitive drum 31 .
After development has finished, excess liquid carrier of the full-color developed image on the photosensitive drum 31 is absorbed by the surface of the porous elastic roller 46 by the aid of capillary phenomenon of the porous elastic roller 46 . The porous elastic roller 46 rotates such that the peripheral velocity of the porous elastic roller 46 in the direction of arrow i is the same as that of the photosensitive drum 31 . Thus, disturbance of the developed image on the photosensitive drum 31 is suppressed.
A bias voltage with the polarity reverses to that of the toner particles is then applied to the porous elastic roller 46 . Thereby, the toner particles are prevented from being exfoliated from the surface of the photosensitive drum 31 , and deterioration of the image is suppressed. In addition, the surface of the porous elastic roller 46 is prevented from being clogged by absorption of the toner particles when excess liquid carrier is absorbed and removed.
After excess liquid carrier is absorbed and removed by the porous elastic roller 46 , the developed image on the photosensitive drum 31 passes the drying passage 52 b for the drying air, which is formed by the covering wall 52 a of the nozzle block 52 . The nozzle block 52 blows airflow fed by the blower 53 onto the surface of the photosensitive drum 31 through the four step nozzles 52 c as the drying air.
Thereafter, the drying air passes the region where the nozzles 52 c are not formed in the drying passage 52 b , where the drying air is not adversely affected by the air pressure from the nozzles 52 c . Thus, the drying airflow remains at high speed. Moreover, the drying airflow is not affected by the turbulence caused by unevenness of the surface of the covering wall 52 a , so that it is kept at high speed.
Consequently, because the developed image on the photosensitive drum 31 is continuously blown by the high speed drying air while it is conveyed in the drying passage 52 b after the region where the nozzles 53 c are formed, remaining excess liquid carrier can be sufficiently dried and removed rapidly.
When the developed image from which excess liquid carrier has been removed as mentioned above reaches the transferring device 48 , the developed image on the photosensitive drum 31 is transferred primarily to the intermediate transfer roller 48 b . The intermediate transfer roller 48 b is pressed against the photosensitive drum 31 by the load of the pressing roller 48 a . Then, the transferred image is further transferred secondarily to the paper P conveyed from the intermediate transfer roller 48 b in the direction of arrow j. Thus, a full-color image is formed on the paper P. Excess liquid carrier is sufficiently dried and removed from the developed image on the photosensitive drum 31 before the pressure transferring is carried out by the transferring device 48 , as described above. Therefore, adhesive force of the toner particles does not deteriorate and the developed image is transferred to the intermediate transfer roller 48 b and then to the paper P with a high transferring efficiency. After the transferring is finished, the cleaner 50 removes the remaining toner particles on the photosensitive drum 31 , and the erasing lamp 51 erases the remaining charge. Thus, a series of image-forming process finishes and the photosensitive drum 31 gets ready for the next image-forming process.
The nozzle block 52 of this embodiment was installed in an experimental electro-photographic apparatus for performance tests. Then, speed of the drying airflow at the first measuring point (S 1 ) and at the second measuring point (S 2 ) in the drying passage 52 c formed by the photosensitive drum 31 and the nozzle block 52 was measured. Drying efficiency of the developed image was also measured after it has passed the drying passage 52 c . FIG. 7 shows the results obtained from the measurement.
In comparison to the above, a conventional nozzle block 60 having four step nozzles 60 c arranged with an equal interval was installed in the experimental electro-photographic apparatus mentioned above, as shown in FIG. 6 . Then, speed of the drying air at the third measuring point (S 3 ) and at the fourth measuring point (S 4 ) in the drying passage 60 b formed by the photosensitive drum 31 and the nozzle block 60 was measured. Drying efficiency of the developed image after it has passed the drying passage 60 b was also measured. FIG. 7 also shows the results obtained from the measurement of this reference case. Blowing speeds of the drying air from the nozzles 52 c and the nozzles 60 c were set to be the same in the tests.
In the case of the nozzle block 52 of this embodiment, the nozzles 52 c are formed only in the region of a length of about L/4 on the upstream side of the whole length (L) of the nozzle block 52 . The drying air speeds up at the first measuring point (S 1 ) shortly after it has passed the region where the nozzles 52 c are formed. Thereafter, the drying air can maintain its high speed without being affected by air pressure caused by blowing from the nozzles in the remaining region of the length of 3 L/4 on the downstream side of the nozzle block 52 . On the other hand, in the case of the prior-art nozzle block 60 (reference case), the drying air cannot get a high speed at the third measuring point (S 3 ), because it is adversely affected by air pressure caused by blowing from the downstream nozzle 60 c . The drying air can finally get a high speed at the fourth measuring point (S 4 ) in the vicinity of the outlet of the drying passage 60 b at the downstream end of the nozzle block 60 .
Thus, the drying passage 52 b in the nozzle block 52 of this embodiment provides higher speed of drying air in a larger area than the drying passage 60 b in the nozzle block 60 of the reference case to the developed image. Therefore, the drying efficiency of the developed image for the nozzle block 52 of this embodiment can be improved compared to the reference case. Then, the image can be dried in a short time, and speedup of the apparatus and downsizing of the blower can be achieved.
In the structure mentioned above, sufficient quantity of air to speed up the drying air can be obtained by locating the four step nozzles 52 c at the upstream side of the whole length of the nozzle block 52 . The drying air merely passes through in the downstream side of the nozzle block 52 . The upstream region into which the drying air is blown and the downstream region where the drying air passes are divided from each other, so that the drying air in the drying passage 52 b can keep its high speed for a long time. Consequently, because the drying efficiency is improved, the developed image can be sufficiently dried in spite of speedup of image-forming process. When pressure transferring is carried out, transferring defect due to insufficient removing of excess liquid carrier can be prevented or suppressed, so that a high quality transferred image can be obtained with a high transferring efficiency. Then, a high-speed image-forming apparatus can be realized.
Now a second embodiment according to the present invention is explained referring to FIG. 8 . The second embodiment has a collecting mechanism for the drying air at the downstream side of the nozzle block, added to the structure of the above-mentioned first embodiment. Because the other portions are the same as the first embodiment, the portions of the same structure as the structure explained in the first embodiment will be denoted by the same marks and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.
The drying device 70 of this embodiment is provided with a collecting mechanism 72 for collecting the drying air blown out to the drying passage 71 b by a nozzle block 71 . Four step nozzles 71 c are formed only on the region of the upstream side of about ¼ of the covering wall 71 a of the nozzle block 71 facing the photosensitive drum 31 interposed by the drying passage 71 b.
A suction port 72 a or a collecting member is formed at the downstream side of the covering wall 71 a to collect the drying air. The suction port 72 a is communicated to a compressor 73 through a pipe 73 a and sucks the drying air containing vaporized liquid carrier in the direction of arrow k shown in FIG. 8 , while it passes the drying passage 71 b . The drying air sucked from the suction port 72 a is sent to a filter (not shown) to collect liquid carrier. Then, the drying air is fed again to the nozzles 71 c via a blower 53 via. Thus, the drying air circulates inside the drying device 70 without being exhausted.
In accordance with the construction of the second embodiment described above, the developed image can be sufficiently dried in spite of speedup of image-forming process, as the first embodiment. Then, a high quality transferred image can be obtained with a high transferring efficiency, and a high-speed image-forming apparatus can be realized. Furthermore, evaporated liquid carrier can be prevented from diffusing to the environment, by circulating the drying air inside the drying device 70 , which result in environment conservation.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but any modification thereof can be available within the scope of the invention where the purpose of the invention does not change. For example, the image-supporting member may be a photosensitive belt where the photosensitive layer is formed on the surface of a rotatable annular elastic belt. The transferring device may transfer an image directly from the photosensitive drum to the paper without the intermediate transfer roller intervening between them. The pressure force is also not limited.
Step number of the nozzles or openings to blow the drying air onto the image-supporting member is not restricted. Locations of the nozzles are not restricted, so long as they are distributed mainly on the upstream side of the covering wall. The openings are preferably located within the region of a half length of the covering wall on the upstream side in order to secure a long high-speed region of the drying air.
Although the width of the drying passage is arbitrary so long as speedup of the drying air can be maintained, the width of the drying passage is preferably narrowed down to about 0.5 to 5 mm, to increase the speed of the drying air. The width of the slit-like openings is also preferably narrowed in order to blow the drying air with a higher speed. The cross section of the drying passage must be narrowed as compared to the area of the openings to raise the speed of the drying air in the drying passage. Therefore, the cross section of the drying passage is preferably set smaller in comparison with the total area of plural steps of the openings.
Blowing direction of the drying air by the drying device is not restricted. For instance, as a modification of the second embodiment, the upstream side and the downstream side of the nozzle block 71 may be reversed as shown in FIG. 9 . Namely, the region where the nozzles 71 c are located may be positioned at the side of the transferring device 48 , and the suction port 72 a sucking the drying air may be positioned at the side of the porous elastic roller 46 . Thus, the drying air blown from the nozzles 71 c flows in the direction of arrow m which is in the reverse direction of the rotation direction h of the photosensitive drum 31 . Then, the drying air is sucked into the suction port 72 a side. This structure may be preferable especially when the transferring device 48 is heated up to enhance transferring efficiency, because the drying air is prevented from blowing to the transferring device 48 and cooling of the transferring device 48 is avoided.
Furthermore, the liquid carrier collected by the filter etc. may be recycled and reused in the second embodiment.
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A liquid-developer drying device includes a covering wall which has a facing surface covering and facing to part of an image-carrying body with a drying air passage between them. The image-carrying body carries developed image in a first direction along the drying air passage. The developed image includes liquid developer having toner particles and carrier liquid. The covering wall has a plurality of slits formed therein. The slits are distributed in a region with substantially less than half length along the facing surface covering the image-carrying body so as to blow dry air to the drying air passage in a second direction parallel to the first direction. Each of the slits extends across the drying air passage. The liquid-developer drying device also includes an air source supplying drying air to the slits.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to two prior-filed, currently pending U.S. Provisional Patent Applications whose contents are hereby incorporated herein by reference. These two applications are Serial No. 60/438,882, filed Jan. 8, 2003, for “Hollow-Tube Column-Top Davit Structure”, and Serial No. 60/460,623, filed Apr. 3, 2003, for “Column Penetration of Building Roof Structure and Method”. The inventorship in those two prior cases is the same as in the present case.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates to plural-story building structure, and more particularly to features in a novel column structure which forms part of the frame in such a building structure, which features uniquely allow for the implementation of several categories of what are referred to herein as construction-extension activities. This invention possesses both structural and methodological characteristics.
[0003] Considering one facet of the invention, in the construction of a plural-story building, it is common practice to employ large and expensive ground-supported cranes (as few as possible) to lift and swing into position various building materials, including frame building materials. There is, of course, normally much to lift during the progress of such building construction, and it would be very desirable that not all of the myriad lifting events be “loaded” onto the work “agenda” of a major crane, especially where many lifting requirements could more efficiently be handled by carefully placed, small crane-like machines.
[0004] As will be seen shortly, the present invention squarely addresses this issue in a simple, versatile and efficient manner. It does so by providing a unique hollow and tubular column structure. Wherein the upper open end of a column component can be employed, in a temporary manner, as a stabilizing receptacle for the base of a small and highly portable davit-like crane, referred to hereinafter as a davit crane. Such a crane is also referred to herein as a building-extension, or construction-extension, instrumentality because of the fact that its use is involved, in a futurist manner of thinking, in the prospective extension of building activity.
[0005] Further, and considering other facets of the invention, after a plural-story building has been completed, and effectively sealed against invasion by the elements, there are many instances in which it is later desirable to add superstructure (more upper stories, a canopied roof space, etc.) to the top of the “once completed” building. Additionally, it may later be desirable to introduce some additional internal building structure (cables, fluid conduit, and other things) without significantly having to “break-open” the environmentally sealed condition of a building, and in particular breaking-open the sides of a building.
[0006] The present invention also handily addresses these kinds of “construction-extension” activities.
[0007] The preferred and best-mode embodiment of, and manner of practicing, the invention may best be appreciated in the context of describing first certain special terminology which is employed herein in the description and characterization of the invention. One such terminology feature is expressed in the phrase “construction-extension”, and a definitional basis for this phrase has already been given above. Text below will reinforce this definitional basis.
[0008] Another special terminology component herein involves the phrase “load-bearing portion” in relation to the frame of a plural-story building structure. As employed herein, this phrase refers to that volumetric portion of a building frame which is occupied by interconnected columns and beams that are intended to handle various loads delivered into that volume region of the frame. The phrase does not include the parts of any frame components—and in particular, column components—which project upwardly and freely above the top of the associated, underlying frame volume which contains load-bearingly interconnected columns and beams. This definition will become more clearly illustrated in the detailed description of the invention below.
[0009] According to a preferred and best-mode embodiment of, and manner of practicing, the invention, columns for a plural-story building frame are constructed as hollow, tubular components. In whatever stage of building-frame completion “currently” exists, upper end regions in installed columns extend above what is referred to herein as the load-bearing portion of a building frame structure. Such a load-bearing portion is defined as that portion of a building frame which contains load-bearingly interconnected columns and beams.
[0010] In a frame structure which is not yet complete, and thus is still under construction, each column's upper end region can be visualized as extending above a certain previously completed load-bearing part of a load-bearing portion of an underlying frame structure.
[0011] In a completed building, and in accordance with the present invention, such upper end regions in columns extend above, and thus penetrate, the roof of the underlying completed building. Appropriate weather sealing is provided where such column ends extend upwardly from the roof.
[0012] These column upper end regions nominally each terminates at an open, upwardly facing, upper end, referred to herein as a mouth. Such a mouth opens to the underlying hollow interior of the upper end region in the associated column component, and together with that interior defines what is referred to herein as a port. In a finished building, these mouths are closed off and environmentally sealed by appropriate, removeably installed plugs. While a building frame is still under construction, the column mouths are normally left open.
[0013] It is these port-containing upper-end column regions which facilitate the activity which is referred to herein as construction-extension activity. While a building frame is still under construction, the ports provided by these regions allow for the temporary, removable installation of portable crane structures, such as davit crane structures, which can be employed to assist “locally” with various construction-extension tasks. In this kind of situation, the underlying building frame structure effectively acts as a supporting mast, or tower, for the installed crane.
[0014] In a finished building, sealing caps may be removed from the upwardly extending column end regions to enable, and ultimately become part of, added building superstructure, such as additional building stories, a roof canopy structure, and other things, which become supported by the column end extension. These upwardly extending column end regions, and the accessible ports which they provide, can also offer structural mounting points for various kinds of mechanical equipment, for towers, terraces and decks, to name just a few, possible, added rooftop structures, and additionally can accommodate the removable and resettable installations of davits and similar load-handling devices to support window-washing and painting platforms, and the like.
[0015] Still further, post-building opening of the upper end region (port) in an upwardly extending column end, thus to expose this port for use, can enable downward feeding of various kinds of later-desired building infrastructure. Such an opening, significantly, does not entail any appreciable compromise in the sealed environment condition of a previously finished building. Its availability avoids the undesirable necessity for breaking-open side regions in a finished and “closed” building.
[0016] These and other features and advantage which are offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the detailed description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout these drawings, like structural elements pictured in the different figures are identified with like reference numerals and characters.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] [0017]FIG. 1 is a simplified, fragmentary, isometric illustration of an incomplete building structure, including specifically a frame which is under construction, and which includes columns formed with column components constructed in accordance with a preferred and best-mode embodiment of the present invention.
[0018] [0018]FIG. 2A is an enlarged, fragmentary, roof-area detail of a portion of the building structure of FIG. 1, shown here in a nominally completed, or finished, state, and specifically illustrating a fragment thereof including an above-the-roof-projecting column component disposed in the building structure in accordance with the present invention.
[0019] [0019]FIG. 2B is a further enlarged, fragmentary detail, partly cross-sectioned, focusing on portions of what is pictured in FIG. 2A under circumstances with a weather closure cap mounted in place on the upper end of the above-the-roof-projecting column component.
[0020] [0020]FIG. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary detail illustrating temporary installation of a davit crane in accordance with a practice which is enabled by the present invention.
[0021] [0021]FIG. 4 illustrates employment of the invention to enable the addition (through column structure) to a completed building of additional infrastructure in the form of cabling.
[0022] [0022]FIGS. 5 and 6 are simplified and fragmentary side elevations of a portion of a completed building, illustrating employment of the invention to accommodate the later addition, respectively, of a canopy superstructure which rises from the “former” top of that building, and of columns to support additional stories.
[0023] In FIGS. 3 - 6 , inclusive, a roof-installed waterproof membrane (which is pictured in FIGS. 2A and 2B) is omitted in order to simplify these views.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0024] Turning now to the drawings, and beginning with FIGS. 1 and 2A, indicated generally at 10 in FIG. 1 is a plural-story building frame which is under construction. In the stage of construction illustrated (fragmentarily) in FIG. 1, frame, or frame structure, 10 is seen to include plural upright columns 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 , 24 , 26 , 28 , and plural, horizontally extending beams, such as the six beams specifically identified at 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , 40 . The columns rise from an anchoring foundation 42 , and in the specific frame structure pictured in FIG. 1, each column takes the form of plural (an assembly of) vertically stacked and appropriately joined single-story columns components, such as components 12 a, 12 b in column 12 , 14 a, 14 b in column 14 , 16 a, 16 b in column 16 , and 28 a, 28 b in column 28 . These column components, and hence the resulting associated columns, are square in cross section, and are hollow and tubular. This is best illustrated in FIG. 2 for column component 12 a.
[0025] In frame structure 10 as illustrated in FIG. 1, the columns and beams are appropriately load-bearingly interconnected at nodes, such as node 44 where column 12 connects with beams 30 , 34 . To simplify FIG. 1, and because these nodal connections form no part of the present invention, each connection node is represented herein simply as an enlarged, darkened dot in FIG. 1.
[0026] Important to the practice and implementation of the present invention are the facts that columns, and thus their column components, are, as indicated, hollow and tubular, and at least at certain points in time, as during frame construction, are open-topped. Squareness of cross section is not important, which is another way of stating that other cross sections may be employed as well, if desired.
[0027] Referring especially to FIG. 2A which pictures a portion of upper column component 12 a where that component projects above the top of the roof (still to be discussed) in a “completed” building based upon frame 10 , the openness of the top of this component is defined by a mouth 12 a 1 , which opens to the upwardly facing upper hollow interior region 12 a 2 . Mouth 12 a 1 and region 12 a 2 collectively form what is referred to herein as a port, and also as a utility region. This characteristic is preferably the same for all “currently” upper column components in frame 10 during construction. The ports thus provided according to the invention enable the several construction-extension activities mentioned earlier herein. More will be said about these ports shortly.
[0028] Considering the status of frame 10 as illustrated in FIG. 1, the volumetric portion of the frame which is defined and occupied by load-bearingly interconnected columns and beams is referred to herein as a load-bearing portion of the frame. With regard to the higher elevation column components (i.e., those in columns 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , 22 ) pictured in FIG. 1, the entirety of what is shown for frame 10 , that is, the entirety of the illustrated frame structure which lies below elevation 46 (marked by a dash-dot line), constitutes a relevant load-bearing portion of the frame. With respect to the pictured lower-elevation part of frame 10 , that is, the part containing column 28 , the relevant load-bearing part of frame 10 is that part which lies below elevation 48 (also marked by a dash-dot line). Elevations 46 , 48 thus define the tops of two different load-bearing portions of frame 10 .
[0029] As can be seen with respect to these two identified frame elevations, the upper ends of related upper column components project, or extend, somewhat above these elevations. Thus the respective ports in these upper column components are open for access above these mentioned elevations. While such upward projection characteristics are preferable throughout the entirely of frame construction, it is only necessary that ultimately the finishing and uppermost column components possess this characteristic so that upper end regions, and the associated ports (utility regions), will end up extending above a completed building roof, During construction, and at elevations which are below roof level, it is only important that upper column-component end regions be open to furnish accessible utility ports in accordance with the present invention.
[0030] Re-addressing FIG. 2A for a moment, and adding reference here also to FIG. 2B, and further, assuming that the upper-most column components, such as components 12 a, 14 a, 16 a, define the uppermost story in the building for which frame 10 has been constructed, and additionally that the associated building is complete, the upper end regions of these uppermost column components extend upwardly through and beyond the building roof which is shown generally at 50 in FIGS. 2A, 2B. The upper end of column component 12 a, as such is illustrated in these two figures, roof 50 , and the regions surrounding the upwardly projecting column components, are fully weather sealed by the presence of an appropriately installed waterproof membrane 51 . This membrane covers the upwardly facing surface area of the roof, and “curls upwardly”, and sealingly, along the sides of projecting column components, as is illustrated for the sides of column component 12 a in FIGS. 2A, 2B. The nominally open, upwardly facing ends of the projecting column components are reversibly closed and weather sealed by appropriate removable caps, such as cap 52 for column component 12 a. These caps are configured, as can be seen for cap 52 in FIG. 2B, with downturned perimeter skirts, such as skirt 52 a, each of which skirts, with the associated cap in place, sealingly overlaps both the upper open end of a column component, and the adjacent, upwardly extending portion of membrane 51 .
[0031] One can thus see that after nominal completion of a building, the utility access ports provided by the structure and practice of the invention are available at roof level. Such ports are thus available for use (at different locations in a building frame) essentially throughout the “life” of a building frame possessing them.
[0032] Important aspects of the utility of the present invention will now be described. Beginning with FIGS. 1 and 3, shown generally at 54 , 56 , 58 in FIG. 1 are three portable (temporary-use) davit crane structures, or construction-extension instrumentalities, whose upright masts, 54 a, 56 a, 58 a, respectively, are shown poised above the upwardly facing utility ports that are provided by column components 12 a, 14 a, 28 a, respectively. Downward pointing arrows provided in FIG. 1 near the bases of these masts represent the fact that these bases, appropriately configured in any suitable conventional manner, can be lowered downwardly to become removeably received and stabilized in (connected to) the underlying ports. FIG. 3 shows the base 54 a 1 in mast 54 a so received in port 12 a 1 - 12 a 2 in column component 12 a. Preferably, and as in shown in FIG. 3, such a “connection” is a lateral moment connection.
[0033] With temporary installation of cranes 54 , 46 , 48 , their respective booms and associated load-handling implements 54 b, 56 b, 58 b can be maneuvered to assist conveniently and efficiently with building construction. One will observe that with a crane, such as cranes 54 , 56 , 58 , installed for use, the building frame supporting each crane mast effectively becomes a part of the supporting mast structure.
[0034] Cranes can be installed and moved from location to location (port to port) as desired, and an in-place crane can be employed to move and reposition another crane. For example, crane 56 might be employed to remove crane 54 from its installation with column component 12 a, and to move it for re-installation into the open port in column component 16 a. Cranes, and the like, may also be installed for use from a building rooftop after building completion, if desired, simply by removing the cap covering the appropriate utility port. Installation and use of a crane in accordance with practice of the invention, and at any stage during the life of a building, is referred to herein as construction-extension activity.
[0035] [0035]FIG. 4 illustrates another category of construction-extension activity which is enabled by the invention. Here, it is desired to introduce, downwardly into a completed, or substantially completed, building, and toward a selected elevation in the building, certain additional building infrastructure, such as cabling (also referred to herein as a construction-extension instrumentality). In particular, it is desired to do this without having to break significantly through the “outer skin” of the building, which event could be quite expensive, and could appreciably compromise a building's weather-sealed condition. Thus, in FIG. 4 cap 52 (not shown in this figure) has been removed from column component 12 a to allow for the downward feeding, through the thus-exposed port, of cabling 60 which is appropriately payed out from a drum 62 .
[0036] [0036]FIGS. 5 and 6 picture two different versions of yet another construction-extension practice which may be implemented with respect to a “finished” building.
[0037] [0037]FIG. 5 specifically illustrates the addition (construction-extension) above roof 50 of a canopy structure 64 which includes upright support pillars, such as pillars 66 , 68 , which have been suitably installed in the upwardly facing ports provided at the tops of through-the-roof projecting columns, such as columns 12 , 18 , respectively. To achieve this, of course, the once installed closure caps for these column tops have been removed. Where the support pillars for this canopy structure “emerge” from the associated column tops, the interfaces between them are appropriately re-sealed. These support pillars are also referred to herein both as construction-extension instrumentalities, and as column-like elements.
[0038] [0038]FIG. 6 shows how the ports in column tops can allow for the later addition to a building of one or more stories. One new building story is shown generally and fragmentarily at 70 . Caps for the requisite ports are removed, and new columns are added as required. Such new columns are also referred to herein as construction-extension instrumentalities, and as column-like elements.
[0039] The invention thus proposes a novel building structure wherein hollow tubular columns furnish upwardly facing ports for receiving various types of structures that allow for the kinds of building construction-extensions activities which have been described and illustrated. In a “finished” building, column tops extend upwardly through the roof in a building to permit later “utility access” for various construction purposes.
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A building frame including a load-bearing portion which is defined by a pattern of interconnected, elongate, upright columns and laterally extending beams, with each column taking the form of an assembly of hollow, tubular column components, at least some of which each possesses a nominally open, upper-end utility region, or port, extending upwardly beyond the top of the frame's load-bearing portion. Each such port, which is useable in different ways during and after initial building construction, accommodates, under different circumstances, the selective reception of a construction-extension instrumentality drawn from the list consisting of (a) an installable/removable crane structure, (b) a column-like element provided for the addition of selected building superstructure, and (c) additional building infrastructure which is feedable downwardly through the port toward a selected elevation in a “completed” building.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of art of trailers adapted to be towed by vehicles.
B. Prior Art
It has been known in the past to provide trailers which carry two boats, for example, and it has also been known to have trailers which carry a combination of a boat and a car. Examples of such trailers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,870,339 and 3,718,227. Many of these prior attempts have left much to be desired particularly when both an automobile and a boat was to have been towed. Such prior trailers lacked stability and structural integrity when, for example, the boat was in the raised position. Further, the raising of the boat has been cumbersome and could not be achieved simply and safely. In essence, the prior art lacked a simple but sturdy way to raise and lower the boat so that it would be safely towable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A car and a boat trailer comprising a first support assembly adapted to carry the car and a second support assembly adapted to carry the boat. The second support assembly is movable from the lowered position immediately above the first support assembly to a raised position to provide clearance for the car between the assemblies. A first and second pair of pivoted scissor arms are slidably secured to opposing sides of the first and second support assemblies. Hydraulic means are coupled to the first and second scissor arm pairs for actuating the scissor arm pairs to move the second support assembly between the raised and lower positions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a side view of a car and boat trailer in the raised position in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 is a side view of the trailer of FIG. 1 shown in the lowered position without car and boat;
FIG. 3 is a top view of the trailer of FIGS. 1 and 2;
FIG. 4 is a cut-away view in more detail of FIG. 3 showing the hydraulic assembly;
FIG. 5 is an end view of the trailer of FIG. 1 without the car and boat;
FIG. 6 is a section taken on lines 6--6 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is an end view showing a trail bike carrier, with a trail bike in phantom taken along lines 7--7 of FIG. 3; and
FIGS. 8 and 9 show a further embodiment of the invention having a vertically disposed hydraulic actuator.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring now to FIGS. 1-3, there is shown a car and boat trailer 10 which comprises a first support assembly 12 which forms an automobile trailer for carrying an automobile 14. Assembly 12 is carried by a conventional tandem wheel assembly 16 which comprises wheels 18 and axles 20 with assembly 16 being attached to support assembly 12 in conventional manner. Assembly 12 is formed of left and right side longitudinally directed support members 22,23, front and rear transverse support members 25,26 and intermediate transverse support members 28. Grating 30 is disposed on the upper edges of members 22, 23, 25, 26 and 28 and may be secured in place as for example by welding. Assembly 12 is constructed so as to support automobile 14.
Hitching assembly 36 extends from the forward end of support assembly 12 and comprises a centrally disposed longitudinally extending member 38 having rearwardly extending supports 40 and 44. As shown, support strut 40 is secured to the forward end of side member 23 while support strut 44 is secured to the forward end of side member 22. At the forwardmost end of assembly 36, there is provided a socket joint connector 48 for receiving a hitching ball 50 secured in conventional manner to a towing vehicle 52. Further, a conventional landing gear support wheel assembly 54 may be provided to support trailer 10 when vehicle 52 is removed.
A second support assembly 15 supports a boat 55. Assembly 15 is formed of longitudinally directed side members 51,51a, transversely directed front and back members 53,53a and intermediate members 60a-c. Rollers 58 are rotatably secured to each of members 60a-c. Members 60a-c and rollers 58 are each "V" shaped in order to properly accommodate and support the bottom of the hull of boat 55.
Assembly 15 is effectively raised and lowered by two pairs of scissor arms (pantographs) 56,57 and 56a,57a. Each of the pairs of scissors arms are similar and therefore only one of them, viz, arm 56,57, need be described in detail. As shown, the arms may each be strengthened by means of bridging supports. One end of arm 56 is pivoted at 62 to an upright 64 extending from the rearmost end of support member 23. The other end of arm 56 has an extending pin 66 which is received within a transverse slot of a guide 68.
The other arm 57 of the pair, at one end is pivotally connected at 70 to the rearmost end of support member 51. The other end of arm 57 is pivotally secured to a slider 71 flexibly coupled to one end of a piston rod 72 of an hydraulic cylinder 74 fixedly secured at one end to member 23. As shown in FIG. 6, slider 71 slidably engages a "T" shaped guide 73 rigidly secured to member 23. Arms 56,57 are pivotally coupled to each other intermediate the ends thereof by a pivot assembly 75. Pair of arms 56a,57a are similarly pivotally coupled to support members 22,52a and to rod 72a of hydraulic cylinder 74a. In this manner, upon actuation of hydraulic cylinders 74,74a in a manner later to be described, arms 56,57 and 56a,57a respectively may be moved between their fully retracted or lowered position shown in FIG. 2 and their extended position shown in FIG. 1.
In the extended position shown in FIG. 1, support assembly 15 is rigidly secured in place for firm support of boat 55 by means of arms 56,57, 56a and 57a four stabilizing bars 76-79 and upright support 80. As shown, bars 76 and 78 extend between openings in respective ears secured to members 22 and 51. Similarly, bars 77 and 79 extend between openings in ears secured to members 23 and 51a. Further bars 76-79 each have a turnbolt for use in adjusting the length of the respective bar.
Upright 80 is secured at its lower end to member 38 by means of supports 80a. Upright support 80 has stop holes 80b spaced over an upper end section thereof for receiving a pin 82 which engages a corresponding opening in a member 84 extending longitudinally from the forward end of support assembly 15. Supports 85 and 86 are secured to member 84 and to the forward ends of side members 51a, 51 respectively. In this manner, second support assembly 15 is rigidly secured in place by means of upright 80, bars 76-79 and scissor arms 56, 57, 56a and 57a.
A trail bike carrier 120 is secured between assembly 54 and upright 80 and is effective to provide further support for the upright. Carrier 120 is formed of a metal U shaped channel which at its ends is bent upwardly to receive and support the wheels of a trail bike 124. Carrier 120 has a lower structural assembly 122 secured to support assembly 12 which provides further structural integrity to the carrier.
As best shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, a winch and support assembly 86 is secured to member 84 and provides a nose support section 88 and a hand winch 90. Winch 90 has a cable 92 for pulling boat 55 onto support assembly 15 in conventional manner. In addition, support arms 94,94a having respective rollers 96,96a are provided to aid in the loading of boat 55 as well as securing the boat in place on the road. Support arms 94,94a are respectively secured to arms extending from end sections of support members 51,51a.
Hydraulic cylinders 74,74a are actuated by means of an hydraulic pump 98 operated by an electric motor 100. Pump 98 is secured to the side of member 38 and is coupled to a source of hydraulic fluid from a tank 102 and to cylinders 74,74a by means of lines 104-106. In conventional manner, motor 100 is electrically connected by means of wires 106 to a battery in vehicle 52 and motor 100 may be actuated by a lever 100a for forward, reverse and stop.
In operation, car and boat trailer 10 may be transported by vehicle 52 in the lowered or folded state shown in FIG. 2 when no automobile is being carried and a boat 55 may be carried if desired. If both an automobile and a boat are to be transported, the following steps are taken. Trailer 10 is first maintained in the position shown in FIG. 2 and winch 90 is used to load boat 55 in conventional manner. With the boat fully loaded and secured, lever 100a of motor 100 is operated to raise support assembly 15 to extended position of desired height as for example as shown in FIG. 1. Pin 82 is inserted into upright 80 and member 84 at that desired position, an automibile 14 is then driven onto support assembly 12 by means of platform tracks 110. Automobile 14 is secured in place in conventional manner and bars 76-79 are attached so that trailer 10 is in condition to be transported by vehicle 52. Further, a trail bike 124 may be carried within carrier 120 so that in operation, trailer 10 is effective to carry a car 14, a boat 55 as well as a trail bike 124.
Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 8 in which all of the elements of a trailer 10a are the same as that of trailer 10 except for the operation and structure of right and left scissor arm pairs with each pair having an associated hydraulic cylinder. Since the right scissor arm pair 126, 128 and cylinder 125 are identical to those on left, only those on the right will be described. Trailer 10a is adapted for use with heavier boats than those carried by trailer 10 by the provision of a vertically mounted hydraulic cylinder 125 instead of horizontal cylinder 74.
Specifically, arm 128 is pivoted at a fixed support 135 of first assembly 12a and has its other end slidably received within a slide guide 130 secured to second support assembly 15a. Similarly, the other arm 126 is pivoted at support 134 and has its other end slidably received within a slide guide 131. Hydraulic cylinder 125 has its lower end secured to support assembly 12 with rod 129 extending from the other end of the cylinder. Wheels 127a, b are rotatably attached to the free end of rod 129 with the wheels slidably engaging the lower sides of supports 128, 126. Accordingly, when hydraulic cylinder 125 is actuated by means of hydraulic pump 98, previously described, cylinder rod 129 is effective to push arms 126, 128 upwardly and thereby raising support assembly 15a to the raised position as shown in FIG. 8.
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A trailer to be towed by a vehicle for transporting a car and a boat having a first support assembly adapted to carry the car. A second support assembly is adapted to carry the boat and is movable between a lower and raised position. Two pairs of pivoted scissor arms are slidably secured to opposite sides of the first and second support assemblies. Hydraulic actuators are used to actuate the scissor arm pairs thereby to move the second support assembly between its raised and lowered positions.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to electronic luggage locking devices and, more particularly, pertains to a new method for providing passenger's luggage information to the airline for optimizing its baggage handling system as well as easing of passenger's baggage identification and reclaim.
[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0004] Luggage zipper combination locks and keyed padlocks are well known as indispensable components of a typical luggage or travel bag providing luggage owner the most basic form of securing personal belongings within the luggage during a trip. However, it's functional and security performances have not been keeping up with changes of modern society especially the emergence of new technologies and having increasing mobile worldwide air travelers. For decades, these ‘age-old’ combination digit-wheel dial lock and keyed padlocks have become outdated and indisputably cumbersome to use with doubtful security, particularly due to frequently experiencing losing keys, mechanical structure constraining for small wheel-dials, difficult to read tiny engraved-digit size, easily forgotten 3-digits unlocking code, and risk of code being cracked in seconds.
[0005] Recent smart luggage known to employ global positioning system (GPS) to locate luggage position. In fact, current commercial GPS technologies are unable to reliably detect an object/item when it is located inside a building or stored in a metal container/truck. For example, satellite signal of automobile GPS navigation system often fails to indicate the direction whenever the car is driven into a tunnel.
[0006] In addition to foregoing shortcomings described for those luggage locks, there has been a need for an electronic luggage system operated by an electronic identification device with characteristics as follows: easy and simplicity to use, faster speed to gain access, increased efficiency in accessing luggage information such as its physical dimension, detail contents, weight, luggage owner's name, address and contact information, adjacent safeguard, vicinity notification, and identification of a luggage, airport baggage tracking and locating a luggage, very low battery power consumption, able to conveniently interact with airline and airport systems and relative inexpensive construction.
[0007] Present invention is concerned with a smart luggage incorporated with an electronic luggage locking device and intelligent baggage handling system employing sensors and electronic proximity communication technology. In particular, the invention relates to electronic luggage lock and in combination with luggage owner's smart devices and also parties within airline luggage handling systems e.g. an airport and airline facilities, to form an unitary intelligent baggage handling system.
[0008] The Author's earlier patent WO 2011149424 A1 disclosed “an electronic combination lock” for luggage which resolves numerous shortcomings associated with when using traditional mechanical locks employing digit-wheel combination wheel-dial locks and keyed padlocks.
[0009] The followings additional patents on electronic luggage combination lock, container lock and baggage handling method are believed to have relevance to the invention: U.S. Pat. No. 4,495,540, U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,889 B1, WO 2001025864 A1, U.S. Pat. App. no. 20130264128, WO 2013154692 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,226 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,979 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,862 A, U.S. Pat. No. 7,021,537 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,728 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,789, U.S. Pat. No. 5,021,776, U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,164, U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,862 A, U.S. Pat. No. 8,635,891 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,718, U.S. Pat. No. 8,161,781 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,277 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,644 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,561 A, U.S. Pat. No. 8,630,537 B2, U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,017 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,719,771 A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,441 A, U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,434 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,610 B2, WO 2000019392 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,656 A, U.S. Pat. No. 8,531,290 B2.
[0010] However, there are needs to make present traveler's luggage becomes smarter providing greater convenient to the increasingly mobile worldwide travelers for securing a luggage and its contents during a trip while simultaneously ensuring the effectiveness of air transport systems and custom authorized personnel to speedily identify, track and gain access to luggage contents for enhancing air, sea and land travel safety, security and efficiency. To address these weaknesses and pressing needs described in the foregoing, the inventor proposes a smart electronic luggage device and an intelligent baggage handling method which provides the public, air transport institutions e.g. airlines, airports, transport security administration (TSA), international air transport association (IATA) and international civil aviation organization (ICAO) with a useful choice.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
[0011] One aspect of present invention is to provide a luggage locking device and baggage handling method comprising at least an electronic lock, a mechanical housing, a plurality of mechanical rollers, a plurality of sensors and switches, interface application software to interact with other sensors and devices within a luggage and also external paired devices in proximity to the luggage, and remote transport systems with an airline and airports. The luggage system may content and interact with at least an electronic lock having a microcontroller and application software, luggage information electronic storage, electronic luggage tag, a weighting sensor, fingerprint authentication module, adjacent safeguard and warning, vicinity identification and notification sub-system, access to airport facility baggage tracking system. The plurality of electronic modules and application software fit into the physical luggage structure to form an unitary embodiment of an intelligent electronic luggage and when interact in conjunction with external mobile devices such as a smart phone, internet link and/or airport transport systems to form as an efficient and secured baggage handling system.
[0012] A further object of present invention is to utilize at least a micro-controller of the luggage lock as the central processing to interact with other devices within the luggage and also external devices in physical proximity, the said micro-controller enables the extraction of various devices information, communicate and finally display on the smart device screen within its physical proximity. Typical information are (i) the physical dimension and weight of a luggage employing strain gauge sensors, (ii) the luggage owner name, address, email and/or mobile phone contact number stored within an electronic tag (iii) proximity access-gaining fingerprint authentication sensor, (iv) adjacent safeguard and warning (v) proximity identification and notification of luggage and (vi) airport baggage tracking and locating for a luggage.
[0013] Details of luggage's physical dimension, identity, weight and contents of a luggage are vital information for passenger transport providers such as airline, train and ferry operators to manage the passenger cargo compartment space, weight, as well as for authorized personnel such as custom officers to effectively maintain transport security and safety for travelers. Another object of present invention is to provide an accurate and speedy access to passenger's luggage information enabling efficient operation and optimization of passenger and cargo loading capacity of a flight particularly but not exclusively to budget airlines whereby luggage's space and weight affect aircraft fuel usage and thus operating margin of an airline. Simply restricting each passenger for a specific size and limiting luggage's weight of luggage could not lead to optimization of passenger cargo space utilization in an airplane. An object of present invention is to provide an efficient luggage handling system disclosed herein which enables individual passenger to provide prior luggage physical dimension and weight via smart mobile devices using application software to the airline days or hours ahead before check-in time could potentially lead to efficient planning for airline to optimize passenger cargo loading versus number of seat occupied by passengers within each flight. Incentive could be initiated by airline to those passengers who carry less than assigned luggage's size and weight may promote optimization of aircraft compartment loading factor. Another object of present invention is enable those passengers who are planning to bring larger than airline's assigned size and heavier weight of luggage, application software linking with the airline system could further enable these passengers to purchase at an attractive price days or hours before boarding the airline.
[0014] A further object of present invention is to provide an alternative means of access gaining to the luggage locking device utilizing fingerprint authentication. Although human finger is not a dedicated ‘tool’ to generate a reliable finger print and thus not ideal identification access-gaining method for accessing a lock, its applications have been widely used as an alternative mean. Typical shortcomings on the use of fingerprint to gain access is that human fingerprint pattern changes drastically when subjected to differing external environment. For examples, false negatives access when (i) a cut in the thumb that significantly deforms fingerprint pattern (ii) a wrinkly skin on fingers resulting from prolonged immersion in water of swimming pool or bathtub causes distortion on fingerprint.
[0015] Moreover, current invention offers luggage owner the adjacent protection of their luggage to prevent unnecessary anxiety and eliminate the risk of luggage being stolen especially taking meals in airport restaurant, toilet, and etc. After the adjacent safeguard feature is turned on, once the at the luggage sense that the luggage has been displaced or moved, a signal will be sent to luggage owner's pre-paired mobile device to notify the owner with utilizing proximity Bluetooth technology. This invention allows luggage owner to take a nap while waiting flight, train or ferry reassuringly. Apart from that, when travelling with friends or families, multiple luggages are carried and need to take more care of. However, when concentrating on shopping or distract by the attraction, luggages will be forgotten and left off easily, this issue can be averted by using the vicinity Bluetooth, with star network topology, a warning will be sent to the owner if any of the luggages is distance from him/her.
[0016] Particularly on the baggage claim conveyor belt system at an airport immediately after disembarkation from a flight, there are similar size, color, design and brand of luggage deceiving luggage owner from picking up correct luggage. Often, only to realize after pulling off other's luggage out from the moving conveyor belt while reading the conventional luggage tag containing written luggage owner's personal information. Another object of present invention is to provide vicinity notification and identification features utilizing near filed communication (NFC) sensor or short-range Bluetooth devices to enable luggage owners through their mobile electronic devices such as smart phone to detect the present of a specific luggage in proximity particularly when the luggage arriving in front of its owner. A further object of present invention is to provide an additional displaying device preprogramed with unique graphical sign or alphanumeric codes uniquely predefined by the owner on a luggage may be triggered to assist obvious identification of luggage when in close proximity preventing luggage owner from mistakenly removing other's luggage from a moving conveyor during airport baggage claim.
[0017] Annually, global airlines continuously mishandled luggage and inflicted unnecessary stressful and gave inconvenience to millions of luggage owners typically generating substantial anxiety while on a holiday trip resulting from a delay or loss of personal belongings in a luggage. Despite many mishandled luggage were returned to its respective owner within the next or a few working days, the damage manifested as unhappy passengers sustained. Global airlines collectively spent over US $3 billions to return the mishandled luggage to their respective owners according to IATA report in 2012. Many luggage also failed to be identified accurately resulting from the loss of its luggage tag which containing owner's details information. A further object of present invention is to embed an electronic tag into a luggage enables the luggage to notify its location remotely whenever it interacts with airport transport facility luggage tracking systems. The notification information enables the missing luggage to be tracked by its owner remotely thus potentially reduces passenger's anxiety for worrying of an eventual loss of the missing luggage hence mitigating customer dissatisfaction to the lowest level.
[0018] Present invention thus provides a luggage locking device containing luggage information in electronic storage e.g. in a near field communication (NFC) and radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips, passenger's boarding pass information, electronic luggage tag containing owner's name, address and contact information, weighting sensors, fingerprint authentication module, proximity identification and notification sub-system, airport facility luggage tracking units, advantageously used to replace the use of conventional luggage locks and electronic locks. The invention further effectively provides a modern luggage handling system offering incredibly user's convenient in safeguarding personal belongings as well as offering efficiency in optimizing airline's passenger's cargo and effective tracking and retrieval of essential luggage information wirelessly by authorized personnel enabling the increasing needs for enhanced air transport security and safety resulting from a sustained challenges in air travel security risks over last decade. These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment, considered along with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] The details of the luggage lock device and baggage handling method will be understood more clearly with reference made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0020] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a luggage embodiment integral with electronic locking device and a displaying device;
[0021] FIG. 2 is a front view of electronic luggage locking device with mechanical key bypass module, button and fingerprint module;
[0022] FIG. 3 is an illustration of weighting the luggage weight and the information is transferred to external mobile device;
[0023] FIG. 4 is a sketch of luggage roller embedded with luggage as an embodiment with uplift pin, mechanical ball, enclosed with rolling sensor for detection of displacement.
[0024] FIG. 5 is an isometric view of a luggage embodiment integrated with electronics motion sensors to detect any translation, movement and displacement.
[0025] FIG. 6 is an illustration of luggage embodiment interacting and exchanging necessary information with airline's baggage handling system;
[0026] FIG. 7 is an illustration of vicinity notification and identification on luggage's owner mobile devices when particular luggage embodiment is in front of the owner on the baggage claim conveyer belt after disembarkation from a flight;
[0027] FIG. 8 is an schematic illustration of the electronic locking device and display of FIG. 1 according to embodiments; and
[0028] FIG. 9 is a schematic illustration of an information system including the luggage of FIG. 1 according to embodiments.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0029] FIG. 1 illustrates a luggage 2 integral with an electronic system and locking mechanism 4 including an electronic locking device 8 and a displaying device 9 . Referring to FIG. 8 , the electronic system and locking mechanism 4 is powered up by a battery 28 and compromises, as part of the electronic locking device 8 , at least one microcontroller 30 , an electronic luggage tag 10 , electronics memory 32 , a weighting sensor 34 , a vicinity identification and notification sub-system 36 and fingerprint authentication module 38 , and the displaying device 9 . The electronic locking device 8 may also comprise a communication interface 40 , a motion sensor 42 including at least one of an accelerometer 44 or a gyroscope 46 , and a light sensor 48 . The microcontroller 30 inside the electronics locking device 8 acts as the central processing unit to process information and control the system of electronic locking device 8 .
[0030] The electronic system and locking mechanism 4 includes the necessary electronics, software, memory, storage, databases, firmware, logic/state machines, microprocessors, communication links, and any other input/output interfaces to perform the functions described herein and/or to achieve the results described herein. For example, the electronic system and locking mechanism 4 may include one or more processors and memory, such as the microcontroller 30 and electronic memory 32 , which may include system memory, including random access memory (RAM) and read-only memory (ROM). Suitable computer program code may be provided to the electronic system and locking mechanism 4 for executing numerous functions, including those discussed in connection with the vicinity identification and notification system 36 and the fingerprint authentication module 38 . For example, in some embodiments, the vicinity identification and notification system 36 and/or the fingerprint authentication module 38 may include a plurality of computer readable instructions stored in the electronic memory 32 that may be executed and/or accessed by microcontroller 30 . In other embodiments, the systems may be stored remotely and executed and/or accessed via one or more remote computing devices, such as a server over a network, as should be understood by those skilled in the art.
[0031] The one or more processors, such as the microcontroller 30 , may include one or more conventional microprocessors and may also include one or more supplementary co-processors such as math co-processors or the like. The one or more processors may be configured to communicate with other networks and/or devices such as servers, other processors, computers, cellular telephones, tablets and the like.
[0032] The one or more processors, including the microcontroller 30 , may be in communication with the electronic memory 32 , which may comprise magnetic, optical and/or semiconductor memory, such as, for example, random access memory (“RAM”), read only memory (“ROM”), flash memory, optical memory, or a hard disk drive memory. Electronic memory 32 may store the electronic luggage tag 10 and/or luggage information 50 for use by the electronic locking device 8 . The memory may also store any other information typically found in computing devices, including an operating system, and/or one or more other programs (e.g., computer program code and/or a computer program product) that are stored in a non-transitory memory portion and adapted to direct the electronic system and locking mechanism 4 to perform according to the various embodiments discussed herein. The information and/or other programs may be stored, for example, in a compressed format, an uncompiled and/or an encrypted format, and may include computer program code executable by the one or more processors, such as the microcontroller 30 . The executable instructions of the computer program code may be read into a main memory, such as electronic memory 32 , of the one or more processors, such as the microcontroller 30 , from a non-transitory computer-readable medium other than the electronic memory 32 . While execution of sequences of instructions in the program causes the one or more processors to perform the process steps described herein, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with, executable software instructions for implementation of the processes of the present invention. Thus, embodiments of the present invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software.
[0033] For example, the methods and programs discussed herein may also be implemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmable gate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or the like. Programs may also be implemented in software for execution by various types of computer processors. A program of executable code may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which may, for instance, be organized as an object, procedure, process or function. Nevertheless, the executables of an identified program need not be physically located together, but may comprise separate instructions stored in different locations which, when joined logically together, comprise the program and achieve the stated purpose for the programs such as providing workflow analysis. In an embodiment, an application of executable code may be a compilation of many instructions, which may be distributed over several different code partitions or segments, among different programs, and across several devices.
[0034] The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any medium that provides or participates in providing instructions and/or data to the one or more processors of the electronic system and locking mechanism 4 (or any other processor of a device described herein) for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media or memory and volatile memory. Non-volatile memory may include, for example, optical, magnetic, or opto-magnetic disks, or other non-transitory memory. Volatile memory may include dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes the main memory or other transitory memory.
[0035] Referring back to FIG. 1 , the displaying device 9 is pre-programmed with graphical sign or alphanumeric codes uniquely predefined by the luggage owner for obvious identification of the luggage 2 when the luggage 2 is in close proximity. As seen in FIG. 3 , the information can be further interacted and notified to luggage owner's paired mobile device 15 wirelessly through the communication interface 40 , shown in FIG. 8 , which may include short-range Bluetooth communication protocol, near field communication (“NFC”) protocol, radio frequency identification (“RFID”) protocol, WiFi, an infrared sensor with a transceiver for inter devices vicinity communication, or the like to form an unitary system according to an embodiment.
[0036] An electronic luggage tag 10 may be embedded inside luggage according to an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 . The electronic luggage tag 10 is able to store a name, address, contact mobile number and email address. A significant feature of electronic memory 32 is to also store passenger's luggage information 50 , which may include the physical dimension and weight of the luggage 2 . The information inside both the electronic luggage tag 10 and electronic memory 32 can be read and programmed via near field communication protocol, radio frequency identification protocol or the like. The electronic luggage tag 10 is advantageously eco-friendly, embedded inside luggage lock and will not subject to be torn off easily.
[0037] Referring to FIG. 2 , the electronic system and locking mechanism 4 may include a mechanical key bypass module 11 in provision of enabling custom personnel to gain access to the luggage content without damaging the locking device 8 . A mechanical triggered button 12 provides user interaction with the system. According to embodiments, a fingerprint authentication module 38 , including a fingerprint scanner 13 , may be included inside the electronic locking device 8 to provide an alternative means for gaining access to the luggage locking device.
[0038] FIG. 3 shows a weighing system 14 employing the weight sensor 34 , such as a strain gauge sensor, enclosed in the luggage according to an embodiment. Weight information, as determined by the weight sensor 34 may be wirelessly extracted with the external mobile device 15 . Additionally, other information including passenger's flights information and passenger's luggage information 50 inside the luggage locking device 8 may also be interacted in conjunction with external mobile devices 15 . The external mobile device 15 may be a smartphone, a tablet, a personal computer, a smart watch or the like. As seen in FIG. 9 , the extracted information from the luggage 2 can be further sent to an airline system 52 through a network connection 54 with an application being executed by the external mobile devices 15 prior to arriving at an airport check-in counter to form an efficient and secured baggage handling method. For example, the weight information may advantageously allow the airline to be able to optimize the airline's cargo space and weight for a particular flight and, additionally, a passenger may be able to get incentives offered by airline for a particular luggage weight less than pre-assigned weight by airline for each passenger. By interfacing the luggage 2 with the airline system 52 through the external mobile device 15 , the system of the present invention may advantageously integrate a user's travel and luggage information with details of an airline's particular travel schedule, availability of seats, cargo space, pricing and the like, all of which may be viewed, accessed and interacted with on a display 16 of the external mobile device 15 . The application executed by the external mobile device 15 may further provide the ability for purchasing a seat and cargo space any time. Additionally, the boarding pass of an airline's passenger may stored in and/or able to be retrieve from the application on the external mobile device 15 .
[0039] FIG. 4 demonstrates the luggage 2 with external roller 17 built with an uplift pin 18 , mechanical ball and optical light beam sensor 19 . FIG. 5 shows the luggage 2 embedded with a multiple of electronics motion sensors 20 such as an accelerometer sensor, e.g. a three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and the like. The signals from uplift pin 18 , mechanical ball, optical light beam sensor 19 , shown in FIG. 4 , and motion sensor 20 , shown in FIG. 5 , as well as motion from luggage handle 21 may be sent to the microprocessor 30 , shown in FIG. 8 , of the electronic locking device 8 , shown in FIG. 1 , for detection of movement, displacement, and/or translation of the luggage 2 . The processed signals from the electronic locking device 8 may then be sent to external mobile device 15 , for example, wirelessly as seen in FIG. 3 utilizing proximity Bluetooth technology or the like to provide a warning to the luggage owner that the luggage 2 has been moved. Thus, the present invention may advantageously provide a security system that to reduce the unnecessary anxiety from the luggage owner by eliminating the risk of luggage 2 being stolen.
[0040] FIG. 6 illustrates the luggage 2 , according to an embodiment, that interacts and exchanges necessary information when passing through an airline's baggage handling system 23 . This may advantageously cut short the passenger's the check-in time.
[0041] FIG. 7 shows the owner 24 of a particular luggage 26 , which may be in the form of the luggage 2 , shown in FIGS. 1-6 and 9 , receiving notification on his/her mobile device 15 when the particular luggage 26 , according to an embodiment, is in front of the owner 24 after disembarkation from a flight. The notification may be sent wirelessly, for example, by utilizing near field communication (NFC) sensor, RFID sensor, short-range Bluetooth communication protocol or the like. This may aid in preventing the luggage owner 24 from picking up the wrong luggage, which could be of a similar size, color, design and brand of luggage.
[0042] The invention has been described with reference to the illustrated preferred embodiments described herein. The invention is not unduly limited by this disclosure of the preferred embodiments described. Instead, it is intended that the invention be defined and their equivalents, set forth in the following claims.
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Disclosed herein is an electronic luggage locking device and airline baggage handling method mainly characterized by ease-of-use, enhanced security and efficiency by utilizing proximity access-gaining and authentication technologies, a plurality of sensors, embedded electronic storage and retrieval of luggage information. The luggage locking device is incorporated with an electronic communication system enables interactions with other sensor modules within the luggage, external smart devices and airline transport systems to form an unitary baggage handling system. The baggage handling system contents a method using application software and capable of indicating and communicating the said luggage information and locational identification within an airline transport systems.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention is concerned with a process and device for evporating large amounts of low boiling gases, especially for the evaporation of nitrogen for fighting mine fires. The invention is, however, not restricted to this use, but can be adapted to all cases where large amounts of gas must be obtained by evaporation of the liquid phase of the gas. This can, for example be the preparation of inert gas to render tankers inert, or the evporation of liquefied natural gas for peak load service.
Mine fires used to be combatted by walling off all accesses to the furnace of the fire in order to choke off the supply of air to the location of the fire. It would usually take years until such a fire would choke by itself on account of scarce air supply. It happened often, thereby, that the fire would flare up anew as soon as sealing walls were opened.
With mine fires, the requirements are set. Since nowadays very expensive machines are put in, it represents a very high financial loss, if these machines cannot, under the circumstances be used for years. Under these circumstances, they even represent a total loss, if they are technologically revised during the years of the fire. Therefore, it is desirable to more quickly bring mine fires under control and to extinguish them faster.
Successful in this area has been gaseous nitrogen, which is carried by a pipeline through the shaft and brought directly to the furnace of the fire by means of tubular probes, so that the fire is choked. As a rule, one usually succeeds, in this manner to extinguish the fire within fewer weeks or months.
In connection with this, very large quantities of nitrogen in the magnitude of several thousand Nm 3 /hr. required. As a rule, this nitrogen cannot be obtained in the gaseous state from an air separation plant, so that it must be channeled into the shaft in liquid form and evaporated there. For this, one often uses a heat exchanger unit with water as the exchange medium. The water is heated in a separate chamber by immersion heaters and rotated by a pump. The liquid nitrogen flows through tubular coils on the rotating water bath and evaporates. Such an installation is extensive and requires a high investment cost. Considerable transportation and installation costs arise from the weight of the equipment. The bottom must be provided with a stable foundation. Also the operation of the equipment is expensive and complicated. The operation of the blowers or compressors for the immersion heaters and for the water circulating pump causes a substantial current demand. Adjustment is difficult since the temperature of the evaporated nitrogen as well as that of the circulating water must be tuned to each other.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to find a process and device for evaporating large amounts of low boiling liquefied gases by transfer of heat produced by burning a combustible gas, which needs only simple and light equipment, which can do without auxiliary energy in the form of electric current and which is regulated in a simple fashion.
Such a process was found, with which, according to the invention the heat transfer occurs in a heat which consists essentially of a cylindrical combustion chamber without convection component (as in German Pat. No. 2,106,830 and a passage surrounding the cylindrical combustion chamber for the gas to be evaporated in such manner that the liquid gas is exposed upon entry into the passage to a burner flame with a maximum radiation.
The passage for the gas to be evaporated can, for example, be a spirally winding pipeline, so that it itself forms the cylindrical combustion chamber. It can also be a simple annulus which if necessary can be provided with walls so that the liquefied gas travels around the combustion chamber in a screw shaped pattern. Such heaters which are of a very simply construction are known from the German Pat. No. 2,106,830. As used in the specification and claims the reference to heaters having a radiation component and being free of a convention component is meant to refer to such known heaters of the type described in German Pat. No. 2,106,830. Upon entry of the liquid, boiling gas into the heater there results a bubbling evaporation with extremely high heat transfer. Therefore, in order to avoid icing at this part of the heater the supply of heat occurs, according to the invention, by means of a burner flame with a maximum radiation. The intensive supply heat from radiation prevents an ice coating on the inner wall of the heater.
A flame with maximum radiation can be obtained from every burner which is operated with premix. With these burners, the combustible gas is premixed in the burner with at least part of the air used in combustion, so that the burner flame need not draw any or only a part of the air needed for combustion. Typical burners of this type are oxy-acetylene welding torches and Bunsen burners. With these burners the danger of backfire cannot be completely ruled out. For the preferred field of application of the invention, namely, the fighting of mine fires, a safer continuous operation for weeks or months without steady human supervision is demanded. The possibility of a backfire must, therefore, be completely ruled out. A further object of the invention consists of producing a burner flame with maximum radiation, with which the danger of backfire does not exist.
According to the invention this object is thereby achieved since at least one gas burner is operating as a premix burner with which the gas coming out of the nozzle takes up part of the required air for combustion from the space and the so formed primary flame strikes a deflector plate which is mounted near the entrance of the combustion chamber and behind which the secondary air is sucked in and a flame with a maximum radiation is produced.
With this method in accord with the invention a backfire is completely ruled out. Basically this method amounts to steadily working with a backfire (primary flame), while on the other hand, on the other side of the deflector plate, all advantages, especially maximum radiation of a flame with premix are obtained.
According to an advantageous form of the invention, the deflector plate consists of concentrically mounted deflector rings which actually represent parts of a cone shaped shell and together form an inclined ring slot directed onto the wall of the combustion chamber. Before these deflector rings, gas burner nozzles are mounted in a circle and are directed at the inner side of the smaller deflector ring. The deflector rings and the gas burner nozzles are mounted in a tube shaped guide piece in the end of the combustion chamber facing the burners.
The end of the combustion chamber opposite the burner is advantageously designed as a deflector insert. The smoke gases can escape through a ring slot between the deflector insert and the end wall or the combustion chamber wall. It is advantageous to make the deflcetor insert adjustable in an axial direction and to design it so that it forms a conical ring slot with the combustion chamber wall or the end wall. The width of the ring slot can then be altered by axially adjusting the deflector insert. The pressure to be maintained in the combustion chamber can be easily optimized by adjusting the deflector insert.
The pressure to be built up in the combustion chamber also depends upon the type of gas burner nozzle used. Normal welding nozzles have proven to be best suited to this purpose.
A well suited combustible gas is propane which can be drawn in liquid form from a propane bottle. In order to obtain a sufficient evaporation the propane supply line can be coiled around the tube shaped guide piece containing the burners or mounted in the form of a coil in the interior of the guide piece. One could avoid the difficulties which are connected with the production of a flame with maximum radiation by using a conventional heater with a large convection component. Many pipe assemblies with partitions would however be required for this. A complicated trouble prone and expensive welding construction would result. The goals of the invention could not be attained with this.
THE DRAWINGS
The single FIGURE illustrates schematically in cross-section a device for evaporating liquid nitrogen with propane as fuel gas in accordance with this invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The inventive device consists of a combustion chamber wall 1 in which a pipeline 2 is densely coiled, in which the liquid nitrogen evaporates. The liquid nitrogen enters the device via line 3 and leaves it in the gaseous state via line 4 whereby it may be used to extinguish a mine fire, as schematically illustrated. Instead of a pipeline, an annulus with a helix and also if necessary without a helix can be used. The fuel gas propane arrives in the device via line 5 is evaporated in the spiral pipe coils 7 along the inner wall of the guide piece 6 and channeled to the gas burner nozzles 8. In the tube shaped guide piece 6 there are according to the invention two concentric deflector rings 9 and 10 which actually represent a cone shaped shell and together form an inclined ring slot 11 directed at the combustion chamber wall. The gas burner nozzles are mounted in a circular configuration so that they are aimed at the inner side of the smaller deflector ring 10. An optical admixture of the secondary air with the flame is achieved. The number of gas burner nozzles 8 depends on the size of the heater. In the end wall 12 opposite the heater there is a conical deflector insert 13 which can be axially shifted as indicated by the double headed arrow by means of an arrangement which is not illustrated. The slot 14 between the end wall 12 and the deflector insert 13 can be altered in this fashion. The smoke gases escape through the slot 14 and depending on the width of the slot various pressures can be set in the combustion chamber so that an optimal operation of the equipment can be easily achieved. In the tube shaped guide piece 6 there area in the area of the gas burner nozzles 8 openings via which the primary air, about 60% of the total combustion air is sucked in. This primary air is indicated with crossing through arrows 15. There results a primary flame which strikes the inner side of the smaller deflector ring 10. The primary flame becomes turbulent here and there results a hot mixture of gases reacting with one another consisting of propane and primary air. This gas mixture now sucks in the secondary air about 40% of the total combustion air. The secondary air flow through the ring slot 11 formed by the deflector rings 9 and 10 as well as through the slot formed by the deflector ring 9 and the guide piece 6 into the combustion chamber. The secondary air is indicated with dotted arrows 16. An incandescent flame with maximum radiation thereby results in the combustion chamber. The liquid nitrogen which flows into the combustion chamber through line 3 immediately begins to evaporate with a bubbling evaporation. The type of evaporation is connected with an extremely high heat transfer so that one would expect an icing of the inner combustion chamber wall which is formed by the pipe coils 2. As a result the heater would be functional in the shortest time. However as a result of the intensive radiation of the flame formed according to the invention, such an ice formation is avoided.
The device is regulated by means of a not illustrated temperature or thermostatic probe mounted in line 4. As soon as the temperature of the outcoming gaseous nitrogen becomes too high the burner is shut off. If the temperature sinks below the predetermined value the burner is ignited again.
The inventive device is light and can if need be transported quickly to the location of usage and set up. Except for the regulation it does not require any electrical energy. Compared to previous devices for evaporating liquid nitrogen, it is extremely valuable. It has proven itself admirably in a month's long use with a mine fire.
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Large amounts of low boiling liquefied gases are evaporated by heat transfer in a cylindrical combustion chamber without a convection component and a passage for the gas to be evaporated surrounds the combustion chamber so that the liquefied gas is exposed to a burner flame upon entry into the passage.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a satellite transponder and in particular an S band transponder for a "TELECOM II" type satellite.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Operation of a satellite and its payload must be monitored continuously. The telemetry, telecommand and location system enables a control center to implement this function using telemetry information sent down by the satellite; the control center sends up telecommand instructions. The location function provides data identifying the position of the satellite for injection into the final orbit and station-keeping. The system uses either a dedicated frequency band, usually the S band, especially for injection into the final orbit, or a telecommunications band used for the normal function of the satellite.
A prior art transponder is described in "Phaselock Techniques" by Floyd M. GARDNER (John Wiley and Sons; second edition, page 163, FIGS. 8-12).
An object of the invention is to provide a transponder offering improved performance than prior art transponders at reduced cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention consists in a satellite transponder wherein a local oscillator of the receiver is slaved to a quartz crystal oscillator by a narrowband phase-locked loop in a standby period or in the absence of received signal and said local oscillator is slaved to the receiver input signal by a wideband phase-locked loop immediately upon receipt of a signal the narrowband phase-locked loop being then switched out automatically.
In this transponder the transmitter is advantageously tuned to the same frequency as the local oscillator of the receiver in coherent mode, being stabilized by a phase-locked loop identical in terms of frequency and components to the narrowband phase-locked loop.
The advantages of a transponder of this kind include:
A reduction in the cost and the manufacturing cycle of the receiver+transmitter equipment.
Improved long-term stability of the receiver standby frequency.
Insensitivity of the receiver to "pushing" phenomena.
Improved stability of the receiver phase-locked loop.
The invention therefore makes it possible:
to use the same frequency scheme for the transmitter and the receiver local oscillator,
to use two phase-locked loops in the receiver, under the control of an automatic switching system:
a narrowband phase-locked loop providing long-term stability and eliminating unwanted "pushing" effects during the carrier acquisition phase,
a wideband phase-locked loop for locking onto the up-link carrier, used to demodulate the up-link signal.
A lock-on indicator automatically switches out the narrowband loop as soon as the wideband loop is locked onto the up-link carrier and switches it in again if synchronization is lost.
No voltage controlled quartz crystal oscillator is used, in order to avoid any spurious pole in the wideband loop (improving its stability); also, a device of this kind is difficult to implement (involving long lead times) and costly.
Frequency dividers are used rather than frequency multipliers, which are complex modules that are very delicate and have a long manufacturing lead time (and must be followed by severe filtering if the multiplication factor is high).
The characteristics and advantages of the invention will emerge from the following description given by way of non-limiting example with reference to the appended diagrammatic drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a prior art transponder.
FIG. 2 shows the transponder in accordance with the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The prior art transponder (source: see preamble to this description) shown in FIG. 1 comprises a receiver 10 and a transmitter 11.
In the remainder of the description the main signals are identified by their frequency value.
In the receiver 10:
a first mixer 12 receives an input frequency Fi and a frequency 104 f0;
a second mixer 13 receives the output signal from the first mixer, that is Fi-104 f0, and a signal 6.5 f0-f1,
a phase comparator 14 receives the output signal of the second mixer 13 and a signal f1. The output signal of the comparator controls a voltage-controlled quartz crystal oscillator (VCXO) 15 via a loop filter 16. The oscillator 15 supplies:
the signal 104 f0 to the first mixer 12 via a first multiplier 17 which multiplies by 13 followed by a filter 18 and a second multiplier 19 which multiplies by 8 followed by a filter 20;
the signal 6.5 f0-f1 via the first multiplier 17 and the associated filter 18, a third mixer 21 and a divider 22 which divides by 2; a quartz crystal oscillator 23 supplying a signal 2f1 is directly connected to the third mixer 21 and to the phase comparator 14 via a divider 24 which divides by 2.
In the transmitter 11:
a switch 31 receives:
a coherent channel consisting of the output signal of the VCXO 15 after it has passed through a multiplier 32 which multiplies by 2 and a filter 33;
a non-coherent channel consisting of a signal 2f'0 supplied by a quartz crystal oscillator 34;
the output signal F0 of the transmitter is the output signal of the switch 31 after it has passed through a multiplier 35 which multiplies by 5, a filter 36, a modulator 37 which receives the modulation signal M, a multiplier 38 which multiplies by 12 and a filter 39.
In the block diagram of the receiver 10 the quartz crystal oscillator 23 (frequency 2f1) does not condition the parameters of the phase-locked loop, providing a fixed second intermediate frequency fl when the receiver 10 is locked on.
The heart of the receiver is the VCXO 15, frequency f0.
When the receiver 10 is locked on, the frequency of the VCXO 15 tracks the input frequency Fi so that 110.5 f0=Fi.
When the receiver 10 is not locked on, the VCXO stabilizes the receiver standby frequency, which is 110.5 f0. This standby frequency is therefore affected by the stability of the control voltage in the absence of any carrier at the input.
Also, this circuit is subject to "pushing": when the carrier frequency is scanned from the ground the receiver locks on when the carrier frequency passes through its standby frequency. Various phenomena can occur during this locking on phase. Under some conditions a voltage may appear when tends to "push" the VCXO frequency away from the carrier frequency (when it should move towards it). The phenomenon may be problematical if the up-link carrier is scanned slowly: the oscillator can go to the limit of its operation and prevent locking on of the receiver.
This circuit uses two frequency multipliers (17 and 19) which are difficult to implement and require severe filtering (18 and 20):
a multiplier by 13: f0→13 f0,
a multiplier by 8: 13 f0→104 f0.
The VCXO 15 also raises problems: because of near-frequency spurious responses (anti-resonance of the quartz crystal), the modulation loop must be reduced so as to not to excite them. The effect of this is to introduce an additional spurious pole into the receiver loop.
In the transmitter 11 the quartz oscillator 34, frequency 2f'0 is used as a non-coherent mode reference.
Again frequency multipliers (32, 35 and 38) are used which are difficult to implement:
a multiplier by 2 : f0→2 f0,
a multiplier by 5 : 2 f0→10 f0,
a multiplier by 12 : 10→120 f0.
Modulation is applied to the carrier at 10 f0.
FIG. 2 shows the transponder in accordance with the invention with its receiver part 40 and its transmitter part 41.
The receiver 40 comprises:
a narrowband phase-locked loop 42 which comprises a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 44 supplying a signal at the frequency 480 fr, a divider 45 which divides by 40, a divider 46 which divides by 6, a divider 47 which divides by 2, a phase/frequency comparator 48 receiving the signal from the divider 47 which divides by 2 and a signal fr from a quartz oscillator 49, a switch 50 receiving a command signal IA, a loop filter 51 and an adder 52;
a wideband phase-locked loop 43 which includes various circuits which are also part of the narrowband phase-locked loop 42, namely: the adder 52, the voltage-controlled oscillator 44, the divider 45 which divides by 40 and the divider 46 which divides by 6, together with new circuits, namely: a first mixer 53 which receives the input signal Fi and a signal from the voltage-controlled oscillator 44, followed by a second mixer 54 which receives the signal from the divider 45 which divides by 40 after it has been multiplied by 3 by a multiplier 55, followed by a phase comparator 56 which receives the signal from the divider by 46 which divides by 6 and the output of which is connected to the adder 52 via a loop filter 57.
The signal at the output of the first mixer 53 is: -Fi+480 fr; the signal at the output of the second mixer 54 is: -Fi+444 fr; the signal at the output of the phase comparator 56 is: -Fi+442 fr. The purpose of the wideband loop is to maintain the condition Fi=442 fr.
The transmitter 41 comprises the same components as the narrowband phase-locked loop, namely a voltage-controlled oscillator 60, a divider 61 which divides by 40, a divider 62 which divides by 6, a divider 63 which divides by 2, a phase/frequency comparator 64 and a loop filter 65 connected to the oscillator 60.
It further comprises:
a modulator 66 for loop out-band phase modulation,
a quartz crystal oscillator 67 and a switch 68 for operation in coherent mode (connected to the receiver 40) or in non-coherent mode (connected to the oscillator 67). Note that the frequency scheme of this transmitter is identical to that of the receiver local oscillator: this reduces the design and implementation costs of both systems (identical components, similar adjustments).
In this block diagram, when the receiver 40 is not locked, on the narrowband loop 42 is in service and slaves the voltage-controlled oscillator 44 to the very stable quartz oscillator 49.
The loop 42 compensates any variations in the command voltage vL from the wideband loop 43. The standby frequency of the receiver 40 is therefore very stable.
During the receiver 40 locking on phase the loop 42 compensates the effects of any "pushing" that would otherwise push the frequency of the oscillator 44 away from lock-on rather than moving it towards the latter.
The wideband loop 43 enables the receiver 40 to be locked onto the up-link frequency Fi and delivers a lock-on indicator (IA) so that the switch 50 automatically switches out the narrowband loop 42.
Note that the frequency multipliers 17 and 19 (which respectively multiply by 13 and 8) in the FIG. 1 block diagram have been replaced by dividers 45 and 46 (respectively dividing by 40 and 6), of the ECL type, for example.
The multiplier 55 which multiplies by 3 is in reality part of the mixer 54 (harmonic mixer).
The VCXO 15 from FIG. 1 has been replaced by a VCO 44, frequency 480 fr, and a quartz oscillator 49, frequency fr. These two modules are much simpler, taken separately.
The receiver 40 in accordance with the invention shown in FIG. 2 is of the "long-loop" kind as it uses two intermediate frequencies in the loop.
With no carrier at the input, the receiver 40 is "on standby". Its standby frequency corresponds to the frequency that would have to be applied to the input for it to lock on instantaneously.
The receiver 40 supplies a lock-on indicator IA. This information is sent to the control center on earth so that the center can control the transmitter 41.
It is possible to phase modulate the transmitter carrier. There are two operating modes:
Coherent mode:
F0=Fi.240/221
F0 : transmit frequency.
Fi : receive frequency.
The transmitter therefore uses the reference from the receiver at frequency Fr=k.Fi/221.
Non-coherent mode:
The transmitter quartz oscillator 67 is the reference.
In one embodiment the following values were obtained:
Receiver:
fr=Fi/442
Fi≃2 GHz
fr≃4.5 MHz
Narrowband loop : noise band : 2B n =20 Hz
Wideband loop : noise band : 2B w =800 Hz
fr (VCO 44 standby frequency): 480 fr=2.17 GHz
Transmitter:
f0≃2.17 GHz
f'r≃4.5 MHz
Modulation loop : noise band : 2B≃1 000 Hz
The present invention has been described and shown by way of preferred example only and its component parts may be replaced with equivalent parts without departing from the scope of the invention.
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A satellite transponder has the local oscillator in the receiver slaved to a quartz crystal oscillator by a narrowband phase-locked loop during a standby period or in the absence of received signal and by a wideband phase-locked loop immediately the signal is received, at which time the narrowband phase-locked loop is switched out automatically.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a method of and device for finishing cage windows in a ball cage for a constant velocity universal ball joint, which ball cage has the shape of an annular member which comprises two parallel annular edges and a convex outer face and out of which there are punched uniformly circumferentially distributed cage windows each having two circumferentially extending edges. The shape of the convex outer face of the annular member can be varied within wide limits in that, for example, it is possible to provide a spherical outer curvature or the shape of a double cone. The wall thickness of the cage is approximately constant, but it can comprise different thickness ratios within the range of a small-numbered multiple.
Following the assembly of a constant velocity universal ball joint, the inner edges of the cage windows constitute running faces for the balls guided in the cage windows. The quality of the running faces thus has to be good, both in respect of their peak-to-valley height and the parallelity of their lateral lines. The running faces also have to comprise a sufficient surface hardness.
In the case of prior art methods of finishing cage windows, punched cage windows whose edges are inadequate in respect of surface quality and parallelity, are first broached or milled, then hardened, and after having been hardened they are ground. Such a method is expensive and time-consuming, especially as the workpiece has to be re-clamped several times.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a simplified and cost-effective method of finishing the cage windows, as well as a suitable tool.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, the objective is achieved in that the circumferentially extending edges of the cage windows are smoothed and parallelized by a non-chip-producing method of deformation. For this purpose it is necessary to provide special tools which will be explained below. As compared to chip-forming surface machining prior to hardening, the inventive method is much quicker and more cost-effective and reduces the tolerances of the cage window width. Non-chip-forming deformation leads to a material compaction at the surface, which has a positive effect on the service life of the circumferentially extending edges of the cage windows, which edges act as running faces for the balls.
The inventive method may be executed, in a first embodiment, before carrying out the step of hardening the ball cage. By reducing the tolerances, it may be possible to do without grinding the cage window edges after the ball cage has been hardened.
According to a second embodiment, the circumferentially extending edges of the cage windows may be surface-layer-hardened before executing the inventive method. In this case, the circumferentially extending edges are pressed into the non-hardened material of the ball cage.
It is proposed to introduce supporting members into the cage windows with a small amount of play, that the annual member is deformed by pressure-loading the annular edges, with the axial distance between the annular edges relative to one another and between the circumferentially extending edges of the cage windows relative to one another being permanently reduced to such an extent that the circumferentially extending edges are smoothed and parallelized on the supporting members, i.e. the annular member is first produced with an excess axial dimension. The material of the entire annular member is then plastically deformed, as a result of which the shape can be simultaneously calibrated.
During the deformation process, the convex outer face of the annular member, from the outside, is supported radially and in a play-free way by dimensionally stable means. During the deformation process, only the circumferentially extending edges of the cage windows come into contact with the supporting members and the spreading members respectively, whereas the edges delimiting the intermediate webs can be positioned at a distance from the tools.
A device for carrying out the method is characterized by a lower tool and an upper tool which form parallel annular recesses for radially fixing the annular edges, by supporting members with smooth and parallel surfaces, which supporting members can be introduced with a small amount of play relative to the circumferentially extending edges into the cage windows of a radially fixed ball cage, and by means for reducing the distance between the lower tool and the upper tool in a direction extending perpendicularly to the planes of the annular recesses. In this context, it is proposed that the lower tool and the upper tool are each provided with inner supporting faces which are rotationally symmetric concentrically relative to the annular recesses and which, during the deformation process, approximately up to a central plane, are able to radially support the annular member from the outside in a play-free and dimensionally stable way. The supporting members are preferably introduced radially into the cage windows with a small amount of play. The lower tool and the upper tool can each be provided with radial grooves whose number corresponds to the number of supporting mandrels and which, while associated with one another in pairs, jointly serve to guide the supporting mandrels in the lower tool and in the upper tool. Furthermore, the supporting mandrels, at their inner ends, can be provided with wedge faces by means of which they are able, in their radially inner position, to mutually support one another annularly. The individual supporting mandrels are thus largely prevented from being displaced.
The lower tool and the upper tool can each be resiliently supported on a base plate or die plate to each of which there are fixed central pressure dies, so that, after the deformation process, there is achieved a certain ejection effect due to the spring-back of the tools. The pressure dies can be provided with centering projections which, together with the lower tool and upper tool, form the annular recesses and ensure the co-axial alignment of the cage relative to the tools.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In order that the invention may be well understood, there will now be described several embodiments thereof, given by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a vertical section through an upper and lower cage window finishing tool in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of a lower tool and upper tool with an inserted ball cage and inserted supporting mandrels.
FIG. 3 in a horizontal section, shows a ball cage with inserted supporting mandrels according to FIG. 2.
FIG. 4(a) shows vertical section of the lower tool of FIG. 4(c) taken along line A--A.
FIG. 4(b) shows the vertical section of the lower tool of FIG. 4(c) taken along line B--B.
FIG. 4(c) shows a plan view of one embodiment of the lower tool assembly.
FIG. 5(b) shows a sectional view of the ball cage of FIG. 5(a) taken along line A--A.
FIG. 5(c) shows the ball cage of FIG. 5(a) along view line "Z" prior to stamping.
FIG. 5(d) shows the ball cage of FIG. 5(a) along view line "Z" after stamping.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 shows a multi-part machine frame 11 into which there has been inserted a base plate 12. On the base plate 12 there rests a lower tool 13 which is resiliently supported on the base plate 12 by means of circumferentially distributed plate spring packages 14. The lower tool 13 is guided on a pressure die 15 which is secured by bolting means 16 in the base plate 12. The lower tool 13, together with the pressure die 15, forms an annular recess 17. The lower tool 13, in its end face, comprises an annular inner supporting face 18 and circumferentially distributed radial groves 19. The pressure die 15 comprises a front centering projection 20.
An annular mandrel holding device 25 is clamped on to the frame 11 by means of bolts 26. Individual supporting mandrels 27 are radially aligned and radially adjustable by actuating means 28 in said frame 11. Inside the mandrel holding device 25, there is positioned, with play, a centering ring 29 which embraces the lower tool 13 in a play-free way and which serves to center the upper tool relative to the lower tool. For this purpose, the centering ring 29 is provided at is upper end with an inner cone 30.
Above the lower tool 13, at a distance therefrom, there is shown, in a highest position, a die tool 31 which holds a die plate 32. An upper tool 33 is resiliently supported by plate spring packages 34 on the die plate 32. The upper tool 33 is guided on the upper pressure die 35 which is secured by bolting means 36 in the die plate 32. Again, the upper tool 33, together with the pressure die 35, forms an annular recess 37. The upper tool 33 comprises an annular inner supporting face 38 and circumferentially distributed radial grooves 39 in its end face. The pressure die is provided with a front centering projection 40.
The ball cage 48, with its vertical axis, rests on the lower pressure die 15 in annular recess 17. The ball cage 48 is shown to be provided with a lower annular edge 49, an upper annular edge 50 and cage windows 51 with upper circumferentially distributed edges 52 and lower circumferentially distributed edges 53. The outer face 54 of the ball cage 48 is supported from the outside by the supporting face 18 of the lower tool 13. In the outermost inner position of the supporting mandrels 27 as illustrated, he latter are introduced into the cage windows 51.
FIG. 2 shows a sectional view of the base plate 12 with the lower tool 13 and the pressure die 15, as well as the die plate 32 with the upper tool 31 and the pressure die 35. The supporting mandrels 27 are illustrated individually without their holding devices 25 (FIG. 1). A ball cage 48 is inserted between the pressure dies 15, 35.
The left-hand half of FIG. 2 shows a low pressure condition wherein the plate spring packages 14 are nearly compressed and wherein the lower tool 13 rests just above the base plate 12, and the upper tool 33 is still held at a distance from the die plate 32 by the plate spring packages 35. The ball cage 48 is already held in a play-free way between the lower tool 13 and the pressure die 15 on the one hand and between the upper tool 33 and the pressure die 35 on the other hand. There still exists play between the supporting mandrels 27 and the edges 52, 53 of the cage windows 51.
In the right-hand half of the Figure, the pressure of the die is increased to such an extent that the plate spring packages 34, too, are compressed so that the die plate 32 rests on the upper tool 33. The pressure dies 15, 35 are in contact with the end faces 46, 47 of the supporting mandrels 27. In consequence, the annular edges 49, 50 of the ball cage 48 have been moved closer to one another, i.e., the axial length of the cage is reduced. The circumferentially extending window edges 52, 53 of the cage windows 51 have come to rest on the supporting mandrels 27 and have become smoothed thereon, with the outer face 54 of the cage 48 being supported in a dimensionally stable way by the supporting faces 18, 38.
FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of a ball cage 48 with inserted supporting mandrels 27. The ball cage 48 includes individual cage windows 51 into which the supporting mandrels 27 are inserted radially. At their front ends, the supporting mandrels 27 are provided with wedge faces 41, 42 which contact one another alternately, so that the supporting mandrels 27, in their entirety, form a closed annular member inside the ball cage 48. The respective planar end faces 46, 47 (FIG. 2) of said annular member serve as stops and supports for the lower and upper pressure dies 15, 35 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIGS. 4(a) through 4(c) show a plan and sectional views of the lower tool 13 with the pressure die 15. The radial guiding grooves 19 for the individual supporting members are particularly clearly visible in the plan view of FIG. 4(c). There is also shown the annular recess 17 which is formed between the lower tool 13 and the pressure die 15. Between each two guiding grooves 19, there are shown bores 44, 45 for holding the lower tool on the base plate.
FIG. 5(a) shows a ball cage 48 and FIG. 5(b) shows a sectional view of the ball cage 48 of FIG. 5(a) along line A--A. In FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b), the ball cage 48 has annular edges 49, 50 and cage windows 51, with the cage windows 51 comprising circumferentially extending edges 52, 53. FIGS. 5(c) and 5(d) show a cage window 51 with said circumferentially extending edges 52, 53 as well as the supporting mandrel 27 in a cross-sectional view along axis "Z". In FIG. 5(c), there still exists play between the supporting mandrel and the edges 52, 53, whereas in FIG. 5(d) the edges 52, 53 have been displaced in such a way that they rest on the supporting tool 27 in a smoothed condition.
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The invention relates to a method of finishing cage windows in a ball cage for a constant velocity universal ball joint. The ball cage for use with the present invention has the shape of an annular member which comprises two parallel annular edges and a convex outer face. On the outer face, there are punched uniformly circumferentially distributed cage windows each having two circumferentially extending edges. The circumferentially extending edges of the cage windows are smoothed and parallelized by a non-chip-producing method of deformation.
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BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
In the field of direct mail advertising, promotional mailings and the like, various devices and approaches have been used to entice the consumer/recipient to open the package and read the enclosed message. The devices and approaches used hereinbefore have met with varying degrees of success, but there remains a constant need to develope new and different means for attracting the attention of consumers.
One approach has been to involve the consumer/recipient in a lottery type activity requiring the return of computer cards or post cards carrying a series of numbers or other identifying data. The computer cards or post cards are normally enclosed within an envelope which includes other advertising or promotional material. Generally the consumer/recipient cannot tell what kind of offer is being made without opening the envelope. However, in many instances, consumers conclude prior to opening the envelope that they are not interested in the promotion, and they never get to read the enclosed advertising material. Therefore, any technique that can be developed to entice the consumer/recipient of such mail to actually open the envelope is a distinct advantage.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The foregoing problems of prior art promotional mailing products are overcome by the present invention with the provision of a hidden message located within the envelope but which can be revealed without actually opening the envelope. The hidden message is designed to entice the consumer/recipient to continue, and open the envelope after the hidden message has been revealed.
For this purpose, the envelope disclosed herein is provided with one or more windows which are covered by a sheet of normally transparent film. At least one of these windows is obscured by applying to the outer surface thereof a coating of non-transparent material. The hidden message is positioned within the envelope so as to be located beneath the obscured window. Subsequently, when the coating material applied to the window is scraped off, the hidden message is revealed to the consumer/recipient. The hidden message is designed to entice the consumer/recipient to continue, and open the envelope and read the other enclosed material.
When more than one window is used, the non-obscured window serves as a convenient place for locating a pre-printed insert containing the name and address of the consumer/recipient. If only one window is used, the envelope may be addressed in a conventional fashion with a label or with automatic printing equipment. The hidden message may be printed on an insert placed in the envelope prior to closing, or it may be printed on one of the envelope panels in a location such that it will be located beneath the obscured window when the envelope is formed.
The type of film used to cover the window or window openings must be compatible with the coating applied thereto for obscuring the hidden message. First of all, the coating must stick to the film. Secondly, it must be capable of being rubbed off or scratched off the film by the consumer/recipient. Further, since the coating is applied to the exterior of the film material, it must be capable of withstanding the normal handling of the envelope without being inadvertently removed. Clear films such as Mylar (product of E.I. Dupont De Nemours & Company), Trycite (product of Dow Chemical Company), and acetate films produced from cellulose acetate resin have been found to be useful. However, the preferred film material is a cellulose acetate film supplied by Excel, Newark, N.J. Coating materials such as scratch-off or rub-off inks or the like may be used to obscure the message. Both water and solvent based systems have been found to be useful, but the preferred coating material is a solvent based silver coating such as Colorcon FGN 1691 or Elektromek SC-2900E, with the preferred material being Elektromek SC-2900E supplied by Elektromek Company, Carlstadt, N.J. Other film and coating materials having characteristics and performance qualities similar to the preferred materials are deemed to come within the scope of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a plan view of the inside of a blank structure for forming the envelope of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the front of an envelope formed from the blank of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the sealed envelope with its hidden message revealed;
FIG. 4 is a plan view of a second embodiment of the envelope structure;
FIG. 5 is a plan view of a partially completed envelope;
FIG. 6 is plan view of the front of the envelope of FIG. 5; and,
FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the envelope with its hidden message revealed.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring more particularly to the drawings, the envelope of the present invention is formed from a single blank of material having inner and outer surfaces. The blank is divided by cut and score lines into at least one rectangular panel or front panel having additional panels foldably attached thereto which together provide an envelope pocket and a closure flap. The front panel of the envelope includes one or more window openings which are covered by a normally transparent film material. Meanwhile at least one of the windows is obscured with a non-transparent coating which is applied to the exterior surface of the window film in the region of that window.
FIGS. 1-3 illustrate a first embodiment of the present invention. The blank 10 of FIG. 1 comprises a rear panel 11 and front panel 12 separated from one another by a score line 13. A closure flap 14 is foldably attached to the top of front panel 12 along a score line 15. The closure flap 14 includes a strip of adhesive 16 for closing the top of the envelope and the rear panel 11 is applied with adhesive strips 17, 18 at each side edge thereof for closing the ends of the envelope to form an envelope pocket. In the alternative, the adhesive strips 17, 18 may be applied to the edges of front panel 12 where desired, and each of the adhesive strips 16, 17 and 18 are applied to the inside surface of the envelope blank 10. The front panel 12 is illustrated as containing two window areas 19, 20 although only one window is required for the present invention. Both windows 19, 20 are covered with a sheet of transparent film material 21 which is also applied to the inside surface of blank 10. Meanwhile, at least one of the windows 20 is obscured with a non-transparent coating material 22 which is applied to the outer surface of film 21 and only in the region of the window 20.
FIG. 2 illustrates the front of the envelope formed from the blank 10 of FIG. 1. In this embodiment of the invention, an insert, as for example a pre-printed computer card, is inserted in the envelope which has printed thereon the desired message and the address of the consumer/recipient. The message is printed on the card so as to lie beneath window 20 while the pre-printed address is located beneath window 19. However, since the film at window 20 is covered with the non-transparant coating 22, the message remains hidden until the envelope is received by the addressee.
FIG. 3 illustrates the envelope 23 as received with a sufficient portion of the coating 22 rubbed off to reveal the message. Thus the consumer/recipient may read the message prior to opening the envelope. However, the message is designed to stimulate the interest of the recipient so that he or she will open the envelope 23 and read any additional material included therein.
FIGS. 4-7 illustrate a second embodiment of the present invention wherein a somewhat different style of envelope is disclosed. In FIG. 4, the blank 30 comprises a rear panel 33 and front panel 31 foldably attached together along fold line 32. The rear panel 33 also includes a pair of side closure flaps 39, 40 foldably attached to the side edges thereof along score lines 37 and 38 respectively, and a closure flap 34 foldably attached to a top edge along score line 35. Side closure flap 39 is shown as being enlarged so that the intended message may be printed thereon when the envelope is printed. Meanwhile, the front panel 31 includes a pair of windows 41, 42 covered by a sheet of normally transparent film material 43. In this embodiment, the window 41 is obscured with a nontransparent coating 44 since the closure flap 39 with its pre-printed message is arranged to lie beneath window 41 when the envelope is formed.
FlGURE 5 shows the partially formed envelope wherein flaps 39 and 40 are folded over and applied with adhesive strips 45, 46 for closing the sides of the envelope and forming a pocket. Closure flap 34 is also applied with adhesive 36 for closing the top of the envelope. It is obvious that the adhesive strips 45, 46 could readily be applied to the rear panel 33 to achieve the same result. In addition, the film material 43 is fixed to the inside surface of blank 30 and the non-transparent coating material is applied to the outer surface of the film 43 only in the region of window 41.
FIG. 6 illustrates the front of the envelope formed from the blank of FIG. 4 wherein window 42 provides a space for a pre-addressed insert and window 41 covers the pre-printed message applied to flap 39. In this embodiment as in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-4, the extra window may be omitted if an address label is used or if the envelopes are addressed on automatic printing equipment. The front panel 31 of the envelope also indicates instructions advising the addressee how to obtain access to the hidden message. Instructions such as "Rub Off For Message" or the like may be used.
FIG. 7 shows the envelope 47 as received by the consumer/recipient with a portion of the coating material 44 removed to reveal the hidden message. The message can thus be revealed without opening the envelope, but the message is designed to further entice the consumer/recipient to open the envelope to read the other enclosed material or to take part in the promotion being featured.
The foregoing description is intended to be illustrative of two embodiments of the present invention. Modification and changes therein may be made as desired within the scope of the following claim.
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An envelope and blank structure is disclosed for use with promotional mailings. The envelope includes at least one window opening in its front panel which is normally covered by a sheet of transparent window material. The outer surface of the window material is in turn applied with a non-transparent coating for obscuring a message included within the envelope beneath the window opening. The message may subsequently be revealed without opening the envelope by scratching or rubbing the coating from the window material.
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PRIORITY CLAIM
[0001] This is a continuation of patent application Ser. No. 09/751,525, filed on Dec. 29, 2000, which claimed the benefit of the filing date of U.S. provisional patent Application No. 60/195,389, filed on Apr. 7, 2000, both of which are entitled LOW COST DISPOSABLE NEEDLELESS INJECTOR SYSTEM FOR VARIABLE AND FIXED DOSE APPLICATIONS, their entire contents are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.
RELATED FIELDS
[0002] The present invention relates generally to needleless hypodermic drug delivery devices and methods. The present invention relates more particularly to a low cost, disposable, spring actuated needleless injection device which utilizes a high pressure liquid stream to inject a medicament or other liquid through the skin and also relates more particularly to a method for using and manufacturing the same.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Needleless injection devices which administer intramuscular and/or subcutaneous medications without the use of a needle are well known. Among the many advantages of such needleless injection devices are the reduction of pain and apprehension commonly associated with hypodermic needles, the elimination of needle stick injuries, and the reduction of environmental pollution associated with contaminated needle disposal. Moreover, needleless injection devices are useful in a wide range of drug therapies, including the administration of vaccines, hormone therapies and local anesthetics. Further, it is well known that such needleless injection devices are useful in the administration of insulin to the diabetic population, where individuals frequently require a number of daily injections.
[0004] Injectable medications fall into two different general categories, namely: unit dose drugs such as vaccines and analgesics; and variable dose drugs such as insulin, where the dose size must be adjusted specifically so as to meet the immediate needs of the individual at the time of administration. When a variable dose is required, as in the case of the administration of insulin, a very accurate amount of medication must be transferred to a variable dose ampule of the needleless injector. Insulin doses are typically marketed in 3 ml and 5 ml syringe cartridges, as well as being provided in bulk in a standard 10 ml medication vial.
[0005] The use of needleless injection devices has recently become of great interest, particularly by people of limited physical abilities such as the elderly, the very young and the infirm. Such persons with limited physical abilities may find the use of conventional needle syringes either difficult or impossible. Therefore, the simplified injection process associated with needleless injectors makes their use very desirable among such people.
[0006] The principles of needleless injection and the advantages of such needleless drug delivery systems over conventional hypodermic needle injection systems have long been known. However, very few needleless injection devices have achieved commercial success in the marketplace. This lack of acceptance by the user community can be attributed, at least in part, to a number of factors, chief among which are: mechanical designs which have the potential to inflict serious injury if an injector device is inadvertently fired without a medicament container or ampule in place, undesirably complex filling techniques, and the high cost of such contemporary injection devices. This cost disadvantage is particularly troublesome for those individuals who must self-administer a large number of daily injections, such as diabetics.
[0007] One existing needleless injection device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,367 to Edwards. It employs a sealed ampule that is prefilled with a selected amount of medication. The prefilled ampule is attached to a separate spring-loaded firing mechanism which, when triggered, propels a ramrod from the front of the mechanism and against a plunger located in the ampule. The ramrod drives the plunger against the medication, producing a high pressured jet for injection purposes. The plunger expels the medication from a discharge orifice and into the patient's subcutaneous tissue.
[0008] Although effective in some respects, this contemporary needleless injection device is severely limited in practical applications. In order to cock the firing mechanism, the user is required to force the ramrod back into the firing mechanism by pushing the device against a solid surface, such as a table top, until the ramrod latches behind a trigger mechanism. Thus, the strength of an individual user imposes a strict limit upon the spring force that can be utilized in the device. Many elderly, very young or infirm people simply do not have the physical strength required to cock the firing mechanism of such a contemporary needleless injection device.
[0009] Moreover, employing a spring force which is low enough to be practical for the elderly, the very young and the infirm to cock the device results in the spring force being inadequate to produce effective and reliable injection pressures for most adults. That is, such a device would generally lack the ability to penetrate the skin and subcutaneous tissue sufficiently to insure proper, reliable, operation thereof.
[0010] In addition, the firing mechanism, having a spring actuated ramrod which extends outside of the device body, has the potential to inflict serious injury if inadvertently fired without the ampule in place. For example, firing such a device without having the ampule attached thereto may result in harm to a person who is inadvertently struck with the rapidly moving ramrod.
[0011] Moreover, the fixed dose ampule of contemporary needleless injection devices such as those of the >367 patent must be prefilled at the factory and then attached to the injector when required for usage. In actual practice, however, this procedure is not practical for the simple reason that drug products cannot generally be stored in plastic containers for the extended periods of time which are typically experienced by such factory prefilled ampules. The only approved material for long term liquid medication storage is type-1 glass, which is used for virtually all drug products. However, due to the dynamics of needleless injection, in which the ampule is subjected to very high pressures during the ejection process, glass is not a suitable material for the ampule because it is too easily shattered. Consequently, it is desirable to have an ampule which may be coupled to a conventional drug vial or other medication container at the time of use, and then be filled therefrom with an accurate dose of medication. The ampule should be made of a high strength plastic material.
[0012] Indeed, the needleless injection device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,367 is formed of durable materials and utilizes comparatively expensive manufacturing techniques, so as to assure long time reliable use thereof. As such, this device is comparatively expensive to manufacture. The expense associated with the manufacture of this device precludes the sale and use of this device as a single use, disposable needleless injector.
[0013] U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,699 to Parsons overcomes some of the aforementioned deficiencies associated with contemporary needleless injectors. This patent describes a disposable needleless injection device having a firing mechanism that operates to release compressed gas from a storage compartment. The compressed gas acts upon a piston which drives a plunger that ejects a selected dosage of medication through an aperture in the discharge end of the device. However, the medication to be administered must first be drawn into a chamber provided in the interior of the injector before being dispensed. Thus, although being pre-cocked, and loadable (with medicine), the device is rather complicated to use. In addition, no provision is made for filling the medication chamber directly from standard medication containers. In order to fill the medication chamber, a complex liquid transfer system is required.
[0014] The device disclosed in the >699 patent is relatively complex. It is manufactured from materials able to withstand the pressures associated with a compressed gas activation system. Indeed, this needleless injection device is formed of comparatively durable materials and utilizes comparatively expensive manufacturing techniques, so as to assure long term reliable operation thereof in light of the aforementioned pressures. As such, this device is comparatively expensive to manufacture. The expense associated with the manufacture of this device precludes its sale and use as a single use, disposable item.
[0015] Thus, although the aforementioned contemporary needleless injection systems are compact and reliable, they are too complex and expensive to manufacture in order to be considered disposable.
[0016] In view of the foregoing, it is clear that there is a need in the art for a needleless hypodermic injection device which has an enhanced simplicity of design and which can be manufactured from a small number of low cost components in order to be implemented as a truly disposable system. Furthermore, there is a need for a needleless hypodermic injection system which includes a medication ampule which is capable of being filled with an accurate dose of medication and which does not impose a risk of injury due to needle use and which does not contribute to the contamination hazards attendant with needle disposal.
[0017] In this regard, it is desirable to provide a convenient, low cost and disposable needleless injector device that is configured to be conveniently and comfortably grasped in one hand of a user in a manner which facilitates self-administration of a desired medication. The system should comprise a firing mechanism and an ampule cooperating in a novel design having simplicity in both structure and function. The ampule should be such that the user may fill it with a selected dosage conveniently and accurately from existing medication vials, so as to facilitate both variable and fixed dose applications. The injector firing mechanism should be conveniently and safely operated without the need for a user to force the apparatus against a piece of furniture or the like in order to cock a spring. There should be no substantial danger associated with firing the device without an ampule in place.
SUMMARY
[0018] The present invention specifically addresses and alleviates the above-mentioned deficiencies associated with the prior art. More particularly, the present invention comprises a housing and a spring injector mechanism disposed at least partially within the housing. Preferably, the spring injector mechanism and/or the housing are configured to be used only one time.
[0019] Preferably, the needleless injector of the present invention is provided with a spring injector mechanism which is already compressed or cocked when purchased, such that the user does not have to cock the device. Thus, the needleless injector of the present invention is particularly suitable for the elderly, the very young and the infirm.
[0020] Further, the needleless injector of the present invention is preferably configured such that it is generally suitable for only a single use.
[0021] Thus, according to the present invention, a low cost, disposable needleless injector is provided, so as to facilitate the administration of injections such as vaccines, hormones, local anesthetics and insulin.
[0022] It is understood that changes in the specific structure shown and described may be made within the scope of the claims without departing from the spirit of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0023] These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood when considered with respect to the following detailed description, appended claims and accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0024] [0024]FIG. 1 is a semi-schematic side view of the low cost, disposable needleless injector of the present invention, as it is provided by a supplier, i.e., cocked and having an empty ampule;
[0025] [0025]FIG. 2 is a semi-schematic top view of the needleless injector of FIG. 1;
[0026] [0026]FIG. 3 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional end view of the needleless injector taken along line 3 of FIG. 2;
[0027] [0027]FIG. 4 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional end view of the needleless injector taken along line 4 of FIG. 2;
[0028] [0028]FIG. 5 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional side view of the needleless injector of FIG. 1;
[0029] [0029]FIG. 6 is a semi-schematic side view of one housing section; i.e., the housing section opposite that which is shown in FIG. 1;
[0030] [0030]FIG. 7 is a semi-schematic side view of the shaft of FIG. 1;
[0031] [0031]FIG. 8 is a semi-schematic side view of the plunger of FIG. 1;
[0032] [0032]FIG. 9 is a semi-schematic side view of the piston of FIG. 5;
[0033] [0033]FIG. 10 is a semi-schematic perspective view of the safety slide of FIG. 1;
[0034] [0034]FIG. 11 is a semi-schematic perspective view of the trigger of FIG. 1;
[0035] [0035]FIG. 12 is a semi-schematic perspective view of an exemplary one of the two elastomeric washers or cushions of FIG. 5;
[0036] [0036]FIG. 13 is a semi-schematic side view of the ampule of FIG. 1;
[0037] [0037]FIG. 14 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional side view of the needleless injector of FIG. 1, wherein the shaft is positioned within the ampule at a location corresponding to approximately 0.05 ml of medication being present in the ampule;
[0038] [0038]FIG. 15 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional side view of the needleless injector of FIG. 1, wherein the shaft is positioned within the ampule at a location corresponding to approximately 0.30 ml of medication being present in the ampule;
[0039] [0039]FIG. 16 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional side view of the needleless injector of FIG. 1, showing the configuration of the trigger, spring, piston, and shaft after the trigger has been depressed so as to actuate the spring injector mechanism;
[0040] [0040]FIG. 17 is a semi-schematic cross-sectional view showing the shoulder 29 and the cushions, 31 and 32 ;
[0041] [0041]FIG. 18 is a semi-schematic perspective view of a package for a single needleless injector according to the present invention;
[0042] [0042]FIG. 19 is a semi-schematic perspective view of a volume efficient cluster of packages for containing a plurality of the
[0043] needleless injectors of the present invention, wherein a plurality of single needleless injector packages have been formed to one another;
[0044] [0044]FIG. 20 is a semi-schematic perspective view of the cluster of packages of FIG. 19, which has been rotated 180E about the longitudinal axis thereof;
[0045] [0045]FIG. 21 is a semi-schematic end view of the cluster of packages of FIGS. 19 and 20, showing the distal end thereof; and
[0046] [0046]FIG. 22 is a semi-schematic end view of the cluster of packages of FIGS. 19 and 20, showing the proximal end thereof.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0047] The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, and is not intended to represent the only form in which the present invention may be constructed or utilized. The description sets forth the construction and functions of the invention, as well as the sequence of steps for operating the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention.
[0048] According to the present invention, a low cost, disposable needleless injector is provided so as to facilitate the administration of drug therapies such as vaccines, hormones, local anesthetics and insulin. The disposable needleless injector of the present invention is pre-cocked at the factory, so as to eliminate any need for a user to cock the needleless injector. Thus, the disposable needleless injector of the present invention is well suited for use by the elderly, the very young and the infirm, as well as any other persons who may find cocking of such devices difficult and/or unsafe. This device is also very easy for healthcare workers and the like to use on a patient. Thus, the present invention is well suited for both the self-administration of medication and for the injection of others, such as by healthcare workers.
[0049] The needleless injector of the present invention is specifically configured so as to be suitable for only a single use. Such configuration of the present invention is accomplished, at least in part, via the selection of particular materials which provide safe and reliable operation for a single use, but which are not suitable for indefinitely repeated use thereof. Single use of the needleless injector of the present invention is further facilitated by the mechanical design thereof, which readily facilitates cocking of the device at the factory, but which substantially inhibits cocking by a user. Indeed, cocking of the present invention by a user is virtually impossible.
[0050] Further, the needleless injector of the present invention preferably has an ampule permanently attached thereto, such that repeated use is inhibited and such that any hazard associated with firing of the device with an ampule not attached thereto is substantially mitigated.
[0051] More particularly, the low cost, disposable needleless injector of the present invention comprises a housing and a spring injector mechanism disposed at least partially within the housing. The spring injector mechanism and/or the housing are configured specifically so as to be used only a single time. For example, the spring injector mechanism is configured so as to inhibit cocking thereof by a user, such as by providing a shaft which cannot easily be grasped and pulled in a manner which is necessary to effect cocking of the needleless injector. Thus, the spring injector mechanism is configured so as to require a specially designed machine tool to facilitate cocking thereof. Of course, this machine tool is not available to the general public.
[0052] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various locks, catches, latches, detents and the like may be utilized to prevent re-cocking of the spring injector mechanism. For example, actuation of the spring injector mechanism may trip a latch which prevents further movement, i.e., re-cocking, of a shaft of the spring injector mechanism. Such a latch would be disposed within the housing, and thus not be easily disengaged by a user. In this manner, a user is substantially inhibited from re-cocking the spring injector mechanism, so as to facilitate reuse thereof. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various other, different methods for mechanically locking at least a portion of the spring injector mechanism in the fired position, after a single use thereof, are likewise suitable for inhibiting re-use of the present invention.
[0053] As stated above, the housing and/or the spring injector mechanism are configured so as to be unsuitable for indefinitely repeated use of the present invention. This may alternatively be accomplished, for example, by utilizing materials which inhibit repeated use thereof. Thus, the needleless injector of the present invention is preferably formed of materials which are insufficiently durable so as to facilitate repeated use thereof. That is, the low cost disposable needleless injector of the present invention is formed of materials which are sufficiently durable as to safely and reliably facilitate a single use thereof, but which will not withstand the forces and pressures associated with repeated use thereof.
[0054] For example, the housing is preferably formed of an inexpensive and sufficiently durable (for a single use) polymer material, such as glass loaded acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) or such as polycarbonate. If the housing is formed of glass loaded acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), the acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) preferably comprises approximately 15% to approximately 20% glass. This particular formulation of acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene (ABS) has been found to be sufficiently durable to reliably and safely facilitate a single use of the present invention, while being insufficiently durable as to facilitate indefinitely repeated use thereof. Further, both acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate are sufficiently inexpensive as to facilitate the provision of a truly disposable device. The housing is preferably formed of two separate housing sections which are substantially mirror images of one another, so as to further mitigate cost. Preferably, multiple cavity injection molds are used to form the housing.
[0055] As discussed in detail below, the plunger and the two resilient cushions, all of which are preferably simultaneously co-molded to the shaft, are all formed of Santoprene. While Santoprene is sufficiently durable for a single use of the present invention, Santoprene is not sufficiently durable for indefinitely repeated use thereof. Repeated use of the present invention will result in degradation of the Santoprene components thereof and thus render the present invention unsuitable for further use. In particular, the cushions will tend to deform substantially with each use, such that they rapidly loose their ability to function as shock absorbers.
[0056] A trigger for the needleless injector of the present invention is preferably formed of stamped stainless steel sheet. Such a stamped stainless steel trigger is sufficiently durable as to facilitate single use thereof. The stamped stainless steel trigger is also sufficiently inexpensive as to facilitate the construction of a truly disposable device. The trigger may be polished, if desired, so as to enhance the appearance thereof, since the cost associated with such polishing is negligible.
[0057] The trigger is preferably formed in a stair-stepped configuration, so as to eliminate the need for a pivot pin therefor and thus further reduce costs, as discussed in detail below.
[0058] The spring injector mechanism preferably comprises a spring disposed within the housing, a piston configured to be moved by the spring and a shaft configured to be moved by the piston. The spring preferably comprises a closed, but not ground, music wire helical spring. Eliminating grinding of the spring further reduces cost without impairing the reliability or safety of the present invention.
[0059] The piston preferably comprises a die cast zinc, copper and aluminum alloy. The proportions of zinc, copper and aluminum are selected to provide the mass necessary to eject fluid from an ampule with the necessary force as to effect a subcutaneous injection. The use of such an alloy provides the necessary mass to drive the shaft in a manner that assures proper operation of the present invention, e.g., the development of pressure within the ampule of approximately 3,000-3,500 psi. The use of this alloy also reduces costs sufficiently to facilitate the construction of a disposable device.
[0060] The shaft preferably comprises polycarbonate having approximately 15% glass or a glass loaded polymer of equivalent performance such as Amodel (a federally registered trademark of Amoco Oil Company of Chicago, Ill.). The use of such a polycarbonate shaft provides sufficient durability to facilitate a single use of the present invention, while inhibiting indefinitely repeated use thereof. Further, this polycarbonate shaft reduces the cost of the needleless injector, so as to facilitate the construction of a truly disposable device.
[0061] According to the present invention, the shaft is a single piece or unitary construction member and extends completely through the housing and into the ampule. The shaft extends from the proximal end of the housing such that the spring injector mechanism may be cocked by pulling the shaft proximally. As mentioned above, the shaft is preferably configured so as to inhibit grasping thereof, in order to similarly inhibit cocking of the spring injector mechanism by a user. Rather, the spring injector mechanism is cocked at the factory by a machine which is specifically configured to grasp the proximal end of the shaft and pull the proximal end of the shaft proximally with respect to the housing.
[0062] Such single piece or integral construction of the shaft has a further advantage, in that it readily facilitates filling of the ampule with a desired quantity of medication in a simple and accurate manner. The ampule may be filled by manipulating the proximal end of the shaft. Manipulating the proximal end of the shaft similarly manipulates the distal end thereof, so as to draw fluid into the ampule or expel fluid from the ampule in a very precise manner.
[0063] The ampule is permanently attached to the housing, such that access to the distal end of the shaft is inhibited, thereby preventing the spring injector mechanism from being cocked by pushing the distal end of the shaft against a surface (as is done according to some contemporary needleless injectors). Permanently attaching the ampule to the housing further mitigates a danger associated with dry firing or actuating the needleless injector without medicine in the ampule. Although the shaft is driven forcible in the distal direction when the needleless injector is dry fired, the permanently attached ampule prevents the moving shaft from striking anything other than the ampule itself.
[0064] The ampule is preferably threadedly attached to the housing, and then either adhesively bonded or sonically welded thereto. Permanent attachment of the ampule to the housing not only enhances safety by mitigating the ability to fire the needleless injector with the ampule removed and facilitates single use of the needleless injector by inhibiting refilling of the ampule due to sterility concerns, but also reduces the cost of the present invention. The cost of the present invention is reduced by eliminating the need to form threads within the housing which are suitable for repeated attachment and removal of the ampule. That is, according to the present invention, the threads may merely be injected molded as a part of the two housing sections and need not be formed or touched up via machining or the use of a tap. Rather, the threads which are integrally injected molded with the two housing sections are sufficient for a single use of the present invention, particularly when the ampule is further attached to the housing via adhesive bonding and/or sonic welding. Indeed, the housing need not comprise any threads for attaching the ampule thereto, but rather may alternatively utilize any desired injection moldable structure for this purpose. For example, threads may be eliminated from both the housing and the ampule and the ampule may merely be inserted into the housing and permanently bonded thereto.
[0065] The needleless injector of the present invention is more particularly described below with reference to FIGS. 1 - 16 of the drawings, which depict a presently preferred embodiment thereof. FIGS. 17 - 21 depict a volume efficient package for the needleless injector of the present invention, so as to substantially reduce the transportation and storage cost associated therewith, and thereby further facilitate the provision of a truly disposable device. As shown in FIG. 1, the needleless injector of the present invention is provided to a user in a substantially ready-to-use condition, requiring only that the ampule be filled with a particular medicament prior to injection.
[0066] Referring now to FIGS. 1 - 13 , the low cost disposable needleless injector 10 of the present invention generally comprises a housing 8 and a spring injector mechanism 9 disposed partially within the housing. The housing 8 is generally cylindrical, approximately four inches in length excluding the ampule, and approximately one-half inch in diameter. The ampule is approximately one and five-eighths inch in length and approximately three-eighths inch in diameter.
[0067] The housing 8 is shaped such that it is easily grasped in the hand of a user, and when appropriately oriented, presents a depressable trigger mechanism in the vicinity of the user's thumb or finger. Indeed, the housing and trigger are configured such that when the housing is grasped within a user's hand, the trigger may be depressed either by the thumb, a finger or by merely squeezing the device in the user's hand or fist. The trigger has sufficient surface area and leverage to make the present invention easily actuatable by the elderly, the very young and the infirm. Moreover, the configuration and positioning of the trigger readily facilitates actuation by persons in a debilitated or weakened state and is even suitable for use in emergencies since a user does not have to take time to carefully hold and/or position the device in a particular manner. The device may be held in any manner which is convenient for the person administering the injection. It is merely necessary that the device be held in close contact to the skin, preferably generally perpendicularly thereto, and that the trigger then be depressed. The trigger is positioned to facilitate use of the present invention for the self-administration of medicine, as well as to facilitate the administration of medicine to patients by healthcare workers in any desired manner, e.g., with a thumb, finger, or by squeezing the entire device in a person's hand or fist.
[0068] The housing 8 preferably comprises first and second housing sections which are preferably injection molded either from acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) loaded with approximately 15% to approximately 20% glass or is alternatively injection molded from polycarbonate. The housing 8 has a proximal end and a distal end as labeled in FIG. 1. All references to proximal and distal herein use these terms as defined in FIG. 1. It is the distal end of the device (more particularly, the distal end of the ampule 50 ) which is pressed against the skin of a person who is to receive an injection.
[0069] Forming the housing 8 as two separate housing sections reduces the complexity and cost associated with the molding process, since an unthreading mold would be required if a unitary construction housing were to be provided with female threads in order to receive the ampule. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, such unthreading molds are considerably more expensive than simple release molds, and would thus undesirably increase the cost of the needleless injector of the present invention.
[0070] An additional advantageous feature afforded by forming the housing as two separate housing sections is appreciated during the assembly process, wherein the device may be assembled by simply placing the components into one of the two housing sections and then positioning the other housing section thereover. The two housing sections are bonded to one another using adhesive, sonic welding, or any other desired method.
[0071] More particularly, the assembly process comprises inserting a shaft 25 through the piston 15 . The resilient washers 31 and 32 and the plunger 26 have previously been co-molded or over-molded to the shaft of the shaft 25 . The spring 13 is then slid over the sleeve 17 of the piston 15 so as to define the spring injector mechanism 9 . The spring injector mechanism 9 is then placed into one of the two housing sections. The safety slide 42 and the trigger 40 are similarly placed in the same housing section. The other housing section is then mated thereto and bonding is effected. The ampule may then be screwed into the housing and bonded thereto. Alternatively, both the ampule and the housing may lack threads, such that the ampule may simply be slid into the housing and bonded thereto. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various different mechanical locking means for permanently attaching the ampule to the housing are likewise suitable. Thus, the ampule may be mechanically locked to the housing and/or bonded thereto. Then the needleless injector of the present invention may be cocked utilizing a machine which holds the housing in place, while pulling the shaft 25 proximally, by grasping the ball 27 thereof. With the shaft 25 held in the cocked position, the trigger 40 is moved to a position wherein the sear 37 thereof inhibits distal movement of the piston 15 and the safety slide 42 is moved distally, so as to prevent undesirable movement of the trigger 40 .
[0072] The spring is preferably a closed, but not ground, music wire helical spring 13 (best shown in FIGS. 5 and 14- 16 ) which is disposed within the housing such that the spring 13 has a cocked or compressed configuration, as shown in FIGS. 5, 14 and 15 and also has a fired or uncompressed configuration as shown in FIG. 16. The spring 13 preferably has a spring constant of approximately 24 lbs./in. The spring is preferably approximately 3 inches long and develops approximately 28 lbs. of force when compressed so as to cock the spring injection mechanism. The spring 13 is sized to slide freely within a bore 22 of the housing. The proximal end of the spring 13 bears upon shoulder 14 formed within the housing and the distal end of the spring 13 bears upon a piston 15 (best shown in FIG. 9).
[0073] The piston 15 comprises a sleeve 17 which is sized to be received within the spring 13 . The sleeve 17 preferably has an outside diameter which is substantially less than the inside diameter of the coil formed by the spring 13 , such that the sleeve 17 moves freely along the inside of the spring without substantially frictionally engaging the spring 13 .
[0074] The piston further comprises a head 19 which defines a shoulder 20 against which the distal end of the spring 13 abuts. The head 19 of the piston 15 is sized to slide freely within the bore 22 . The piston optionally further comprises a conically tapered portion 21 of the head 19 . However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the exact configuration, size and dimensions of the piston 15 will be determined, as least in part, by the mass thereof which is required to eject fluid from an ampule 50 with the necessary force to reliably perform an injection. Thus, the mass of the piston 15 is determined by both its dimensions and the materials from which it is formed, as discussed above.
[0075] The ampule 50 is preferably substantially transparent, so as to facilitate viewing of the quantity of liquid contained therein. A scale is typically provided upon the ampule so as to provide a numerical indication of the quantity (typically in milliliters) of fluid contained therein.
[0076] The spring injector mechanism 9 further comprises an elongated shaft 25 (best shown in FIG. 7) having a plunger 26 (best shown in FIG. 8) formed upon the distal end thereof and having a cocking knob 27 formed upon the proximal end thereof. The plunger 26 is preferably formed of an elastomer or thermosetting rubber such as Santoprene manufactured by Sonoco or the equivalent.
[0077] The plunger 26 is secured firmly to the shaft 25 via a shaft retaining heads 90 a and 90 b formed at the distal end of a portion 91 of the shaft 25 having a reduced diameter, as discussed in detail below.
[0078] The gripping ball 27 is preferably formed upon the proximal end of the shaft 25 by forming a reduced diameter neck 28 formed in the shaft 25 near the proximal end thereof. The shaft 25 further comprises a portion of increased diameter or shoulder 29 formed thereon and disposed within the housing. The shoulder 29 is preferably formed integrally with the shaft 25 . Alternatively, the shoulder 29 may be formed separately from the shaft 25 and be attached thereto. Resilient cushions 31 and 32 are preferably disposed upon either side of the shoulder 29 . Resilient cushion 31 cushions the impact of the piston 15 when the piston moves forward and strikes the shoulder 29 of the shaft 25 so as to cause the shaft 25 to eject fluid, as described in detail below. Similarly, resilient cushion 32 cushions the impact of the shoulder 29 of the shaft 25 , when the shoulder 29 strikes a proximal portion of the ampule 50 during the fluid injection process, as also discussed in detail below. Both resilient cushions, 31 and 32 , thus cooperate to mitigate noise and recoil when the device is operated. The mitigation of noise and recoil is important, so that the device is perceived as user friendly. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that excessive noise and recoil may be associated with pain or discomfort, and are thus undesirable.
[0079] As shown in FIG. 1, the needleless injector 10 of the present invention is configured as it is typically packaged and received by a user. The ampule 50 is empty, i.e., contains no medication when configured for variable dose applications, and the shaft 25 is disposed partially within the ampule 50 so as to reduce the overall length of the device to facilitate volume efficient packaging thereof.
[0080] The first and second resilient cushions, 31 and 32 , as well as the plunger 26 , are all preferably injection molded to the shaft 25 during a single injection co-molding process, and thus all preferably comprise the same resilient thermosetting rubber material, e.g., Santoprene (a federally registered trademark of Monsanto Company of St. Louis, Mo.). The plunger 26 and the first and second cushions, 31 and 32 , may alternatively be formed of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or silicone. With particular reference to FIG. 8, the plunger 26 preferably comprises a central bore 24 ending in distally located hemispherical chambers 34 a and 34 b . The bore 24 is configured to receive the reduced diameter portion 91 of the shaft 25 and the chambers 34 a and 34 b are configured to receive the heads 90 a and 90 b of the shaft 25 , in a manner which facilitates secure attachment of the plunger 26 to the shaft of the shaft 25 . The heads 90 a and 90 b of the plunger 25 preferably define a Christmas tree or conically barbed protrusion, such as those commonly used to facilitate the attachment of an elastomeric component to a more rigid member.
[0081] The piston 15 is held in the cocked position thereof, against the force of spring 13 by the trigger 40 , which is preferably formed of stamped stainless steel. Preferably a rib 36 is formed longitudinally along a substantial portion of the length of the trigger 40 , so as to enhance the structural strength thereof. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the use of such a rib 36 allows the trigger 40 to be formed of substantially thinner sheet stainless steel, thereby further reducing the cost thereof.
[0082] As best shown in FIG. 11, the trigger is formed in a stair-step like fashion, so as to define a sear 37 , a lower portion 38 , a middle portion 39 and an upper portion 40 . This stair-step configuration of the trigger 35 facilitates reliable use thereof without the need for a pivot pin, so as to further mitigate costs.
[0083] Safety slide 42 (best shown in FIG. 10) is slideably attached to the housing such that the safety slide has a distal position wherein movement of the trigger 40 is inhibited so as to likewise inhibit actuation of the spring injection mechanism, and also has a proximal position, wherein the trigger is free to move, as discussed in detail below. The distal position at the safety slide 42 thus mitigates the likelihood of inadvertent actuation of the spring injector mechanism. The safety slide 42 preferably has ridges 43 formed thereon, so as to facilitate easy operation thereof.
[0084] A flange 48 extends distally from the safety slide 42 . When the safety slide 42 is in its safe or distalmost position, the flange 48 covers a portion of the trigger 40 , so as to inhibit actuation of the injector spring mechanism, as discussed in detail below.
[0085] Female detents 47 (there is preferably one female detent on each side of the safety slide, cooperate with corresponding male detents formed upon the first and second housing sections to releasably lock the safety slide in the safe position (the distal most position) thereof, so as to inhibit inadvertent movement of the safety slide away from the safe position thereof.
[0086] The ampule 50 (best shown in FIGS. 13 and 14- 16 ) has a chamber 51 formed longitudinally therein for containing medication. The ampule 50 is preferably permanently attached to the housing via threads 53 formed upon the proximal end thereof and complementary threads 54 (best shown in FIG. 6) formed at the distal end of the housing. In addition to threadedly attaching the ampule 50 to the housing, the ampule is preferably adhesively bonded and/or sonically welded to the housing, so as to assure permanent attachment thereof.
[0087] As used herein, permanent attachment of the ampule to the housing is defined as attachment of the ampule to the housing via bonding, such as adhesive bonding or sonic welding, and/or via mechanical fastening, in a manner which substantially inhibits removal of the ampule from the housing by a user.
[0088] Indeed, according to the present invention the ampule is preferably attached to the housing in such a manner that the ampule is not likely to be removed from the housing by a user without damaging the device and rendering it unuseable.
[0089] The ampule 50 further comprises a tip 60 formed at the distal most end thereof. The tip 60 has a bore formed therein so as to facilitate fluid communication of the medicine from the chamber 51 and therethrough during the injection process.
[0090] A Luer like threaded fitting or lug 62 is preferably formed proximate the distal end of the ampule, so as to facilitate filling thereof. The ampule is preferably formed of polycarbonate and optionally comprises a contemporary ampule such as those commonly used in needleless injection devices.
[0091] Generally, the ampule is filled by affixing a transfer coupler to the front end of the ampule and using the transfer coupler to access the contents of either a standard drug vial, standard syringe cartridge, or the like. Once the contents of the medication container are accessed, the injection device is filled by manipulating the shaft 25 . The shaft 25 is withdrawn or moved proximally so as to create a suction in the chamber 51 of the ampule 50 , so as to effect extraction of medication from the medication container.
[0092] For example, a user may move the shaft 25 to its distal most position, thereby forcing substantially all of the air from the ampule. The user may then move the shaft 25 proximally, so as to produce suction within the chamber 51 of the ampule 50 and thus effect withdrawal of medication from a vial into the chamber 51 . Typically, the ampule will be filled within slightly more medication then is necessary for the desired injection, so that any air in the ampule can be ejected by simply holding the needleless injector vertical, with the ampule uppermost, and then pushing the shaft back into the ampule chamber slightly, so as to effect ejection of any air within the ampule, as well as a small quantity of medicine, as those skilled in the art will appreciate. The user may then verify that the correct dosage has been withdrawn into the ampule by viewing the position of the plunger 26 within the ampule, relative to the graduations that are preferably provided upon the transparent ampule. Since the ampule is generally overfilled slightly, the user may reduce the quantity of medicine contained within the ampule by simply pushing the shaft 25 distally.
[0093] With particular reference to FIG. 6, the housing preferably comprises a second housing section 12 , which is substantially a mirror image of the first housing section 11 . One distinction between the first and second, 11 and 12 , housing sections is that one of the two housing sections has first, second, third and fourth guide pins, 71 , 72 , 73 and 74 , as well as guide slat 75 formed thereon. These guide members comprise male guide members, while on the other one the two housing sections, 12 and 11 , complimentary female guide members are formed. The male and female guide members engage one another, so as to facilitate proper alignment of the two housing sections and so as to maintain the two housing sections in such proper alignment during sonic welding of the first and second, 11 and 12 , housing sections to one another.
[0094] Each housing section, 11 and 12 , comprises a groove 77 within which the safety slide 42 is slideably disposed. A male detent 82 is preferably formed within the groove 77 of each housing section so as to engage a corresponding female detent 47 of the safety slide 42 in a manner which releasably locks the safety slide 42 in the safe position, as discussed above. Safety slide 42 comprises first 78 and second 79 flanges which are received within the slots 77 of the first and second housing sections to facilitate slidable movement of the safety slide 42 .
[0095] Both the first and second housing sections further comprise a tapered slot 80 within which the trigger 35 is pivotally disposed, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 14- 16 . The tapered slot 80 facilitates pivoting of the trigger 35 , in a see-saw like fashion, about angled edge 81 (FIG. 11) of the trigger such that when the distal end of the trigger 35 is depressed or pushed toward the housing, then the proximal end of the trigger 35 , including the sear 37 thereof, moves upwardly, so as to effect disengagement of the sear 37 from the piston and thereby actuate or fire the spring injection mechanism to effect an injection. The needleless injector cannot easily be used more than one time due to the difficulty associated with re-cocking thereof and/or due to the unsuitability of the materials and/or design for repeated reuse.
[0096] The needleless injector of the present invention is formed utilizing a minimum number of components, such that it may be manufactured in a simple fashion by unskilled workers.
[0097] Having described the structure of the low cost, disposable needleless injector in detail above, it may be beneficial to likewise describe the operation thereof. Operation of the needleless injector is described below with reference to FIGS. 14 - 16 .
[0098] With particular reference to FIG. 14, the needleless injector 10 is shown with the shaft 25 positioned within the ampule 50 in a manner which facilitates the injection of a comparatively small amount, e.g., 0.05 ml, of medicine. Similarly, FIG. 15 shows the shaft 25 positioned within the ampule 50 in a manner which facilitates the injection of a comparatively larger amount of medicine, e.g., approximately 0.30 ml. Thus, the shaft 25 can be moved to various positions within the ampule 50 , so as to facilitate the injection of various different quantities of medication, as is necessary for variable dose usage.
[0099] In both FIGS. 14 and 15, the spring 13 is compressed intermediate the shoulder 14 of the housing and the shoulder 20 of the piston 15 . The piston 15 is maintained in this cocked position by the sear 37 of the trigger 40 . The safety slide 42 prevents actuation of the spring injector mechanism by preventing the trigger 40 from being depressed toward the housing and thereby preventing the sear 37 from disengaging the piston 15 . Thus, the safety slide 42 tends to prevent accidental actuation of the spring injector mechanism, which might result in accidental injection of the medicine. In any event, accidental actuation of the spring injector mechanism of the present invention will render the device unusable, since the low cost disposable needleless injector of the present invention is specifically configured for only a single use thereof.
[0100] The ampule 50 of the needleless injector of the present invention is loaded with medicine by attaching a vial or the like to the distal end of the ampule 50 and moving the shaft 25 proximally, so as to draw medicine from the vial into the ampule 50 , according to well known principles.
[0101] Since the ampule is permanently affixed to the needleless injector of the present invention, there is no need for a user to have to insert, attach, or otherwise adapt the ampule to an injector, in order to perform an injection.
[0102] Preferably, the shaft 25 is placed in its distal most position prior to attaching the ampule 50 to the vial, such that there is very little or no air within the chamber 51 of the ampule 50 . The quantity of medicine with which the ampule 50 is filled can be read accurately from a scale (FIG. 13) formed upon the ampule 50 . The ampule 50 may be slightly over filled, if desired.
[0103] After filling the ampule, the injection site upon the person receiving the injection and/or the distal end of the ampule 50 are sterilized, such as with alcohol, and the injection is then administered.
[0104] The injection is administered by holding the needleless injector 10 generally perpendicular to the skin at the injection site and then depressing the trigger 40 , such as with the thumb of the hand holding the device. Prior to depressing the trigger, the safety slide 42 must be moved proximally, so as to allow the sear 37 to disengage the piston 15 .
[0105] After the trigger 40 has been depressed, and the sear 37 disengages the piston 15 , the spring 13 moves from its compressed position (as shown in FIGS. 14 and 15) to its uncompressed or extended position as shown in FIG. 16. As the spring 13 moves toward its uncompressed position, the spring 13 urges the piston 15 distally. As the piston 15 moves distally, the piston 15 strikes the first resilient washer 31 and causes the shaft 25 to move distally along with the piston 15 . The first resilient washer 31 cushions the impact of the piston 19 with respect to the shoulder 29 of the shaft 25 .
[0106] It will be noted that there is a gap between the piston 15 and the shoulder 29 , as shown in both FIGS. 14 and 15. This gap is the distance that the piston 15 must travel before it strikes the cushion 31 , which is located just proximal of the shoulder 29 . The length of the gap is within a range of gap lengths which are defined by the position of the plunger 26 within the ampule, as determined by the quantity of medication to be injected. Each gap length within this range of gap lengths is suitable for allowing the piston 15 to accelerate sufficiently before striking the cushion 31 , so as to generate the desired pressure (typically approximately 3,000 psi-5,000 psi) within the chamber 51 of the ampule 50 .
[0107] As the spring 13 continues to move toward its extended position, the plunger 26 expels the medicine from the chamber 51 of the ampule 50 , thereby effecting the injection. According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the spring 13 remains partially compressed in its fully extended position (as shown in FIG. 16) and therefore has a preload.
[0108] It is important to appreciate that after the injection has been effected, it would be extremely difficult for a user to re-cock the spring injector mechanism so as to effect the performance of another injection with the needleless injector of the present invention. The proximal end of the shaft 25 is specifically configured to inhibit grasping thereof, as is necessary to effect re-cocking of the device.
[0109] Further, permanent attachment of the ampule 50 to the housing prevents the attachment of a new, sterile ampule to the housing, as would be desirable in the performance of another injection.
[0110] Referring now to FIG. 17, the shoulder 29 is shown to be integrally formed with the shaft 25 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various other means of forming such a shoulder upon a shaft are likewise suitable. For example, the should may alternatively be formed by adding a separately formed structural member to the shaft 25 . The cushions 31 and 32 are molded directly to the shaft 25 and the shoulder 29 , as discussed in detail above.
[0111] Referring now to FIGS. 18 - 22 , volume efficient packaging for the needleless injector of the present invention is shown. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, it is important to reduce the various costs associated with use of the needleless injector of the present invention, so as to make disposability thereof economically feasible. One important aspect of such cost reduction involves the use of volume efficient packaging, so as to mitigate transportation and storage costs associated with the present invention.
[0112] The packaging system of the present invention has been specifically designed so as to minimize the cost and the volume associated with the packaging. Thus, according to the present invention, each package, as shown in FIG. 18 requires only slightly more volume than the needleless injector itself. Further, a cluster of packages as shown in FIGS. 19 and 22 comprises interleaved individual packages which further minimize wasted space.
[0113] Wasted space is minimized in the cluster of packages by inserting or interleaving one row of packages along with another row thereof. Thus, space between adjacent packages within a row, which is normally wasted, is efficiently utilized according to the present invention. That is, a needleless injector in one row of packaging according to the present invention is disposed efficiently intermediate two adjacent needleless injectors of the other row thereof.
[0114] With particular reference to FIG. 18, each individual package 100 for a needleless injector 10 according to the present invention, comprises a cradle 101 and a cover 102 . The cover 102 is preferably bonded, such as via adhesive bonding to a planar surface 104 of the cradle 101 . The cradle 101 defines a cavity 103 . The cover 102 completely covers and hermetically seals the cavity 103 , so as to facilitate the provision of a sterile environment for the needleless injector contained therein. Both the cradle 101 and the cover 102 are preferably transparent, so that the presence of a needleless injector within the package 100 is easily detected.
[0115] Each cradle 101 is preferably formed by vacuum forming sheet polymer material. Each cover 102 is preferably formed by cutting, die stamping or otherwise forming individual covers from roll or sheet polymer.
[0116] According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, each corner of the cradle 101 comprises a bevel 105 which exposes a corresponding corner 107 of the cover 102 , so that the cover 102 may be easily grasped and peeled away from the cradle 102 , as shown in FIG. 18.
[0117] The cradle preferably further comprises a plurality of ribs 109 , which enhance the structural strength thereof, and thus facilitate the use of thinner material in the construction of the cradle, so as to further reduce the cost thereof.
[0118] The cavity 103 of the cradle 101 generally conforms in shape to the shape of the needleless injector, so as to minimize the cost of the packaging, as well as the volume thereof.
[0119] When a plurality of such packages are placed in a row, i.e., side by side, then a gap is formed between adjacent packages. As discussed below, the present invention takes advantage of this gap between adjacent packages so as to further enhance the volumetric efficiency associated with the packaging of a plurality of needleless injectors.
[0120] With particular reference to FIGS. 19 - 22 , a plurality of packages, such as those of FIG. 18, are formed together in a cluster 110 . The cluster may comprise either a plurality of individual packages, which have been attached to one another, or may alternatively comprise one or more pluralities of individual packages which are formed together, integrally with one another. For example, the cluster 110 may comprise two pluralities of packages or rows, 113 and 114 , wherein each row, 113 and 114 , is formed integrally and separately from each other row, 114 and 113 , and then the two rows are attached to one another or interleaved. Thus, each row, 113 and 114 , of the cluster 110 , may be formed separately by vacuum forming or the like, and then the rows may be interleaved. This interleaving of the two rows enhances the volume efficiency of the completed multiple needleless injector package is thus more volume efficient and less costly.
[0121] The covers for each cradle in a row are either separately formed or are formed of one piece of material which is perforated or scored, such that the individual cover associated with a particular needleless injector may be peeled away from the cradle so as to facilitate the removal of a desired particular needleless injector. The use of such separate covers for each needleless injector facilitates the storage of the remaining needleless injectors in a sterile environment after one or more of the needleless injectors has been removed from such a cluster package.
[0122] The clusters may be formed such that they are easily broken apart, so as to form individual packages or so as to form smaller clusters. Scores or perforations may be utilized so as to facilitate such breaking apart of a cluster. A cluster so scored or perforated may be formed so as to break apart into smaller clusters having any desired number of individual packages.
[0123] The cradles are preferably formed from a transparent polymer material such as polyethylene terephalate glycol (PETG). The covers are preferably comprised of a material such as Tyvek (a federally registered trademark of Dupont de Nemurs and Company of Wilmington, Del.).
[0124] According to the present invention, all of the components of the present invention, including the components of the packaging, are suitable for gamma sterilization. The needleless injector of the present invention is packaged, either automatically or manually, by placing one needleless injector in the cavity of each cradle and then sealing the cover to the upper flat surface 104 of each cradle, so as to provide a hermetic seal. After hermetically sealing a needleless injector in each package of a cluster (or in a non-cluster, single product package), then the needleless injector(s) and associated package(s) are gamma sterilized. Gamma sterilization is performed after sealing of the needleless injectors within their packages so as to assure maintenance of proper sterilization thereof, until the packages are opened by the user.
[0125] According to an alternative configuration of the present invention, the needleless injector may be provided to the user with the ampule anesceptically filled with a desired medicament. When the needleless injector is provided with the ampule prefilled, then the proximal most portion of the shaft 25 is preferably cut off or otherwise removed, so as to inhibit movement thereof, which might tend to undesirably force fluid from the ampule. That is, that portion of the shaft 25 which would otherwise extend from the proximal end of the housing is removed, so as to prevent the shaft 25 from being undesirably manipulated during handling. In this manner, fixed dose applications of the present invention are facilitated.
[0126] It is understood that the exemplary low cost, disposable needleless injector described herein and shown in the drawings represents only a presently preferred embodiment of the invention. Indeed, various modifications and additions may be made to such embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, various different configurations of the spring, piston and shaft are contemplated. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the piston may have various different configurations, shapes and/or dimensions which facilitate compression of the spring, locking of the spring in the compressed configuration thereof by the trigger, and which have the necessary mass so as to assure proper ejection of a fluid from the ampule when the shaft is struck thereby.
[0127] Thus, these and other modifications and additions may be obvious to those skilled in the art and may be implemented to adapt the present invention for use in a variety of different applications.
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A disposable needleless injection device includes an integral unit that is dimensioned and arranged to be grasped in the hand of a user. The system is spring-loaded and is manufactured and shipped with the spring in a pre-cocked condition. An integral ampule is fillable by manipulation of a thrust rod/shaft which extends longitudinally through the device and is able to be grasped by a user. Once the unit is filled with a selected medication, it is held proximate the skin in order to inject the selected dosage. The unit is constructed from a maximum of eight component parts and is assembled in a matter of moments by unskilled personnel.
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This application is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 09/187,006, filed Nov. 6, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,210,726.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to PVD Al 2 O 3 coated hard material.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention describes a cutting tool for metal machining, having a body of cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics or high speed steel and on the surface of said body, a hard and wear resistant refractory coating is deposited. The coating is adherently bonded to the body and covering all functional parts of the tool. The coating is composed of one or more layers of refractory compounds of which at least one layer consists of fine-crystalline alumina, Al 2 O 3 , deposited by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) and the non-Al 2 O 3 layer(s), if any at all, consists of metal nitrides and/or carbides with the metal elements chosen from Ti, Nb, Hf, V, Ta, Mo, Zr, Cr, W and Al.
It is well known that for cemented carbide cutting tools used in metal machining, the wear resistance of the tool edge can be increased by applying thin, hard surface layers of metal oxides, carbides or nitrides with the metal either selected from the transition metals from the groups IV, V and VI of the Periodic Table or from silicon, boron and aluminium. The coating thickness usually varies between 1 and 15 μm and the most widespread techniques for depositing such coatings are PVD and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition). It is also known that further improvements of the performance of a cutting tool can be achieved by applying a pure ceramic layer such as Al 2 O 3 on top of layers of metal carbides and nitrides (U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,564; U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,625).
Cemented carbide cutting tools coated with alumina layers have been commercially available for over two decades. The CVD technique usually employed involves the deposition of material from a reactive gas atmosphere on a substrate surface held at elevated temperatures. Al 2 O 3 , crystallizes into several different phases such as α(alfa), κ(kappa) and χ(chi) called the “α-series” with hcp (hexagonal close packing) stacking of the oxygen atoms, and into γ(gamma), θ(theta), η(eta) and δ(delta) called the “γ-series” with fcc (face centered cubic) stacking of the oxygen atoms. The most often occurring Al 2 O 3 -phases in CVD coatings deposited on cemented carbides at conventional CVD temperatures, 1000°-1050° C., are the stable alpha and the metastable kappa phases, however, occasionally the metastable theta phase has also been observed.
The CVD Al 2 O 3 coatings of the α-, κ- and/or θ-phase are fully crystalline with a grain size in the range 0.5-5 μm and having well-facetted grain structures.
Deposition at a typical temperature of about 1000° C. causes the total stress in CVD Al 2 O 3 coatings on cemented carbide substrates to be tensile in nature. The total stress is dominated by thermal stresses caused by the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the substrate and the coating, less intrinsic stresses which have there origin from the deposition process itself and are compressive in nature. The tensile stresses may exceed the rupture limit of Al 2 O 3 and cause the coating to crack extensively and thus degrade the performance of the cutting edge in particularly in certain applications, such as wet machining where the corrosive chemicals in the coolant fluid may exploit the cracks in the coating as diffusion paths.
Generally CVD-coated tools perform very well when machining various steels and cast irons under dry or wet cutting conditions. However, there exists a number of cutting operations or machining conditions when PVD-coated tools are more suitable e.g. in drilling, parting and threading and other operations where sharp cutting edges are required. Such cutting operations are often referred to as the ”PVD coated tool application area”.
Plasma assisted CVD technique, PACVD, makes it possible to deposit coatings at lower substrate temperatures as compared to thermal CVD temperatures and thus avoid the dominance of the thermal stresses. Thin Al 2 O 3 PACVD films, free of cracks, have been deposited on cemented carbides at substrate temperatures 450°-700° C. (DE 41 10 005; DE 41 10 006; DE 42 09 975). The PACVD process for depositing Al 2 O 3 includes the reaction between an Al-halogenide, e.g. AlCl 3 , and an oxygen donor, e.g. CO 2 , and because of the incompleteness of this chemical reaction, chlorine is to a large extent trapped in the Al 2 O 3 coating and its content could be as large as 3.5%. Furthermore, these PACVD Al 2 O 3 coatings are generally composed of, besides the crystalline alfa- and/or gamma-Al 2 O 3 phase, a substantial amount of amorphous alumina, which in combination with the high content of halogen impurities, degrades both the chemical and mechanical properties of said coating, hence making the coating material less desirable as a tool material.
There exist several PVD techniques capable of producing refractory thin films on cutting tools and the most established methods are ion plating, DC- and RF magnetron sputtering, arc discharge evaporation, BAD (Ion Beam Assisted Deposition) and Activated Reactive Evaporation (ARE). Each method has its own merits and the intrinsic properties of the produced coatings such as microstructure/grain size, hardness, state of stress, intrinsic cohesion and adhesion to the underlying substrate may vary depending on the particular PVD method chosen. Early attempts to PVD deposit Al 2 O 3 at typical PVD temperatures, 400°-500° C., resulted in amorphous alumina layers which did not offer any notable improvement in wear resistance when applied on cutting tools. PVD deposition by HF diode or magnetron sputtering resulted in crystalline α-Al 2 O 3 only when the substrate temperature was kept as high as 1000° C. (Thornton and Chin, Ceramic Bulletin, 56 (1977) 504). Likewise, applying the ARE method for depositing Al 2 O 3 , only resulted in fully dense and hard Al 2 O 3 coatings at substrate temperatures around 1000° C. (Bunshah and Schramm, Thin Solid Films, 40 (1977) 211).
With the invention of the bipolar pulsed DMS technique (Dual Magnetron Sputtering) which is disclosed in DD 252 205 and DE 195 18 779, a wide range of opportunities opened up for the deposition of insulating layers such as Al 2 O 3 and, furthermore, the method has made it possible to deposit crystalline Al 2 O 3 layers at substrate temperatures in the range 500° to 800° C. In the bipolar dual magnetron system, the two magnetrons alternately act as an anode and a cathode and, hence, preserve a metallic anode over long process times. At high enough frequencies, possible electron charging on the insulating layers will be suppressed and the otherwise troublesome phenomenon of “arcing” will be limited. Hence, according to DE 195 18 779, the DMS sputtering technique is capable of depositing and producing high-quality, well-adherent, crystalline α-Al 2 O 3 thin films at substrate temperatures less than 800° C. The “α-Al 2 O 3 layers”, with a typical size of the α-grains varying between 0.2-2 μm, may also partially contain the gamma(γ) phase from the “γ-series” of the Al 2 O 3 polymorphs. The size of the γ-grains in the coating is much smaller than the size of the α-grains. The γ-Al 2 O 3 grainsize typically varies between 0.05 to 0.1 μm. In the Al 2 O 3 layers where both modifications of γ- and α-phase were found, the γ-Al 2 O 3 phase showed a preferred growth orientation with a ( 440 )-texture. When compared to prior art plasma assisted deposition techniques such as PACVD as described in DE 49 09 975, the novel, pulsed DMS sputtering deposition method has the decisive, important advantage that no impurities such as halogen atoms, e.g. chlorine, are incorporated in the Al 2 O 3 coating.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention there is provided a cutting tool for metal machining such as turning (threading and parting), milling and drilling comprising a body of a hard alloy of cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics or high speed steel onto which a hard and wear resistant refractory coating is deposited by the DMS PVD method at substrate temperatures of 450° to 700° C., preferably at 550° to 650° C., depending on the particular material of the tool body The wear resistant coating is composed of one or more layers of refractory compounds of which at least one layer, preferably the outermost layer, consists of Al 2 O 3 and that the innermost layer(s), if any at all, between the tool body and the Al 2 O 3 layer, is composed of metal nitrides and/or carbides with the metal elements selected from Ti, Nb, Hf, V, Ta, Mo, Zr, Cr, W and Al. In contrast to the state of the art, the Al 2 O 3 layers consist of high-quality, dense, fine-grained crystalline γ-Al 2 O 3 with a grainsize less than 0.1 μm. Furthermore, the γ-Al 2 O 3 layers are virtually free of cracks and halogen impurities.
The lack of impurities of the coating of the present invention is illustrated by comparing FIG. 1 with FIG. 2 . FIG. 1 is an EDS-analysis of an Al 2 O 3 layer deposited by PACVD (with Al 2 O 3 as a precursor) containing Cl-impurities and FIG. 2 is an EDS-analysis of a γ-Al 2 O 3 layer, according to the invention. In the latter Al 2 O 3 layer no detectable impurities are present.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an EDS-analysis of an Al 2 O 3 layer deposited by PACVD having an Al 2 O 3 precursor;
FIG. 2 is an EDS-analysis of a γ-Al 2 O 3 layer deposited according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 is an X-ray diffraction pattern of an Al 2 O 3 coating of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is another X-ray diffraction pattern of an Al 2 O 3 coating of the present invention; and
FIG. 5 is a diffraction pattern taken from a transmission TElectron Microscope.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The γ-Al 2 O 3 layers according to the invention further give the cutting edges of the tool an extremely smooth surface finish which, compared to prior art α-Al 2 O 3 coated tools, results in an improved surface finish also of the workpiece being machined. The very smooth surface finish can be attributed to the very fine crystallinity of the coating. The “γ-Al 2 O 3 ” layers may also partially contain other phases from the “γ-series” like θ, δ and η. Identification of the γ- and/or θ-phases in the Al 2 O 3 layers according to the invention can preferably be made by X-ray diffraction. Reflexes from the ( 400 ) and ( 440 ) planes of the γ-Al 2 O 3 layers occurring at the 2θ-angles 45.8° and 66.8° when using Cu Kα radiation, unequivocally identifies the γ-phase (FIG. 3 ). Weaker reflexes from the ( 222 ), ( 200 ) and ( 311 ) planes of the γ-phase can occasionally be identified. When the θ-phase is present in the Al 2 O 3 layers according to the invention, said phase is identified by the reflexes from the ( 200 , 20 - 2 ) planes (FIG. 4 ).
A second identification method for the Al 2 O 3 phases is based on electron diffraction in a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). A diffraction pattern from an Al 2 O 3 layer deposited at a substrate temperature of 650° C. is shown in FIG. 5 . The pattern shows rings from a polycrystalline phase with grains considerably smaller than the diameter of the electron beam and, furthermore, the intensity of the rings and the distances between the rings again unequivocally identifies the γ-phase of Al 2 O 3 .
The fine-grained, crystalline γ-Al 2 O 3 according to the invention is strongly textured in the [ 440 ]-direction. A Texture Coefficient, TC, can be defined as: TC ( hk1 ) = I ( hkl ) I O ( hkl ) { 1 n ∑ I ( hkl ) I O ( hkl ) } - 1
where
I(hkl)=measured intensity of the (hkl) reflection
I o (hkl)=standard intensity from the ASTM standard powder pattern diffraction data
n=number of reflections used in the calculation (hkl) reflections used are: ( 111 ), ( 311 ), ( 222 ), ( 400 ) and ( 440 ) and whenever the TC(hkl)>1, there is a texture in the [hkl]-direction. The larger the value of TC(hkl), the more prenounced is the texture.
According to the present invention, the TC for the set of ( 440 ) crystal planes is greater than 1.5.
When the very fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 coated cemented carbide cutting tools according to the invention are used in the machining of steel or cast iron, several important improvements compared to the prior art have been observed which will be demonstrated in the forthcoming examples. Surprisingly, the PVD γ-Al 2 O 3 without containing any portion of the coarser and thermodynamically stable α-Al 2 O 3 phase, shows in certain metal machining operations, a wear resistance which is equal to the wear resistance found in coarser CVD α-Al 2 O 3 coatings deposited at temperatures around 1000° C. Furthermore, the fine-grained PVD γ-Al 2 O 3 coatings show a wear resistance considerably better than prior art PVD coatings. These observations open up the possibility to considerably improve the cutting performance and prolong the tool lives of coated PVD tools. The low deposition temperature will also make it possible to deposit PVD γ-Al 2 O 3 coatings on high speed steel tools.
A further improvement in cutting performance can be anticipated if the edges of the γ-Al 2 O 3 coated cutting tools according to the invention are treated by a gentle wet-blasting process or by edge brushing with SiC based brushes. and An example of such brushes is disclosed in the Swedish patent application 9402234-4.
The total coating thickness according to the present invention varies between 0.5 and 20 μm, preferably between 1 and 15 μm with the thickness of the non-Al 2 O 3 layer(s) varying between 0.1 and 10 μm, preferably between 0.5 and 5 μm. The fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 coating can also be deposited directly onto the cutting tool substrate of cemented carbide, cermet, ceramics or high speed steel and the thickness of said γ-Al 2 O 3 varies then between 0.5 and 15 μm preferably between 1 and 10 μm. Likewise can further coatings of metal nitrides and/or carbides with the metal elements selected from Ti, Nb, Hf, V, Ta, Mo, Zr, Cr, W and Al be deposited on top of of the Al 2 O 3 layer.
The γ-Al 2 O 3 layer according to the invention is deposited by a bipolar dual magnetron sputtering technique at substrate temperatures of 450°-700° C., preferably 550°-650° C., using aluminium targets, a gas mixture of Ar and O 2 and a process pressure in the range 1-5 μbar. The substrate may be floating or pulsed biased, the exact conditions depending to a certain extent on the design of the equipment being used.
It is within the purview of the skilled artisan to determine whether the requisite grainsize and phase compositions have been obtained and to modify the deposition conditions in accordance with the present specification, if desired, to affect the nanostructure of the Al 2 O 3 layer within the frame of the invention.
The layer(s) described in the present invention, comprising metal nitrides and/or carbides and/or carbonitrides and with the metal elements selected from Ti, Nb, Hf, V, Ta, Mo, Zr, Cr, W and Al can be deposited by PVD-technique, CVD- and/or MTCVD-technique (Medium Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition).
The superiority of the fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 PVD layers according to the present invention, compared to prior art PVD coatings is demonstrated in Examples 1, 2 and 5. Examples 3, 4 and 6 demonstrate the suprisingly good wear resistance properties of the fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layers compared to traditionally CVD-deposited single phase κ-Al 2 O 3 and single phase α-Al 2 O 3 layers.
EXAMPLE 1
A) Commercially available cemented carbide threading inserts of style R166.OG-16MM01-150 having a composition of 10 w %/ Co and balance WC, coated with an approximately 2 μm TiN layer by an ion plating technique.
B) TiN coated tools from A) were coated with a 1 μm fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer in a separate experiment with the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition temperature was 650° C. and the process pressure was 1 μbar.
C) Cemented carbide threading inserts of style R166.OG-16MM01-150 having a composition of 10 w % Co and balance WC, coated with an approximately 3 μm TiN layer by an ion plating technique.
Coated tool inserts from B) and C) were then tested in a threading operation at a customers site in the production of engine oil plugs of cast iron (SS0125; 180-240 HB). The thread of the plug being produced was of size M36×1.5.
Cutting data:
Speed:
154 m/min
5 passages per thread
The results below is expressed as the number of machined plugs per cutting edge.
C) prior art
300 plugs
Large crater wear, cutting edge is
worn out
B) invention
>500 plugs
No detectable wear on the cutting
edge. The edge can produce more
plugs
From the above results it is obvious that the alumina coated insert according to the invention is superior with respect to cutting performance.
EXAMPLE 2
D) Commercial PVD-TiN coated cemented carbide drilling inserts of style LCMX 040308-53 with a coating thickness of approximately 3 μm having a cemented carbide composition of 10 w % Co and balance WC.
E) TiN coated tools from D), coated with a 1 μm fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer in a separate experiment with the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition temperature was 650° C. and the process pressure was 1 μbar.
The alumina coating from E) appeared transparent and very smooth. SEM studies of a fracture cross section of the alumina coating showed a very fine-grained structure. A XRD-investigation identified the alumina phase as pure γ-Al 2 O 3 .
Coated tool inserts from D) and E) were then tested in a drilling operation in a workpiece material of a low alloyed, non-hardened steel (SS 2541).
Cutting data:
Speed:
150 m/min
Feed:
0.12 mm/rev
Hole diameter:
25 mm
Hole depth:
46 mm
Coolant being used
Both flank and crater wear were developed on the cutting edges. The extent of the flank wear determined the life time of the cutting tool. The results below express the number of holes being drilled per cutting edge.
D) prior art
150 holes
Flank wear 0.15 mm
200 holes
Flank wear 0.22 mm,
cutting edge is damaged
E) invention
150 holes
Flank wear 0.07 mm
200 holes
Flank wear 0.09 mm
/
250 holes
Flank wear 0.10 mm,
cutting edge is slightly
damaged
From the above results it is obvious that the alumina coated inserts according to the invention are able to drill more holes than the prior art inserts.
EXAMPLE 3
F) Cemented carbide inserts of style CNMA 120412-KR having a composition of 6 w % Co and balance WC, coated with a first layer of 8 μm TiCN and thereafter with a top layer of 4.7 μm α-Al 2 O 3 . Both the TiCN and the Al 2 O 3 layer were deposited by conventional CVD-technique. The Al 2 O 3 layer had an average grain size of 1.2 μm.
G) Cemented carbide inserts of the same style and composition as in F), first coated with an approximately 3.6 μm TiCN layer by conventional CVD-technique and thereafter coated with a 2.3 μm fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer in a separate experiment with the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition temperature was 650° C. and the process pressure was 1 μbar.
Coated inserts from F) and G) were then tested in a continuous turning operation in a ball bearing steel (Ovako 825). The crater wear of the cutting edges was measured.
Cutting data:
Speed:
210 m/min
Feed:
0.25 mm/rev
Depth of cut:
2.0 mm
Coolant being used
The cutting operation was periodically interupted in order to measure the crater wear of the cutting edges. The crater wear was measured in an optical microscope. The machining time until the Al 2 O 3 layer was worn through, was registered (i.e. when the inner TiCN coating just becoming visible). In order to define a figure of merit for the intrinsic wear resistance of the Al 2 O 3 layers, the thickness (μm) of the Al 2 O 3 layer was divided by the above defined machining time (min). The results below express the wear rate figure of merit.
F) prior art α-Al 2 O 3 layers
0.5 μm/min
C) invention
0.5 μm/min
From the above results it is obvious that the wear resistance of the fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer suprisingly is as good as the wear resistance of the coarser-grained α-Al 2 O 3 layer deposited by CVD technique.
EXAMPLE 4
H) Cemented carbide inserts of style CNMA 120412-KR having a composition of 6 w % Co and balance WC, coated with a first layer of 6 μm TiCN and thereafter with a top layer of 1.1 μm κ-Al 2 O 3 . Both the TiCN and the Al 2 O 3 layer were deposited by conventional CVD technique. The Al 2 O 3 layer had an average grain size of 1 μm.
I) Cemented carbide inserts of the same style and composition as in H), coated with an approximately 2.5 μm TiN layer by an ion plating technique.
J) TiN coated tools from I), coated with a 1.2 μm fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer in a separate experiment with the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition temperature was 600° C. and the process pressure was 1 μbar.
K) TiN coated tools from I), coated with a 1.7 μm fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer in a separate experiment with the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition temperature was 730° C. and the process pressure was 1 μbar.
Coated inserts from H), J) and K), were then tested in a continuous turning operation in a ball bearing steel (Ovako 825). The crater wear of the cutting edges was measured.
Speed:
250 m/min
Feed:
0.25 mm/rev
Depth of cut:
2.0 mm
Coolant being used
The cutting operation was periodically interupted in order to measure the crater wear of the cutting edges. The crater wear was measured in an optical microscope. The machining time until the Al 2 O 3 layer was worn through, was registered (i.e. when the inner TiN or TiCN coating just becoming visible). In order to define a figure of merit for the intrinsic wear resistance of the Al 2 O 3 layers, the thickness (μm) of the Al 2 O 3 layer was divided by the above defined machining time (min). The results below express the wear rate figure of merit.
H) prior art κ-Al 2 O 3 layers
0.44 μm/min
J) invention TiN + γ-Al 2 O 3
0.40 μm/min
K) invention TiN + γ-Al 2 O 3
0.46 μm/min
From the above results it is obvious that the wear resistance of the fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer suprisingly is as good as the wear resistance of the coarser-grained κ-Al 2 O 3 layer deposited by CVD technique.
EXAMPLE 5
Coated cutting inserts from I), J) and K) in Example 4 were tested under the same cutting conditions and cutting data as in Example 4. The machining time until a predetermined crater wear had developed on the rake face of the inserts was registered. The results below express said machining time until the predetermined crater wear.
I) prior art TiN
4 min
J) invention TiN + γ-Al 2 O 3
9 min
K) invention TiN + γ-Al 2 O 3
9.7 min
From the above results it is obvious that a top coating of the fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer on PVD TiN considerably improves the crater wear resistance of the cutting tool.
EXAMPLE 6
L) Cemented carbide inserts of style CNMA 120412-KR having a composition of 6 w % Co and balance WC, coated with a first layer of 6 μm TiCN and thereafter with a top layer of 4.8 μm α-Al 2 O 3 . Both the TiCN and the Al 2 O 3 layer were deposited by conventional CVD-technique. The Al 2 O 3 layer had an average grain size of 1 μm.
M) Cemented carbide inserts of the same style and composition as in L), first coated with an approximately 5 μm TiAlN layer and thereafter, without vacuum interruption, coated with a 4.4 μm fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer, both layers deposited with the pulsed magnetron sputtering technique. The deposition temperature was 600° C. and the process pressure was 1 μbar.
Coated inserts from L) and M) were then tested in a continuous turning operation in a low alloyed, non-hardened steel (SS2541). The crater wear of the cutting edges was measured.
Speed:
250 m/min
Feed:
0.25 mm/rev
Depth of cut:
2.0 mm
Coolant being used
The cutting operation was periodically interupted in order to measure the crater wear of the cutting edges. The crater wear was measured in an optical microscope. The machining time until the Al 2 O 3 layer was worn through, was registered (i.e. when the inner TiCN or TIAlN coating just becoming visible). In order to define a f igure of merit for the intrinsic wear resistance of the Al 2 O 3 layers, the thickness (μm) of the Al 2 O 3 layer was divided by the above defined machining time (min). The results below express the wear rate figure of merit.
L) prior art α-Al 2 O 3 layers
0.69 μm/min
M) invention
0.73 μm/min
From the above results it is obvious that the wear resistance of the fine-grained γ-Al 2 O 3 layer suprisingly is as good as the wear resistance of the coarser-grained α-Al 2 O 3 layer deposited by CVD technique.
The principles, in preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification. However, the invention which is intended to be protected is not to be construed as limited to the particular embodiments disclosed above. Further, the embodiments described herein are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive. Variations and changes may be made by others, and equivalents employed, without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, it is expressly intended that all such variations, changes and equivalents which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention be embraced thereby.
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The present invention describes a coated substrate material. The coating is formed by one or more layers of refractory compounds of which at least one layer of fine-grained, crystalline γ-phase alumina, Al 2 O 3 , with a grainsize less than 0.1 μm. The Al 2 O 3 layer is deposited with a bipolar pulsed DMS technique (Dual Magnetron Sputtering) at substrate temperatures in the range 450° C. to 700° C., preferably 550° C. to 650° C., depending on the particular substrate material. Identification of the γ-phase alumina is made by X-ray diffraction. Reflexes from the ( 400 ) and ( 440 ) planes occurring at the 2θ-angles 45.8 and 66.8 degrees when using Cu Kα radiation identify the γ-phase Al 2 O 3 . The alumina layer is also very strongly textured in the [440]-direction. The Al 2 O 3 layer is virtually free of cracks and halogen impurities. Furthermore, the Al 2 O 3 layer gives the cutting edge of the tool an extremely smooth surface finish.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 774,676, filed Mar. 7, 1977, entitled "Self-Leveling Extendable Table", now U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,814, issued Dec. 27, 1977.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The need for temporary stage or platform facilities arises on many occasions. Raised platforms may be used for parties, temporary show facilities, school dances, parties in private homes, and on many other occasions where it is desirable to elevate an entertainment or eductional performance, such as a speaker, musical group, or the like. In the past, most temporary stage facilities were built in specific sizes on the expectation that the entertainer or speaker could adjust his needs to fit the available stage size. Most portable stages were undesirably small, since large stages were quite difficult to move and store. In some cases, a plurality of small stages were pushed together in an effort to form a single large stage; however, the result was an unstable stage having separations and/or uneven levels between the various stage sections. This situation could result in great danger to an entertainer in tripping and falling, with large potential liability to the proprietor of the property.
Another problem existing in stages of the prior art concerns the wearing of the stage surface. Portable platforms are subject to heavy wear from use and in movement from place to place. Gouges, chips, and scratches inflicted on the upper surface by heavy musical or sound equipment, dancers, and the like, along with impacts incurred during the transfer of stages into and out from storage create rapid deterioration of the upper surface. On previous stages, repair of the stage surface is more difficult and costly than building a new stage; therefore, it has been common to attempt to patch such imperfections in the hopes of increasing the useful life of the stage. The alternative to repairing the upper surface has been to discard the whole stage unit.
Another problem associated with stages of the prior art has been the practical adjustment of the height of the stages for various uses. Portable stages are generally constructed without height adjustability, and units have been stacked, or have been set on bricks, blocks, or other structural supports in an effort to increase their height from ground level. Stages with telescoping legs have generally been difficult to adjust to a perfect horizontal position, and have been prone to failure under heavy use. In addition, when more than one stage member having adjustable legs has been used in side-to-side fashion, problems have been encountered in adjusting both stages to the same height.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a stage which may be fabricated from a plurality of portable interlocking units, thereby providing a single level stage surface of variable size and shape. It is a further object of the invention to provide a stage unit which may be used as a building block to form a large stage with other stage units, each stage unit having interconnecting locking means to fasten the ends and sides of the unit to the ends and sides, respectively, of other identical units.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a stage unit having a plurality of support members, including two independent support member systems of differing heights.
It is still a further object of the invention to provide an interconnecting stage unit having a replaceable upper floor surface.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a specific embodiment of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A stage unit capable of interlocking with like units to form a larger stage comprises a rectangular frame having two sides and two ends, a flat rigid floor supported by the frame, fastening means at the end of the frame for removably engaging interconnecting fastening means at an end of a like adjacent stage unit, fastening means at each side of the frame for removably engaging interconnecting fastening means at a side of a like adjacent stage unit, and support means for maintaining the floor in a raised horizontal postition.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention is better understood with reference to the drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a table unit of the invention, with partial views of three interconnected similar units;
FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the table with all of the legs in retracted position;
FIG. 3 is a partial section view of the male and female parts of a fastening device used to fasten the stage units together;
FIG. 4 is a partial section side view of a stage unit showing the short legs in fully extended positon and the long legs in partially extended position; and
FIG. 5 is a partial section view of the stage top, showing the operation of the locking mechanisms, and also illustrating the means for attachment for the removable stage floor.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows stage unit 1 mounted in upright position and attached to adjacent identical stage units 2, 3, and 4. Each unit has a peripheral sheet metal frame 5 having side edges 6 and 7 and ends 8 and 9, and having an inwardly extending perpendicular ledge 10 for supporting the floor of the stage. Each stage unit is approximately two feet wide by eight feet long, although of course larger or smaller units, which may be square or oblong, can be used.
Each stage unit is supported by a series of retractable legs. In the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings, each stage unit has three sets of long legs which support the stage floor at a height of approximately 2 1/2 feet above the ground, and three sets of shorter legs which alternatively support the stage floor at a height of about 1'3". In FIG. 1, legs 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 are shown in the extended or supportive position. Each pair of legs is separated by a cross brace identified as 21, 22, and 23, for maintaining the strength and stability of the stage. Shorter leg members 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30 are separated by cross braces 31, 32, and 33. Each leg is fabricated from 1 inch diameter tubular zinc-plated carbon steel, and terminates in a smooth foot 35, which is pressed into the bottom of the hollow tube. The feet are conventional heavy-duty non-swivel glide line, such as the R. C. Silencer model manufactured by Plastiglide Manufacturing Corporation of Santa Monica, California. Each set of legs is welded to a top cross member, indicated in FIG. 2 as 36, 37, and 38 for the longer legs and 39, 40, and 41 for the shorter legs. These cross members are also tubular steel, and are slightly longer than the width of the leg pairs to permit fastening of each set of legs to the under side of the bottom platform member. The cross pieces are attached to the underside of the stage by clamps 45, which are fastened to the base by machine screws and permit rotation of the cross members, thereby allowing each pair of legs to rotate from a retracted position shown in FIG. 2 to an extended position shown in FIG. 1. A more detailed view of the clamps 45, also showing the path traveled by the leg pairs from the retracted to the extended position, is shown in FIG. 4.
The stage platform consists of two rigid pieces of plywood 50 and 51. Plywood member 50 serves as a base for the stage surface, and is permanently bolted to the frame by Phillips-head screws 55 (see FIG. 5) which extend through holes in the base member and through corresponding holes in ledge 10. The screws are secured to the frame with T-nuts 56; in most cases, only two screws on each side of the stage unit are required to secure the base member to the frame. Both top and bottom platform members are made from plywood, the top being 3/8" and the bottom 1/2" in thickness.
Upper platform member 51 has an upper surface 57 which serves as the surface of the stage. In use, the upper platform member is bolted to the frame by bolts 58 which are secured to the frame ledge 10 with nuts 59. In each case, the head of the bolt is countersunk into the plywood to provide a level surface for each platform member. Three bolts are used on each end of the stage unit, and six bolts are used along each side. For simplicity, most of the bolts have not been shown on the drawings.
The stage legs are attached directly to the underside of platform base 50 as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4. Each pair of legs swings from an extended position to a retracted position, the latter being shown in FIG. 2. Leg 17 is shown in a partially retracted position in FIG. 4. Rotation of the leg member between the retracted and extended positions is controlled by conventional hinge 60, which is rotatably fastened to each leg and to the bottom surface of platform base 50 by means of bracket 61. The bracket is a small angle iron segment having a horizontal flange screwed to base 50 and a downwardly depending vertical flange pivotally attached to the hinge. The leg members are retained in the retracted position when not in use by biased clips 62 which receive the cross brace between the legs.
One of the most significant features of the stage of the invention is the ability to interconnect each stage unit with other identical units to form a complete stage of desirable dimensions, while still retaining the strength and stability of a unitary stage. This ability is provided by certain male/female blocks located on the sides and ends of each unit which mate with interconnecting members on other units to prevent horizontal or vertical movement of the stage units relative to each other when they are locked in place. In the preferred aspect of the invention, each end and each side of each unit has both a male and a female portion of a lock attached thereto. As shown in FIG. 2, male lock parts 63, 64, 65, and 66 are carried respectively by frame edges 8, 7, 9, and 6. Similarly, female lock parts 67, 68, 69, and 70 are located on each side of the frame such that when placed adjacent to an identical unit, the male and female parts would interlock. Perspective views of the male and female parts of a preferred locking device are shown in FIG. 3. The illustrated parts are commercial fasteners manufactured by Simmons Fastener Corporation, Albany, New York, Model B-1311. These devices are heavy duty latches which do not protrude from the sides of the table when in their inactive positions. As shown in FIG. 3 male part 80 consists of a housing 81 containing semi-circular latch wheel 82 eccentrically mounted through apertures in the housing. Ratchet mechanism 83 on the bottom of the latch wheel frictionally engages ridge 84 on the lower internal surface of housing 81, and a corresponding ratchet on the upper surface of the latch wheel (not shown) engages a similar indentation on the upper internal surface of the housing, requiring substantial torque to be applied to rotate the wheel in the housing. This prevents free movement and unintentional loosening of the latch, and allows the wheel to lock into place when it has engaged the female part. Torque is applied by means of a removable handle having a hexagonal shaft or an Allen wrench 90 (see FIG. 5) which fits a receiving well 91 in the housing. The well is accessible either from the bottom of the stage unit or through bores 92 through platforms 50 and 51.
The female parts 85 of the latch consists simply of housing 86 with semi-circular indentation 87 in the open front of the housing. In operation, as the wrench is turned in male part 80, the leading edge of the latch wheel emerges from housing 81 as shown in FIG. 3. The wheel is mounted eccentrically such that the distance from the center of rotation of the wheel to the periphery of the wheel is the maximum at the leading edge and becomes progressively shorter as the wheel is turned. The leading edge engages the indentation 87 of the female latch part, with the raised periphery of the male part passing behind the indentation. As the wheel is turned, the effective radius of the periphery becomes increasingly shorter, urging the female part toward the male part until a lock is obtained. The lock is released by reversing the rotation of the wheel.
Additional strengthening features may also be used to insure stability of the stage; for example angle iron ribs 49 extend between each pair of hinges. In addition, wood members 77, 78, and 79 are screwed and glued to the bottom of platform base 50 to provide protection for the folded legs when the tables are stacked for storage. The wood braces are approximately 11/2" square in cross section, and are from 12" to 16" in length.
When the table is in storage, all of the legs are folded in the retracted position, and the total stage has a width of only about 21/4". In preparation for use, the legs of the desired length are unfolded to the extended position, and the unit is placed in position adjacent to other stage units as shown in FIG. 1. By means of an Allen wrench, the male and female latch parts carried by each frame are locked into position with the corresponding latch parts of the adjacent state unit. The procedure is reversed for disassembly and storage.
While the invention has been described with an example of the best mode thereof known to the inventors, it will be understood that the description is intended to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Many changes, omissions, or additions can be made with respect to the preferred embodiment shown without departure from the scope of the invention, which should be limited only by the following claims.
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A portable stage is formed from a plurality of similar interlocking members having interconnecting fastening mechanisms located on the ends and sides of the stage top. Each member has a removable upper surface panel, and a plurality of foldable legs of at least two different lengths.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The invention relates to novel specific immunophilin ligands of the formula
The radicals R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , X, Y, A, B and D are defined as follows:
R 1 is hydrogen, a (C 1 -C 12 )-alkyl group or a (C 2 -C 6 )-alkoxy group, where the alkyl group is linear or branched and can be substituted by a monocyclic or bicyclic heteroaryl having 1-4 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, such as morpholine, piperazine, piperidine, indole, indazole, phthalazines, thiophene, furan or imidazole, or monosubstituted or polysubstituted by a phenyl ring. This phenyl ring can itself be monosubstituted or polysubstituted by halogen, (C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, (C 3 -C 7 )-cycloalkyl, carboxyl groups, carboxyl groups esterified with linear or branched (C 1 -C 6 )-alkanols, carbamoyl groups, trifluoromethyl groups, hydroxyl groups, methoxy groups, ethoxy groups, benzyloxy groups or amino groups, which in turn are substituted by benzyl, benzoyl or acetyl.
R 1 can also be the amine radical of the methyl esters of the following amino acids: histidine, leucine, valine, serine (Bzl), threonine, pipecolic acid, piperidine-4-carboxylic acid, piperidine-3-carboxylic acid, ε-NH 2 -lysine, ε-Z-NH-lysine, ε-(2Cl-Z)-NH-lysine, 2-pyridylalanine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, glutamic acid, arginine (Tos), asparagine, citrulline, homocitrulline, ornithine, proline, indoline-2-carboxylic acid, octahydroindolinecarboxylic acid, tetrahydroisoquinolinecarboxylic acid, 5-aminovaleric acid and 8-aminooctanoic acid.
R 2 is hydrogen, a (C 1 -C 12 )-alkyl group or a (C 2 -C 6 )-alkoxy group, where the alkyl group is linear or branched and can be substituted by a monocyclic or bicyclic heteroaryl having 1-4 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, such as morpholine, piperazine, piperidine, indole, indazole, phthalazines, thiophene, furan or imidazole, or monosubstituted or polysubstituted by a phenyl ring. This phenyl ring can itself be monosubstituted or polysubstituted by halogen, (C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, (C 3 -C 7 )-cycloalkyl, carboxyl groups, carboxyl groups esterified with linear or branched (C 1 -C 6 )-alkanols, carbamoyl groups, trifluoromethyl groups, hydroxyl groups, methoxy groups, ethoxy groups, benzyloxy groups or amino groups, which in turn are substituted by benzyl, benzoyl or acetyl.
R 3 is hydrogen, butoxycarbonyl, carboxybenzyl, mono-, bi- or tri-cyclic carbonylaryl or carbonylheteroaryl having 1-4 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, where aryl or heteroaryl itself can be monosubstituted or polysubstituted by halogen, (C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, (C 3 -C 7 )-cycloalkyl, carboxyl groups, carboxyl groups esterified with linear or branched (C 1 -C 6 )-alkanols, carbamoyl groups, trifluoromethyl groups, hydroxyl groups, methoxy groups, ethoxy groups, benzyloxy groups or amino groups, which in turn are substituted by benzyl, benzoyl or acetyl. R 3 can also be; carboxy-(C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, where the alkyl group can be linear or branched and can be substituted by a monocyclic or bicyclic heteroaryl having 1-4 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, such as morpholine, piperazine, piperidine, indole, indazole, phthalazines, thiophene, furan or imidazole, or monosubstituted or polysubstituted by a phenyl ring, where this phenyl ring itself can be monosubstituted or polysubstituted by halogen, (C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, (C 3 -C 7 )-cycloalkyl., carboxyl groups, carboxyl groups esterified with linear or branched (C 1 -C 6 )-alkanols, carbamoyl groups, trifluoromethyl groups, hydroxyl groups, methoxy groups, ethoxy groups, benzyloxy groups or amino groups, which in turn are substituted by benzyl, benzoyl or acetyl.
R 3 can also be the acid radical of the following amino acids: histidine, leucine, valine, serine (Bzl), threonine, pipecolic acid, piperidine-4-carboxylic acid, piperidine-3-carboxylic acid, ε-NH 2 -lysine, ε-Z-NH-lysine, ε-(2Cl-Z)-NH-lysine, 2-pyridylalanine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, glutamic acid, arginine (Tos), asparagine, citrulline, homocitrulline, ornithine, proline, indoline-2-carboxylic acid, octahydroindolinecarboxylic acid, tetrahydroisoquinolinecarboxylic acid, 5-aminovaleric acid and 8-aminooctanoic acid, where the N terminus of the amino acids can be substituted by butoxycarbonyl, carboxybenzyl or the acid radical of mono-, bi- or tri-cyclic arylcarboxylic or heteroarylcarboxylic acids having 1-4 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, such as methoxyphenylacetic acid, naphthylacetic acid, pyridylacetic acid, quinazolinonylacetic acid, indazolylacetic acid, indolylglyoxylic acid, phenylglyoxylic acid, isobutylglyoxylic acid and 2-aminothiazole-4-glyoxylic acid, or by carboxy-(C 1 -C 12 )-alkyl, carboxycyclopentane, carboxycyclohexane or benzoyl, which can be monosubstituted or polysubstituted by halogen, methoxy groups, amino groups, carbamoyl groups, trifluoromethyl groups, carboxyl groups or carboxyl groups esterified with linear or branched (C 1 -C 6 )-alkanols.
R 4 is H, F or OR 5 .
R 5 is hydrogen, (C 3 -C 7 )-cycloalkyl, (C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl or carboxy-(C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, where the alkyl group can be linear or branched and can be substituted by a mono-, bi- or tri-cyclic carbonylaryl or carbonylheteroaryl having 1-4 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, where aryl or heteroaryl itself can be monosubstituted or polysubstituted by halogen, (C 1 -C 6 )-alkyl, (C 3 -C 7 )-cycloalkyl, carboxyl groups, carboxyl groups esterified with linear or branched (C 1 -C 6 )-alkanols, carbamoyl groups, trifluoromethyl groups, hydroxyl groups, methoxy groups, ethoxy groups, benzyloxy groups or amino groups, which in turn are substituted by benzyl, benzoyl or acetyl.
A is aromatic, non-aromatic, aromatic/heterocyclic having 1-2 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O, or non-aromatic/heterocyclic having 1-2 heteroatoms, preferably N, S or O.
B is CH 2 .
D is CH.
B—D is CH═C.
X is O, S or H 2 .
Y is C or a single bond.
The invention further relates to the biocompatible salts of the compounds of the formula I, to the processes for the preparation of the compounds of the formula I and to their use in pharmaceutics.
2. Background Information
Cyclosporin A (CsA) and FK 506 are immunosuppressive natural substances derived from fungi, which inhibit the Ca 2+ -dependent signal transmission pathway in some types of cells. In T cells both agents inhibit the transcription of a number of genes, including the IL-2 gene, which is activated by stimulation of the T cell receptors (TCR). FK 506 and CsA both bind with high affinity to soluble receptor proteins (G. Fischer et al., Nature 337, 476-478, 1989; M. W. Harding et al., Nature 341, 755-760, 1989). The FK 506 receptor and the CsA receptor have been called FKBP and cyclophilin (Cyp) respectively. Both proteins catalyse the isomerization of cis and trans amide bond rotamers of peptides and are also frequently called immunophilins.
The CsA-Cyp or FK 506-FKBP supermolecule binds calcineurin (CN) and inhibits its phosphatase activity. The cytosolic phosphorylated component of the transcription factor NF-AT has been recognized as a cellular target molecule of CN; if the CN activity is absent, said molecule cannot be dephosphorylated for action in the cell nucleus, so the active transcription complex on the IL-2 promoter cannot be switched on (M. K. Rosen, S. L. Schreiber, Angew. Chem. 104 (1992), 413-430; G. Fischer, Angew. Chem. 106 (1994), 1479-1501).
Allergic asthmatic diseases arise from an inflammatory reaction controlled by T cells and their mediators. Corticosteroids are still the preferred drugs in the treatment of many allergic diseases. CsA and FK 506 have also proved to be favourable therapeutic agents for bronchial asthma and underlying inflammations, in both animal experiments and clinical studies. In animal experiments it has been possible to demonstrate the blocking of various cytokines, like IL-2, IL-4 and IL-5, which cause allergy-induced inflammations.
Despite the numerous attempts to identify new active immunophilin inhibitors, it has hitherto been impossible to prepare or isolate more active structures than CsA, FK 506, rapamycin or derivatives of these natural substances. However, the high inhibitory potential of CsA, FK 506 and rapamycin is very considerably reduced by the manifold side effects, especially on the kidneys, and neurotoxicity (N. H. Sigal et al., J. Exp. Med. 173, 619-628, 1991). The background to this fact is the non-specificity of the interaction between immunophilin ligands and the cell-specific binding proteins. It is this which substantially restricts the known medicinal-therapeutic action of these immunosuppressants. The absence of selectivity of the compounds proves to be a further problem, especially in long-term therapy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to find novel compounds with valuable pharmacological properties and to prepare them by specific synthesis.
The compounds of the formula I according to the invention represent a completely novel class of substances which surprisingly bind immunophilins specifically and surprisingly inhibit IL-2 proliferation. This class of compounds and their pharmaceutically acceptable salts exhibit a high affinity for immunophilins such as CypA, CypB, CypC and FKBP12.
The compounds of the formula I which contain asymmetric carbon atoms, and are therefore normally obtained as racemates, can be resolved into the optically active isomers in a manner known per se, for example with an optically active acid. However, it is also possible to use optically active starting substances at the outset, in which case corresponding optically active or diastereoisomeric compounds are obtained as the end products.
Thus the invention includes the R form, the S form and R,S mixtures of compounds of the formula I which contain one asymmetric carbon atom, and the diastereoisomeric forms as well in the case of several asymmetric carbon atoms.
Depending on the process conditions and starting materials, the compounds of the formula I can be obtained as free compounds or in the form of their salts. The salts obtained can be converted to the free bases or acids in a manner known per se, for example with acids, alkali or ion exchangers.
The compounds of the formula I freed in this way can be converted to the appropriate biocompatible acid addition salts with inorganic or organic acids or bases.
Both the free bases and their salts are biologically active. The compounds of the formula I can be administered in the free form or as salts with a biocompatible acid or base. They can be administered orally, parenterally, intravenously, transdermally or by inhalation.
The invention further relates to pharmaceutical formulations containing at least one compound of the formula I or their salts with biocompatible inorganic or organic acids or bases, and optionally pharmaceutically acceptable excipients and adjuncts.
Examples of suitable forms of administration are tablets or coated tablets, capsules, solutions or ampoules, suppositories, plasters or powder formulations for use in inhalers.
The dosage of the abovementioned pharmaceutical formulations depends on the patient's condition and the form of administration. The daily dose of active substance is between 0.01 and 100 mg per kg of body weight per day.
The compounds represented by the formula I are prepared for example by R. B. Merrifield's solid phase synthesis, preferably on an insoluble polymer such as polystyrene resin in bead form which is swellable in organic solvents (for example a copolymer of polystyrene and 1% of divinylbenzene), using standard peptide coupling methods of solid phase peptide synthesis.
The compounds of the general formula I are prepared by a process in which firstly two of the functional groups (α-amino or ε-amino group and α-carboxylic acid group) are provided with protecting groups and then the free third functional group is reacted in appropriate manner. Another option, where this leads to better results, is to introduce intermediate protecting groups in the first step and exchange them for the desired functional group after the second step. Suitable protecting groups and processes for their introduction are known in the art. Examples of protecting groups are described in “Principles of Peptide Synthesis”, Springer Verlag 1984), in the textbook “Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis”, J. M. Stewart and J. D. Young, Pierce Chem. Company, Rockford, Ill., 1984, and in G. Barany and R. B. Merrifield, “The Peptides”, Ch. 1, pp. 1-285, 1979, Academic Press Inc.
The stepwise synthesis is carried out for example by a process in which firstly the carboxy-terminal amino acid, whose α-amino group is protected, is covalently bonded to an insoluble carrier conventionally used for this purpose, the α-amino protecting group of this amino acid is cleaved, the next protected amino acid is bonded via its carboxyl group to the amino group which has now been freed, the remaining amino acids of the peptide to be synthesized are coupled stepwise in this way in the correct order, any other side-group protecting groups present are cleaved and, when all the amino acids have been coupled, the finished ligand as an immobilized compound is tested for Cyp or FKBP binding. The stepwise condensation is effected in conventional manner by synthesis from the appropriate, conventionally protected amino acids. It is also possible to use automatic peptide synthesizers, for example of the Labortec SP 650 type from Bachem, Switzerland, with the commercially available protected amino acids.
The following may be mentioned as Examples of compounds of the formula I:
Example 1 N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 2 N-[piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 3 N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 4 N-[indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 5 N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 6 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 7 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (S-phenylalanine methyl ester)amide
Example 8 N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester (as a precursor for the preparation of an amide of the general formula I)
Example 9 N-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester (as a precursor for the preparation of an amide of the general formula I)
Example 10 N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid 4-piperidylamide
Example 11 N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (piperazinoacetic acid morpholide)amide
Example 12 N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (piperazinoacetic acid morpholide)amide
Example 13 N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
According to the present invention the compounds of the formula I can also be prepared by the following process:
According to the invention, compounds of the formula I, in which R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , R 4 , A, B, D, X and Y are as defined, are prepared by reacting an indole derivative of the formula II, in which R 4 , A, B, D, X and Y are as defined, with an alkanol III of C 1 -C 12 chain length to give an indole derivative alkyl ester IV, in which R 4 , A, B, D, X and Y are as defined, subsequently reacting this ester IV with a compound V, in which R 3 , X and Y are as defined, to give a compound VI, in which R 3 , R 4 , A, B, D, X and Y are as defined, then saponifying this compound VI to give a compound VII, in which R 3 , R 4 , A, B, D, X and Y are as defined, and then reacting the compound VII with a compound VIII, in which R 1 and R 2 are as defined, to give the target compound I.
For preparation of the biocompatible salts, the compounds of the formula I are reacted in known manner with inorganic or organic acids, e.g. hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, phosphoric acid, sulphuric acid, acetic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, fumaric acid, maleic acid, lactic acid or embonic acid, or with inorganic or organic bases.
Pharmaceutical formulations contain at least one compound of the general formula I or their salts with biocompatible inorganic or organic acids or bases, and optionally pharmaceutically acceptable excipients and adjuncts.
The compounds of the formula I can be administered orally, parenterally, intravenously, transdermally or by inhalation, in the free form or as salts with a biocompatible acid or base.
Examples of forms of administration are tablets or coated tablets, capsules, solutions or ampoules, suppositories, plasters or powder formulations for use in inhalers.
The dosage of these abovementioned pharmaceutical formulations depends on the patient's condition and the form of administration. The daily dose of active substance is between 0.01 and 100 mg per kg of body weight.
The compounds of the formula (I) according to the invention are distinguished by binding to immunophilins and inhibit their isomerase activity. This prolyl isomerase activity is assayed by an enzyme test conventionally used throughout the world: G. Fischer, H. Bang, A. Schellenberger, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 791, 87-97, 1984; D. H. Rich et al., J. Med. Chem. 38, 4164-4170, 1995.
Although the peptidyl cis/trans-isomerase activity of immunophilins is not affected in every case, such compounds inhibit IL-2 proliferation from mast cells, macrophages and activated T cells with surprising specificity. Like cyclosporin A (Sandimmun®, CsA), FK 506 or rapamycin (Tacrolimus), the compounds according to the invention can be used as immunosuppressants (R. Y. Calne et al., Br. Med. J. 282, 934-936, 1981), for the treatment of autoimmune diseases (R. H. Wiener et al., Hepatology 7, 1025, Abst. 9, 1987; L. Fry, J. Autoimmun. 5, 231-240, 1992; G. J. Feutren, J. Autoimmun. 5, 183-195, 1992; EP 610,743), allergic inflammations (P. Zabel et al., Lancet 343, 1984), Asthma (C. Bachert, Atemw.- Lungenkrkh. 20, 59, 2994), insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (C. R. Stiller, Science, 223, 1362-1367, 1984) and sepsis, and also in combination with known immunophilin ligands like CsA, FK 506 or rapamycin (M. J. Wyvratt, N. H. Sigal, Perspectives in Drug Discovery and Design, Immunosuppression, 2, 1, 1994; WO 92/21313; U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,993).
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention is illustrated in greater detail below by means of Examples, in which the following abbreviations are used:
AcOEt
ethyl acetate
Boc
tert-butoxycarbonyl
(Boc) 2 O
tert-butoxycarbonyl anhydride
CN
calcineurin
CsA
cyclosporin A
Cyp
cyclophilin
DMAP
N,N-dimethylaminopyridine
EA
elemental analysis
FKBP
FK 506 binding protein
HPLC
high pressure liquid chromatography
MeOH
methanol
PPlase
peptidyl-proline cis/trans-isomerase
RT
room temperature
TFA
trifluoroacetic acid
Z
benzyloxycarbonyl
EXAMPLE 1
Synthesis of: N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)-lysine methyl ester]amide
Step 1: (R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester×HCl
In a 100 ml three-necked flask, 5.3 g (32.5 mmol) of (R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid were dissolved in 70 ml of anhydrous methanol, and 4.25 g (35.75 mmol) of thionyl chloride were added at room temperature. The yellow reaction mixture was refluxed for 5 h and, after cooling, the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. After drying under an oil pump vacuum, the crude product was obtained in the form of a crystalline solid, which was stirred with diethyl ether and filtered off with suction.
Yield: 5.4 g (78%)
Step 2: Boc-piperidine-4-carboxylic acid
In a 250 ml one-necked flask, 7 g (54 mmol) of piperidine-4-carboxylic acid were dissolved in 50 ml of dioxane and 40.5 ml of 2 N NaOH and the solution was cooled to 0° C. A solution of 12.99 g (59.4 mmol) of (Boc) 2 O in 30 ml of dioxane was added dropwise over 30 min. The mixture was then stirred for 24 h at room temperature. A white precipitate was formed. The dioxane was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with saturated KHSO 4 solution. The aqueous phase was extracted twice with AcOEt. The organic phase was washed once with saturated NaCl solution and dried over MgSO 4 . After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, 11.93 g (96%) of a white powder were obtained.
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.25-1.5 (m, 11, Boc, 2-pip); 1.8 (m, 2-pip); 2.4 (m, 1, H—C4); 2.8 (t, 2, H—C3, H—C5); 3.8 (d, 2, H—C2, H—C6); 12.25 (s, 1, COOH).
EA: calculated for C 11 H 19 N 1 O 4 (229.1): C 57.62; H 8.29; N 6.11. found: C 57.89; H 8.36; N 5.86.
Step 3: N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester
4.6 g (22 mmol) of (R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester×HCl and 7.4 g (32 mmol) of Boc-piperidine-4-carboxylic acid were dissolved in 50 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 9.27 g (36 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 8.06 ml (58 mmol) of triethylamine in 40 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated aqueous KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N aqueous NaOH solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 4.61 g (54%) of a light brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 54-56°
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.61
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.35-1.85 (m, 15, Boc, 6-pip); 2.7-2.8 (m, 2, H—C3, H—C5); 3.25 (m, 1, H—C3-ind); 3.65 (m, 1, H—C3′-ind); 3.8 (s, 3, COOCH 3 ); 3.95 (m, 2, H—C6-pip); 5.45 (d, 1, H—C2-ind); 7.05 (m, 1, Ar); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar); 8.1 (d, 1, Ar).
EA: calculated for C 21 H 28 N 2 O 5 (388.47): C 64.92; H 7.27; N 7.21. found: C 65.20; H 7.49; N 7.38
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 388.3; found: 389.2.
Step 4: N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid
In a 50 ml one-necked flask, 3.3 g (8.51 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester were dissolved in 25 ml of MeOH, 2.14 g (51 mmol) of LiOH×H 2 O were added and the mixture was stirred for 2.5 h at room temperature. The solution was acidified to pH 5 with semisaturated aqueous KHSO 4 solution and extracted twice with AcOEt. The organic phase was washed once with saturated NaCl solution and dried over MgSO 4 and the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. After drying under an oil pump vacuum, 3.09 g (97%) of a light brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 118-119°
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.14
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.35-1.85 (m, 15, Boc, 6-pip); 2.7-2.85 (m, 2, H—C3, H—C5); 3.2 (m, 1, H—C3-ind); 3.65 (m, 1, H—C3′-ind); 3.95 (m, 2, H—C6-pip); 5.45 (d, 1, H—C2-ind); 7.05 (m, 1, Ar); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar); 8.1 (d, 1, Ar); 13.0-13.3 (s, 1, COOH).
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 374.3; found: 375.1.
Step 5: N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
2 g (5.35 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid and 1.59 g (5.35 mmol) of N-ε-Boc-lysine methyl ester×HCl were dissolved in 20 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 2.81 g (11 mmol, 2.73 g) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 1.62 g (16 mmol) of triethylamine in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated aqueous KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N aqueous NaOH solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent again under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 2.61 g (79%) of a light brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 83-84°
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.48
FT-IR (KBr): 3365w (N—H); 2976w (C—H); 1744m (C═O); 1684s (CONH); 1540w (C—O); 1407m (C—H); 1170s (C—O); 755m (C═C).
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.25-1.9 (m, 28, 18 Boc+3 CH 2 -lys+4-pip); 2.7-3.05 (m, 5, ε-CH 2 -lys+H—C3-ind+2-pip); 3.55-3.7 (m, 3, COOMe); 3.9-4.1 (m, 2, pip); 4.15-4.3 (m, 1, H—C3-ind); 5.15 (m, 1, H—C2-ind); 6.8 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 7.0 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar-ind+α-NHCO); 8.1 (d, 1, Ar-ind); 8.7-8.9 (dd, NHCO-Boc).
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 616.4; found: 617.5
HPLC: 2 peaks at 24.25 and 24.63 min
EA: calculated for C 32 H 48 N 4 O 8 (616.4): C 62.34; H 7.47; N 9.09. found: C 62.08; H 7.67; N 8.86.
EXAMPLE 2
Synthesis of: N-[1-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methyl ester]amide
In a 25 ml one-necked flask, 500 mg (0.812 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide were dissolved in 2.8 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . 15 eq (0.0122 mol, 0.93 ml) of trifluoroacetic acid were added and the mixture was stirred for two hours at room temperature. 10 ml of diethyl ether were added to the solution and the white precipitate formed was filtered off with suction and washed 6 times with diethyl ether. After drying under an oil pump vacuum, 513 mg (98%) of a white powder were obtained.
M.p.: 164-165°
TLC (RP): CH 3 CN/H 2 O 1:1, 1% TFA; R f =0.61
FT-IR (KBr): 3435w (N—H); 3049w (C—H); 1740w (C═O); 1676s (CONH); 1420m (C—H); 1205m, 1135s (C—O).
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.2-2.05 (m, 10, 3 CH 2 -lys+4-pip); 2.7-3.15 (m, 5, ε-CH 2 -lys+H—C3-ind+2-pip); 3.55-3.7 (m, 3, COOMe); 4.1-4.25 (m, 1, C3-ind); 5.15 (d, 1, H—C2-ind); 6.95 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar-ind); 7.7-7.85 (s, 3, NH 3 ); 8.1 (d, 1, Ar-ind); 8.7-8.9 (m, 2, NH 2 + ).
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 418.2; found: 417.3 and 209.1 for m/2
HPLC: 2 peaks at 11.54 at 12.65 min
EXAMPLE 3
Synthesis of: N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
Step 1: Boc-(R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid
In a 250 ml one-necked flask, 5 g (30.8 mmol) of (R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid were dissolved in 30 ml of dioxane and 23 ml of 2 N NaOH and the solution was cooled to 0° C. A solution of 7.39 g (33.9 mmol) of (Boc) 2 O in 20 ml of dioxane was added dropwise over 30 min and the mixture was stirred for 24 h at room temperature. A white precipitate was formed. The dioxane was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with saturated KHSO 4 solution and extracted twice with AcOEt. The organic phase was washed once with saturated NaCl solution and dried over MgSO 4 . After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and, drying under an oil pump vacuum, 7.76 g (96%.) of a brown powder were obtained.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5+1% NEt 3 ; R f =0.91
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.4-1.7 (s, 9, Boc); 3.1 (m, 1, H—C3); 3.5 (m, 1, H—C3′); 4.9 (m, 1, H—C2); 7.0 (m, 1, Ar); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar); 7.5-7.9 (m, 1, Ar); 11.5 (m, 1, COOH).
EA: calculated for C 14 H 17 N 1 O 4 (263.2): C 63.88; H 6.46; N 5.32. found: C 64.05; H 6.53; N 5.41.
Step 2: N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester
5 g (0.023 mol) of (R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester×HCl and 12.11 g (46 mmol) of Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid were dissolved in 40 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 12.92 g (51 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 10.23 ml (74 mmol) of triethylamine in 40 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated aqueous KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N aqueous NaOH solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 5.01 g (51%) of a dark brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 86° C.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.67 and 0.7
FT-IR (KBr): 3448w (N—H); 2976w (C—H); 1751s, 1707s (C═O); 1680s (CONH); 1485s (C—H); 1168m (C—O); 1020m (C—O); 752s (C═C).
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 422.4; found: 423.3
EA: calculated for C 24 H 26 N 2 O 5 (422.4): C 68.25; H 6.16; N 6.64. found: C 67.96; H 6.17; N 6.4.
Step 3: N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid
In a 50 ml one-necked flask, 2.84 g (6.77 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester were dissolved in 20 ml of MeOH. 1.71 g (41 mmol) of LiOH×H 2 O were added and the mixture was stirred for 2.5 h at room temperature. The solution was then acidified to pH 5 with semisaturated KHSO 4 solution and extracted twice with AcOEt. The organic phase was washed once with saturated NaCl solution and dried over MgSO 4 and the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. After drying under an oil pump vacuum, 2.71 g (98%) of a dark brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 118-119°
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.14
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 408.2; found: 409.3.
Step 4: N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
2 g (4.9 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid and 1.45 g (4.9 mmol) of N-ε-Boc-S-lysine methyl ester×HCl were dissolved in 20 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 2.51 g (9.8 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 2.04 ml (14.7 mmol) of triethylamine in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated aqueous KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N aqueous NaOH solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 2.21 g (69%) of a brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 78-80°
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.51
FT-IR (KBr): 3504w (N—H); 2975w (C—H); 1749s, 1690s (CONH, C═O); 1490s (C—H); 1407m (C—H); 1170s (C—O); 757m (C═C).
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.2-1.8 (m, 24, 18 Boc, 3 CH 2 -lys); 2.8-3.0 (m, 3, ε-CH 2 -lys, H—C3-ind); 3.0-3.2 (m, 1, H—C3-ind); 3.4-3.5 (m, 1, H—C3-ind); 3.5-3.7 (m, 3, COOMe); 4.2-4.3 (m, 1, H—C3-ind); 4.7-4.9 (m, 1, H—C2-ind); 5.0-5.5 (m, 1, H—C2-ind); 6.7-6.8 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 6.85-7.3 (m, 6, Ar-ind); 7.7-8.9 (m, 3, NHCO, Ar-ind, α-NHCO).
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 650.2; found: 651.4
HPLC: 4 peaks at 24.82 min, 29.9 min, 30.3 min and 31.2 min
EXAMPLE 4
Synthesis of: N-[indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methyl ester]amide
In a 25 ml one-necked flask, 500 mg (0.812 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-e-Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide were dissolved in 2.8 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . 15 eq (0.0122 mol, 0.93 ml) of trifluoroacetic acid were added and the mixture was stirred for two hours at room temperature. 10 ml of diethyl ether were added to the solution and the white precipitate formed was filtered off with suction and washed 6 times with diethyl ether. After drying under an oil pump vacuum, 513 mg (98%) of a white powder were obtained.
M.p.: 164-165°
TLC (RP): CH 3 CN/H 2 O 1:1, l% TFA; R f =0.61
FT-IR (KBr): 3435w (N—H); 3049w (C—H); 1740w (C═O); 1676s (CONH); 1420m (C—H); 1205m, 1135s (C—O).
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.2-2.05 (m, 10, 3 CH 2 -lys+4-pip); 2.7-3.15 (m, 5, ε-CH 2 -lys+H—C3-ind+2-pip); 3.55-3.7 (m, 3, COOMe); 4.1-4.25 (m, 1, C3-ind); 5.15 (d, 1, H—C2-ind); 6.95 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar-ind); 7.7-7.85 (s, 3, NH 3 + ); 8.1 (d, 1, Ar-ind); 8.7-8.9 (m, 2, NH 2 + ).
MS.: (ESI+): calculated: 418.2; found 417.3 and 209.1 for m/2
HPLC: 2 peaks at 11.54 and 12.65 min
EXAMPLE 5
Synthesis of: N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
2.5 g (6.13 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid and 2.03 g (6.13 mmol) of N-ε-Z-lysine methyl ester×HCl were dissolved in 20 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 2.35 g (9.2 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 2.13 ml (15 mmol) of triethylamine in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N NaOH solution and once with saturated NaCl solution. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 2.57 g (61%) of a brown powder were obtained.
M.p.: 68°
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.48
FT-IR (KBr): 3329w (N—H); 2935w (C—H); 1701s (C═O); 1485s (C—H); 1260m (C—O); 1149m, 1020m (C—O); 753m (C═C).
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 684.5; found: 685.4
EA: calculated for C 38 H 44 N 4 O 8 (684.5): C 66.67; H 6.43; N 8.19. found: C 64.15; H 6.5; N 7.88.
EXAMPLE 6
Synthesis of: 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
6.36 g (0.0242 mol) of 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid and 8.0 g (24.2 mmol) of N-ε-Z-lysine methyl ester×HCl were dissolved in 70 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 9.27 g (36.3 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 8.41 ml (60.4 mmol) of triethylamine in 60 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N NaOH solution and once with saturated NaCl solution. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 10.91 g (84%) of a light brown powder were obtained.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.74
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.3-1.75 (m, 15, 9 Boc+6 CH 2 -lys); 2.8-3.0 (m, 3, CH 2 -lys+H—C3-ind); 3.4-3.55 (m, 1, H—C3′-ind); 3.65 (s, 3, COOCH 3 ); 4.2 (m, 1, Hα-C-lys); 4.8 (m, 1, H—C2-ind); 5.0 (s, 2, CH 2 -Z); 6.85 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 7.15 (t, 2, Ar-ind); 7.2-7.4 (m, 5, Ph-Z); 7.7 (m, 1, NHCO); 8.4 (m, 1, Ar-ind).
EA: calculated for C 29 H 37 N 3 O 7 (539.4): C 64.56; H 6.86; N 7.79. found: C 64.61; H 7.06; N 7.67.
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 539.4; found: 540.3.
EXAMPLE 7
Synthesis of: 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (S-phenylalanine methyl ester)amide
Step 1: S-phenylalanine methyl ester×HCl
In a 100 ml one-necked flask, 5.3 ml (72.6 mmol) of thionyl chloride were added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 8.0 g (48.4 mmol) of S-phenylalanine in 50 ml of MeOH. The mixture was then refluxed for 3 h. The methanol and excess thionyl chloride were distilled off, firstly under a water jet vacuum and then on a rotary evaporator. The residue was dissolved in 50 ml of MeOH and 800 ml of diethyl ether were added. A white precipitate was formed. The solvent was filtered off with suction through a frit to give 7.93 g (75%) of a white powder.
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 3.0-3.2 (m, 2, CH 2 ); 3.65 (s, 3, COOMe); 4.35 (m, 1, Hα-C); 7.2-7.4 (m, 5, Ph); 8.5-8.7 (m, 3, NH 3 + ).
Step 2: N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carbonyl]-(S-phenylalanine methyl ester)amide
3.5 g (16.2 mmol) of S-phenylalanine methyl ester hydrochloride and 4.27 g (16.2 mmol) of 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid were dissolved in 70 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 6.21 g (24.3 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 5.32 ml (40.5 mmol) of triethylamine in 60 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . The reaction mixture was then refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was taken up with 200 ml of AcOEt and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N NaOH solution and once with saturated NaCl solution. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. After removal of the solvent again under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and drying under an oil pump vacuum, 7.71 g (62%) of a light yellow powder were obtained.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.87
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.2-1.5 (m, 9, Boc); 2.3-2.45 (m, 0.5, H—C3-ind); 2.8-3.5 (m, 3.5, C3-ind+CH 2 ); 3.65 (d, 3, COOMe); 4.4-4.65 (m, 1, C2-ind); 4.8 (m, 1, Hα-C); 6.8-7.3 (m, 8, 5 Ph+3 Ar-ind); 7.7 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 8.55 (m, 1, NH).
EA: calculated for C 24 H 28 N 2 O 5 (424.3): C 67.92; H 6.6; N 6.6. found: C 67.94; H 6.79; N 6.59.
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 424.4; found: 425.2.
EXAMPLE 8
Synthesis of: N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester
(This compound can be used as a precursor for the preparation of an amide of the general formula I)
1.2 g (3.0 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester were dissolved in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 at RT, 1.14 g (10 mmol) of TFA were added and the reaction mixture was stirred for 24 h. It was concentrated under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed 3 times with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. The organic phase was dried over MgSO 4 and the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. The residue was dissolved in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 , 1.01 g (10 mmol) of triethylamine and 366 mg (3.0 mmol) of 4-dimethylaminopyridine were added, the mixture was cooled to 0° C. and a solution of 606 mg (3.3 mmol) of 4-methoxyphenylacetyl chloride in 10 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 was added. After stirring for 24 h, the solvent was removed from the reaction mixture under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed twice with 1 N HCl solution, twice with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. After distillation of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was chromatographed on 80 g of flash gel with n-hexane/AcOEt. The appropriate fractions were collected, the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was dried under an oil pump vacuum to give 1.1 g of product in the form of a white foam.
TLC: AcOEt; R f =0.22
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 1.35-1.85 (m, 13, Boc, 4-pip); 2.7-2.8 (m, 4, H—C(3), H—C(5)); 3.25 (m, 1, H—C(3)-ind); 3.65 (m, 1, H—C(3′)-ind); 3.8 (s, 3, COOCH 3 ); 3.95 (m, 1, H—C(4)-pip); 5.45 (d, 1, H—C(2)-ind); 7.05 (m, 1, Ar); 7.1-7.3 (m, 2, Ar); 8.1 (d, 1, Ar).
EA: calculated for C 25 H 28 N 2 O 5 (436.51): C 68.70; H 6.47; N 6.42. found: C 69.97; H 6.98; N 5.27.
EXAMPLE 9
Synthesis of: N-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid methyl ester
(This compound can be used as a precursor for the preparation of an amide of the general formula I)
1 g of (R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester×HCl and 1.14 g (9.36 mmol) of DMAP in 25 ml of dry CH 2 Cl 2 were placed in a 100 ml one-necked flask with septum. 1.04 g (856 μl) of 4-methoxyphenylacetyl chloride were added dropwise with a syringe over 30 min at 0° C., with stirring. The mixture was then stirred for 3 h at room temperature. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by flash chromatography on 150 g of flash silica gel (CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 9:1). After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, 830 mg (59%) of a light grey powder were obtained.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 ; R f =0.31
1 H NMR (DMSO-d 6 , 270 MHz): 3.15-3.3 (m, 1, H—C(3)-ind); 3.5-3.7 (m, 3, CH 2 + H—C(3′)-ind); 5.0 (m, 1, H—C(2)-ind); 6.85 (m, 2, Ar-ind); 7.0 (m, 1, Ar-ind); 7.1-7.3 (m, 4, phenyl); 8.25 (d, 1, Ar-ind).
EA: calculated for C 19 H 19 N 1 O 4 (325.3): C 70.15; H 5.85; N 4.31. found: C 70.34; H 5.78; N 4.22.
MS: (ESI+): calculated: 325.3; found: 326.1.
EXAMPLE 10
Synthesis of: N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid 4-piperidylamide
2.63 g (10.0 mmol) of 1-Boc-(R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid, 1.13 g (12.0 mmol) of 4-aminopyridine and 1.47 g (12.0 mmol) of 4-dimethylaminopyridine in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 were placed in a 100 ml one-necked flask at 0° C. and a solution of 2.48 g (12.0 mmol) of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide in 5 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 was added. After 48 h the reaction mixture was filtered on Celite, the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed twice with 10% aqueous HCl solution, twice with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. After distillation of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was chromatographed on 50 g of flash gel with n-hexane/AcOEt. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was crystallized from AcOEt/ether to give 2.4 g of product.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH=95/5; R f =0.19
1 H NMR (CDCl 3 , 270 MHz): 1.58 (s, 9H, Boc); 3.43-3.54 (m, 2H, H—C(3)-ind); 5.0 (m, 1, H—C2-ind); 7.02 (m, 1H, H—C(7)-ind); 7.17-7.26 (m, 3H, H—C(6), H—C(5), H—C(4)-ind); 7.45 (q, 2H, H—C(3), H—C(5)-py); 7.57 (NH); 8.47 (q, 2H, H—C(2), H—C(6)-py).
EA: calculated for C 19 H 21 N 3 O 3 (339.40): C 67.84; H 6.29; N 12.49. found: C 67.75; H 6.33; N 12.53.
EXAMPLE 11
Synthesis of: N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (piperazinoacetic acid morpholide)amide
2.63 g (10.0 mmol) of 1-Boc-(R,S)-indoline-2-carboxylic acid, 2.56 g (12.0 mmol) of piperazinoacetic acid morpholide and 1.47 g (12.0 mmol) of 4-dimethylaminopyridine in 30 ml of CCl 2 were placed in a 100 ml one-necked flask at 0° C. and a solution of 2.48 g (12.0 mmol) of dicyclohexylcarbodiimide in 5 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 was added. After 48 h the reaction mixture was filtered on Celite, the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed twice with 10% aqueous god HCl solution, twice with saturated aqueous NaRCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. After distillation of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was chromatographed on 50 g of flash gel with n-hexane/AcOEt. After removal of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was crystallized from AcOEt/ether to give 2.4 g of product.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95/5; R f =0.19
1 H NMR (CDCl 3 , 270 MHz): 1.48-1.58 (d, 9H, Boc); 3.21 (s, 2H, H—C(2′)); 3.42-3.69 (m, 16H); 5.1 (br, 2H, H—C(3)-ind); 6.48 (g, 1H); 6.90 (q, 1H); 7.14 (m, 1H); 8.22 (q, 1H).
EA: calculated for C 24 H 34 N 4 O 5 (458.56): C 62.86; H 7.47; N 12.21. found: C 63.21; H 7.48; N 13.61.
EXAMPLE 12
Synthesis of: N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (piperazinoacetic acid morpholide)amide
458.56 mg (1.0 mmol) of 1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid (piperazinoacetic acid morpholide)amide were dissolved in 20 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 at RT, 1.14 g (10 mmol) of TFA were added and the reaction mixture was stirred for 24 h. It was concentrated under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, taken up with 10 ml of ethyl acetate and washed twice with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. The organic phase was dried over MgSO 4 and the solvent was -removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. The residue was dissolved in 10 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 , 505 mg (5 mmol) of triethylamine, 320.7 mg (1.4 mmol) of 4-Boc-piperidinecarboxylic acid and 357.7 mg (1.4 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium hydrochloride were added and the reaction mixture was refluxed for 8 h. The solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate, washed twice with water, once with 10% aqueous HCl solution, twice with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution and dried over MgSO 4 . After distillation of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was crystallized from ethyl acetate/isopropanol.
EA: calculated for C 25 H 28 N 2 O 5 (557.70): C 62.46; H 7.77; N 12.56. found: C 61.56; H 7.62; N 11.96.
EXAMPLE 13
Synthesis of: N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
Step 1: N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
3.74 g (10 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid and 3.31 g (10 mmol) of N-ε-Z-lysine methyl ester×HCl were dissolved in 20 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 and the solution was added dropwise over 30 min at room temperature to a suspension of 5.11 g (20 mmol) of 2-chloro-1-methylpyridinium iodide and 4.04 g (40 mmol) of triethylamine in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 . After 8 hours under reflux, the solvent was removed from the reaction mixture under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. The residue was taken up with 200 ml of ethyl acetate and the organic phase was washed once with water, twice with semisaturated aqueous KHSO 4 solution, twice with 2 N aqueous NaOH solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. After drying over MgSO 4 , the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was purified by chromatography on 400 g of silica gel with CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5. The appropriate fractions were combined and the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. After drying under an oil pump vacuum, 4.2 g of a light brown powder were obtained.
TLC: CH 2 Cl 2 /MeOH 95:5; R f =0.41
EA: calculated for C 32 H 48 N 4 O 8 (650.78): C 64.60; H 7.13; N 8.61. found: C 64.73; H 7.01; N 8.64.
Step 2: N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide
3.25 g (5.0 mmol) of N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl ester]amide were dissolved in 50 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 at RT, 2.28 g (20 mmol) of TFA were added and the reaction mixture was stirred for 4 h. It was concentrated under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed 3 times with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. The organic phase was dried over MgSO 4 and the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator. The residue was dissolved in 30 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 , 1.01 g (10 mmol) of triethylamine and 366 mg (3.0 mmol) of 4-dimethylaminopyridine were added, the mixture was cooled to 0° C. and a solution of 1.01 g (5.5 mmol) of 4-methoxyphenylacetyl chloride in 10 ml of CH 2 Cl 2 was added. After stirring for 24 h, the solvent was removed from the reaction mixture under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was taken up with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed twice with 1 N aqueous HCl solution, twice with saturated aqueous NaHCO 3 solution and once with saturated aqueous NaCl solution. After distillation of the solvent under vacuum on a rotary evaporator, the residue was chromatographed on 80 g of flash gel with n-hexane/AcOEt. The appropriate fractions were collected, the solvent was removed under vacuum on a rotary evaporator and the residue was dried under an oil pump vacuum to leave the product in the form of a white foam.
EA: calculated for C 39 H 46 N 4 O 8 ×H 2 O (716.84): C 65.35; H 6.75; N 7.82. found: C 65.47; H 6.89; N 7.81.
Surprisingly, the above Examples 1-7 and 10-13 were found to be strongly binding immunophilin modulators which are suitable as a carrier-fixed form and are capable of binding pathogenically active immunophilins from fluids, especially body fluids.
To find strongly binding CypB or FKBP ligands of the formula I, the immobilized ligands were subjected to SDS-PAGE (FIG. 1) with cell homogenate. Carrier-fixed ligands which have a particular affinity for immunophilins bind them specifically with an affinity which is higher than that of CsA or FK 506. The high affinity for immunophilins of the carrier-fixed ligands represented by the formula I can be demonstrated by SDS-PAGE.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 : SDS-PAGE of carrier-fixed ligands with cell homogenate
EXPLANATION OF THE SDS-PAGE
a) cell homogenate
b) cell homogenate eluate after equilibration with carrier-fixed ligands of the general formula I
c) separation of the cyclophilin B from the matrix mentioned under b) with SDS at 25° C.
d) SDS control
e) separation of the cyclophilin B from the matrix mentioned under b) with SDS at 95° C.
f) protein standard (Sigma: 12 kDa, 18 kDa, 25 kDa, 45 kDa, 66 kDa)
g) cell homogenate eluate after equilibration with immobilized CsA
h) separation of the cyclophilin B from the CsA matrix mentioned under g) with SDS at 25° C.
i) separation of the cyclophilin B from the CsA matrix mentioned under g) with SDS at 95° C.
k) SDS control
Surprisingly, the compounds of the formula (I) according to the invention are distinguished by binding to immunophilins and they inhibit their peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans-isomerase (PPlase) activity. For the initial screening (1 μmol/l substance) the inhibition of human cyclophilin B is determined in the PPlase test. This PPlase activity is assayed by an enzyme test conventionally used throughout the world: G. Fischer, H. Bang, C. Mech, Biomed. Biochim. Acta, 43, 1101-1111; G. Fischer, R. Bang, A. Schellenberger, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 791, 87-97, 1984; D. H. Rich et al., J. Med. Chem. 38, 4164-4170, 1995.
The compounds of the general formula I according to the invention are preincubated together with 10 nmol of CypB for 15 min at 4° C. The enzyme reaction is started after the addition of chymotrypsin and HEPES buffer with the test peptide Suc-Ala-Ala-Pro-Phe-Nan. The change in extinction at 390 nm is then monitored and evaluated. The change in extinction determined by photometry results from two partial reactions: a) the rapid chymotryptic cleavage of the trans-peptide; and b) the non-enzymatic cis/trans isomerization catalysed by cyclophilins. The corresponding PPlase activity of the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention is shown in Table 1:
TABLE 1
Inhibition
Compound [10 μmol]
[%]
Example 1:
N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-
0-20
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Boc)-
lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 2:
N-[piperidyl-4-carbonyl]indoline-
0-20
2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid [S-(ε-
NH 2 )lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 3:
N-[1-Boc-inodline-2-(R,S)-
0-20
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-
Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 4:
N-[indoline-2-(R,S)-
0-20
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 5:
N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
0-20
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 6:
1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic
20-40
acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl
ester]amide
Example 7:
1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic
0-20
acid(S-phenylalanine methyl
ester)amide
Example 8:
N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenyl-
0-20
acetyl)piperidyl-4-carbonyl]-
indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid
methyl ester
Example 9:
N-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)-
0-20
indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid
methyl ester
Example 10:
N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
0-20
carboxylic acid 4-piperidylamide
Example 11:
N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
0-20
carboxylic acid (piperazino-
acetic acid morpholide)amide
Example 12:
N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-
0-20
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid (piperazino-
acetic acid morpholide)amide
Example 13:
N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenylacetyl)-
0-20
piperidyl 4-carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl
ester]amide
The formation of the supermolecule from CsA-CypB-calcineurin (Ca 2+ -dependent phosphatase) seems to be responsible for the known immunosuppressive effects of CsA. To study the interaction with this supermolecule from CsA-CypB or CsA-CypB-calcineurin, the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention were incubated with cell homogenate of a human T cell line containing 3 H-CsA (100 nmol). After gel filtration on Superose 12, the radioactivity of the eluted fractions was measured and compared with the untreated control. The corresponding displacement of 3 H-CsA from the supermolecules CypB-CsA and CypB-CsA-calcineurin by the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention is shown in Table 2:
TABLE 2
Displace-
Displace-
ment from
ment from
CypB-CsA
CypB-CsA-
Compound [10 μmol]
in [%]
CN in [%]
Example 1:
N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-
10
45
carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 2:
N-[piperidyl-4-
45
−53
carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
[S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methyl
ester]amide
Example 3:
N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-
14
22
(R,S)-carbonyl]-
indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 4:
N-[indoline-2-(R,S)-
33
−42
carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
[S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methyl
ester]amide
Example 5:
N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-
16
20
(R,S)-carbonyl]-
indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl
ester]amide
Example 6:
1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
0
7
carboxylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl
ester]amide
Example 7:
1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
38
0
carboxylic acid
(S-phenyl-alanine
methyl ester)amide
Example 8:
N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenyl-
0
8
acetyl)piperidyl-4-
carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
methyl ester
Example 9:
N-(4-methoxyphenyl-
39
37
acetyl)indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
methyl ester
Example 10:
N-Boc-indoline-2-
−58
0
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
4-piperidyl-amide
Example 11:
N-Boc-indoline-2-
−28
0
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
(piperazino-acetic
acid morpholide)amide
Example 12:
N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-
8
−25
carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
(piperazinoacetic acid
morpholide)amide
Example 13:
N-[N′-methoxyphenyl-
46
−16
acetyl)piperidyl-4-
carbonyl]indoline-2-
(R,S)-carboxylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Z)lysine methyl
ester]amide
The IL-2 proliferation test is based on the incorporation of 3 H-thymidine into T cells stimulated with OKT-3 (human anti-CD3 antibodies) and is performed as follows:
100,000 T cells are inoculated into 150 μl of culture medium per well in microtitre plates, stimulated by the addition of OKT-3 (1 μg/ml) and incubated for 45 h with each of the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention. After this incubation period, 10 μl of the 3 H-thymidine solution (0.5 μCi) are pipetted into each well. Incubation is then carried out for 6 h at 37° C. in a 5% CO 2 atmosphere. After the cells have been harvested, the radioactivity is quantified in a β-counter. The corresponding CD3-induced inhibition of proliferation by the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention is shown in Table 3:
TABLE 3
CD3-induced
inhibition
of
prolifera-
Compound [10 μmol]
tion in [%]
Example 1:
N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-
86
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-
Boc)lysine methyl ester]amide
Example 2:
N-[piperidyl-4-carbonyl]-
40
indoline-2-(R,S)-carboxylic acid
[S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine methylester]-
amide
Example 3:
N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
82
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboylic acid
[S-(N-ε-Boc)lysine methyl
ester]amide
Example 4:
N-[indoline-2-(R,S)-
38
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(ε-NH 2 )lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 5:
N-[1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
92
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 6:
1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
84
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine
methyl ester]amide
Example 7:
1-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
7
carboxylic acid (S-phenylalanine
methyl ester)amide
Example 10:
N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
6
carboxylic acid 4-piperidylamide
Example 11:
N-Boc-indoline-2-(R,S)-
9
carboxylic acid (piperazino-
acetic acid morpholide)amide
Example 12:
N-[1-Boc-piperidyl-4-
5
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid
(piperazinoacetic acid
morpholide)amide
Example 13:
N-[N′-(4-methoxyphenyl-
66
acetyl)piperidyl-4-
carbonyl]indoline-2-(R,S)-
carboxylic acid [S-(N-ε-Z)lysine
methyl ester]amide
In animal experiments, like CsA, FK 506 or rapamycin, the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention exhibit the blocking of cytokines, like IL-2, IL-4 and IL-5, which cause allergy-induced inflammations in the patient.
To determine the inhibition of cell division by the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention, 50,000 human tumour cells were cultivated for 48 h in the presence of the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention, 10 μl of yellow tetrazolium salt solution (MTT) were added and incubation was carried out for a further 4 h at 37° C. in a CO 2 atmosphere. The resulting violet colouration was analysed by photometry at 570 nm. After the addition of 100 μl of SDS solution in each case and incubation overnight, the colouration was quantified by photometry. A general cytotoxicity could not be established for the compounds of the general formula I according to the invention.
|
The novel specific immunophilin ligands of the general formula I have an antiasthmatic and immunosuppressive action and are suitable for the preparation of drugs.
| 0
|
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a novel fluorescent high-pressure mercury-vapor lamp (to be referred as "mercury-vapor lamp" in this specification) which provides excellent color rendition and whose color temperature may be arbitrarily varied. More particularly the invention relates to the composition of the phosphor coating applied over the inner surface of the outer tube of a mercury-vapor lamp.
With the conventional mercury-vapor lamps for exterior lighting consisting of an arc tube and a transparent outer tube, the yellow-green light emitted is dominant and the lighting appears unnatural. The yellow-green light is dominant since the spectral energy distribution of the mercury emission does not extend over the wavelength of 579 nm. In addition a discontinuity in the mercury emission spectrum exists between 436 and 546 nm; that is, in the blue-green region. The defect, due to the former reason, has been remedied by the use of a phosphor coating applied over the inner surface of the outer tube of the mercury-vapor lamp which is capable of converting the mercury emission into a red light emission. The red light emitting phosphors used for this purpose are, for instance, YVO 4 : Eu, YV 0 .5 P 0 .5 O 4 :Eu. However, a discontinuity still exists between 436 and 546 nm; that is, light produced by the mercury-vapor lamp lacks blue-green light. The red light is dominant so that satisfactory interior lighting with a desired color rendition cannot be attained.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Object of the present invention is to provide a novel mercury-vapor lamp in which the composition of the phosphor coating applied over the inner surface of the outer tube is so selected that the mercury-vapor lamp may be used as a light source for interior lighting.
The present invention provides a mercury-vapor lamp of the type comprising an arc tube capable of emission of both visible and ultraviolet light, an outer tube enclosing said arc tube, and a phosphor coating applied over the inner surface of said outer tube consisting of two kinds of phosphors, characterized in that one of said two phosphors emits red light and consists of europium-activated yttrium-vanadate or europium-activated yttrium-vanadate-phosphate; and the other phosphor emits blue-green light and consists of bivalent europium-and manganese-activated barium-magnesium-aluminate having the following formula
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.3+ (3/2)z :Eu.sub.x Mn.sub.y
where 0.03≦ x≦0.4, 0.01≦ y≦0.6, and 12≦ z≦20.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a front view, partly broken, of a mercury-vapor lamp in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows the spectral energy distributions of some phosphors excited by the 365 nm characteristic line of the mercury emission spectrum;
FIG. 3 shows the temperature characteristics excited by the 365 nm characteristic line of the mercury emission spectrum;
FIG. 4 is a graph used for the explanation of the luminous efficiency comparison between a blend of two blue-green light emitting phosphors in accordance with the present invention and a single blue-green light emitting phosphor in accordance with the present invention, the luminous intensity being measured at 300° C.;
FIG. 5 is a graph used in the explanation of the effect of the amount of aluminum in the blue-green light emitting phosphor in accordance with the present invention on the luminous intensity;
FIG. 6 shows schematic X-ray diffraction (fluorescence analysis) diagrams of the blue-green light emitting phosphors with the varied aluminum content;
FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating the relationship between the content percent by weight of a red light emitting phosphor in the phosphor coating and the color temperature; and
FIG. 8 shows the spectral energy distribution for a mercury-vapor lamp having the phosphor coating in accordance with the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to FIG. 1 showing the construction of a high-pressure mercury-vapor lamp in accordance with the present invention, within an arc tube 1 made of a transparent material are sealed a lower main electrode 2 and an upper main electrode 3, both of which are made of coiled tungsten wires, and auxiliary or starting electrodes 4 and 5. In addition, the arc tube 1 is filled with a suitable amount of mercury and a small amount of an inert gas such as argon gas for starting the arc tube 1. The arc tube 1 is supported by tube supports 10 and 11 which in turn are supported by stem wires or supporting leads 12 and 13. The main electrodes 2 and 3 are electrically connected through molybdenum foils 6 and 7 embedded in the sealed ends of the arc tube 1 and lead-in wires 14 and 15 to the stem wires or supporting leads 12 and 13. The auxiliary or starting electrodes 4 and 5 are electrically connected through molybdenum foils 8 and 9 embedded in the sealed ends of the arc tube 1, lead-in wires 16 and 17, and starting resistors 18 and 19 to the stem wires or supporting leads 13 and 12, respectively. The stem wires or supporting leads 12 and 13 are electrically connected to a base 22 through lead-in wires 20 and 21, respectively. The arc tube 1 is enclosed within an outer tube 23 which is made of a hard glass and filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen and whose inner wall is coated with a phosphor 24.
The inventors made the over-all and detailed comparisons between the spectral energy distribution of the arc tube and the spectral energy distributions of various phosphors coated over the inner surface of the outer tube 23, and discovered that when, in addition to the conventional phosphor producing red light, the novel phosphors capable of producing blue-green light, between the wavelengths of 436 and 546 nm, and capable of arbitrarily varying luminance intensity are coated on the inner wall surface of the outer tube, the desired color rendition may be obtained at desired color temperatures. The blue-green light emitting phosphors are in general expressed by the following formula:
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.3+ (3/2)z :Eu.sub.x, Mn.sub.y
where
x = 0.03 to 0.4,
y = 0.01 to 0.6, and
12≦ x≦20.
By changing x and y, the ratio between the color temperature with the peak wavelength of 450 nm due to the presence of Eu 2 + and the color temperature with the peak wavelength of 515 nm due to the presence of Mn 2 + may be varied so that the tone of blue-green light may be suitably changed. The phosphors in accordance with the present invention have excellent temperature characteristics and luminance efficiency. The inventors used the combinations of the conventional red light emitting phosphors with the blue-green light emitting phosphors with x and y within the above ranges in the high-pressure mercury-vapor lamps, and succeeded in obtaining the color rendition with the color temperature between 3500° and 10000° K., which color rendition has been hitherto unattainable by the conventional mercury-vapor lamps.
The phosphor coating 24 chosen consists of a red light emitting phosphor having the formula
Y(PV)O.sub.4 :Eu or YVO.sub.4 :Eu
and a blue-green light emitting phosphor having the formula
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.3+ (3/2)z :Eu.sub.x Mn.sub.y
where
x= 0.03 to 0.4,
y= 0.01 to 0.6, and
12≦ z≦20.
The spectral energy distributions of some typical examples of the phosphor coatings with the above composition are shown in FIG. 2, the phosphor coatings being excited by the 365 nm characteristic line of the mercury emission spectrum. In FIG. 2, curve 1 is for a phosphor coating with the composition
Y.sub.0.95 V.sub.0.5 P.sub.0.5 O.sub.4 :Eu.sub.0.05 ;
curve 2, for a coating with the composition
Y.sub.0.95 VO.sub.4 :Eu.sub. 0.05 ;
curve 3, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.9 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.2 Mn.sub.0.1 ;
curve 4, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.95 Al.sub.16 O.sub.27 :Eu.sub.0.2 Mn.sub.0.05 ;
curve 5, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.98 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.2 Mn.sub.0.02 ;
curve 6, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.9 Mg.sub.1.8 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.1 Mn.sub.0.2 ;
curve 7, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.9 Mg.sub.1.4 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.1 Mn.sub.0.6 ;
curve 8, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.95 Mg.sub.1.4 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.05 Mn.sub.0.6 ;
The temperature characteristics of these phosphor coatings are shown in FIG. 3, in which
curve 1 is for a phosphor coating with the composition
Y.sub.0.95 P.sub.0.5 V.sub.0.5 O.sub.4 :Eu.sub.0.05 ;
curve 2, for a coating with the composition
Y.sub.0.95 VO.sub.4 :Eu.sub.0.05 ;
curve 3, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.9 A.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.2 Mn.sub.0.1 ;
the emission of light with the wavelength of 450 nm is due to the presence of Eu 2 + ;
the curve 3', for the coating with the same composition, the emission of light of the wavelength 515 nm being due to the presence of Mn 2 + , and
curve 7, for a coating with the composition
Ba.sub.0.9 Mg.sub.1.4 Al.sub.16 O.sub.27 :Eu.sub.0.1 Mn.sub.0.6
emitting the light with the wavelength of 515 nm. The surface temperature of the outer tube during operation ranges between 200° and 300° C. From FIG. 3, it is readily seen that the temperature characteristics of light with the wavelengths of 450 nm and 515 nm due to the presence of Eu 2 + and Mn 2 + , respectively, are different. Even though the intensity is of the same order at normal temperature, the dominant light is green at high temperatures.
When y = 0 in the blue-green light emitting phosphor with the formula of
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.(3+ (3/2)z) :Eu.sub.x Mn.sub.y
only light with the wavelength of 450 nm is emitted, but when x= 0.1 and y= 0.6, the dominant emission is green light with the peak wavelength of 515 nm. When the above two phosphors are mixed with the vanadate phosphor which produces red light, the color rendition similar to that attained by the present invention may be obtained.
However the extensive studies and experiments conducted by the inventors shows that the light emission efficiency may be increased by 20 to 30% when only the blue-green light emitting phosphor is used instead of being mixed individually. In FIG. 4, curve 1 is for a phosphor coating in which the phosphor with the composition of
Ba.sub.0.9 Mg.sub.2 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.1
and a phosphor with the composition of
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.4 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub.0.2 Mn.sub.0.6
are mixed in the ratio of 1:2; and curve 2, for a phosphor with the composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.93 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub. 0.2 Mn.sub.0.07
Both the curves 1 and 2 indicate the spectral energy distributions at 300° C. From FIG. 4, it is seen that when the content of the red light emitting phosphor in the coating is constant, the blue-green light is more dominant. When the content of the blue-green light emitting phosphor is constant, the red light may be made more dominant. From the standpoint of quality control, it is more advantageous to mix and apply two kinds of phosphors than three kinds of phosphors since the number of different phosphors produced can be minimized.
With the phosphor of the formula
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.3+ 3/2z :Eu.sub. x Mn.sub.y,
the inventors made extensive experiments by changing the factor z, and found that with higher z, the stronger the intensity of luminance and that when z = 14, the intensity reaches the peak as shown in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 6, the X-ray diffraction analyses shows that when z = 12, the phosphor has a single phase, that when z is greater than 12 the phosphor includes an α-Al 2 O 3 phase and when z is smaller than 12, a BaAl 2 O 4 phase appears. Therefore from the standpoint of the intensity and X-ray diffraction analysis, the optimum range of z is between 12 and 20 and more preferably between 12 and 16.
In view of the above, the inventors considered that the desired color rendition may be attained with the desired color temperatures when the spectral energy distributions of the above phosphors and the spectral energy distribution for the arc tube are suitably balanced. Therefore, the inventors provided mercury-vapor lamps in which the ratio between the red light emitting phosphor and the blue-green light emitting phosphor is varied in order to investigate the resulting color temperature and color rendition. The result was that satisfactory color rendition may be obtained within the color temperature range shown in FIG. 7 when the content R, % by weight of the red light emitting phosphor is within the following range:
20≦ R≦ 95,
and the blue-green light emitting phosphor has the following formula:
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.3+ 3/2z :Eu.sub. x Mn.sub.y
where
x = 0.03 to 0.4,
y = 0.01 to 0.6, and
12≦ z≦ 20
and the phosphor coating is applied over the inner surface of the outer tube at a rate of 0.3 to 6 mg/cm 2 . Thus the present invention can provide the novel high-pressure mercury-vapor lamps with excellent light emission characteristics hitherto unattainable by the conventional mercury-vapor lamps. In FIG. 7, curve 1 is for a phosphor coating consisting of the red light emitting phosphor and blue-green light emitting phosphor with the composition of
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.99 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub. 0.2 Mn.sub.0.01
and curve 2, for a coating consisting of the red light emitting phosphor and a blue-green light emitting phosphor with the composition of
Ba.sub.0.9 Mg.sub.1.4 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub. 0.1 Mn.sub.0.6
The color temperature of the mercury-vapor lamp in accordance with the present invention may be arbitrarily varied between 3500° K. abd 10000° K. For interior lighting the color temperature is preferably between 3500° K. and 6500° K. and R is greater than 20% by weight. For office illumination, R is preferably greater than 40% so that the color temperature may be low. In general, the phosphor coating is applied over the inner surface of the outer tube at the rate between 0.8 and 1.5 mg/cm 2 . In some cases, in order to make the light emission from the phosphor coating more dominant than the characteristic lines of the mercury emission spectrum, the rate may be between 3 and 4 mg/cm 2 . However, a rate higher than 6 mg/cm 2 must be avoided because the phosphor coating is difficult and the cost is high.
Next some examples of the present invention will be described.
EXAMPLE 1
A red light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Y.sub.0.95 P.sub.0.5 V.sub.0.5 O.sub.4 :Eu.sub. 0.05
and the blue-green light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.93 Al.sub.14 O.sub.24 :Eu.sub. 0.2 Mn.sub.0.07
were mixed with the weight ratio of 75:25. 200 g of such phosphor mixture was mixed with 250 cc (cm 3 ) of 1% -nitrocellulosebutyl acetate solution. The mixture was applied to the inner surface of the outer tube of the mercury-vapor lamp with the rating of 100 W, dried and baked for 15 minutes at 450° C. The thickness of the phosphor coating was 1.5 mg/cm 2 . The luminous flux of the mercury-vapor lamp thus obtained was 4700 lumens; the color temperature was 4500° K.; and the average color rendering index was 55. The spectral energy distribution for this lamp is shown in FIG. 8.
EXAMPLE 2
The phosphor coating was applied to the outer tube of a 400 W mercury-vapor lamp substantially in the same manner as described in EXAMPLE 1. The luminous flux was 25000 lumens; the color temperature was 4200° K.; and the average color rendering index was 60.
EXAMPLE 3
A red light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Y.sub.0.95 VO.sub.4 :Eu.sub.0.05
and the blue-green light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Ba.sub.0.8 Mg.sub.1.95 Al.sub.16 O.sub.27 :Eu.sub. 0.2 Mn.sub.0.05
were mixed at the ratio of 65:35, and applied to outer tube of a 400 W mercury-vapor lamp at the rate of 3 mg/cm 2 substantially in the same manner as described in EXAMPLE 1. The luminous flux was 24000 lumens; the color temperature was 4500° K.; and the average color rendering index was 52.
EXAMPLE 4
A red light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Y.sub.0.95 P.sub.0.5 V.sub.0.5 O.sub.4 :Eu.sub. 0.05
and the blue-green light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Ba.sub.0.9 Mg.sub.1.5 Al.sub.12 O.sub.21 :Eu.sub.0.1 Mn.sub.0.5
were mixed at the weight ratio of 40:60, and applied to the outer tube of a 400 W mercury-vapor lamp, following the procedures of EXAMPLE 1, at the rate of 1 mg/cm 2 . The luminous flux was 25500 lumens; the color temperature was 5500° K.; and the average color rendering index was 47.
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The present invention disclosed the phosphor coating for fluorescent high-pressure mercury-vapor lamps, consisting of a red light emitting phosphor with the following composition
YVO.sub.4 : Eu, or (PV)O.sub.4 :Eu
and a blue-green light emitting phosphor with the following composition
Ba.sub.1.sub.-x Mg.sub.2.sub.-y Al.sub.z O.sub.3 .sub.+ 3/2 z : Eu.sub.x,
Mn y
where 0.03 ≦ x ≦ 0.4, 0.01 ≦ y ≦ 0.6, and 12 ≦ z ≦ 20,
A highly satisfactory color rendition may be attained, and the color temperature may be arbitrarily changed so that the mercury-vapor lamps in accordance with the present invention are best adapted for use in interior lighting in offices, lobbies, shops and so on.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of co-pending application Ser. No. 13/267,331, entitled “Methods and Devices for One Trip Plugging and Perforating of Oil and Gas Wells,” filed Oct. 6, 2011, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 11/372,527, entitled “Methods and Devices for One Trip Plugging and Perforating of Oil and Gas Wells,” filed Mar. 9, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,066,059, issued Nov. 29, 2011, which claims the benefit of the filing date of Provisional Application No. 60/661,262, entitled “Improved Abrasive Perforating Device and Methods of Use,” filed Mar. 12, 2005, and the contents of these prior applications are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The instant invention relates to devices and methods for setting bridge plugs and perforating hydrocarbon wells. More particularly, the invention describes new devices that may be conveyed on tubing to allow setting a bridge plug and perforating the well in a single tubing trip.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
After drilling a well for hydrocarbons, it may be necessary to perforate the walls of the well to facilitate flow of hydrocarbons into the well. Wells require perforation because the drilling process causes damage to the formation immediately adjacent to the well. This damage reduces or eliminates the pores through which the oil or gas would otherwise flow. Perforating the well creates a channel through the damage to undamaged portions of the formation. The hydrocarbons flow through the formation pores into the perforation channels and through the perforation channels into the well itself.
In addition, steel casing may be set within the hole adjacent to the hydrocarbon bearing formation. The casing forms a barrier that prevents flow of the hydrocarbons into the well. In such situations, the perforations go through the casing before entering the formation.
Traditional methods of perforating the well (both casing and the formation) involved lowering tools that contain explosive materials into the well adjacent to the hydrocarbon bearing formation. Discharge of the explosive would either propel a projectile through the casing and into the formation or, in the case of shaped charges, directly create a channel with explosive force. Such devices and methods are well known in the art.
In vertical wells, gravity may be used to lower the perforating device into position with wireline being used to hold the device against gravity and retrieve the device after discharge. For lateral wells, which may be horizontal or nearly horizontal, gravity may only be used to lower the perforating device to a point where the friction of the device against the well bore overcomes the gravitational force. The perforating device must then be either pushed or pulled along the lateral portion of the well until the device reaches the desired location.
For wireline conveyed devices, motorized devices called tractors, which are well known in the art, are sometime used to pull the explosive perforating device into position. Tractors, however, can be unreliable and may be damaged by the explosive force of the perforating device.
Another method for positioning the perforating device is with coiled tubing. This technique is sometimes called tubing conveyed perforation or TCP. One advantage of TCP is that the perforating device is attached to the end of the coiled tubing and the coiled tubing pushes the device into the proper location. For lateral wells, the tubing will often contain wireline within the coiled tubing. The wireline can be used to carry an electric current to discharge the explosive contained within the perforating device.
Another advantage of tubing conveyed perforation is the ability to set a hydraulic bridge plug at a location in the well below (distal in relation to the wellhead) the relevant hydrocarbon bearing formation, or between two hydrocarbon bearing formations. This allows the producing zones of the well to be isolated. Once the bridge plug is set, the perforating device can be fired and any fluids from the newly perforated zone will not flow into any regions separated by the bridge plug.
Special explosive perforating devices have been developed that contain a channel for the flow of hydraulic fluid. Thus, the bridge plug can be set, and the perforating device discharged with a single trip of the coiled tubing. Without a flow channel in the perforating device, the tubing end would have to return to the surface, have a perforating device attached, and return to the hydrocarbon bearing formation before perforation can be performed. Thus, the ability to set the bridge plug and perforate in a single trip saves significant time.
While the perforating devices used in prior art methods of TCP have provided the ability to set a bridge plug and perforate the well in a single trip, the methods are still limited. For example, the length of the perforated zone is limited to the length of perforating gun assembly. In other words, to perforate along a 100 foot length of the well, the perforating gun assembly must be at least 100 feet long. This does not include the length of the bridge plug at the end of the gun assembly. However, the increased length also increases the mass of the gun assembly, making the assembly more difficult to deploy in horizontal wells.
Long gun assemblies have an additional disadvantage. The gun assembly is introduced into the well using a lubricator. The lubricator is a device attached to the well head below the coiled tubing or wireline injector, depending on whether tubing or wireline is used to convey the gun assembly. The length of the lubricator is directly related to the length of the gun assembly. If the gun assembly is 100 feet long, the lubricator is at least the same length. In such a case, the injector, either coiled tubing or wireline, above the lubricator is at least 100 feet in the air which creates difficulties running hydraulic hoses, control lines, and with maintenance should the injector head fail.
One alternative to the explosive perforating device is an abrasive perforating device. Abrasive perforating devices direct a concentrated stream of fluid against the casing and, once the casing is penetrated, the surrounding formation. The fluid contains a suspended solid or solids, such as sand, to wear away the metal and rock of the casing and formation. Abrasive perforation is well known in the art.
The operator merely increases flow of the abrasive fluid to begin perforation and decreases flow to stop perforation. The depth and size of perforations are controlled by the fluid pressure and by the length of perforation time. With an abrasive perforator, perforations can be made across a long interval of the well in a single trip and without increasing the size of the tool string. Thus abrasive perforators avoid the problems created by the increased size and weight of long gun assemblies.
Prior art abrasive perforation devices have been run on the end of tool strings. Thus, the fluid channel ends at the bottom of the abrasive perforating device. This configuration has prevented the addition of other tools, such as bridge plugs, below the abrasive perforating device. As mentioned above, running a bridge plug or other tool below the abrasive perforator is sometimes desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present disclosure describes a number of embodiments of a tubing conveyed abrasive perforating tool that utilizes a sliding sleeve or the like to permit fluid communication through the tool to a bridge plug. The fluid communication to the bridge plug permits setting the bridge plug. Once the bridge plug is set, the sliding sleeve or similar device is actuated to close the fluid path through the perforating tool, and open the fluid paths to the perforating orifices. The tool can then be used for abrasive perforating moving up the well bore for as many perforations as are needed. With the addition of an eccentric weight bar or the like, the perforating can be performed directionally.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The forgoing summary, preferred embodiments, and other aspects of subject matter of the present disclosure will be best understood with reference to a detailed description of specific embodiments, which follows, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIGS. 1A-1B illustrate an elevation view and a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the perforating tool according to certain teachings of the present disclosure showing the sliding sleeve in a position that permits fluid communication through the tool.
FIGS. 2A-2B illustrate an elevation view and a cross-sectional view of the embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B wherein the sliding sleeve has moved to a position where fluid communication is directed to the perforating orifices.
FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate an elevation view of the perforating tool of FIG. 1 in a tool string with a bridge plug at the bottom of the string and with the bridge plug set and disconnected from the string.
FIG. 4 illustrates an elevation view of an embodiment of the perforating tool according to certain teachings of the present disclosure showing the sliding sleeve in a position that permits fluid communication through the tool.
FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate an elevation view and a cross-sectional view of the embodiment of FIG. 4 wherein the sliding sleeve has moved to a position where fluid communication is directed to the perforating orifices.
FIG. 6 illustrates an elevation view of an embodiment of the perforating tool according to certain teachings of the present disclosure showing a sliding sleeve configuration with three rows of jet nozzles.
FIG. 7 illustrates a cross-sectional view of an eccentric weight bar according to certain teachings of the present disclosure.
FIG. 8 illustrates an elevation view of the eccentric weight bar of FIG. 7 in a tool string.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
One embodiment of the current invention pertains to an abrasive perforating device that contains a flow channel through which fluid may pass for operation of additional tools. FIG. 1A is a diagram of such a tool in the closed position. Fluid enters the device 10 (referred to herein as a perforating sub) through inlet 11 , flows through channel 12 and exits the device through outlet 14 . Additional tools may be connected to device 10 via threads or other connecting means near inlet 11 and outlet 14 . The device 10 is designed so that inlet 12 is closer, along the path of the well, to the earth's surface than outlet 14 .
Device 10 contains a sleeve 20 that is disposed in the channel 12 . Sleeve 20 may slide longitudinally within channel 12 . Sleeve 20 has two sealing elements 22 that prevent fluid from passing between the sleeve 20 and the wall of the channel 16 . Device 10 also contains one or more jet nozzles 26 . FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view illustrating one configuration of perforating jet nozzles.
In one embodiment of the present invention, perforating sub 10 is attached to coiled tubing, directly or via additional tools, on the inlet end and to a hydraulic bridge plug on the outlet end. One arrangement for the tools is shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B . In FIG. 3A the perforating sub 10 of FIG. 1A is placed in a tool string 50 comprising a coiled tubing connector 62 , back pressure valve 64 , hydraulic disconnect 66 , crossover setting tool 70 , setting sleeve 72 and bridge plug 51 . Each of the devices in the tool string 50 of FIG. 3A , other than the perforating sub 10 , are well known to those of skill in the art. FIG. 3A shows a tool string of the present disclosure as it is run in to the hole. The coiled tubing is injected into the well until the bridge plug is adjacent to the desired location. Fluid is run into the coiled tubing, through the inlet 11 , channel 12 , outlet 14 , and into the bridge plug 51 . FIG. 3B shows the same tool string 50 after the bridge plug 51 has been set.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the fluid inflates the bridge plug such that the bridge plug forms a seal against the walls of the well. When the fluid pressure reaches a certain level, the bridge plug setting tool is activated to release the bridge plug from the tool string 50 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that any method for hydraulically inflating and releasing a bridge plug may be used in conjunction with this device, provided that any object conveyed through the device 10 must be small enough to pass through the opening 28 in the sleeve 20 .
The bridge plug 51 may also be set by other means that are well known in the art. Any bridge plug that is set in the well by controlling the fluid flow and/or pressure may be used as part of the present invention. As will further be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the bridge plug could be set with an explosion or through inflation as long as the plug once set is releasable from the perforating tool. For instance a simple shearing arrangement could be used.
When the bridge plug has been set and released, the abrasive perforating device 10 is positioned adjacent to the hydrocarbon bearing formation and a ball 21 is pumped down the coiled tubing into the device 10 . The ball 21 must be of appropriate size and material to seal against the top of sleeve 20 . The fluid pressure against sleeve 20 and the ball 21 is increased until sufficient pressure is obtained to shear the shear screws 25 . When the shear screws are sheared, the hydraulic pressure against sleeve 20 and ball 21 causes the sleeve to slide longitudinally along channel 12 .
FIG. 2A shows device 10 with sleeve 20 in the open position after sliding along channel 12 . The movement of sleeve 20 is stopped by shoulder 29 . When sleeve 20 is in this position, as shown in FIG. 2A , the jet nozzles 26 are open to channel 12 . As can be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the jet nozzles 26 contain a very narrow opening. Pressure in channel 12 forces fluid through the jet nozzles 26 to create a high velocity fluid stream. Solid particles, such as sand, are conveyed in this stream at or near the same velocity as the fluid. As the sand impacts on the casing or formation, it erodes the metal or rock and creates the desired perforation channels. In a preferred embodiment, 100 mesh sand is used as the abrasive to reduce tool erosion due to abrasive splash back in the well bore.
FIG. 4 shows an alternate abrasive perforating device that contains jet nozzles 26 at intervals along the length of device 40 . The sleeve 30 is modified so that it contains an extension 31 along the channel 12 . The extension contains a plurality of openings 34 . Sealing elements 32 isolate each opening such that fluid may not flow between the extension 31 and the wall of the channel 16 . When the ball 21 is engaged with the sleeve 30 , fluid pressure causes the shear screws 35 to break and the sleeve 30 with its extension 31 to slide longitudinally in the channel 12 . The sliding of sleeve 30 brings the openings 34 into line with the jet nozzles 26 and allowing fluid communication between channel 12 and the jet nozzles 26 . This fluid communication allows pressure on the fluid in the channel 12 to produce the high velocity fluid stream necessary for abrasive perforation.
FIG. 4 illustrates an abrasive perforating device with six jet nozzles 26 within a single longitudinal section of the device. However, embodiments with as few as one jet nozzle in any single longitudinal section are envisioned. The maximum number of jet nozzles in a single longitudinal section is limited only by the operational requirements and mechanical limitations of the device.
FIG. 5A shows device 40 with sleeve 30 in position after sliding along channel 12 . Sleeve 30 stopped by a shoulder 38 on sleeve 30 and a retaining washer 39 . When sleeve 30 is in this position, the extension 31 is aligned in channel 12 so that the nozzles 34 in extension 31 are aligned with nozzles 26 in the body of device 40 .
FIGS. 1B and 2B show six jet nozzles 26 in the cross sectional view and FIG. 5B shows 4 jet nozzles 26 in the cross sectional view. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention encompasses a range of jet nozzle configurations within a single cross section or across a number of cross sections. Depending on the requirements of the job, as few as one jet nozzle may be used.
By modifying the jet nozzles 26 , further functionality can be obtained. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate that removing or “popping out” the jet nozzles 26 will create openings in the device that allow fluid to flow back into the device and through the tubing to the wellhead. Such flow back may be useful for well test or other operations.
The jet nozzles 26 may be removed using excess pressure on the nozzles, by reducing the strength of the nozzle material with a chemical treatment, or other means. In addition, removal of the jet nozzles 26 may allow fracture, acidizing, consolidation, cementing, or other fluids to be pumped into the well after perforations are complete. A packer may be included in the tool string above the abrasive perforating device to facilitate operations involving these fluids. Such packers are well known in the art.
FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a three row jet nozzle embodiment of an abrasive perforating sub 65 . In this embodiment, there is a sliding sleeve 67 that slides within outer body 75 . When the perforating sub 65 is first run in the “open” position to allow fluid flow through the tool, the annular fluid channel 71 is sealed off with o-rings 69 on the sliding sleeve 67 . The sliding sleeve 67 is held locked open by shear pins 77 . When it is time to perforate, the sliding sleeve will be moved to the “closed” position by dropping a ball that seats on seat 79 . Shear pressure is then applied to shear pins 77 and the whole sleeve 67 moves down until fluid begins to pass into annular channel 71 and out jet nozzles 73 .
FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of an eccentric weight bar 80 that can be included in the tool string utilizing any configuration of the disclosed perforating tool. By use of the eccentric weight bar 80 , along with a standard swivel sub, the perforating tool can be made directional in wells that are not vertical. As seen in FIG. 7 , eccentric weight bar 80 is designed so that the fluid channel 82 is not centered through the bar. This causes more metal to appear on one side of the fluid channel than on the other, as shown by A and B in FIG. 7 . This causes the eccentric weight bar 80 to have naturally heavy side so that the side with the cross section shown as B on FIG. 7 will gravitate to the bottom side of a non-vertical wellbore. The fluid channel 82 is preferably bored as far off center as possible while still allowing the tool joint to meet API Specifications. The length of the eccentric weight bar 80 can vary depending on overall tool string requirements but a preferred length is five feet. By using such an eccentric weight bar 80 , it allows for directional perforating as the device will align itself with the eccentric weight bar 80 as the bar notates due to gravity. The eccentric weight bar is preferably placed either just above or just below the perforating tool in the tool string shown in FIG. 3 . A standard swivel sub can then be placed between the upper most device of either the eccentric weight bar, or the perforating sub, and the coiled tubing connector. As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the eccentric weight bar and the perforating sub could be combined into one unit. Further the perforating sub itself could be constructed with the counterbalance technique of the eccentric weight bar to provide alignment.
FIG. 8 shows an illustration of a tool string 100 with the perforating sub 65 of FIG. 6 along with the eccentric weight bar 80 of FIG. 7 . Common components to tool string 50 of FIG. 3 are labeled the same as those labeled in FIG. 3 . The other components are a swivel sub 84 , a lockable swivel sub 86 , a hydraulic setting tool 88 , a wireline adapter kit 90 , and a composite plug 92 . The illustrated tool string 100 is but one possible configuration of a tool string utilizing the eccentric weight sub and perforating sub of the present disclosure. Those of skill in the art will clearly configure tool strings to meet their particular needs without departing from the present disclosure.
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A tubing conveyed tool for use in perforating a well bore utilizing abrasive perforating techniques. The perforating tool is particularly useful in non-vertical wells. The perforating tool is designed to permit running and setting a bridge plug, and then perforating the well bore without requiring the removal of the tool string. An eccentric weight bar can also be used to allow for directional perforating in non-vertical wells. The eccentric weight bar uses gravity to cause the bar to rotate to a predetermined position.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the design of a hard disk drive (HDD) suspension that includes a slider mounted on a flexure. More particularly, it relates to a device and method using the device for measuring the flexure stiffness under load conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) uses an encapsulated thin film magnetic read/write head (transducer), called a slider, to read and write data on a magnetic medium or storage disk. The slider has a pre-patterned air-bearing surface (ABS) and is a part of a flexible head gimbals assembly (HGA). Looking at FIG. 1 , there is shown a highly schematic side view of a prior art HGA. The slider ( 10 ) is mounted on a gimbal assembly or flexure ( 20 ), The flexure is affixed to a relatively rigid loadbeam ( 30 ). The loadbeam exerts a downward force on the flexure through a downward pointing protrusion called a dimple ( 35 ). The loadbeam is connected to a base-plate ( 70 ) through a pivot or bend-zone ( 60 ). The combination of the loadbeam, the gimbal assembly (referred to herein as a flexure), the electrically conducting leads (or traces) (not shown), the pivot and a base-plate, is collectively termed the suspension. The suspension is activated by a servo actuator and associated electronic control circuitry to position the slider at various locations along the magnetically encoded tracks on the disk. As the disk is rapidly rotated by a spindle motor, hydrodynamic pressure causes an air flow between the ABS of the slider and the surface of the disk. This flow lifts and suspends the slider so that it literally flies above the surface of the disk (at a “fly height” of approximately 10 nm) on a layer of air called, appropriately, the air-bearing layer. The edge of the slider into which the disk rotates is called its “leading edge,” the opposite edge, which contains the read/write head is called the “trailing edge.” The loadbeam, as is known in the art, has a small downward extending protrusion or “dimple” (( 35 ) in FIG. 1 ) formed on its disk-facing side that presses against the backside of the slider at a contact point, providing a downward force (typically 2.5 grams) and serving as a pivot for the slider to rotate about. This suspension system of loadbeam and gimbal provides mechanical support for the slider while also allowing the slider pitch and roll capability when fly height is achieved. In addition, the system provides an electrical connection (i.e., a placement for the routing of conducting traces) between the read/write head and the pre-amplifier.
In an operating disk drive the slider is “loaded” by its position over a rapidly spinning disk (i.e., the slider is placed under a combination of forces as a result of upward hydrodynamic pressure from the air bearing layer and mechanical downward forces). The downward component of the load force is due to elastic deformation of the suspension at the bend zone (shown in FIG. 1 ). This force is transmitted to the slider through the dimple that contacts the flexure.
The ABS of the slider is virtually parallel to the surface of an operationally spinning disk (well within 1 mrad of horizontal). However, when the slider is unloaded the ABS orientation is no longer a result of disk rotation and it deviates from its flying attitude. This deviation, referenced to the loadbeam orientation, is known as static attitude. It consists of two components, pitch static attitude (PSA) and roll static attitude (RSA). Corresponding to PSA, the flexure exhibits a pitch stiffness (k p ). The product of PSA and k p represents a pitch moment exerted by the flexure on the flying slider.
Enabling the slider to fly in a stable manner above the disk places stringent requirements on the suspension design, such as providing a proper range of its vertical stiffness (Kz), gimbal (flexure) pitch and roll stiffness (Kp, Kr), gimbal pitch/roll static attitude (PSA/RSA), operational shock performance (G/gram) and the like. These requirements are mainly static and based on system geometry.
The flexure pitch stiffness increases when a load-force is applied through the loadbeam dimple to the slider. Traditional stiffness measurements are made in the absence of load forces. Such measurements are inaccurate for the purposes of slider air bearing surface (ABS) design, because the stiffness may increase significantly when the slider is loaded. Applying a load-force through mechanical contact is difficult, as any misalignment of the contact will affect the measurement. Unfortunately, there is no easy method to detect and correct such misalignment error. Similarly, friction at the ABS, caused when the load-force impedes slider motion in the plane of the ABS, also affects the measurement. This important friction term is statically indeterminate. Note that the physics of a flexure mounted slider under load, including the effects of dimple friction, is presented in “Slider Pitch Moment Associated with Dimple Friction” by Li-Yan Zhu, Chao-Hui Yang, Yen Fu and Ellis Cha, to be published in ASME J. Tribology, which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
A prior-art approach to measuring pitch and/or roll stiffness is to shake the HGA and measure the resulting slider resonance frequencies. Although a load-force similar to the “gram-load” present under actual operating conditions cannot be exerted, a small spring force, known as the dimple contact force (DCF), prevents dimple slip when the vibration amplitude is very small. Thus the “loaded” pitch stiffness can be calculated. This method, however, can only measure the pitch stiffness when the slider pitch is equal to its PSA. It cannot measure pitch stiffness at the flying condition, which is nearly zero pitch. Furthermore, this method does not fully reflect the contribution of dimple curvature to pitch and roll moments.
Another prior-art approach is to support the slider by two or more separate load cells. The nominal load force can be exerted by the load beam. The slider pitch and roll angles can be adjusted by translating at least one load cell. The pitch and roll moments can be calculated by multiplying the distance between two load cells by the difference in load forces exerted on the load cells. However, as described above, friction on the slider ABS is very difficult to assess and compensate.
The prior art does not disclose a significant number of methods for measuring flexure stiffness under the full gram load. The importance of stiffness, however, is well recognized in the prior art. Himes et al. (US Published Patent Application 2003/0007292) discusses the need for reducing stiffness at various points in the structure of the HGA. In particular, Himes teaches the fabrication of a low stiffness printed circuit interconnect to enable electrical connectivity within the HGA assembly. A method of measuring the stiffness of small assemblies, not specifically directed to flexures, is taught by Slocum et al. (US Published Patent Application 2003/0009898). Slocum teaches a method of applying a probe to an end of a flexible member and pushing the member while the displacement of the member is measured. Because of misalignment difficulties mentioned above, this method does not seem appropriate for measuring the stiffness of a flexure under actual loading conditions encountered during disk drive operation.
It is clear that a novel method is needed to overcome the shortcomings of the prior-art methodology and such a method will be presented herein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide a method for measuring flexure pitch stiffness under operating conditions when a load-force is applied to the slider and the slider is at its flying condition of nearly zero pitch.
A second object of this invention is to provide such a method that can measure average and local flexure stiffness with any gram-load and at any pitch and roll angle.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a method that is free of ABS friction and is, therefore, more accurate and easier to operate.
A fourth object of the present invention is to provide such a method that does not require expensive apparatus such as a laser doppler interferometer that is needed for traditional vibrational methods.
A fifth object of the present invention is to provide such a method that eliminates load-force misalignment.
This object will be met by placing a pendulum, whose weight equals the desired load-force, directly above and in intimate contact with the slider ABS, while the HGA loadbeam is firmly supported underneath. In one preferred embodiment, the center of mass of the pendulum is carefully positioned just below the point of contact between the loadbeam dimple and the flexure. In this implementation of the invention, the slider (and flexure) is caused to deflect by tilting the load-beam. The ratio of load-beam deflection to slider deflection is used to calculate the average pitch stiffness in the range of pendulum deflection.
In a second preferred embodiment, the pendulum is made to contact the slider ABS and is adjusted to achieve a desired pitch angle. The pendulum is then allowed to oscillate freely while in contact with the slider and, thereby, while experiencing the stiffness of the flexure. Its oscillation frequency is measured by a non-contact displacement sensor and that result is used to calculate the local stiffness at that desired pitch angle.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are understood within the context of the Description of the Preferred Embodiment as set forth below. The Description of the Preferred Embodiment is understood within the context of the accompanying figures, wherein:
FIG. 1 (prior art) is a schematic side view of a simple model of a flexure mounted slider mounted on a load beam and maintained in a flexed position by the load beam dimple.
FIG. 2 a - FIG. 2 d is a series of schematic diagrams showing portions of the measuring apparatus used to achieve the objects of the invention and its use.
FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the relevant angles that are measured to determine the stiffness.
FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the pendulum oscillation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The preferred embodiments of this invention provide a device and two methods using the device for measuring the pitch and/or roll stiffness of a flexure mounted slider under what are essentially the operating conditions wherein a load force is applied to the slider and the slider ABS is at nearly zero pitch. The friction at the ABS is negligible during the measurement.
Flexure stiffness in the pitch direction is sensitive to the dimple contact condition. Because the load force hinders dimple slip, the flexure pitch stiffness is increased. Furthermore, the flexure pitch stiffness at loaded (no dimple-slip) condition depends on the pitch angle, which affects the flexure height profile. In addition, the true radius of curvature of the dimple contributes to the flexure stiffness in direct proportion to the load force. Assuming an ideal pin-point dimple contact, gram load has very little effect on flexure roll stiffness, because the flexure has very little tendency to slip in the roll mode. In other words, the flexure roll stiffness is insensitive to gram load and static attitudes (slider pitch and roll angle). The flexure pitch stiffness varies with static attitudes and is generally higher in the presence of gram load. For the slider ABS design, we are always interested in the flexure stiffness under the gram load. In particular, we are interested in the following two aspects of pitch stiffness:
1. The pitch moment associated with pitch static attitude (PSA), which affects the fly height (FH) target and is equivalent to the average pitch stiffness between flying pitch (nearly zero) and static pitch (typically between 1° and 2° away from the flying pitch).
2. Local pitch stiffness at PSA, which affects FH sensitivity to PSA distribution.
Measuring Device and Measuring Procedure:
To accomplish the objects of the invention, a measuring device and a measuring procedure using that device are described in the following sequence of figures. Referring first to highly schematic FIG. 2 a , the load beam ( 30 ) is shown lightly clamped on a fixture ( 25 ), with its dimple ( 35 ) contacting the flexure ( 20 ) from below and the ABS ( 40 ) of the slider ( 10 ) facing up. The fixture is mounted firmly on a movable lifting mechanism that will be called a lift ( 50 ) for the purposes of this description. The lift includes three translational micrometer stages (not shown) capable of moving the lift (and the fixture affixed thereto) in three orthogonal directions. In particular, the fixture can be positioned in a horizontal plane and raised vertically. The lift is mounted on a baseplate ( 100 ) that can be tilted slightly from the horizontal by means of a shim (( 110 ) in FIG. 2 d ) or other adjustment. The lift is substantially surrounded by a dock ( 200 ) having planar surfaces ( 210 ), which is also mounted on the baseplate ( 100 ) and, as will be seen later, will serve as a foundation for supporting other parts of the measuring device. The movement of the lift will be relative to the dock. In this embodiment, the planar surfaces of the dock ( 210 ) are polished and mirror-like to enhance the visibility of certain measurement processes, but they need only be smooth and planar.
Referring to FIG. 2 b , there is shown schematically the device of FIG. 2 a with the addition of a moveable rigid body that will be denoted a pendulum ( 60 ). A load force on the slider ABS ( 40 ) can now be provided by contacting the slider ABS with a flat surface of the pendulum, denoted a facet ( 70 ) and allowing the weight of the pendulum to be supported by the ABS. The ability to measure the stiffness of the flexure while the slider is under this load is a part of the invention. During the measuring process the weight of the pendulum will be supported by the slider/flexure and, in that way, the desired load to the slider is provided.
Before the actual measuring process occurs, as illustrated in the configuration of this figure, the pendulum is supported on the dock by three limbs, only two being shown in this perspective ( 62 ), ( 64 ). Each limb terminates in a foot ( 63 ), ( 65 ). The feet rest on the planar surfaces of the dock ( 210 ).
Referring to FIG. 2 c , there is shown an overhead perspective view of the pendulum in which the limb configuration, including the third limb ( 66 ) is more easily seen.
In the present configuration, two of the limbs are bent ( 64 ), ( 66 ) to avoid interference with the flexure ( 20 ) and the lift ( 50 ). Each foot ( 63 ), ( 65 ), ( 67 ) has a small tip or protrusion on its underside (not shown) so it can rest on a smooth surface (the surface of the dock ( 210 )) without an undue adhesion or suction force (called stiction). It should be noted that the overall shape of the pendulum may be different corresponding to various possible configurations of the tester. The mirror-like surface of the dock will allow the positions of the feet of the pendulum to be seen as they move on the dock surface.
Also shown in FIG. 2 c are small regions, called targets ( 93 ), ( 95 ), ( 97 ), located on the pendulum. The displacements of these targets, will be measured as the process proceeds. As will be seen in FIG. 2 d , measuring the displacement of the targets will be achieved by the use of an induction sensor placed adjacent to the target whose displacement is being measured. Any target located on the roll-axis of the pendulum (an axis about which the slider rolls and which, therefore, does not itself roll) is insensitive to the roll motion and it is called a roll target. Any target located on the pitch axis (an axis about which the slider engages in pitch motion and which, therefore, does not itself engage in pitch motion) is insensitive to pitch motion and is called a pitch target. Any target located off both the pitch and roll axes are sensitive to both pitch and roll motions and are called mixed targets. An inductive transducer (e.g. Omega LD701-1/2) Linear Displacement Sensor) was chosen for displacement measurements, but other displacement measuring devices are suitable.
As noted above, the pendulum has a down-facing flat surface called a facet ( 70 ). In the static measurement to be described below, the facet is directly above the center of mass (CM) of the pendulum and it engages the slider ABS ( 40 ) to load the slider. The facet should be sufficiently rough to avoid stiction with the ABS. It should also be free of plateaus and trenches whose dimensions are comparable with the ABS rail, pad or cavity dimensions (surface structures on the ABS). The pendulum may be an integral metal (non-ferromagnetic) piece or an assembly of multiple parts. It can have a fixed CM or an adjustable CM and the CM can be above or below the facet, depending upon the particular measurement being carried out. The non-ferromagnetic nature of the pendulum assures that it is not affected by ambient magnetic fields.
As noted above, the pendulum is presented to the lift by means of a dock ( 200 ). The dock supports the pendulum while the lift, together with the slider and flexure affixed to it, moves upward relative to the pendulum to enable the pendulum facet to contact the ABS and cause the slider to be loaded. The surface of the dock on which the feet of the pendulum will rest is preferably smooth and reflective (mirror-like) to enhance the ability to detect vertical motion of the pendulum feet by the naked eye as the testing procedure is carried out. A mirror-like surface is not necessary however. The dock may be stationary, or it may have an optional mobility in the vertical direction to make inspection and service convenient. The lift ( 50 ) and the dock ( 200 ) are both mounted firmly on a common base-plate ( 100 ), but as noted above the lift moves relative to the dock.
Referring to FIG. 2 d there is shown, schematically, the device of FIG. 2 c and FIG. 2 b with the addition of a displacement sensor ( 115 ) that, in this embodiment, is mounted on a rigid cantilever ( 120 ) that extends outward from a massive rectangular block ( 130 ). The block can be placed on the base plate ( 100 ) without any fastener so that it is free to be moved by hand to access any of the targets on the pendulum. It is noted that other sensor configurations are equally suitable. In this figure, the pendulum is shown in a position corresponding to the performance of a measurement, in which all the feet (( 65 ) and ( 63 ) being shown) are lifted from the dock and the full weight of the pendulum is loading the slider ( 10 ).
The base plate ( 100 ) normally rests on a horizontal surface and no isolation from floor vibration is needed in ordinary laboratories. A transparent enclosure (not shown) is needed to shield the tester from air turbulence. For static measurements, to be described below, the inclination of the base plate needs to be adjusted within a range between +/−5°. This can be achieved by the insertion of a shim ( 110 ) beneath a base plate edge or by the addition of an adjustment screw (not shown).
To describe, schematically, how the measuring process actually proceeds we return to FIG. 2 a . In this figure, the pendulum has not yet been placed on the dock ( 200 ), but the flexure mounted slider ( 10 ) is already affixed to the lift. At this point, the vertical micrometer stage in the lift is turned to raise the lift so that the slider ABS ( 40 ) is below the expected facet height when the pendulum is placed on the dock, as in FIG. 2 b . We will denote as position 1 the position of the ABS ( 40 ) as shown in FIG. 2 a.
Referring to FIG. 2 b (and, for another view, to FIG. 2 c ), we see the pendulum now placed on the dock ( 200 ), supported by its three feet ( 63 ), ( 65 ), (with ( 67 ) not shown) which are placed on the mirror-like surfaces ( 210 ) of the dock.
Referring to FIG. 2 d , we see the configuration of FIG. 2 b with the lift having been slowly raised (vertically) so that the slider ABS ( 40 ) forcefully engages the pendulum facet ( 70 ) and that at least one of the pendulum feet lifts up from the dock. Note, in the figure, both visible feet ( 63 ) and ( 65 ) are shown lifted from the dock ( 200 ). The mirror-like surface of the dock in this embodiment makes the lifting of the foot easy to see. At this point in the measuring process a displacement sensor ( 115 ) has also been placed on the baseplate and is free to move. The sensor, in this embodiment, is mounted by a cantilever ( 120 ) to a block ( 130 ) that is placed on the base-plate adjacent to one of the targets on the pendulum whose displacement is to be measured.
After the lifting of at least one foot, the lift is then lowered so that it is returned to position 1 . The horizontal micrometer stages are then manipulated so that the slider ABS moves laterally away from the foot that rose. Repeating the sequence, the lift is raised again, to see which leg now raises first. The process is repeated until the horizontal placement of the lift is such that the three feet of the pendulum lift simultaneously when the facet engages the ABS. This is the configuration shown in FIG. 2 d , wherein all feet of the pendulum have lifted from the dock and the slider is properly loaded. In this position, the load force is correctly aligned with the dimple.
Static Measurement
Referring to FIG. 3 , we see a schematic illustration of the pendulum in correctly aligned loading contact with the slider ABS ( 40 ) subsequent to having all of its feet lifted simultaneously as in FIG. 2 d . Let the entire pendulum now be represented schematically by the rectangle ( 60 ) and let the weight of the pendulum be denoted W with a downward arrow (typically providing a 2.5 gram force) and let the pendulum CM, denoted by an X, be a distance L below the dimple contact ( 500 ) with the underside of the flexure ( 20 ). When the base plate (and the lift with it) is now tilted in the pitch direction through a measurable angle α as shown in the figure (measured using a spacing sensor fixed to the baseplate and not shown in the figure), the ABS and the pendulum along with it is caused to tilt through an angle β (measured using the displacement sensor at the target, which is not shown). The flexure is now in a condition of static equilibrium. The difference:
θ=α−β
is, therefore, empirically determinate.
The condition of static equilibrium of the flexure can be expressed as:
k p θ=WL sin(α−β), (1)
at the desired angle of pitch change, where k p is the pitch stiffness. Rearranging terms in (1) and taking the inverse sine:
α=θ+sin −1 ( k p θ/WL ) (2)
For small θ, the above equations are linearized and yield a flexure pitch stiffness, k p , that is given approximately by:
k p ≈WLβ/θ=WL (α/θ−1). (3)
As can be seen in (3), all the measurable angles have been obtained from which the desired value of k p can be calculated. The measurement of roll stiffness, k r , is similarly performed and is, therefore, not indicated herein
Dynamic Measurements
Referring back to FIG. 2 d , the loadbeam is again firmly attached to a stationary support as in FIG. 2 d , and a pendulum is contacting the ABS of the slider with the pendulum adjusted so that all its feet lift from the dock simultaneously. Unlike the static measurement process described in FIG. 3 , the baseplate is not tilted but the pendulum is now made to oscillate in either a pitch or a roll direction. It is noted that the pendulum used in the dynamic measurement may not be the same pendulum as used in the static measurement, but it is not fundamentally different in design from the pendulum used in the static measurement.
Since the design differences are too slight to be meaningfully expressed by a different illustration, the same figures are referred to. However, for convenience and performance, each pendulum may be optimized differently. A pendulum optimized for static measurements is constructed so that its center of gravity is low, being approximately 1 to 5 mm below the dimple-flexure contact point, so that the angular difference, θ, is appreciable and easily measurable. A pendulum optimized for dynamic measurements can be of planar structure with a high center of gravity, but preferably no more than 0.5 mm above the dimple-flexure contact point.
Referring to FIG. 4 for the dynamic measurement, the ABS of the slider ( 40 ) has not been tilted through the angle β. The pendulum CM is shown as an X and it is a distance L above the dimple-flexure contact point ( 500 ). To measure flexure pitch stiffness, k p , the pendulum ( 60 ) is made to vibrate at a natural frequency ω p in a pitch direction (as shown) while it remains in contact with the ABS. The displacement of a suitable target on the pendulum (not shown) is monitored continuously by the sensor (( 115 ) in FIG. 2 d ). The natural frequencies of the pendulum oscillations (in either pitch or roll directions or mixed) can be identified from the spectrum produced by the target monitoring, for example, by applying a fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the target displacement (more than adequate signal to noise ratio is obtained). In practice, to obtain pitch stiffness, the pendulum would be excited in the pitch oscillatory mode and monitored at a pitch target alone.
The oscillation can be excited in a variety of ways, a simple disturbance such as a puff of air from a small blower apparatus being perfectly adequate. As in the case of the static equilibrium analysis, the restoration force on the displaced pendulum consists of gravity and flexure reaction (the restoring force due to flexing). The flexure pitch stiffness can be expressed in terms of the angular frequency ω p of the flexure in a pitch direction and its moment of inertia, I pivot , about the center of dimple contact, when the entire system of pendulum and flexure is in oscillatory motion.
k p =ω p 2 I pivot −W ( L−r d ), (4)
where r d is the radius of curvature of the dimple contact and W is the weight of the pendulum. By the parallel axis theorem:
I pivot =I CM +mL 2 =m ( r g 2 +L 2 ), (5)
where I CM is the moment of inertia of the pendulum about an axis through its center of mass, r g is the radius of gyration of the pendulum and m is the mass of the oscillating system. On the reasonable assumption that L<<r g , then I pivot ≈I CM . In a typical pendulum as used in the static portion of this experiment, r g =10 mm and L=1 mm. For the dynamic measurements, a pendulum with a smaller L is used so the error becomes completely negligible. Finally, this gives:
k p ≈ω p 2 I CM −W ( L−r d ). (6)
If the flexure is eliminated and the pendulum oscillates under the influence of gravity only, its natural frequency is denoted ω 0 . Setting k p =0 in (6), effectively represents the pendulum as oscillating without the reaction of the flexure, gives us the natural frequency of the pendulum:
0≈ω 0 2 I CM −W ( L−r d ). (7)
Subtracting (7) from (6) gives:
k p ≈I CM (ω p 2 −ω 0 2 ) (8)
In (8), the dimple radius of curvature and the pendulum center of gravity do not enter into the calculation. The two values of ω p and ω 0 can both be obtained empirically, with coo being measured by placing the pendulum on a bare dimple.
Note that either flexure stiffness, k p or k r as it would be measured in the above discussion, excludes the effect of dimple curvature. This treatment is to conform to conventions. In reality, however, the slider air bearing surface (ABS) is affected by the combination of conventional “flexure stiffness” and dimple curvature effect. Thus, for the ABS fly height control, this combination should be used in lieu of the conventional “flexure stiffness.” Consequently, the term “−r d ” should be omitted in equations (4), (6) and (7) to improve the accuracy of calculations. Furthermore, the contribution of dimple curvature to flexure stiffness, Wr d , can be measured using the novel method described above, by removing the slider and flexure, then placing the pendulum on the bare dimple.
As is understood by a person skilled in the art, the preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrative of the present invention rather than being limiting of the present invention. Revisions and modifications may be made to methods, processes, materials, structures, and dimensions through which is provided a device for static and dynamic measurements of flexure pitch and roll stiffness under operating conditions and methods for using the device to obtain such measurements, while still providing such a device and its method of use in accord with the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
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A device is provided by which the stiffness coefficient of a flexure, in either a pitch or roll direction, can be measured while a slider is mounted thereon and while the flexure and slider are in a loaded condition as might be obtained during normal operational conditions of a HGA in a HDA. There are two methods of making the measurement, a static method in which the slider is loaded by an external weight called a pendulum and the angular displacement of the slider is measured, and a dynamical method in which the pendulum is caused to oscillate while in contact with the slider and its natural and loaded frequencies of oscillation are measured.
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BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a vehicle roof having a cover which, in a closed position, closes an opening in the roof and which is rearwardly slidable from the closed position to an open position along guide rails that extend along both sides of the opening in the roof toward the rear, as well as having a wind deflector that can be raised automatically as a function of the sliding movement of the cover, said wind deflector forming a part of the roofing located in front of the cover and being pivotable around an axis extending transversely to the sliding direction of the cover.
In the case of a known vehicle roof of this type (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 30 12 538) the roof can be slid toward the rear under the fixed part of the vehicle roof. A tilting-out of the sliding cover is not possible. In addition, vehicle roofs are known that have a cover that can be tilted out into a ventilating position and can either be pushed over the fixed part of the roof (German Offenlegungschrift No. 33 11 452) or under the fixed part of the roof (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 32 38 454 corresponding to commonly assigned U.S. Application Ser. No. 530,776, filed Sept. 9, 1983, U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,730) toward the rear.
The invention, therefore, has a primary objective of providing a vehicle roof of the initially mentioned type, where, as known per se, the cover can be used as a ventilation flap, but without causing disturbing whirls behind the raised wind deflector.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, this objective is achieved by the fact that the cover can be tilted out into a ventilation position in which it forms a continuous extension of the wind deflector, which is at least partially raised.
The wind deflector and the cover can, therefore, jointly represent a continuous ventilation flap. In the ventilation position, air whirls are prevented at the rear edge of the wind deflector. In contrast to the known sliding/lifting roofs having a wind deflector which, in the closed position of the cover, is located under the cover, the wind deflector, in the closed position of the cover, is used as part of the roofing. As a result, the cover, itself, may be constructed to be correspondingly shorter and lighter.
For adjusting the position of the cover, preferably two transport carriages are provided which are slidable along guide rails and are connected with the cover via connecting-link guides which, by a limited shifting of the transport carriages in a longitudinal direction of the guide rails with respect to the cover, force the tilting-out of the cover. This results in an especially robust construction when, in a further development of the invention, each of the connecting-link guides has two link slots that are displaced with respect to one another in the longitudinal direction of the guide rails and two link pins, each of which engages in one of the link slots. In order to achieve a perfect alignment of the cover with the at least partially raised wind deflector, the link slots, in this case, are sloped in such a way that the cover, during the tilting-out, carries out a pivotal movement around an (imagined) transverse axis which corresponds to the pivotal axis of the wind deflector and, advantageously, essentially coincides with the front edge of the wind deflector.
For raising the wind deflector, two carriages may also be provided which are slidable along the guide rails and are connected with the wind deflector via link guiding means which force the wind deflector upwardly by the limited shifting of the carriages in the longitudinal direction of the guide rails with respect to the wind deflector. In this case, the carriages are advantageously, for a limited follow-up movement following the transport carriages, resiliently biased toward the rear and are shifted toward the front by the transport carriages. This has the advantage that no separate drive is required for the carriage serving for the adjustment of the wind deflector.
Preferably, in the locations between the cover closing position and the ventilating position, in which the cover forms an extension of the wind deflector, the wind deflector, with its rear area, acts as a hold-down device for the front end of the cover. This results in an especially stiff ventilation flap.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic longitudinal section through a vehicle roof according to the invention when the cover is in the closed position;
FIG. 2 is a section corresponding to FIG. 1, where the wind deflector and the cover form a continuous ventilation flap; and
FIG. 3 is a section corresponding to FIGS. 1 and 2 when the cover is partially pushed back and the wind deflector is fully raised.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In the figures, a fixed part of the vehicle roof 1 has a rectangular opening 2. The opening 2 in the roof 1 can be closed by means of a wind deflector 3 and a cover 4 (FIG. 1). As shown in FIG. 2, the cover 4 can be tilted out into a ventilating position in which it forms a continuous extension of the partially raised wind deflector 3. This means that the wind deflector and the cover, in this operating position, represent a continuous ventilating flap which permits a ventilating of the interior of the vehicle via a slot 5 created between the rear edge of the cover and the rear edge of the opening 2 in the roof 1. From the position shown in FIG. 2, the cover 4 can be pushed further toward the rear in order to partially expose the opening 2 in the roof at an area between the wind deflector 3 and the cover 4. The wind deflector 3 is fully raised when the cover is moved to the FIG. 3 position.
A guide rail 7, extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, is located at both sides of the opening 2. Each guide rail 7 extends from a point located close to the front edge of the opening 2, toward the rear, to an area under the fixed part 1 of the roof. The guide rails 7 located at both sides of the opening, in a manner that is not shown in detail, may be part of a frame. Of the guide rails 7, only the guide rail that is on the left, when viewed from the front of the vehicle, is shown in the figures. The opposite right guide rail and the interacting functional parts of the roof are developed mirror-symmetrically with respect to the arrangement on the left side of the vehicle.
The guide rails 7 forms a guide channel 8 that is rectangular in its cross section, a longitudinal slot 10 (FIG. 1) being formed in the top wall 9 of the guide channel 8. Along the guide rail 7, a transport carriage 12 is slidably guided. The transport carriage 12 may, advantageously, be moved via pressure-resistant threaded cable which is in driving connection with a drive, such as an electric motor or a crank. In this case, the arrangement may be as disclosed in detail in commonly assigned U.S. application Ser. No. 707,762, filed Mar. 4, 1985. An upwardly projecting link pin carrier 13 is disposed on the transport carriage 12 and forms part of a link guide that, as a whole, has the reference number 14. A link pin 15 is carried at the upper front end of transport carriage 12 and another link pin 16 is carried at the upper rear end of the transport carriage 12.
The cover, at each side, is supported on a cover carrier 17. The cover carriers 17 may be part of a frame or an inside plate of the cover. However, these carriers may also be separate rail-type components. In the front area of the cover carrier 17, two link slots 18, 19 are formed that are staggered with respect to one another in the longitudinal direction of the guide rail 7, a respective one of the link pins 15, 16 of the transport carriage 12 engaging in said link slots 18, 19. The two link slots 18, 19 slope downwardly toward the rear at different angles toward the rear in such a way that, when the transport carriage 12 is displaced along the guide rail 7 between positions that correspond to FIGS. 1 and 2, the cover 4 is caused to carry out a pivotal movement around an (imaginary) transverse axis which corresponds to the pivotal axis of the wind deflector and, preferably, essentially coincides with the front edge 20 of the wind deflector 3.
The wind deflector 3, at each side, is connected with a wind deflector carrier 22 in which a link slot 23 is formed that is also downwardly sloped toward the rear. A link pin 24 engages in each link slot 23, said link pin 24 being disposed at one end of a raising lever 25. The other end of the raising lever 25 is coupled to a carriage 26 by a pin 27. The carriage 26 is slidably guided along the guide rail 7. A biasing spring 28 acts on the front end of the carriage 26 (on the left in the figures), said biasing spring 28 acting to push the carriage 26 so that its rear end abuts against the front end of the transport carriage 12.
When the transport carriages 12, located at both sides of the opening 2 in the roof, are moved rearwardly along guide rails 7 from the closed position (i.e., to the right in FIG. 1) by means of the driving means (not shown), the carriages 26 follow along in this movement under the influence of the respectively associated biasing spring 28. The carriages 12, 26 remain in mutual engagement up to and including the point where the ventilating position shown in FIG. 2 is reached. In the course of this movement of the carriages, the link pins 15, 16 and 24 move in the respective link slots 18, 19 and 23 from the front position (FIG. 1) to the rear end position (FIG. 2). The link slots 18, 19 and 23 are sloped in such a way that, because of this movement of the link pins, the cover 4 and the wind deflector 3 jointly carry out a pivotal movement around the same transverse axis of rotation which, advantageously, is located at the front edge 20 of the wind deflector 21. The cover 4 and the wind deflector 3, therefore, form a smoothly continuous surface over which the wind can sweep without causing whirls at the rear edge of deflector 3 not only in the closed position, but also in the ventilating position and all intermediate positions located between these two positions.
Of course, since the carriages 12, 26 are in the noted mutual engagement, the wind deflector carriages are directly shiftable back toward the front by the transport carriages.
When the transport carriages 12 are moved toward the rear from the ventilating position shown in FIG. 2, the link pins 15, 16, stopped by the rear ends of the link slots 18, 19, take along the tilted-out cover 4 toward the rear, as is indicated for an intermediate position in FIG. 3. The cover 4 moves toward the rear over the fixed part 1 of the roof. The opening 2 in the roof is exposed to a larger or smaller extent between the rear edge of wind deflector 3 and the front edge of cover 4. The carriages 26 follow the movement of the transport carriage 12 toward the rear under the influence of the respective biasing spring 28 until they meet at stop 30. In the course of this movement of the carriages 26, the raising levers 25 carry out a pivotal movement counterclockwise around their connecting pin 27,
however, as can be seen from the drawings in each position of the wind deflector, the raising lever 25 extends in a rearward and upward direction. Thus, the wind deflector 3 is brought into the fully raised position shown in FIG. 3, at a point between the positions shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.
By pivoting the wind deflector 3 around a pivot axis located in the area of its front edge 20, the edge 20 remains in engagement with a sealing means 31 surrounding the edge of the opening 2 in the roof. As a result, disturbing air whirls and connected noises are avoided also in this area.
As shown in diagram form in the figures, the cover 4, at its front edge, has a step-like notch 33, while the wind deflector 3, in the area of its rear edge, is provided with a complementary step-like notch 34. The notch arrangement is made in such a way that the notch 34 of the wind deflector 3 overlaps the notch 33 at the front edge of the cover 4 in all of the positions between the closed position of the cover (FIG. 1) and the ventilating position (FIG. 2), including these positions. As a result, formation of a gap between the cover 4 and the wind deflector 3 is avoided in these positions and also when, because of tolerances the front end of the cover 4 and the rear end of the wind deflector 3 are somewhat staggered with respect to one another in the longitudinal direction. In addition, the rear edge of the wind deflector 3 acts as a holddown means for the front edge of the cover 4. This is especially important in the closed position of the cover (FIG. 1). A tight closing of the cover is insured also when, during high speed driving, forces affecting the cover 4 try to lift the cover in the area of its front edge.
Naturally, the raising movement of the wind deflector 3 may also be produced in manners other than the one shown as an example. In addition, it is basically also possible to push the cover 4 to the rear, starting from the ventilating position according to FIG. 2, not above, but under the fixed part 1 of the roof, after the cover had been initially lowered correspondingly.
While we have shown and described a single embodiment in accordance with the present invention, it is understood that the same is not limited thereto, but is susceptible of numerous changes and modifications as known to those skilled in the art, and we, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described herein, but intend to cover all such changes and modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims.
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A vehicle roof having a cover which, in a closed position, closes an opening in the roof and is rearwardly slidable along guide rails from the closed position toward the rear into an open position and provided with a wind deflector which is raised and lowered automatically as a function of the position of the cover. The wind deflector forms a part of the roofing located in front of the cover and is pivotable about an axis extending transversely relative to the sliding direction of the cover. The cover can be tilted out into a ventilating position in which it forms a continuous extension of the wind deflector, which is at least partially raised in conjunction with the tilting of the cover.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to a method for operating an engine brake in internal combustion engines.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In an internal combustion engine, engine valve actuation is required in order to produce positive power, and may also be used to produce engine braking and/or exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). During positive power, one or more intake valves may be opened to admit air into a cylinder for combustion during the intake stroke of the piston. One or more exhaust valves may be opened to allow combustion gases to escape from the cylinder during the exhaust stroke of the piston.
[0003] One or more exhaust valves may also be selectively opened to convert, at least temporarily, the engine into an air compressor for engine braking operation. This air compressor effect may be accomplished by either opening one or more exhaust valves near piston top dead center (TDC) position for compression-release type braking, or by maintaining one or more exhaust valves in a relatively constant cracked open position during much or all of the piston motion, for bleeder type braking. In either of these methods, the engine may develop a retarding force that may be used to help slow a vehicle down. This braking force may provide the operator with increased control over the vehicle, and may also substantially reduce the wear on the service brakes. Compression-release type engine braking has been long known and is disclosed in Cummins, U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,392 (November 1965), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
[0004] The braking power of a compression-release type engine brake may be increased by selectively actuating the exhaust valves to carry out brake gas recirculation in combination with compression release braking. Brake gas recirculation (BGR) can be accomplished by opening an exhaust or auxiliary valve near bottom dead center of the intake or expansion stroke of the piston and keeping the exhaust or auxiliary valve open during the first portion of the exhaust or compression stroke of the engine. Opening the exhaust or auxiliary valve during this portion of the engine cycle may allow exhaust gas to flow into the engine cylinder from the relatively higher-pressure exhaust manifold. The introduction of exhaust gases from the exhaust manifold into the cylinder may pressurize the cylinder with a charge faster than it would otherwise occur during the compression stroke. The increased gas pressure in the engine cylinder may increase the braking power produced by the compression-release event.
[0005] There are many different systems that may be used to selectively actuate an exhaust or auxiliary valve to produce BGR and compression-release events. One known type of actuation system is a lost motion system, described in the aforenoted Cummins patent. An example of a lost motion system and method used to obtain engine braking and brake gas recirculation is disclosed in Gobert, U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,890 (Sep. 15, 1992) which discloses a method of conducting brake gas recirculation by placing the cylinder in communication with the exhaust system during the first part of the compression stroke and optionally also during the latter part of the intake stroke, and which is hereby incorporated by reference. Gobert uses a lost motion system to enable and disable compression-release braking and brake gas recirculation. The system disclosed in Gobert opens the exhaust valve near bottom dead center of the intake stroke for a BGR event, closes the exhaust valve before the midway point of the compression stroke to terminate the BGR event, and opens the exhaust valve again near top dead center of the same compression stroke for a compression-release event. As a result, the exhaust valve actuated in accordance with the Gobert system must be rapidly seated and unseated between the BGR and compression-release events.
[0006] In many internal combustion engines, the intake and exhaust valves may be actuated by fixed profile cams, and more specifically, by one or more fixed lobes or bumps that are an integral part of each cam. The cams may include a lobe for each valve event that the cam is responsible for providing. The size and shape of the lobes on the cam may dictate the valve lift and duration which result from the lobe. For example, an exhaust cam profile for a system constructed in accordance with the aforenoted Gobert patent may include a lobe for a BGR event, a lobe for a compression-release event, and a lobe for a main exhaust event.
[0007] It may also be desirable to increase the exhaust back pressure in the exhaust manifold during engine braking. Higher exhaust back pressure may increase gas mass and pressure in the engine cylinder available for engine braking, and thereby increase braking power. Increased exhaust back pressure, however, may undesirably increase the force required to open the exhaust valve for a compression-release event because the opening force applied to the exhaust valve must exceed the increased pressure in the engine cylinder resulting from the increased exhaust back pressure. To some extent the increased exhaust back pressure may also increase the pressure applied to the back of the exhaust valve, which may counter-balance the increased pressure in the cylinder and thus reduce the loading on the exhaust valve opening mechanism used for the compression-release event.
[0008] Increasing the pressure of gases in the exhaust manifold may be accomplished by restricting the flow of gases through the exhaust manifold. Exhaust manifold restriction may be accomplished through the use of any structure that may, upon actuation, restrict all or partially all of the flow of exhaust gases through the exhaust manifold. The exhaust restrictor may be in the form of an exhaust engine brake, a turbocharger, a variable geometry turbocharger, a variable geometry turbocharger with a variable nozzle turbine, and/or any other device which may limit the flow of exhaust gases.
[0009] Exhaust brakes generally provide restriction by closing off all or part of the exhaust manifold, thereby preventing the exhaust gases from escaping. This restriction of the exhaust gases may provide a braking effect on the engine by providing a back pressure when each cylinder is on the exhaust stroke. For example, Meneely, U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,289 (Jul. 18, 1989); Schaefer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,027 (Aug. 29, 2000); Israel, U.S. Pat. No. 6,170,474 (Jan. 9, 2001); Kinerson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,096 (Jan. 30, 2001); and Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. Appl. Pub. No. US 2003/0019470 (Jan. 30, 2003) disclose exhaust brakes for use in retarding engines.
[0010] Turbochargers may similarly restrict exhaust gas flow from the exhaust manifold. Turbochargers often use the flow of high pressure exhaust gases from the exhaust manifold to power a turbine. A variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) may alter the amount of the high pressure exhaust gases that it captures in order to drive a turbine. For example, Arnold et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,642 (Aug. 7, 2001) discloses a variable geometry turbocharger where the amount of exhaust gas restricted is varied by modifying the angle and the length of the vanes in a turbine. An example of the use of a variable geometry turbocharger in connection with engine braking is disclosed in Faletti et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,231 (Sep. 29, 1998), Faletti et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,793 (Nov. 21, 2000), and Ruggiero et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,017 (Mar. 15, 2005), which are hereby incorporated by reference.
[0011] Compression-release engine braking is not the only type of engine braking known. The operation of a bleeder type engine brake has also long been known. During bleeder type engine braking, in addition to the normal exhaust valve lift, the exhaust valve(s) may be held slightly open continuously throughout the remaining engine cycle (full-cycle bleeder brake) or during a portion of the cycle (partial-cycle bleeder brake). The primary difference between a partial-cycle bleeder brake and a full-cycle bleeder brake is that the exhaust valve is closed for the former during most of the intake stroke.
[0012] Usually, the initial opening of the braking valve(s) in a bleeder braking operation is far in advance of the compression TDC (i.e., early valve actuation) and then lift is held constant for a period of time. As such, a bleeder type engine brake may require much lower force to actuate the valve(s) due to early valve actuation, and generates less noise due to continuous bleeding instead of the rapid blow-down of a compression-release type brake. Moreover, bleeder brakes often require fewer components and can be manufactured at lower cost. Thus, an engine bleeder brake can have significant advantages.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0013] One embodiment of the present invention is directed to an innovative method of actuating an engine valve provided between an engine cylinder and an exhaust manifold to provide compression-release engine braking comprising the steps of: opening the engine valve for a brake gas recirculation event; increasing the lift of the engine valve during an initial portion of the brake gas recirculation event; reducing the lift of the engine valve during a later portion of the brake gas recirculation event; maintaining the engine valve open between the brake gas recirculation event and a compression-release event; and increasing the lift of the engine valve during an initial portion of the compression-release event.
[0014] Another embodiment of the present invention is directed to an innovative internal combustion engine cam for compression-release engine braking comprising: a main exhaust lobe including an extended closing ramp portion; a brake gas recirculation lobe; a compression-release lobe; and a base circle portion extending approximately 15 cam angle degrees or less between the main exhaust lobe extended closing ramp portion and the brake gas recirculation lobe.
[0015] Yet another embodiment of the present invention is directed to an innovative internal combustion engine cam for compression-release engine braking comprising: a base circle portion; a brake gas recirculation lobe; a compression-release lobe; and a depressed region between the brake gas recirculation lobe and the compression-release lobe, wherein said depressed region has a height greater than the base circle portion of the cam.
[0016] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only, and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein by reference, and which constitute a part of this specification, illustrate certain embodiments of the invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] The present invention will now be described in connection with the following figures in which like reference numbers refer to like elements and wherein:
[0018] FIG. 1 is schematic diagram of a valve actuation system that may be used to actuate an exhaust or auxiliary engine valve in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 2 is a plot of cam follower lift versus cam angle degrees in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 3 is a plot of valve lift versus crank angle degrees produced in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and
[0021] FIG. 4 is a plot of cam follower lift versus cam angle degrees in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0022] Reference will now be made in detail to an example of a system that may be used to actuate an exhaust or auxiliary valve in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. An engine cylinder 40 in a portion of an engine 20 is shown in FIG. 1 . The engine 20 may have any number of similar cylinders 40 in which a piston 45 may reciprocate upward and downward repeatedly, during the time the engine is used for positive power and engine braking. At the top of the cylinder 40 there may be at least one intake valve 32 and one exhaust valve 34 . It is common for there to be two or more intake valves 32 and exhaust valves 34 each in an engine cylinder, and only one each is shown for ease of illustration. The intake valve 32 and exhaust valve 34 may be opened and closed to provide communication with an intake gas passage 22 and an exhaust gas passage 24 , respectively. The exhaust gas passage 24 may communicate with an exhaust manifold 26 , which may also have inputs from other exhaust gas passages (not shown) from other engine cylinders. Downstream of the exhaust manifold 26 there may be an exhaust restriction means 70 which may be selectively activated to restrict the flow of exhaust gas from the manifold 26 . Exhaust restriction means 70 may be provided by various means, such as a turbocharger turbine, a variable geometry turbocharger, a butterfly valve 72 in the exhaust pipe, shown, or other restriction means. The exhaust restriction means, when closed partially or fully, may selectively develop exhaust back pressure in the exhaust manifold 26 and the exhaust gas passage 24 which may be used for BGR.
[0023] The engine 20 may include an exhaust valve actuating subsystem 38 and an intake valve actuating subsystem 36 , for actuating the engine valves during positive power and engine braking modes of operation. The engine could optionally include an auxiliary valve and auxiliary valve actuating subsystem (not shown) to provide auxiliary communication between the engine cylinder 40 and the exhaust gas passage 24 . There are several known subsystems 36 and 38 that may be used for opening intake and exhaust valves for intake and exhaust events, including, but not limited to mechanical valve trains, electrical actuators, and hydraulic (such as lost motion) actuators. It is contemplated that any such subsystem or combination of subsystems, and/or new subsystems developed by the Applicant or others may be used to provide engine valve actuation for the intake and exhaust valves.
[0024] The actuation of the exhaust valve 34 may be controlled by the subsystem 38 to open the exhaust valve for brake gas recirculation and engine braking, such as compression-release braking, bleeder braking, or partial bleeder braking. The exhaust valve actuating subsystem 38 may comprise various hydraulic, hydro-mechanical, and electromagnetic actuation means, including but not limited to means which derive the force to open the valve from a common rail, lost motion, rocker arm, cam, push tube, or other mechanisms. The exhaust valve actuating subsystem 38 and the intake valve actuating subsystem 36 may be electronically controlled by an ECM 50 to vary the valve actuation events that are provided by the exhaust valve 34 and intake valve 32 during positive power and/or engine braking.
[0025] During engine braking, the exhaust restriction means 70 may be closed or partially closed to increase exhaust back pressure. Increased back pressure may be used to increase the charge and pressure of gas in the cylinder 40 for braking when increased back pressure is provided in combination with a brake gas recirculation event.
[0026] During brake gas recirculation, gas flow may temporarily reverse from the exhaust manifold 26 into the engine cylinder 40 and potentially even back past the intake valve 32 and into the intake passage 22 . Control of this backward gas flow through the exhaust and intake valves determines the system exhaust pressure profile and the resulting mass charge that is delivered to the cylinder on intake. The mass charge may affect the power of engine braking because, generally, the greater the pressure of the gas in the cylinder 40 , the greater the amount of braking that may be realized from the reciprocating piston 45 as it is opposed by the high pressure gas.
[0027] FIG. 2 is an example of the cam follower lift that may result from the the system shown in FIG. 1 to actuate an exhaust valve to produce engine braking in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3 . FIG. 2 is a plot of the cam follower lift produced from a cam having a number of lobes extending from the cam base circle which may be used to provide main exhaust, BGR and compression-release valve events. Cam base circle is indicated by zero (0) lift in FIG. 2 . The exhaust cam profile may include a main exhaust lobe 100 , a BGR lobe 110 and a compression-release lobe 120 .
[0028] The cam may be connected to a lost motion system that is inoperative during positive power operation of the engine the cam lobes with a height less than the threshold 130 (which may be the height of the valve or cam lash) are absorbed or “lost”. Thus, during positive power operation, cam motion from the BGR lobe 110 and the compression-release lobe 120 is not transferred to the exhaust valve. Only motion from the main exhaust event 100 may be transferred to the exhaust valve during positive power, just as it would be in an engine that did not include an engine brake.
[0029] During engine braking, the lost motion system may be turned on and provided with hydraulic fluid so that the motion imparted by the BGR lobe 110 and the compression-release lobe 120 may cease to be “lost,” and motion from all cam lobes may be transferred to the exhaust valve. As a result, during engine braking, the cam may impart the following additional motions to the exhaust valve. Region 102 of the cam corresponds to the closing ramp portion of the main exhaust lobe 100 used during engine braking. The closing ramp portion 102 of the main exhaust lobe is shown to return to base circle in region 104 between about 210 and 240 cam angle degrees, or more preferably between about 225 and 235 cam angle degrees.
[0030] The BGR lobe 110 may begin after region 104 between about 230 and 270 cam angle degrees, and more preferably between about 240 and 260 cam angle degrees. The BGR lobe 110 may reach a maximum height between about 270 and 300 cam angle degrees and then return toward the cam base circle. Region 112 of the cam corresponds to the intersection of the BGR lobe 110 with the compression-release lobe 120 . The lowest point of region 112 may be elevated above the cam base circle a minimum height 114 which is sufficient to keep the exhaust valve from seating (i.e., completely closing) between the BGR event and the compression-release event. The lowest point of region 112 may be between about 300 and 340 cam angle degrees, and more preferably between about 310 and 330 cam angle degrees. The minimum height 114 may be selected such that the exhaust valve is very nearly, but not quite closed between the BGR event and the compression-release event shown in FIG. 3 .
[0031] The compression-release engine braking lobe 120 may follow the BGR lobe 110 . The compression-release lobe 120 may be provided on the cam so as to open the exhaust valve near the point that the engine cylinder piston reaches its top dead center position. The compression-release lobe 120 may reach a maximum height as early as 350 cam angle degrees or after zero cam angle degrees (i.e., by top dead center) and return towards base circle thereafter. Region 122 of the cam corresponds to the intersection of the compression-release lobe 120 with the main exhaust lobe 100 . The lowest portion of region 122 may be elevated above the cam base circle by a minimum distance 124 such that the exhaust valve does not close between the compression-release event and the main exhaust event. Alternatively, the lowest portion of the region 122 may return all the way to cam base circle by following alternative cam profile 124 .
[0032] The cam profile shown in FIG. 2 may provide the exhaust valve actuation shown in FIG. 3 during engine braking operation. A valve lift of zero (0) in FIG. 3 indicates that the exhaust valve is closed and seated. With reference to FIG. 3 , the exhaust valve may be actuated for a main exhaust event 200 and seated in accordance with valve seating event 202 . The exhaust valve may remain seated during period 204 until it is actuated for a BGR event 210 . During the period that the exhaust valve is seated, no exhaust gas exchange may occur between the engine cylinder and the exhaust manifold.
[0033] Next, the exhaust valve may be actuated for the BGR event 210 . The BGR event may overlap partially or entirely with an intake event. During the BGR event, exhaust gas in the exhaust manifold may flow back into the engine cylinder and potentially back through the open intake valve into the intake manifold. This may result in increased exhaust mass in the cylinder for the subsequent compression-release event. After reaching a maximum lift for the BGR event, the exhaust valve may return towards its seat, but not close at a point 212 between the BGR event 210 and the compression-release event 220 . The amount of lift that the exhaust valve maintains at point 212 may vary in different embodiments of the present invention. It may even be zero and thus the exhaust valve may seat between the BGR event and the compression-release event in some embodiments of the present invention with greater compliances, and/or larger valve lash settings.
[0034] The compression-release event 220 may follow the BGR event 110 . During the compression-release event, the lift of the exhaust valve is increased as the engine cylinder piston approaches and reaches a top dead center position. Gas pressure in the cylinder may be released to the exhaust manifold by increasing the lift of the exhaust valve near the end of the compression stroke of the piston. This compression energy of the exhaust gas in the cylinder may be released to the exhaust manifold instead of doing positive work by pushing the engine piston downward during the expansion stroke. After reaching a maximum lift for the compression-release event 220 , the exhaust valve may return towards its seat during period 222 between the compression-release event 220 and the main exhaust event 200 . The exhaust valve may maintain some lift and not close during period 222 , or alternatively, the exhaust valve may seat in accordance with the valve actuation 224 .
[0035] An alternative cam follower lift shown in FIG. 4 may include a closing ramp that is better able to draw hydraulic fluid into the lost motion system with a valve lift reset function. The cam follower lift shown in FIG. 4 differs from that shown in FIG. 2 as follows. Region 102 of the cam, corresponding to the closing ramp portion of the main exhaust lobe 100 , may be extended from that shown in FIG. 2 , all the way or almost all the way to the BGR event 110 . The valve closing velocity produced by the region 102 of the main exhaust lobe may be designed to match the hydraulic fluid refill speed to optimize hydraulic refill for a lost motion system with a reset function. The closing ramp portion 102 of the main exhaust lobe is shown to return to base circle in region 104 between about 230 and 265 cam angle degrees.
[0036] The BGR lobe may return to base circle such that the exhaust valve closes between the BGR event and the compression-release event. Alternatively, the BGR lobe may approach base circle, but not reach it in region 112 such that the exhaust valve remains open between the BGR event and the compression-release event.
[0037] A cam with the extended closing ramp 102 shown in FIG. 4 may be used in a hydraulic valve actuation system that also includes a resetting device, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,131 to Usko and U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,787 to Cavanaugh, for example. The resetting device may cause the exhaust valve to close before the cam follower reaches the cam base circle in region 104 . The extended closing ramp 102 may improve the ability of the hydraulic valve actuation system to refill with hydraulic fluid for the next hydraulic valve actuation, namely the BGR event.
[0038] While various embodiments of the present invention have been described herein, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the preferred embodiments of the invention as set forth herein we 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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Methods and apparatus for actuating an engine valve provided between an engine cylinder and an exhaust manifold to provide compression-release engine braking in combination with exhaust gas restriction and brake gas recirculation are disclosed. In a first embodiment of the present invention, the engine valve used to provide brake gas recirculation and compression-release braking may be maintained slightly open between the brake gas recirculation and compression-release events. In another embodiment of the present invention, the cam closing ramp for a main exhaust event may be extended to terminate near the beginning of a brake gas recirculation event to facilitate refilling a hydraulic valve actuation system used to in association with the exhaust valve.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a process for preparing a ketocholanate comprising oxidizing a cholanate which has a protected hydroxyl group at the 3-position and hydroxyl group(s) at the 12-position and optionally at the 7-position with an alkali metal salt of an oxo acid of halogen in the presence of a cerium compound.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Ketocholanic acid and its derivatives are known to be effective in accelerating the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and the secretion of bile as well as in treating various hepatic disorders. Further these compounds are important as intermediates in the synthesis of dehydrocholic acid or chenodeoxycholic acid.
There have been reported a number of processes for the oxidation of cholanic acid derivatives having hydroxyl group(s).
For example, French Pat. No. 854817 has disclosed a process for preparing 7-keto-3α, 12α,-dihydroxycholanic acid by adding an equimolar amount of bromine to an aqueous solution of cholic acid and sodium bicarbonate to thereby selectively oxidize the cholic acid. U.S. Pat. No. 2576728 has disclosed a process for preparing 3,7,12-triketocholanic acid by selectively and completely oxidizing 7-keto-3α, 12α-dihydroxycholanic acid in an aqueous solution of a mixture of sodium hydroxide, sodium bicarbonate and sodium bromide at a low temperature with the use of chlorine gas. Japanese Patent Publication No. 20493/ 1970 has disclosed a process for preparing keto bile acids by oxidizing bile acids having hydroxyl group(s) with antiformin in the presence of an alkali metal acetate. However each of these known processes has some disadvantages such as a poor yield and/or a low purity of the desired product or a prolonged reaction time and thus is unsatisfactory from the practical viewpoint.
Therefore there has been generally employed a process for oxidizing cholanic acid which comprises first esterifying a carboxylic acid with an alcohol, protecting, if necessary, the hydroxyl group(s) not to be converted into keto group(s) by, for example, acylation, and then oxidizing the product.
It is known that a heavy metal oxidizing agent such as chromic acid, potassium chromate or sodium bichromate is employed in the above oxidation. Thus this process is accompanied by some disadvantages such that the waste water thereof contains toxic chromium compound(s) and that the product per se may be contaminated with the same. Accordingly there have been proposed processes wherein no heavy metal oxidizing agent is used. Examples of these processes include one wherein cholic acid is oxidized in a solvent mixture comprising a fatty acid and an alcohol with an aqueous alkaline solution of sodium hypochlorite (cf. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 51259/1974); and another one wherein the oxidation is carried out in a nonaqueous solvent with the use of bromocarbamide (cf. Japanese Patent Publication No. 41420/1981).
However each of these processes has some disadvantages such as a poor yield and/or a low purity of the desired product or a prolonged reaction time. Thus it has been required to improve the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for readily and efficiently preparing a ketocholanate having protected hydroxyl group(s) which comprises oxidizing a cholate or deoxycholate protected at the 3-position.
We have attempted to achieve the above object and consequently found that the desired ketocholanate can be efficiently prepared within a remarkably short period of time by oxidizing a cholate or deoxycholate protected at the 3-position with the use of an alkali metal salt of an oxo acid of halogen in the presence of a cerium compound, thus completing the present invention.
Accordingly the present invention provides a process for preparing ketocholanate(s) which comprises oxidizing one or more starting compounds selected from among alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanates, alkyl 3α-acyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanates, alkyl 3α-alkoxy-carbonyloxy12α-hydroxycholanates and alkyl 3α-acyloxy-12α-hydroxycholanates with an alkali metal salt of an oxo acid of halogen in the presence of a cerium compound to thereby give one or more compounds selected from among alkyl 3α-alkoxy-carbonyloxy-7,12-dioxocholanates, alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyl-oxy-7-oxo-12α-hydroxycholanates, alkyl 3α-acyloxy-7,12-dioxocholanates, alkyl 3α-acyloxy-7-oxy-12α-hydroxy-cholanates, alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyloxy-12-oxocholanates, alkyl 3α-acyloxy-12-oxocholanates and mixtures thereof.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The cholanate to be used as the starting compound in the process of the present invention has a hydroxyl group protected with an alkoxycarbonyloxy or acyloxy group at the 3-position and hydroxyl group(s) at the 12-position and optionally at the 7-position. Examples of the alkoxy group in said protective alkoxycarbonyloxy group include methoxy, ethoxy, propoxy, isopropoxy, butoxy, octoxy and 2-ethylhexyloxy groups. Examples of the acyl group in said acyloxy group include acetyl, propionyl, butyryl, octanoyl, benzoyl and succinoyl groups. Examples of the alkyl group forming the alkyl esters include methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, isobutyl, sec-butyl, tert-butyl, amyl, hexyl, octyl and 2-ethylhexyl groups.
Compounds having these protective groups are known and can be readily obtained by, for example, reacting a cholanate having hydroxyl group(s) with an alkyl chloroformate or an acid anhydride.
As the cerium compound to be used as a catalyst in the process of the present invention, either a cerium compound of a high purity or a mixture of rare earth compounds containing a large amount of cerium may be employed. Examples thereof include cerium chloride (rare earth chlorides), cerium fluoride (rare earth fluorides), cerium oxide (rare earth oxides), cerium hydroxide (rare earth hydroxides), cerium carbonate (rare earth carbonates) cerium sulfate (rare earth sulfates), cerium oxalate (rare earth oxalates), cerium acetate (rare earth acetates), cerium nitrate (rare earth nitrates), ammonium ceric nitrate and ammonium ceric sulfate. Among these compounds, ceric compounds such as ammonium ceric nitrate and ammonium ceric sulfate.
The amount of the cerium compound is not particularly restricted. It is generally approximately 0.1 to 100 % by mol, preferably 0.5 to 10 % by mol, based on the cholanic acid compound(s).
Examples of the alkali metal salt of an oxo acid of halogen to be used in the process of the present invention as an oxidizing agent include sodium, potassium and lithium salts of an oxo acid of halogen, such as chloric, bromic, iodic, chlorous, bromous, hypochlorous and perchloric acids.
The oxidizing agent should be employed in an equimolar amount or above to the hydroxyl group(s) to be oxidized. When the oxidation is to be completely effected, the amount of the oxidizing agent is not restricted so long as it is more than the equivalent level. Since the reaction rate increases with an increase in the amount of the oxidizing agent, it is generally employed in an amount up to approximately five equivalents. When the oxidation is to be partially effected, it is preferable that the oxidizing agent is employed in an amount of one to approximately two equivalents to the hydroxyl group(s) to be oxidized. This is because the use of a large excess of the oxidizing agent might not accelerate the aimed oxidation but cause the oxidation of hydroxyl group(s) which are not to be oxidized.
In the process of the present invention, the oxidation is carried out in a solvent. Examples of the solvent include water; lower alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and isopropanol; organic nitriles such as acetonitrile and propionitrile; halogenated hydrocarbons such as dichloroethane, chloroform and carbon tetrachloride; lower aliphatic acids such as acetic acid and propionic acid; ethers such as dioxane and tetrahydrofuran; and aliphatic ketones such as acetone and methyl ethyl ketone.
These solvents may be employed in an amount of one to 50 times by weight as much as the cholanic acid compound(s).
The reaction temperature may be from room temperature to the reflux temperature of the solvent. It is preferable to carry out the reaction at a temperature of 30° C or above to shorten the reaction time.
To further illustrate the present invention, the following Examples will be given.
EXAMPLE 1
Preparation of methyl 3α-ethoxycarbonyloxy-7-oxo-12α-hydroxycholanate
25 g of methyl 3α-ethoxycarbonyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanate was added to a mixture comprising 360 m of acetonitrile, 120 m of water and 120 m of dichloroethane. While stirring the mixture at room temperature, 5.0 g of sodium bromate and 1.8 g of ammonium ceric sulfate were successively added thereto.
The resulting mixture was stirred at 40 to 45° C. for three hours and then cooled. Then 150 m of toluene was added thereto. The aqueous phase was discarded and the organic phase was washed with a 5 % solution of sodium thiosulfate and then with water thoroughly.
The resulting organic phase was dried and the solvent was removed therefrom to thereby give a pale yellow solid. The analysis of the product with liquid chromatography revealed that the conversion was 98 %.
This product was recrystallized from methanol to thereby give the aimed product in the form of a white solid (m.p.: 185 to 188° C.). The IR and NMR spectra of this product completely agreed with those of a standard specimen.
EXAMPLE 2
Preparation of methyl 3α-ethoxycarbonyloxy-7,12-dioxocholanate
25 g of methyl 3α-ethoxycarbonyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxy-cholanate was added to a mixture comprising 360 m of acetonitrile, 120 m of water and 120 m of dichloroethane. While stirring the mixture at room temperature, 15 g of sodium bromate and 5.5 g of ammonium ceric nitrate were successively added thereto.
The resulting mixture was stirred under reflux for three hours and then 150 m of toluene was added thereto. The aqueous phase was discarded and the organic phase was washed with a 5 % solution of sodium thiosulfate and then with water thoroughly.
The resulting organic phase was dried and the solvent was removed therefrom to thereby give a pale yellow solid. The analysis of the product with liquid chromatography revealed that the reaction proceeded quantitatively.
This product was recrystallized from methanol to thereby give the aimed product in the form of a white solid (m.p.: 127 to 129° C.). The IR and NMR spectra of this product completely agreed with those of a standard specimen.
EXAMPLE 3
Preparation of methyl 3α-acetoxy-7,12-dioxocholanate
22.5 g of methyl 3α-acetoxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanate was added to a mixture comprising 360 m of acetonitrile, 120 m of water and 120 m of dichloroethane. While stirring the mixture at room temperature 15 g of sodium bromate and 5.5 g of ammonium ceric nitrate were successively added thereto.
The resulting mixture was stirred under reflux for three hours and then 150 m of toluene was added thereto. The aqueous phase was discarded and the organic phase was washed with a 5 % solution of sodium thiosulfate and then with water thoroughly.
The resulting organic phase was dried and the solvent was removed therefrom to thereby give a pale yellow solid. The analysis of this product with liquid chromatography revealed that the reaction proceeded quantitatively.
This product was recrystallized from methanol to thereby give the aimed compound in the form of a white solid (m.p.: 152 to 155° C.). The IR and NMR spectra of this product completely agreed with those of a standard specimen.
COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE
Oxidation of methyl 3α-ethoxycarbonyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanate
25 g of 3α-ethoxycarbonyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanate was added to a mixture comprising 360 mαof acetonitrile, 120 mαof water and 120 mαof dichloroethane. While stirring the mixture at room temperature, 5 g of sodium bromate was added thereto.
The resulting mixture was stirred at 40° C. to 45° C. for three hours. The analysis of this mixture with liquid chromatography revealed that the reaction did not proceed at all. Thus 10 g of sodium bromate was further added thereto and the mixture was stirred under reflux for additional three hours but the reaction did not yet proceed at all.
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A process for preparing ketocholanate(s) comprises oxidizing cholanic acid compound(s), such as alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyloxy-7α,12α- dihydroxycholanates or alkyl 3α-acyloxy-7α,12α-dihydroxycholanates, with an alkali metal salt of an oxo acid of halogen in the presence of a cerium compound. Ketocholanate(s) such as alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyloxy-7,12-dioxocholanataes, alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyloxy- 7-oxo-12α-hydroxycholanates, alkyl 3α-acyloxy-7,12-dioxocholanates, alkyl 3α-alkoxycarbonyloxy-12- oxocholantes, alkyl 3α-acyloxy-7-oxo-12α-hydroxycholanates and mixtures thereof are thus produced.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates generally to a flexible battery charger for charging large battery banks. More particularly, the present invention relates to a stackable battery charger that is enabled to work with batteries that are sensitive to charging conditions therefore they need continual communication and demand large amounts of power for quick charging.
BACKGROUND
[0002] A high voltage battery system, such as battery pack which is a composition of individual cells, is a critical element of several important applications such as electric vehicle drives and mass energy storage system. A “cell” can mean a single electrochemical cell comprised of the most basic units, i.e. a positive plate, a negative plate, and an electrolyte. However, as used herein, the term is not so limited and may include a group of cells that can comprise a single unit as a component of a battery pack and the use of the latest in battery chemistries i.e. lithium and lithium combinations. A battery or battery pack is a series or parallel connection of units or individual cells.
[0003] Achieving wide market acceptance for high voltage battery applications requires an economically viable system for charging high voltage battery packs. Addressing this demand requires developing a high power density charging system that can supply a controlled charging current at high output voltages. However, realizing such a system requires overcoming certain practical problems related to the high output voltage.
[0004] In principle, a battery charger is a power supply with controllable voltage, current and power limits. What differentiates a battery charger from a conventional power supply is the capability to satisfy the unique requirements of a battery pack. Typically, battery chargers have two tasks to accomplish. The first, and most important, is to restore capacity as quickly as possible and the second is to maintain capacity by compensating for self-discharge and ambient temperature variations. These tasks are normally accomplished by controlling the output voltage, current and power of the charger in a preset manner, namely, using a charging algorithm.
[0005] The two most common charging algorithms are constant-voltage charging and constant-current charging. In constant-voltage charging, the voltage across the battery string is held constant, with the state of the battery determining the charge current level. The charging process normally terminates after a certain time limit is reached. Constant-voltage charging is most popular in float mode applications.
[0006] By contrast, constant-current charging holds the charging current constant. This method is often used in cyclic applications as it recharges the battery in a relatively short time.
[0007] There are many variations of the two basic methods using a succession of constant-current charging and constant-voltage charging to optimize battery charge acceptance. These variations, however, require a controlled charger with both voltage and current regulation capability. Additionally a charger is limited to its designed voltage, current and power limits. The charger is also limited to its input limitations meaning that the charger can only supply to the battery string a subset of power provided to it from a power source like the a standard 120 volt socket with a 20 amp limit.
[0008] Therefor it is desirable to have a charger that is enabled to increase its ability to provide more power to meet the charging requirements of the battery string such that the charging of the battery string can happen more quickly without overcharging which can critically damage a battery.
SUMMARY
[0009] While the apparatus and method has or will be described for the sake of grammatical fluidity with functional explanations, it is to be expressly understood that the claims, unless expressly formulated under 35 USC 112, are not to be construed as necessarily limited in any way by the construction of “means” or “steps” limitations, but are to be accorded the full scope of the meaning and equivalents of the definition provided by the claims under the judicial doctrine of equivalents, and in the case where the claims are expressly formulated under 35 USC 112 are to be accorded full statutory equivalents under 35 USC 112.
[0010] The present invention specifically addresses and alleviates the above mentioned deficiencies associated with the prior art. According to a preferred aspect of the present invention the method of developing a battery charger network that is able to add available chargers into a charging network to satisfy the charging requirements and in some events increase the speed in which the battery string is fully charged by enabling more voltage and current and power to the battery string via a charger network.
[0011] According to one aspect, the present invention comprises a method for charging a battery string via a network of chargers, wherein the network comprises at least one charger, at least one battery string and at least one means of communicating between the chargers. Additional resources like a battery management system can be added to the network to increase functionality.
[0012] In one embodiment of the present invention two chargers are enabled to communicate to each other via a communication protocol and the two chargers are independently connected to a power source like a wall outlet that is tied to the electric grid. In this embodiment the chargers are smartly programed such that the chargers can communicate to each other and additional resources like a battery management system.
[0013] Another aspect of the present invention is realized once communication is established in that the charger can be smartly configured such that one battery charger is identified as the master, the second battery charger is identified as a slave.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] The invention and its various embodiments can now be better understood by turning to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments which are presented as illustrated examples of the invention defined in the claims. It is expressly understood that the invention as defined by the claims may be broader than the illustrated embodiments described below.
[0015] FIG. 1 represents the physical connections of a charging system without a charger network.
[0016] FIG. 2 represents a diagram of a charger network of the present invention.
[0017] FIG. 3 is a flowchart which represents the logical process in which a charger network is established in practice.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0018] Many alterations and modifications may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, it must be understood that the illustrated embodiment has been set forth only for the purposes of example and that it should not be taken as limiting the invention as defined by the following claims. For example, notwithstanding the fact that the elements of a claim are set forth below in a certain combination, it must be expressly understood that the invention includes other combinations of fewer, more or different elements, which are disclosed herein even when not initially claimed in such combinations.
[0019] The words used in this specification to describe the invention and its various embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification structure, material or acts beyond the scope of the commonly defined meanings. Thus if an element can be understood in the context of this specification as including more than one meaning, then its use in a claim must be understood as being generic to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by the word itself.
[0020] The definitions of the words or elements of the following claims therefore include not only the combination of elements which are literally set forth, but all equivalent structure, material or acts for performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements in the claims below or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim. Although elements may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, it is to be expressly understood that one or more elements from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination and that the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.
[0021] Insubstantial changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalently within the scope of the claims. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements.
[0022] Thus, the detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention and is not intended to represent the only form in which the present invention may be constructed or utilized. The description sets forth the functions and the sequence of steps for constructing and operating the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiment. It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit of the invention.
[0023] The claims are thus to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted and also what essentially incorporates the essential idea of the invention.
[0024] The present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 , which depict a presently preferred embodiment thereof. The Figures represent the invention and assumes the physical connections have been made to establish the physical network of at least one charger, at least one battery pack and at least one source of power and all are recognized and available.
[0025] The FIG. 1 represents a charging system where the chargers are physically connected such they can charge but lack a communication means which is required in a charger network.
[0026] The diagram in FIG. 2 represents a charger network of the present invention where the charger network is established by implementing a communication means. More specifically the charger network includes charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) wherein charger 1 and charger 2 are smartly configured with a microprocessor and software that can communicate via a communication means ( 140 ). Additionally, the charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) are physically connected to a power source ( 110 ) by means of physical connections ( 180 ) such that charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) are able to receive power from the power source. It is represented in this figure that charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) are connected to the same power source ( 110 ) but in practice charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) would be connected to the power source ( 110 ) separately such that they can draw as much power from the power source as possible and are not limited to the restraints of one connection or connection type. The charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) are also logically connected to a power source by way of a communication means ( 190 ) such that if the charger network is connected to a power source that is the smart grid it is able to communicate since the smart gird is configured such that it can communicate with the other electronic devices like a charger network ( 100 ) via the communication means ( 190 ).
[0027] Charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) are also physically connected to the battery pack ( 160 ) by a physical connection ( 170 ) and ( 175 ) such that charger 1 and charger 2 can supply power to the battery pack ( 160 ). There is a communication means ( 150 ) that may additionally be connected to the battery pack ( 160 ) by way of a battery management system often referred to as a (BMS) ( 180 ). A battery management system is designed to monitor the charging of the battery pack and each cell in the battery pack. This is especially important while charging the battery pack because the charger is not configured to be aware of the condition of each cell in the battery pack and there for an individual cell can be damaged if that one cell has less capacity that the other cells in the battery pack and therefore can be susceptible to overcharging while charging the entire pack. This communication means allows the charger 1 ( 120 ) and charger 2 ( 130 ) the ability to communicate with the BMS ( 180 ). The BMS often acts as an identification means of the battery pack. For example the BMS will have the battery type, battery capacity, battery voltage, battery current, and the overall health of the battery pack and may even have this information for each cell in the battery pack.
[0028] FIG. 3 represents the logical process in which a charger network is established by means of charger 1 and charger 2 and a BMS and a power source in which charger 1 and charger 2 and a BMS and a power source all includes a microprocessor for communicating and processing data. Each may also include memory means and a computer. The logical process identified in FIG. 1 as ( 300 ) assumes the physical presence of a charger 1 a charger 2 a BMS and a power source. In the process ( 300 ) charger 1 is powered up ( 310 ) by means of applying power. Charger 1 then performs a self-check to ensure the charger isn't experiencing a fault that has been predetermined to be detrimental to the charging of a battery pack. Charger 1 then identifies that it is physically connected to a network and logically attempts to communicate on such network ( 330 ). Charger 1 then sets itself as master ( 340 ) in the charger network. Charger 2 is then powered up ( 350 ) by means of applying power and charger 2 performs a self-check ( 360 ) to ensure the charger isn't experiencing a fault that has been predetermined to be detrimental to the charging of a battery pack. Charger 2 then identifies that it is physically connected to a network and logically attempts to communicate on such network ( 370 ). This communication results in communicating with Charger 1 which is already identified as master so charger 2 is set as slave. Such setting can be performed by the master.
[0029] Once the charger network is established charger 1 and charger 2 is then enabled to provide power to the battery pack such that the battery pack can have the benefit of being charged by two chargers charger 1 and charger 2 via a charger network.
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A data management system that is enabled such that the user can select a data source node, a repository and a data path, choose policies for each and distribute the policies to be managed by the management system.
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BACKGROUND
[0001] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a related art nuclear boiling water reactor (BWR) jet pump assembly 8 . The major components of the jet pump assembly 8 include a riser pipe 3 and two inlet mixers 4 that insert into respective diffusers 2 . Jet pump restrainer brackets 6 are used to stabilize movement of the inlet mixers 4 and reduce movement of and leakage at slip joint 6 that exists at the interface between inlet mixers 4 and diffusers 2 . One type of movement is Flow Induced Vibration, or FIV, that causes slip joint leakage due to high-velocity flows in and around assembly 8 . Restrainer brackets 6 minimize relative movement between inlet mixers 4 and restrainer brackets 6 to minimize leakage or damage around slip joint 6 .
[0002] FIG. 2 is a detailed view of related art slip joint 6 that exists between inlet mixer 4 and diffuser 2 of a BWR jet pump assembly. Bottom portion 4 a of the inlet mixer 4 inserts into upper crown 2 a of diffuser 2 . A top edge of diffuser 2 includes one or more guide ears 2 b to allow tolerances and easier connection between inlet mixer 4 and diffuser 2 . The interface or mating between inlet mixer 4 and diffuser 2 is referred to as slip joint 6 .
[0003] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of related art slip joint 6 between inlet mixer 4 and diffuser 2 of a BWR jet pump assembly, showing internal relationships between components. Lowest distal end 4 b of inlet mixer 4 rests in upper crown 2 a of diffuser 2 , to form slip joint 6 . Inlet mixer FIV may occur in the slip joint 6 when tolerances between distal end 4 b of inlet mixer 4 and upper crown 2 a of diffuser 2 do not exactly match due to wear or improper machining. Leakage may occur at this interface due to both a poor fit and FIV, as fluid coolant leaks between lowest distal end 4 b of inlet mixer 4 and upper crown 2 a of diffuser 2 and out of the slip joint 6 .
SUMMARY
[0004] Example embodiments include slip joint clamps that can vertically join to a diffuser end and laterally push or drive an inlet mixer to stabilize and prevent vibration and leakage in a slip joint between the diffuser and inlet mixer. Example clamps may include clamp arms that are moveable with respect to each other to allow expansion and closing around a slip joint to seat on the diffuser, such as ring halves joined about a clevis pin for example. Example clamps further include structures that push against the inlet mixer, like a lateral drive that transversely pushes the inlet mixer against the clamp. For example, the lateral drive may include a leaf spring that can be biased through a driving bolt and transmission to allow biasing and preloading internal to the clamp from the accessible driving bolt at an exterior surface of the clamp. Example clamps include an axial mount that attach and secure the clamp to a diffuser exterior, such as guide ear clamps that extend around a guide ear common on a diffuser terminus, for example. This axial mounting may permit example clamps to seat on a diffuser end and fill the slip joint around the diffuser end without requiring disassembly or loading on the inlet mixer. The lateral loading may thus independently compress the inlet mixer against an interior of the clamp to prevent vibration in and leakage through the slip joint.
BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] Example embodiments will become more apparent by describing, in detail, the attached drawings, wherein like elements are represented by like reference numerals, which are given by way of illustration only and thus do not limit the terms which they depict.
[0006] FIG. 1 is an illustration of a related art jet pump assembly for use in a nuclear power plant.
[0007] FIG. 2 is an illustration of a slip joint in the related art jet pump assembly of FIG. 1 .
[0008] FIG. 3 is a cross-section of the slip joint of FIG. 2 .
[0009] FIG. 4 is an illustration of an example embodiment slip joint clamp.
[0010] FIG. 5 is an illustration of an example embodiment slip joint clamp installed about a slip joint in a jet pump assembly.
[0011] FIG. 6 is a cross-section of a detail of the slip joint clamp of FIG. 5 .
[0012] FIG. 7 is a selected axial view of an example leaf spring useable in connection with an example embodiment slip joint clamp.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0013] Because this is a patent document, general broad rules of construction should be applied when reading and understanding it. Everything described and shown in this document is an example of subject matter falling within the scope of the appended claims. Any specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely for purposes of describing how to make and use example embodiments or methods. Several different embodiments not specifically disclosed herein fall within the claim scope; as such, the claims may be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only example embodiments set forth herein.
[0014] It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
[0015] It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected,” “coupled,” “mated,” “attached,” or “fixed” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled” to another element, there are no intervening elements present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between”, “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent”, etc.). Similarly, a term such as “communicatively connected” includes all variations of information exchange routes between two devices, including intermediary devices, networks, etc., connected wirelessly or not.
[0016] As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include both the singular and plural forms, unless the language explicitly indicates otherwise with words like “only,” “single,” and/or “one.” It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”, “comprising,”, “includes” and/or “including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, ideas, and/or components, but do not themselves preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, ideas, and/or groups thereof.
[0017] It should also be noted that the structures and operations discussed below may occur out of the order described and/or noted in the figures. For example, two operations and/or figures shown in succession may in fact be executed concurrently or may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved. Similarly, individual operations within example methods described below may be executed repetitively, individually or sequentially, so as to provide looping or other series of operations aside from the single operations described below. It should be presumed that any embodiment having features and functionality described below, in any workable combination, falls within the scope of example embodiments.
[0018] The Inventors have newly recognized that slip joints in nuclear reactor jet pumps often have worn interfaces between diffusers and inlet mixers at the slip joint. The wear may be ¼-inch of depleted metal or other material due to FIV around a perimeter of the slip joint, which can both worsen leakage through the slip joint and render existing slip joint clamps and FIV solutions inoperable without adequate material to seal. Conventional repairs for worn slip joint interfaces may involve disassembly of the inlet mixer, requiring substantial downtime and repair resources. The Inventors have newly recognized a need for slip joint repair without significant disassembly or dependence on pristine slip joint structures that still reduces leakage and FIV in the slip joint. Example embodiments described below uniquely enable solutions to these and other problems discovered by the Inventors.
[0019] The present invention is clamps that are useable with slip joints in nuclear reactor jet pumps to preload the same. In contrast to the present invention, the few example embodiments and example methods discussed below illustrate just a subset of the variety of different configurations that can be used as and/or in connection with the present invention.
[0020] FIG. 4 is an illustration of an example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 . As seen in FIG. 4 , slip joint clamp 100 is shaped to match an inlet mixer and diffuser interface at a slip joint, such as an annular shape. Slip joint clamp 100 is shaped to seat axially onto a diffuser (such as diffuser 2 in FIG. 2 ) while surrounding an exterior of an inlet mixer (such as inlet mixer 4 in FIG. 2 ) at a slip joint. Slip joint clamp 100 may completely or partially surround and/or fill a slip joint by seating on a diffuser and surrounding an inlet mixer of the slip joint.
[0021] Example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 may include two ring halves 120 that are joined to form an annular shape or other shape to match a slip joint shape. Ring halves 120 may be moveable with respect to one another if joined by a hinge or socket or any other relative joining mechanism, including a clevis pin 130 , for example. Clevis pin 130 may permit ring halves 120 to expand/be separated in a transverse or radial direction without fully disconnecting or moving relatively in an axial position, allowing clamp 100 to adjust to and move over diffuser and/or inlet mixer structures. In this way, example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 can be installed about a slip joint without disassembly of any inlet mixer or diffuser, because clamp 100 can open halves 120 to fit around such structures and close halves 120 when in place on a diffuser, for example.
[0022] Example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 may include a fastening element to ensure it may be expanded in a transverse direction so as to be removably installed about a slip joint. For example, a collar bolt 135 may be used to engage and draw together ring halves 120 , such as by screwing into one half 120 while being mounted in another half 120 , to form a substantially annular shape of clamp 100 with no relative movement of ring halves 120 when collar bolt 135 is engaged between the two. Collar bolt 135 may not apply additional tension or shaping beyond a point when ring halves 120 are fully mated; that is, collar bolt 135 may rigidly yet removably join ring halves 120 into a configuration that mounts on a diffuser without potential for additional clamping from collar bolt 135 when so joined. In this way, example embodiment clamp 100 may remain reliably closed without significantly transversely loading a diffuser on which it seats.
[0023] Slip joint clamp 100 includes an inner surface 121 that is shaped to seat against an inlet mixer and extend down along an inner surface of a diffuser at a slip joint. Inner surface 121 may be formed by ring halves 120 , for example, being brought together about clevis pin 130 and closed into a ring shape. Inner surface 121 may be substantially annular at higher axial positions to match an outer surface of a cylindrical inlet mixer. Inner surface 121 may further include a flange or thinner ring element at a lower axial position that matches an interface between an outer surface of a cylindrical diffuser and an inner surface of a cylindrical diffuser at the slip joint. In this way, example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 may be shaped and sized like a sleeve that internally fits against a diffuser while externally seating on a top of the diffuser and fitting externally against an inlet mixer.
[0024] Slip joint clamp 100 may include axial joints or anchors that retain clamp 100 on an upper end, such as a crown, of a diffuser at a slip joint. For example, ear clamp 181 may be shaped and sized to clamp around a guide ear of a diffuser (such as ear 2 b in FIG. 2 ) in order to axially hold clamp 100 at a top end of a diffuser. A draw bolt 182 may be paired with ear clamp 191 to allow axial movement of ear clamp 191 and thus clamping against a lower side of the ear. Further, a ratchet surface 190 or other locking mechanism can permit one-way movement or tensioned securing of draw bolt 182 when paired with a matching ratchet surface of draw bolt 182 in example embodiment clamp 100 . When draw bolt 182 is turned, ear clamp 181 may be drawn upward against an ear or other surface, axially clamping clamp 100 , and ratchet surface 190 may prevent reversing of draw bolt 182 and thus loosening.
[0025] Multiple sets of ear clamp 181 , draw bolt 182 , and ratchet 190 may be positioned about clamp 100 . In this way, clamp 100 may be axially secured to and tightened against each guide ear at multiple radial positions, ensuring clamp 100 remains stationary and secure while exerting axial clamping forces only against a top end of a diffuser. When halves 120 and inner surface 121 are shaped to substantially fill a slip joint between a diffuser and inlet mixer, axial securing of clamp 100 may prevent fluid from escaping the slip joint. Because guide ears are less likely to become worn through FIV and other jet pump operations, they may be used for axially clamping and anchoring clamp 100 without regard for wear or other damage that may have occurred inside a diffuser or inlet mixer at the slip joint.
[0026] Example embodiment slip joint clamp includes a lateral-loading drive that can independently push or bias an inlet mixer at a slip joint to a desired preloading condition. Such lateral loading may secure the inlet mixer against inner surface 121 and further prevent FIV and leakage. The lateral-loading drive provides at least up to 750 pounds-force of lateral preload against an inlet mixer. For example, a leaf spring 140 may be laterally driven by a lateral driving bolt 160 mounted in a top plate 150 . A ratchet surface 170 may allow tightening or one-way movement of driving bolt 160 until 750 or more pounds of force are exerted by leaf spring 140 . Additional operational examples of driving bolt 160 and leaf spring 140 are described below in connection with FIG. 6 .
[0027] FIG. 5 is an illustration of example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 as installed at a slip joint between inlet mixer 4 and diffuser 2 , such as related art structures of FIGS. 1-3 in existing or future nuclear reactor jet pumps. Inlet mixer 4 and/or diffuser 2 may have been damaged or subject to extensive FIV during operation or otherwise, causing wear and damage to their surfaces where they mate at the slip joint. As such, there may be significant fluid leakage and relative movement between inlet mixer 4 and diffuser 2 without slip joint clamp 100 being installed. Or, inlet mixer 4 may require axial adjustment with respect to diffuser 2 without disassembly or removal of the entire slip joint when installing an example embodiment clamp.
[0028] As shown in FIG. 5 , example embodiment clamp 100 can axially seat at a top terminus, or crown, of diffuser 2 about a slip joint with inlet mixer 4 . This positioning may be achieved without movement of diffuser 2 or inlet mixer 4 , because of how clamp 100 can be opened and closed or otherwise fit around these structures. For example, clamp 100 may be opened in lateral or radial direction 95 to fit around inlet mixer 4 without disassembly of the same, and then clamp 100 may be closed to fit about a top end of diffuser 2 by radially closing halves or other portions of clamp 100 , potentially about a clevis pin or other fastener. Collar bolt 135 may secure clamp 100 in a closed, continuous shape in radial direction 95 on diffuser 2 .
[0029] Example embodiment clamp 100 may further be axially secured to diffuser 2 in order to prevent relative movement between clamp 100 and diffuser 2 . For example, clamp 100 may be rotated in radial direction 95 until each ear clamp 181 is positioned axially under a corresponding guide ear 2 b of diffuser 2 . Draw bolt 182 may be tightened to move ear clamp 181 upward in axial direction 181 , such as through threads or another connection. Because both ear clamp 181 and draw bolt 182 may be seated in clamp 100 , this axial movement may cause a net axial downward force on clamp 100 , securing clamp 100 to diffuser 2 in an axial direction. Ratchet surface 190 may prevent loosening of draw bolt 182 in order to maintain the secured positioning.
[0030] Example embodiment clamp 100 can be axially secured to diffuser 2 despite potential wear or damage to terminal or inner surfaces of diffuser 2 . Moreover, example embodiment clamp 100 can be axially secured as seen in FIG. 5 without removing or requiring movement of inlet mixer 4 in axial direction 90 , because clamp 100 can be axially secured through guide ears 2 b. Thus, inlet mixer 4 can still be axially adjusted and repositioned with respect to a slip joint during installation of example embodiment clamp 100 . Securing clamp 100 via guide ears 2 b may also prevent relative movement of example embodiment clamp 100 in a radial direction 95 .
[0031] FIG. 6 is a cross-section of the Detail A region of FIG. 5 . As seen in FIG. 6 , inner surface 121 of clamp 100 may seat down into diffuser 2 , such that clamp 100 is flush against an inner perimeter of the same. For example, inner surface 121 may have a lower flange or other fitted section that narrows to fit within slip joint components. A bottom outer portion of inlet mixer 4 also seats against inner surface 121 of clamp 100 . In this way, a narrowing portion of example embodiment clamp 100 and/or an otherwise specially shaped inner surface 121 may fit down into and seal a slip joint between diffuser 2 and inlet mixer 4 , regardless of wear, damage, or non-fit among ends of those pieces and without requiring disassembly of those pieces for installation.
[0032] As further seen in FIG. 6 a lateral loading structure is useable in example embodiment clamp 100 . Lateral driving bolt 160 may be extended through top plate 150 and extend down into a chamber 167 inside of example embodiment clamp 100 ( FIG. 4 ). Wedge 154 may be secured to or a part of driving bolt 160 and captured by chamber 167 , except where a wedged or angled surface seats against a surface of leaf spring 140 in inner surface 121 of clamp 100 ( FIG. 4 ). Leaf spring 140 may additionally be axially restrained adjacent to chamber 167 by top plate 150 . Because top plate 150 and chamber 167 may be bolted to, in integral within, example embodiment clamp 100 , driving bolt 160 may be axially driven upward or downward relative to clamp 100 when seated in threads in top plate 150 . Such axial movement in wedge 154 translates to transverse or radial compression of leaf spring 140 due to the angled surfaces and otherwise captured nature of leaf spring 140 and wedge 154 in chamber 167 . A desired axial displacement or resultant force may be sustained through ratchet surface 170 or another lock that prevents drive bolt 160 from further moving after being set at a desired axial position. Thus, when clamp 100 is axially secured, such as to diffuser 2 , a transverse load may be applied internal to clamp 100 without axial and/or diffuser involvement.
[0033] FIG. 7 is an illustration of an example leaf spring 140 illustrating its shape and compression. Leaf spring 140 may extend some distance along a perimeter of inner surface 121 (as seed in FIG. 4 ) and be shaped such that under compression leaf spring 140 compresses against, and distributes force along, some length of an outer surface of inlet mixer 4 . For example, leaf spring may extend along an eighth or more of a perimeter of inlet mixer 4 . Leaf spring 140 may define a central void 145 where a post from top plate 150 ( FIG. 6 ) may extend through to retain leaf spring 140 in chamber 167 in contact with wedge 154 ( FIG. 6 ).
[0034] As seen in FIG. 7 , force may be applied in transverse direction 99 when leaf spring 140 is installed in an example embodiment clamp at a slip joint and in contact with inlet mixer 4 . Such force may come from, for example, wedge 154 being drawn up in cavity 167 by driving bolt 160 in FIG. 6 . As the force in direction 99 approaches a desired preload force, such as 750-lbs, outer contact pads 141 a and 141 c of leaf spring 140 may extend angularly (direction 99 of FIG. 5 ) along inlet mixer 4 , distributing such force. Finally, central contact pad 141 b may come into contact with inlet mixer at the desired preload force, essentially distributing a large static force in a radial direction against inlet mixer 4 . This force may compress inlet mixer 4 against an opposite inner surface 121 in clamp 100 ( FIG. 4 ). Under a sufficiently large preload force, such as 750 pounds-force or more, inlet mixer 4 may be prevented from moving relative to a diffuser or undergoing FIV via this contact with clamp 100 .
[0035] As seen, example embodiment slip joint clamp 100 can be axially secured to a diffuser and independently bias an inlet mixer. Installation on the diffuser may require attachment only to guide ears or other external structures without movement or involvement with an inlet mixer. Subsequent to installation on an end of the diffuser about a slip joint, example embodiment clamp 100 may be laterally biased via a lateral drive. This lateral biasing may exclusively preload the inlet mixer with up to or exceeding 750 pounds force in a lateral or radial direction to seat the inlet mixer against the clamp perimeter without involvement of the diffuser. This independent axial attachment to the diffuser and lateral preload of the inlet mixer may permit installation of example embodiment clamps on a variety of slip joint types and in varying conditions, reduce leakage through such slip joints, and prevent FIV in and damage between slip joint components.
[0036] Example embodiment clamp 100 may be fabricated of any materials that are compatible with an operating nuclear reactor environment, including materials that maintain their physical characteristics when exposed to high-temperature fluids and radiation. For example, metals such as stainless steels and iron alloys, nickel alloys, zirconium alloys, etc. are useable in example embodiment clamp 100 . For example, leaf spring 140 may be X750 inconel of approximately 1-inch radial depth/thickness to provide a spring constant the yields up to 750 lbf preload force when compressed across its thickness. Bolts, clamp body, and connectors may be fabricated of stainless steels and other compatible materials to prevent fouling or metal-on-metal reactions.
[0037] Example embodiments and methods thus being described, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that example embodiments may be varied and substituted through routine experimentation while still falling within the scope of the following claims. For example, a generally annular slip joint connection has been shown in connection with an example; however, other configurations and shapes of slip joints, and diffusers and inlet mixers therein, are compatible with example embodiments and methods simply through proper dimensioning and placement—and fall within the scope of the claims. Such variations are not to be regarded as departure from the scope of these claims.
|
Slip joint clamps seat on a diffuser end via external features of the diffuser, like guide ears, regardless of slip joint wear or damage. The clamps can be opened and closed to surround an inlet mixer forming a slip joint with the diffuser without disassembly. Slip joint clamps drive or bias the inlet mixer in a lateral direction largely perpendicular to the axial orientation and end of the diffuser to achieve a desired preload force in the inlet mixer and clamp connection. Clamp arms include rotatable halves that, when joined, form a complete fill between an inner surface of the diffuser and outer surface of the inlet mixer. A lateral drive pushes the inlet mixer against the clamp and may include a resistive element. An accessible set of guide ear bolts and lateral driving bolts permit exterior manipulation to axially mount or laterally bias the clamp in the slip joint.
| 5
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the utilization of waste heat from diesel or other types of internal combustion engines used in power generation.
More particularly, the present invention relates to utilizing waste heat from diesel or similar types internal combustion engines used for power generation, where the engines are relatively small and produce an exhaust gas effluent stream having an initial temperature not more than 900° F., and where the system produces a spent exhaust effluent stream having a final temperature as low as 250° F.
2. Description of the Related Art
A specific characteristic of small diesel engines or other similar internal combustion engines used for power generation is that they produce relatively low temperature exhaust gas effluent stream.
Although the utilization of heat from exhaust gas can be done in many different ways using conventional type of bottoming cycles, these bottoming cycles generally require large capital investments and are not geared for use with small diesel engines used in power generation.
Thus, not only is there an need in the art for more efficient and effective means for extracting usable work from waste heat generated by small internal combustion engines.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a simple bottoming cycle for use with small internal combustion engines used for power generation. In its simplest embodiment, the cycle includes a turbine for extracting energy from a fully vaporized multi-component working fluid, a condenser, two heat exchangers and a separator designed to convert the spent working fluid into a liquid working fluid and into a partially vaporized working fluid stream and a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator designed to extract energy from an exhaust stream having a temperature not greater than about 900° F. to convert the partially vaporized working fluid stream into a fully vaporized and in certain embodiment superheated working fluid stream for energy extraction in the turbine. The cycle is a closed cycle for the working fluid.
The present invention also provides a simple bottoming cycle for use with small internal combustion engines used for power generation. In another embodiment, the cycle includes a turbine for extracting energy from a fully vaporized multi-component working fluid, a condenser, three heat exchangers and a separator designed to convert the spent working fluid into a liquid working fluid and into a partially vaporized working fluid stream and a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator designed to extract energy from an exhaust stream having a temperature not greater than about 900° F. to convert the partially vaporized working fluid stream into a fully vaporized and in certain embodiment superheated working fluid stream for energy extraction in the turbine. The cycle is a closed cycle for the working fluid.
The present invention also provides a simple bottoming cycle for use with small internal combustion engines used for power generation. The cycle comprises four multi-component fluid working solutions: a lean working solution having a highest concentration of the higher boiling component, a very rich working solution having a highest concentration of the lower boiling component, a rich working solution having a second highest concentration of the lower boiling component and an intermediate working solution having an intermediate concentration of the low boiling component. Stated differently, the stream have the following order of lower boiling component: [lower boiling component] very rich >[lower boiling component] rich >[lower boiling component] intermediate >[low boiling component] lean and conversely [high boiling component] lean >[higher boiling component] intermediate >[higher boiling component] rich >[higher boiling component] very rich . Energy is extracted from the intermediate working solution stream, which can be fully vaporized and generally superheated directly or can be formed from a rich fully vaporized and superheated working solution stream and a lean fully vaporized and superheated working solution stream. Excess thermal energy in the spent intermediate working solution stream is used to heat and help vaporizing the stream that become the fully vaporized and generally superheated intermediate working solution stream. The lean and very rich streams are formed by separating a partially condensed spent intermediate working solution stream. The very rich stream is combined with a portion of the lean stream to from the rich working solution stream which is then fully condensed after transferring heat to a fully condensed higher pressure rich working solution stream. The cooled rich working fluid stream is then fully condensed by an external coolant stream and pressurized to form the higher pressure, rich working solution stream. The lean stream is pressurized and either combined with a partially vaporized rich working solution stream and the combined stream forwarded to the RHRVG or sent directly into the RHRVG along side the rich working solution stream and combined after the two stream are fully vaporized and generally superheated. Where the RHRVG derives its thermal energy from a gas exhaust stream from an internal combustion power generator.
The present invention provides a method for extracting an additional amount of power from a small internal combustion power generator including the step of passing an exhaust gas stream not exceed about 900° F. into a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator to produce a cooled exhaust stream and a fully vaporized, and in certain embodiments a superheated, multi-component stream. The fully vaporized and optionally superheated multi-component stream is then passed through a turbine or other similar energy conversion unit in which a portion of thermal energy in the stream is converted to a more useable form of energy such as electrical energy. The spent multi-component stream is then forwarded to a heat exchange, condensation and pressurization subsystem that converts the multi-component stream into a fully condensed multi-component stream which is then partially vaporized and passed into the recuperative heat recovery vapor generator.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention can be better understood with reference to the following detailed description together with the appended illustrative drawings in which like elements are numbered the same:
FIG. 1 an embodiment of an apparatus or system of this invention including a condenser HE 1 , three recuperative heat exchangers HE 2 , HE 3 and HE 4 , a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator RHRVG, turbine T 1 , a separator S 1 and three pumps P 1 , P 2 and P 4 ;
FIG. 2 an embodiment of an apparatus or system of this invention including a condenser HE 1 , two recuperative heat exchangers HE 2 and HE 3 , a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator RHRVG, turbine T 1 , a separator S 1 and three pumps P 1 , P 2 and P 4 .
FIG. 3 an embodiment of an apparatus or system of this invention including a condenser HE 1 , three recuperative heat exchangers HE 2 , HE 3 and HE 4 , a vaporizing heat exchange system including two heat exchanger HE 5 and HE 6 , turbine T 1 , a separator S 1 and three pumps P 1 , P 2 and P 4 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have found an apparatus, system and method can be devised for power generation from intermediated temperature waste heat as a heat source, such as the exhaust stream from small diesel power units. The apparatus includes a condenser HE 1 , two or three recuperative heat exchangers HE 2 , HE 3 and HE 4 , and a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator RHRVG, turbine T 1 , a separator S 1 and three pumps P 1 , P 2 and P 4 . The system is relatively simple and permits ready installation and effectively conversion of waste heat or thermal energy into a more useable form of energy such as electrical or mechanical. The bottoming cycle significantly improves the overall power generation capability of such small diesel or other internal combustion power generation units.
The systems of this invention are designed for power generation using intermediate temperature waste heat as a heat source such as waste heat from smaller diesel power generation engines. The systems are designed to utilize heat sources with an initial temperature not more than or not to exceed about 900° F. producing an exhaust stream having a final temperature as low as 250° F. The systems are ideally designed for application to relatively small power units (up to 10 MW). A typical application of such a system is as a bottoming cycle to a diesel engine, using the exhaust stream of the diesel engine as the heat source.
The systems of this invention are designed to use a mixture of at least two components as a working fluid, (hereafter referred to as the “low boiling” and “high boiling” components). In certain embodiments, the working fluid for the systems of this invention are a mixture of water and ammonia, but the system can operate using other components with the same efficacy.
The working fluids suitable for use in the condensation apparatuses of this inventions is a multi-component fluid that comprises a lower boiling point material—the low boiling component—and a higher boiling point material—the high boiling component. The working fluid, a multi-component mixture of at least two components with different normal boiling temperatures. In the certain embodiments of the system, the mixture consists of water and ammonia, but other working fluids, such as a mixture of hydrocarbons, freons or other substances can be used as well. In other embodiments, the working fluids include, without limitation, an ammonia-water mixture, a mixture of two or more hydrocarbons, a mixture of two or more freons, a mixture of hydrocarbons and freons, or the like. In other embodiments, the working fluid comprises a mixture of water and ammonia. However, the fluid can comprise mixtures of any number of compounds with favorable thermodynamic characteristics and solubilities.
The dividing valves used in this invention are well known in the art and are used to split streams into two or more substream, where the flow going into each stream being controlled by the exact construction of the dividing valve or by a control on the valve setting so that the flow rate is changeable to maintain the system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Referring now to FIG. 1 , a conceptual flow diagram of an embodiment of a system of this invention, generally 100 , is shown. The system 100 includes a condenser HE 1 , three recuperative heat exchangers HE 2 , HE 3 and HE 4 , a separator S 1 , three pump P 1 , P 2 , and P 4 , a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator RHRVG and a turbine T 1 .
The system 100 operates as follows:
A fully condensed basic, rich working solution stream S 10 (i.e., a working fluid with a high concentration of the low-boiling component) having parameters as at a point 1 , is pumped by a first pump P 1 to a desired higher pressure forming a higher pressure, rich working solution stream S 12 having parameters as at a point 2 . Thereafter, the stream S 12 having the parameters as at the point 2 passes through a second heat exchanger HE 2 , where it is heated in counterflow by a returning rich working solution stream S 14 having parameters as at a point 26 in a heat exchange process 2 - 3 or 26 - 27 as described below. As a result of the heat exchange process 26 - 27 or 2 - 3 , a heated, higher pressure, rich working solution stream S 16 having parameters as at a point 3 , corresponding to a state of saturated liquid is formed as well as a partially condensed rich working solution stream S 18 having parameters as at a point 27 .
Thereafter, the stream S 16 having the parameters as at the point 3 enters into a third heat exchanger HE 3 , where it is partially vaporized in heat exchange process 3 - 5 - 8 or 20 - 15 - 14 by a first returning intermediate working solution stream S 20 having parameters as at a point 20 as described below forming a partially vaporized, higher pressure, rich working solution stream S 22 having parameters as at a point 8 and a partially condensed spent intermediate working solution stream S 24 having parameter as at a point 14 . The partially vaporized, higher pressure, rich working solution stream S 22 having the parameters as at the point 8 corresponds to a state of vapor-liquid mixture.
Thereafter, the partially vaporized, higher pressure, rich working solution S 22 having the parameters as at the point 8 enters into a recuperative heat recovery vapor generator RHRVG, where it is fully vaporized and superheated in a heat exchange process 8 - 4 - 11 - 16 forming a higher pressure, superheated vapor, rich working solution stream S 26 having parameters as at a point 16 . The stream S 26 is a rich working solution stream having parameters consistent with a state of higher pressure, superheated vapor.
Thereafter, the stream S 26 having the parameters as at the point 16 is mixed with a lean working solution stream S 28 having parameters as at a point 29 , as described below. As a result of this mixing an intermediate working solution stream S 30 having parameters as at a point 17 is formed. The stream S 30 having the parameters as at the point 17 then enters into a turbine T 1 , where it is expanded, producing power, and forming a spent intermediate working solution stream S 32 having parameters as at a point 18 . The stream S 32 having the parameters as at the point 18 is in a state of superheated vapor.
Thereafter, the stream S 32 having the parameters as at the point 18 is sent back into the RHRVG, where it is cooled, transferring a portion of its heat or excess thermal energy to other streams in the RHRVG including a diesel exhaust gas stream E 10 having initial parameters as at a point 600 in a heat exchange process 601 - 602 as described below. After passing through the RHRVG, the stream S 32 having the parameters as at the point 18 is converted into a cooled spent intermediate working solution stream S 34 having parameters as at a point 19 .
Thereafter, the stream S 34 having the parameters as at the point 19 is split into the returning intermediate working solution stream S 20 having the parameters as at the point 20 and a second returning intermediate working solution stream S 36 having parameters as at a point 12 .
A major portion or the bulk of the stream S 34 having the parameters as at the point 19 is sent into the stream S 20 having the parameters as at the point 20 . The stream S 20 having the parameters as at the point 20 then passes through the third heat exchanger, HE 3 as described above, where it is de-superheated a heat exchange process 20 - 15 and then partially condensed in a heat exchange process 15 - 14 , providing heat for the heat exchange process 3 - 5 - 8 as described above. Thereafter, the stream S 20 having the parameters as at the point 20 exits HE 3 as the stream S 24 having the parameters as at the point 14 as described above.
The other and smaller portion of the stream S 34 having the parameters as at the point 19 is sent into the stream S 36 having the parameters as at the point 12 . The stream S 36 having the parameters as at the point 12 is then forwarded through a fourth heat exchanger HE 4 . The stream S 36 having the parameters as at the point 12 is de-superheated in a heat exchange process 12 - 6 and then partially condensed in a heat exchange process 6 - 13 providing heat for a heat exchange process 9 - 7 - 10 as described below forming a partially condensed stream S 38 having parameters as at a point 13 and a partially vaporized, lean working solution stream S 40 having parameters as at a point 10 .
Thereafter, the streams S 24 and S 38 having the parameters as at the points 14 and 13 , respectively, are combined, forming a combined intermediate working solution stream S 42 having parameters as at a point 21 , which is in a state of a vapor-liquid mixture. The stream S 40 having the parameters as at the point 21 then enters into a gravity separator S 1 , where it is separated into a very rich saturated vapor stream S 44 having parameters as at a point 22 and a lean liquid stream S 46 having parameters as at a point 23 .
The lean liquid stream S 46 having the parameters as at the point 23 , is then divided into two substreams S 48 and S 50 with parameters as at points 24 and 25 , respectively. Thereafter, the stream S 50 having the parameters as at the point 25 is combined with the very rich vapor stream S 44 having the parameters as at the point 22 as described above, forming the rich working solution stream S 14 having the parameters as at the point 26 .
The stream S 14 having the parameters as at the point 26 then passes through the second heat exchanger HE 2 , where it is partially condensed, forming the stream S 18 having the parameters as at the point 27 , and providing heat for the heat exchange process 2 - 3 as described above. The stream S 18 having the parameters as at the point 27 is then sent into a first heat exchanger or condenser HE 1 , where it fully condensed, in counterflow with a coolant stream C 12 having parameters as at a point 51 comprising water or air in a heat exchange process 51 - 52 or 27 - 1 as described below. After heat exchange, the rich working solution stream S 18 is converted into the fully condensed, rich working solution stream S 10 having the parameters as at the point 1 as described above and a spent coolant stream C 14 having parameters as at a point 52 .
The coolant stream C 12 having parameters as at the point 51 is formed from a coolant stream Cd 0 having initial parameters as at a point 50 by passed the coolant stream C 10 through a pump P 4 to increased its pressure and forming the coolant stream C 12 having the parameters as at the point 51 . When the coolant stream C 12 is air, then the pump P 4 is replace by a fan.
Meanwhile, the stream S 48 having the parameters as at the point 24 as described above enters into a second or recirculating pump P 2 , where it is pumped to a required higher pressure, to from a higher pressure lean working solution stream S 52 having parameters as at point 9 . Thereafter, the stream S 52 having the parameters as at the point 9 is sent into the fourth heat exchanger HE 4 , where it is heated in the heat exchange process 9 - 7 - 10 , utilizing heat from the heat exchange process 12 - 6 - 13 as described above, forming the stream S 40 having the parameters as at the point 10 , where the parameters correspond to a state of subcooled liquid.
The stream S 40 having the parameters as at the point 10 is then sent into the RHRVG, where it is heated, fully vaporized and superheated in a heat exchange process 10 - 30 - 31 - 29 , exiting the RHRVG as the stream S 28 having the parameters as at the point 29 . The stream S 28 having the parameters as at the point 29 is then mixed with stream S 26 having the parameters as at the point 16 , forming the stream S 30 having the parameter as at the point 17 as described above.
Meanwhile, the stream E 10 of hot exhaust gas with initial parameters as at point 600 is sent into the RHRVG, in counterflow to streams S 40 having the parameter as at the point 10 and the stream S 22 having the parameter as at the point 8 , where it is cooled, in a heat exchange process 600 - 605 - 601 - 602 , proving heat for the heat exchanges processes 10 - 30 - 31 - 29 and 8 - 4 - 11 - 16 , to form a spent exhaust stream E 12 having parameters as at a point 602 , which is sent into a stack or other venting apparatus.
The process is closed with respect to the working solution stream.
In the embodiment of FIG. 1 , the returning streams S 32 and S 34 having the parameters as at the points 18 and 19 move in counterflow with the streams S 22 and S 40 having the parameters as at the points 8 and 10 , and in parallel flow with the exhaust gas stream E 10 at the points 601 and 602 . While the exhaust gas stream E 10 in the heat exchange process 601 - 602 is cooled by the streams S 22 and S 40 having the parameters as at the points 8 and 10 , it is at the same time heated by stream S 32 having the parameters as at the point 18 . This recuperative heating has an effect that is the equivalent of increasing a flow rate of gas in stream E 10 at the points 601 and 602 .
Referring now to FIG. 2 , a flow diagram of a simplified version of the system of FIG. 1 is presented. In the simplified version, the recuperative heat exchanger HE 4 is eliminated. Thus, the stream S 52 having the parameters as at the point 9 is not preheated. Instead, the stream S 52 having the parameters as at the point 9 is mixed with the stream S 22 having the parameters as at the point 8 , forming the intermediate solution stream S 40 with the parameters as at the point 10 before entering into the RHRVG.
This simplified version of the proposed system has a reduced power output by approximately 4%.
Referring now to FIG. 3 , a flow diagram of another simplified version of the system of FIG. 2 , where the RHRVG, if not desirable, (e.g., the heat source stream is a liquid), then the RHRVG can be replaced by three separate heat exchangers (HE 7 , HE 5 , and HE 6 ). In this case, the stream S 40 is split into the stream S 36 having the parameters as at the point 12 and a new stream S 54 having parameters as at a point 11 which is sent through the seventh heat exchanger HE 7 to form the stream S 38 having parameters as at the point 13 .
The systems of this invention, utilizing intermediate temperature heat sources, provide a power output which is approximately 15% higher, for a given heat source, than the output of a conventional Rankine cycle used for the same purposes and with the same constraints.
It has been calculated that if used with the exhaust from a 3 MW (megawatt) diesel engine as a heat source, the systems of this invention would produce a net output of 840 kW, or 810 kW for the simplified version. This corresponds to a 28% increase in power output from the diesel engine when combined with the systems of this invention.
The typical parameters of the state points of the proposed system (as shown in FIG. 1 ) are presented in Table 1.
TABLE 1
System Point Summary
Working Fluid
X
T
P
H
S
Ex
Grel
Gabs
Wetness/T
Pt.
kg/kg
° C.
bar
kJ/kg
kJ/kg-K
kJ/kg
G/G = 1
kg/s
Ph.
(kg/kg)/° C.
1
0.9300
20.99
8.228
42.84
0.3214
141.39
1.00000
1.799
Mix
1
2
0.9300
22.13
49.016
50.55
0.3259
147.81
1.00000
1.799
Liq
−70.46° C.
3
0.9300
91.87
48.327
404.38
1.3987
196.89
1.00000
1.799
Mix
1
4
0.9300
166.54
47.983
1,629.70
4.6038
511.66
1.00000
1.799
Vap
17.9° C.
5
0.9300
123.92
48.217
1,317.90
3.8479
414.59
1.00000
1.799
Mix
0.1182
6
0.7433
126.70
8.614
1,838.16
5.7508
392.31
0.09023
0.162
Mix
0
7
0.3009
123.92
48.217
354.09
1.5222
104.95
0.42209
0.759
Liq
−60.85° C.
8
0.9300
132.72
48.189
1,402.50
4.0588
439.27
1.00000
1.799
Mix
0.0776
9
0.3009
95.59
48.327
220.57
1.1733
70.54
0.42209
0.759
Liq-
89.34° C.
10
0.3009
126.75
48.189
367.66
1.5562
108.85
0.42209
0.759
Liq
−57.98° C.
11
0.9300
184.61
47.959
1,686.16
4.7298
532.30
1.00000
1.799
Vap
36° C.
12
0.7433
152.72
8.642
1,901.68
5.9032
412.52
0.09023
0.162
Vap
25.9° C.
13
0.7433
98.86
8.504
1,213.62
4.1449
223.98
0.09023
0.162
Mix
0.2727
14
0.7433
94.65
8.504
1,152.27
3.9791
209.74
1.33186
2.396
Mix
0.2985
15
0.7433
126.70
8.614
1,838.16
5.7508
392.31
1.33186
2.396
Mix
0
16
0.9300
349.64
47.500
2,161.41
5.6218
754.15
1.00000
1.799
Vap
201.4 C.
17
0.7433
350.00
47.500
2,344.37
5.9689
836.55
1.42209
2.559
Vap
158.9° C.
18
0.7433
187.86
8.849
1,986.06
6.0826
445.95
1.42209
2.559
Vap
60.3° C.
19
0.7433
152.72
8.642
1,901.68
5.9032
412.52
1.42209
2.559
Vap
25.9° C.
20
0.7433
152.72
8.642
1,901.68
5.9032
412.52
1.33186
2.396
Vap
25.9° C.
21
0.7433
94.92
8.504
1,156.16
3.9897
210.63
1.42209
2.559
Mix
0.2968
22
0.9300
94.92
8.504
1,553.56
5.1797
271.89
0.99997
1.799
Mix
0
23
0.3009
94.92
8.504
214.75
1.1705
65.52
0.42212
0.759
Mix
1
24
0.3009
94.92
8.504
214.75
1.1705
65.52
0.42209
0.759
Mix
1
25
0.3009
94.92
8.504
214.75
1.1705
65.52
0.00003
0.000
Mix
1
26
0.9300
94.92
8.504
1,553.46
5.1794
271.87
1.00000
1.799
Mix
0.0001
27
0.9300
54.39
8.366
1,199.62
4.1750
203.39
1.00000
1.799
Mix
0.1321
29
0.3009
350.00
47.500
2,777.83
6.4568
1,126.79
0.42209
0.759
Vap
111.4° C.
30
0.3009
166.54
48.133
564.29
2.0248
172.37
0.42209
0.759
Liq
−18.12° C.
31
0.3009
184.61
48.106
658.39
2.2345
206.89
0.42209
0.759
Mix
1
Heat Source
X
T
P
H
S
Ex
Grel
Gabs
Wetness/T
Pt.
kg/kg
C.
bar
kJ/kg
kJ/kg-K
kJ/kg
G/G = 1
kg/s
Ph.
(kg/kg)/° C.
600
GAS
440.00
1.082
671.96
1.8029
205.12
4.96643
8.936
Vap
389.8° C.
601
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
4.96643
8.936
Vap
127.8° C.
602
GAS
142.72
1.075
338.47
1.2017
42.44
4.96643
8.936
Vap
92.7° C.
605
GAS
195.54
1.076
396.13
1.3319
63.12
4.96643
8.936
Vap
145.4° C.
614
GAS
142.72
1.075
338.47
1.2017
42.44
8.09982
14.573
Vap
92.7° C.
615
GAS
142.72
1.075
338.47
1.2017
42.44
3.13340
5.638
Vap
92.7° C.
616
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
3.13340
5.638
Vap
127.8° C.
617
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
8.09982
14.573
Vap
127.8° C.
620
GAS
440.00
1.082
671.96
1.8029
205.12
1.72304
3.100
Vap
389.8° C.
621
GAS
195.54
1.076
396.13
1.3319
63.12
1.72304
3.100
Vap
145.4° C.
622
GAS
440.00
1.082
671.96
1.8029
205.12
3.24339
5.836
Vap
389.8° C.
623
GAS
195.54
1.076
396.13
1.3319
63.12
3.24339
5.836
Vap
145.4° C.
624
GAS
195.54
1.076
396.13
1.3319
63.12
2.05102
3.690
Vap
145.4° C.
625
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
2.05102
3.690
Vap
127.8° C.
626
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
2.16714
3.899
Vap
127.8° C.
627
GAS
142.72
1.075
338.47
1.2017
42.44
2.16714
3.899
Vap
92.7° C.
628
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
5.93269
10.674
Vap
127.8° C.
629
GAS
142.72
1.075
338.47
1.2017
42.44
5.93269
10.674
Vap
92.7° C.
630
GAS
195.54
1.076
396.13
1.3319
63.12
2.91541
5.245
Vap
145.4° C.
631
GAS
177.86
1.076
376.77
1.2899
55.69
2.91541
5.245
Vap
127.8° C.
Coolant
X
T
P
H
S
Ex
Grel
Gabs
Wetness/T
Pt.
kg/kg
° C.
bar
kJ/kg
kJ/kg-K
kJ/kg
G/G = 1
kg/s
Ph.
(kg/kg)/° C.
50
Water
10.94
1.013
46.08
0.1650
0.10
18.9053
34.015
Liq
−89.03° C.
51
Water
10.99
1.703
46.35
0.1658
0.17
18.9053
34.015
Liq
−104.21° C.
52
Water
25.63
1.013
107.54
0.3760
1.63
18.9053
34.015
Liq
−74.35° C.
The state point in table which are not shown in FIG. 1 are “virtual points” used in the computational process.
A summary is performance and power output for the system shown in FIG. 1 is presented in Table 2.
TABLE 2
Plant Performance Summary
Heat in
2,979.88
kW
1,656.22
kJ/kg
Heat rejected
2,081.29
kW
1,156.78
kJ/kg
Turbine enthalpy Drops
916.78
kW
509.55
kJ/kg
Gross Generator Power
874.19
kW
485.88
kJ/kg
Process Pumps (−10.16)
−19.66
kW
−10.93
kJ/kg
Cycle Output
854.53
kW
474.95
kJ/kg
Other Pumps and Fans (−5.21)
−10.07
kW
−5.60
kJ/kg
Net Output
844.46
kW
469.35
kJ/kg
Gross Generator Power
874.19
kW
485.88
kJ/kg
Cycle Output
854.53
kW
474.95
kJ/kg
Net Output
844.46
kW
469.35
kJ/kg
Net thermal efficiency
28.34% %
Second Law Limit
48.78% %
Second Law Efficiency
58.09% %
Overall Heat Balance kJ/kg
Heat In: Source + pumps = 1,656.22 + 10.16 = 1,666.39
Heat Out: Turbines + condenser = 509.55 + 1,156.78 = 1,666.33
All references cited herein are incorporated by reference. Although the invention has been disclosed with reference to its preferred embodiments, from reading this description those of skill in the art may appreciate changes and modification that may be made which do not depart from the scope and spirit of the invention as described above and claimed hereafter.
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System and method is disclosed to increase the efficient of internal combustion engines using to generate electric power, where the system and method converts a portion of thermal energy produced in the combustion process to a usable form of energy.
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COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICE
[0001] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materials subject to copyright and trademark protection. The copyright and trademark owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention is in the field of finance, economics, math, and business statistics, and relates to the modeling and valuation of credit and market risk to banks and financial institutions, allowing these institutions to properly assess, quantify, value, diversify, and hedge their risks. Banks and financial institutions have many risks. The critical sources of risk are credit and market risk. A bank is a monetary intermediary that receives its funds from individuals and corporations depositing money in return for the bank providing a certain interest rate (i.e., savings accounts, certificate of deposits, checking accounts, and money market accounts), and the bank in turn takes these deposited funds and invests them in the market (i.e., corporate bonds, stocks, private equity, and so forth) and provides loans to individuals and corporations (i.e., mortgages, auto loans, corporate loans, et cetera) where in return, the bank receives periodic repayments from these debtors with some rate of return. The bank makes its profits from the spread or difference between the received rate of return and the paid out interest rates, less any operating expenses and taxes. The risks that a bank face include credit risk (debtors or obligors default on their loan and debt repayments, file for bankruptcy or pays off their debt early through a refinance somewhere else) and market risk (invested assets such as corporate bonds and stocks earn less than expected returns), thereby reducing the profits to the bank. The problem arises when such risks are significant enough that it compromises the financial strength of the bank, and thus reduces its ability to be a trusted financial intermediary to the public. The repercussions of a bank collapsing are significant to the economy and to the general public. Therefore, bank regulators have required that banks and other financial institutions apply risk analysis and risk management techniques and procedures to ensure their financial viability. These regulations require that banks quantify their risks, including understanding what their values at risk are (how much of their asset holdings can they potentially lose in a catastrophic market downturn situation), what impacts the credit risks might be of debtors defaulting (probabilities of default on different classes of loans and credit lines, the total financial exposure to the bank if default occurs, the frequency of these defaults, and expected losses and unexpected losses at default), what impacts market risks might have on the bank's ability to stay solvent (impacts of changes in interest rates, foreign exchange rates, stocks and bond market forecasts, and returns on other invested vehicles). These are extremely difficult tasks for banks to undertake and this present invention is a method that allows banks and other financial institutions to quantify these risks based on advanced analytical techniques that are integrated in a system that helps model these values as well as run simulations to forecast and predict the probabilities of occurrence and impact of these occurrences. The method also includes the ability to take a bank's existing database and extract the data into meta-tables for analysis in a fast and efficient way, and return the results back in a report or database format. This is valuable to banks because a bank with its many branches will have a significant amount of financial transactions per day, and the ability to apply multi-core processor and server-based technology to extract large data sets from large databases is critical.
[0003] The field of risk analysis is large and complex, and banks are being called on more and more to do a better job at quantifying and managing their risks, both by investors and regulators alike. This invention focuses on the quantification and valuation of risk within the banking and financial sectors by helping these institutions analyze multiple datasets quickly and effectively, returning powerful results and reports that allow executives and decision makers make midcourse corrections and changes to their asset and liability holdings. As such, risk analyses and proper decision-making in banks are highly critical to prevent bankruptcies, liquidity crises, credit crunches and other banking meltdowns.
[0004] The related art is represented by the following references of interest.
[0005] U.S. Pat. No. US 2007/0143197 A1 issued to Jackie Ineke, et al on Jun. 21, 2007 describes the elements of credit risk reporting for satisfying regulatory requirements, including the estimation of the future value and profitability of an asset, predicting this asset's direction of change, breakeven analysis, financial ratios and metrics, for the purposes of creating or designing a financial asset. The Ineke application is irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk, provide data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal optimization routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue, the application of maximum likelihood approaches, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk.
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. US 2006/0047561 A1 issued to Charles Nicholas Bolton, et al on Mar. 2, 2006 describes a framework for operational risk management and control, with roles and responsibilities of individuals in an organization and linking these responsibilities to operational risk control and certification of this control system, including the qualitative assessments of these risks for regulatory compliance. The Bolton application is irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk, applying data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal optimization routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue, the application of maximum likelihood approaches, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk, and the Bolton invention is strictly on the application of operational risk analysis which is not what this current invention is about.
[0007] U.S. Pat. No. US 2006/0235774 A1 issued to Richard L. Campbell, et al on Oct. 19, 2006 describes operational risk management and control, specifically for the application of accounting controls in the general ledger, to determine the operational losses and loss events in a firm. The Campbell application is irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk, provide data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal optimization routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue, the application of maximum likelihood approaches, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk.
[0008] U.S. Pat. No. US 2007/0050282 A1 issued to Wei Chen, et al on Mar. 1, 2007 describes financial risk mitigation strategies by looking at the allocation of financial assets and instruments in a portfolio optimization model, using risk mitigation computations and linear programming as well as simplex algorithms. The Chen application in using such techniques and weighting assets and finding discount factors are irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk, provide data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal tabu search and reduced gradient optimization search routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue, the application of maximum likelihood approaches, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk.
[0009] U.S. Pat. No. US 2004/0243719 A1 issued to Eyal Shavit, et al on Oct. 2, 2008 describes whether a credit or loan should be approved by a financial institution, by looking at the type of loan, the borrower's creditworthiness, interest rate in the lending order, desired risk profile of the lender, end term, and other borrower's qualitative factors, as well as a system to track borrowers' application, change of status, address and other application information. The present invention application is a set of analysis applied for the entire bank as a whole and not on individual loans or credit, therefore the Shavit application is irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk, provide data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal optimization routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue, the application of maximum likelihood approaches, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk.
[0010] U.S. Pat. No. US 2008/0107161 A1 issued to Satoshi Tanaka, et al on Jun. 3, 2004 describes a detailed credit lending system, to whether issue or approve a specific loan or credit line to a borrower or not. The Tanaka application is irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk, data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal optimization routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue using maximum likelihood methods, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk for the entire bank or financial institution as a whole and not on specific borrowers only.
[0011] U.S. Pat. No. US 2008/0052207 A1 issued to Renan C. Paglin on Feb. 28, 2008 describes what happens after a debt or credit issue is provided and how to service these loans and credit issues, specifically on low-risk debt securities (referred to as LITE securities) that are less liquid and linked to specific country or sovereign securities, and are specifically related to foreign exchange and currency risks. The Paglin application is irrelevant to the claims of the current invention application as it does not suggest the method of how to quantitatively value market and credit risk on all types of securities and are restricted to LITE securities, data extraction and linking from existing databases, applying internal optimization routines to determine the probability of default of a credit issue, the application of maximum likelihood approaches, multiple layers of data analysis and software integration or the application of Monte Carlo methods to solving and valuing credit and market risk.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] Risk and uncertainty abound in the business world and impact business decisions and ultimately affects the profitability and survival of the corporation. This effect is more so in the financial sector, specifically multinational banks, which are exposed to multiple sources of risk such as credit risk (obligors defaulting on their mortgages, credit lines and loans) and market risk (uncertainty of profits and risk of losses in financial investments, interest rates, returns on invested assets, inflation rates, and general economic conditions). In fact, the Bank of International Settlements located in Switzerland, together with several central banks around the world, created the Basel Accords and Basel II Accords, requiring banks around the world to comply with certain regulatory risk requirements and standards.
[0013] The present invention, with its preferred embodiment encapsulated within the Risk Analyzer (RA) software, is applicable for the types of analyses that central banks and banking regulators require for multinational and larger banks around the world, to be in compliance with the Basel II regulatory requirements. RA is both a standalone and server-based set of software modules and advanced analytical tools that are used in a novel and new integrated business process that links to various banking databases and data sources, to quantify and value credit and market risk, as well as forecast future outcomes of economic and financial variables, and generate optimal portfolios that mitigate risks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0014] Risk and uncertainty abound in the business world and impact business decisions and ultimately affects the profitability and survival of the corporation. This effect is more so in the financial sector, specifically multinational banks, which are exposed to multiple sources of risk such as credit risk (obligors defaulting on their mortgages, credit lines and loans) and market risk (uncertainty of profits and risk of losses in financial investments, interest rates, returns on invested assets, inflation rates, and general economic conditions). In fact, the Bank of International Settlements located in Switzerland, together with several central banks around the world, created the Basel Accords and Basel II Accords, requiring banks around the world to comply with certain regulatory risk requirements and standards.
[0015] The present invention, with its preferred embodiment encapsulated within the Risk Analyzer (RA) software, is applicable for the types of analyses that central banks and banking regulators require for multinational and larger banks around the world, to be in compliance with the Basel II regulatory requirements. RA is both a standalone and server-based set of software modules and advanced analytical tools that are used in a novel and new integrated business process that links to various banking databases and data sources, to quantify and value credit and market risk, as well as forecast future outcomes of economic and financial variables, and generate optimal portfolios that mitigate risks.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0016] FIG. 01 illustrates the three layers of RA, with the business logic, the data access layer, and the presentation layer.
[0017] FIG. 02 illustrates the process map of computing a default probability of a debt or credit line.
[0018] FIG. 03 illustrates the process map of computing the risk or volatility of a debt, credit line, investment vehicle, asset or liability.
[0019] FIG. 04 illustrates the process map of computing exposure at default of a portfolio of debt or credit lines.
[0020] FIG. 05 illustrates the process map of computing loss given default of a debt or credit line.
[0021] FIG. 06 illustrates the process map of computing a default probability of a debt or credit line of individuals or retail loans.
[0022] FIG. 07 illustrates the process map of computing a portfolio's value at risk, the amount that a bank or financial institution's portfolio of assets or liabilities is at risk given a certain probability and number of holding days.
[0023] FIG. 08 illustrates the process map of computing the expected and unexpected losses of a portfolio of assets and liabilities by combining the default probability, exposure at default, loss given default, and value at risk.
[0024] FIG. 09 illustrates the data mapping technology underlying the invented system, and how data tables from various sources and databases are linked and interconnected.
[0025] FIG. 10 illustrates the process map of forecasting market risk variables such as interest rates, returns on invested assets, inflation rates, and other economic and financial instruments.
[0026] FIG. 11 illustrates the system's main user interface for the operator or user, in accessing the various credit risk methodologies.
[0027] FIG. 12 illustrates the system's main user interface for the operator or user, in accessing the various market risks and forecasting methodologies.
[0028] FIG. 13 illustrates the system's various data input methods in linking existing data tables and databases, using manual inputs, providing the capabilities of computing and creating new data variables, setting simulation assumptions, and model fitting existing data to various mathematical and statistical distributions.
[0029] FIG. 14 illustrates the system's interconnectivity capabilities and mapping/linking approaches to various database systems such as Excel, Oracle Financial Data Model, SQL Server, as well as other data types and models.
[0030] FIG. 15 illustrates the manual data input capabilities of manually entering required input data or uploading data files into the system.
[0031] FIG. 16 illustrates the system's data computation process of using existing data variables or numerical inputs to generate new variables.
[0032] FIG. 17 illustrates the system's process of setting up various statistical distributions of an input variable for running simulations.
[0033] FIG. 18 illustrates the system's process of data model fitting of multiple data points to various statistical distributions of an input variable for running simulations.
[0034] FIG. 19 illustrates the system's variable management process and the portfolio management process of multiple models and analytics.
[0035] FIG. 20 illustrates the Risk Modeler module in the system, where over 600 models and valuation techniques are employed.
[0036] FIG. 21 illustrates the Stochastic Risk Optimizer module where a portfolio of assets, liabilities or decisions variables can be optimized. The various optimization methods are shown.
[0037] FIG. 22 illustrates the Stochastic Risk Optimizer module where a portfolio of assets, liabilities or decisions variables can be optimized. Some decision variables to be optimized are shown.
[0038] FIG. 23 illustrates the Stochastic Risk Optimizer module where a portfolio of assets, liabilities or decisions variables can be optimized. Some sample constraints to the problem are shown here.
[0039] FIG. 24 illustrates the Stochastic Risk Optimizer module where a portfolio of assets, liabilities or decisions variables can be optimized. The simulation statistics interface is shown here.
[0040] FIG. 25 illustrates the Stochastic Risk Optimizer module where a portfolio of assets, liabilities or decisions variables can be optimized. The objective to be solved in the problem is shown.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0041] The preferred embodiment of the present invention is within a set of three software modules, named Risk Analyzer, Risk Modeler, and Stochastic Risk Optimizer. Each module has its own specific uses and applications. For instance, the Risk Analyzer is used to compute and value market and credit risks for a bank or financial institution with the ability to perform Monte Carlo simulations, perform forecasting, fitting of existing data, linking from and exporting to existing databases and data files. The Risk Modeler, in contrast, has a set of over 600 copyright protected models that are used to return valuation and forecast results from multiple categories of functions and applications. Finally, the Stochastic Risk Optimizer is used to perform static, dynamic and stochastic optimization on portfolios and making strategic and tactical allocation decisions using optimization techniques.
[0042] FIG. 01 illustrates the underlying infrastructure of the present invention, which has three layers, the business logic layer 001 which contains the application modules 002 , that is, the location of the mathematical and financial models, where the user first creates a profile 003 that stores all the input assumptions, then selects the relevant 004 model to run. When the model is selected, the system automatically requests that the required input parameters be mapped 005 . Several methods exist for the user at this point to decide where the input data comes from, whether through some existing data files or database 008 or manual inputs through directly typing data into the software 009 or using existing data to fit into mathematical distributions through statistical fitting routines 010 , or without the use of existing data, to set Monte Carlo simulation assumptions 011 , or a combination of these approaches through a data compute module 012 by modifying existing variables. If database or data tables or data files are used and linked in the business logic layer 001 , then the method accesses the data access layer through calling a proprietary database wrapper 013 and input-output (I/O) subsystems 014 . Upon completing the variable mapping step 005 , the user then sets up the simulation and run options 006 , then the analytics and computations occur 007 , and generates the relevant reports and charts 015 as well as allowing the computed results to be extracted as flat text files or data tables back into the database 016 as new variables.
[0043] FIG. 02 illustrates an example of the system's computation of credit probability of default, starting with whether there exists historical data 016 , and if the analysis is on a company 017 that is public 018 or private 019 . If the entity to be analyzed is publicly traded, the system method applies an external options probability of default model 022 , computes and generates the results 025 and allows future back testing 026 in the future and generate results reports 027 , and further back testing 028 if required. If the company to be analyzed is privately held without market comparable firms, we apply the Merton internal model 023 , versus a market options model 024 if broad-based market comparables exist. In contrast, is there are traded investments like bonds, a yields/spread model 021 is used in the system. If the entity to be analyzed is an individual instead, the maximum likelihood model is applied 030 , versus external data sets are used 031 , or simulation is applied if no external data exists 029 .
[0044] FIG. 03 illustrates how the risk or volatility of an asset or liability is computed. If commodity or stock prices exist 032 then either the GARCH (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) model 037 is applied or the log cash flow returns approach 036 depending if a single volatility of a series of volatilities is required. If these time-series data of stock, asset, interest rates, or commodities are not available, then if there are comparable options being traded on the entity 033 , we apply the options implied volatility models 034 or use external data 035 otherwise.
[0045] FIG. 04 illustrates the system's exposure at default computations where depending if the bank's data are already stratified into different groups, we can perform a statistical distributional fitting 038 , or perform the stratification first and then perform the fitting 045 . If the data are lumped into groups, the system applies a credit plus model 046 to generate the results 040 and appropriate reports 041 , with an opportunity for stress and back testing 042 over time to determine if credit risks have changed or migrated over time 043 , and if so, we would re-run a simulation on the inputs to determine the impacts of the risk changes 039 .
[0046] FIG. 05 illustrates the loss given default of a credit or debt. That is, how much on average will a credit or debt default be worth to a bank? Depending if the analysis is on a company 047 that is publicly traded, the external options probability of default model is used 052 , results are computed and generated 053 , stress testing is performed on the results 054 , and the report is generated 055 , with the opportunity for future back testing 056 if required to determine if credit risk migration has occurred 057 then the analysis is re-run 052 and the model can be manually calibrated by the user if required 058 using external data sources 051 . These external data are then fitted to statistical distributions 048 and simulation is run 049 thousands to millions of times to generate the relevant reports 050 .
[0047] FIG. 06 illustrates the process when the target analyzed is an individual. If historical data exist 059 on individual debt, then a maximum likelihood method 060 is applied and re-run after the results are filtered 061 , before results are generated 062 , with the ability for the method to be back tested 063 and re-run and calibrated in the future 060 . In contrast, if no data exist then a simulation 064 approach or external data can be obtained and run 065 .
[0048] FIG. 07 illustrates a value at risk method 066 where the model can apply both mathematical computations 069 and simulation 071 to determine the value that a bank's portfolio is at risk given some probability of occurrence for a specific time horizon, accounting for cross correlations 068 among the different debt and credit lines in the portfolio. The model can be calibrated using existing data to compute the risk volatility measures 067 or fitted to statistical distributions 070 , or based on a user's customized assumptions 072 .
[0049] FIG. 08 illustrates how the probability of default, exposure at default, and loss given default 073 are combined into a portfolio of expected losses 074 to compute and simulate 075 the expected and unexpected losses 076 by applying value at risk models. Correlations 077 among the individual groups of credit and debt lines are considered and multiple classes and groups 079 are combined and the portfolio analysis report 078 is generated.
[0050] FIG. 09 illustrates the various data table structure 081 underlying the method, when applying the linking procedures when mapping various data bases. The model 080 is central to the model mapping method where the required data tables 082 for each model is created and a report or results tables 083 for each model is created. These are then linked to additional meta-data tables 081 that can be customized and modified as required by the user.
[0051] FIG. 10 illustrates the process map for the market risk method, indicating the steps taken by the user in the software. The user first selects the model type 085 in choosing if the required results should be multiple values for a single period, multiple values for multiple periods, or a single data point returned for some period in the future. If multiple values 086 are required, then three methods exist, including data fitting and simulation, historical simulations of existing data, and running the various stochastic processes 087 . If multiple values on multiple periods are selected, then ten methods exist including analytics such as ARIMA, econometrics, GARCH and so forth 088 . Finally, if single data points are required instead, five different methods are available to the user 089 .
[0052] FIG. 11 illustrates the user interface of the present invention, showing the credit risk module 090 , where each module and model has detailed descriptions 091 and explanations. The first step is to select the type of analysis to perform 092 , and based on the analysis type, a set of models 093 are available and depending on the model chosen, the required input parameters are listed 094 and allow the user to map the required input variable to existing data. Multiple models can be created in the same way and saved in the same profile 095 .
[0053] FIG. 12 illustrates the market risk 096 user interface where again, there are different sets of analysis types 097 available, and each type has a set of available models 098 from which to select.
[0054] FIG. 13 illustrates how the various input parameters can be mapped to existing data, through five different methods 099 : data link (linking to existing data files, databases and other proprietary data sources), manual input (data are types in or pasted in directly), data compute (existing data variables are first modified and analyzed before entering them as input variables), set assumption (creating any of the twenty four statistical distributions to run simulations on) or mode fitting (using existing raw data to find the best-fitting distribution assumption for simulation).
[0055] FIG. 14 illustrates the data link process, where an existing database, data file, or data table can be opened 100 to illustrate the available variables, and the data can be filtered using conditional statements 101 and the method links to various databases and data types such as Excel, Oracle financial data model, SQL servers, flat files and other user-specific data files 102 .
[0056] FIG. 15 illustrates the manual input process method where data can be entered in as a matrix, array, or sequence, uploaded from a flat data file, or a single value is replicated for every record in the variable 103 .
[0057] FIG. 16 illustrates the data computation method process where existing variables can be used to compute and generate a new variable 104 . This data computation method can parse mathematical functions as illustrated in this figure, including multiple mathematical, statistical and financial functions and applied to numerical inputs typed in directly or using existing data variables.
[0058] FIG. 17 illustrates the set simulation assumptions method 105 , where when no data points exist or when the variable is known to follow some prescribed distribution (e.g., stock prices are lognormal distributed), can be set and a simulation of thousands to millions of values can be generated.
[0059] FIG. 18 illustrates the data fitting method 106 where thousands of existing data points can be fitted to a single distributional assumption such that simulations can be run on this variable.
[0060] FIG. 19 illustrates the variable management method process where all the required input variables in a specific model are shown and listed in one location 107 , and a portfolio management method tool 108 that is capable of opening multiple profiles in a single location such that the entire set of models in various profiles can be run simultaneously within a portfolio environment.
[0061] FIG. 20 illustrates the Risk Modeler method. The user will first select a model category 109 to analyze, and depending on the category selected, a list of models 110 is presented and the relevant required input parameters 111 appear. The single point inputs 111 and time-series of data points or matrices or arrays 112 can be entered, and the results are presented 113 .
[0062] FIG. 21 illustrates the Stochastic Risk Optimizer method, which requires the user to select the method of choice, decision variables, constraints, statistics and objective 114 . The method tab illustrates the three optimization techniques available in this method 115 . Static optimization runs the optimization routines using static or unchanging values. Dynamic optimization first runs a simulation of thousands of trials and then takes the statistics of the simulation run before running the optimization. Stochastic optimization is similar to dynamic optimization in that it runs dynamic optimization multiple times, generating forecast distributions of decision variables.
[0063] FIG. 22 illustrates the decision variables tab of the Stochastic Risk Optimizer method where decision variables 116 can be entered as continuous variables (e.g., 1.15, 2.35 and so forth), integers (e.g., 1, 2, 3), binary (0 or 1) or specific discrete values 117 .
[0064] FIG. 23 illustrates the constraints tab of the optimizer method 118 where the constraints can be entered using the existing variables in the model 119 . Multiple constraints can be entered in this method.
[0065] FIG. 24 illustrates the statistics tab 120 of the optimizer method, where various statistics from a simulation run can be used and replaced in the optimization method.
[0066] FIG. 25 illustrates the optimization method's objective function 123 based on available variables 122 that can be entered manually to be maximized or minimized 121 . The method also allows the user to verify the model setup 124 as a process check before running the optimization method.
Credit and Market Risks
[0067] This section demonstrates the mathematical models and computations used in creating the results for credit and market risks in this present invention.
[0068] An approach that is used in the computation of market risks is the use of stochastic process simulation, which is a mathematically defined equation that can create a series of outcomes over time, outcomes that are not deterministic in nature. That is, an equation or process that does not follow any simple discernible rule such as price will increase X percent every year or revenues will increase by this factor of X plus Y percent. A stochastic process is by definition nondeterministic, and one can plug numbers into a stochastic process equation and obtain different results every time. For instance, the path of a stock price is stochastic in nature, and one cannot reliably predict the stock price path with any certainty. However, the price evolution over time is enveloped in a process that generates these prices. The process is fixed and predetermined, but the outcomes are not. Hence, by stochastic simulation, we create multiple pathways of prices, obtain a statistical sampling of these simulations, and make inferences on the potential pathways that the actual price may undertake given the nature and parameters of the stochastic process used to generate the time-series.
[0069] Four basic stochastic processes are discussed, including the Geometric Brownian Motion, which is the most common and prevalently used process due to its simplicity and wide-ranging applications. The mean-reversion process, barrier long-run process, and jump-diffusion process are also briefly discussed.
Summary Mathematical Characteristics of Geometric Brownian Motions
[0070] Assume a process X, where X=[X t :t≧0] if and only if X t is continuous, where the starting point is X 0 =0, where X is normally distributed with mean zero and variance one or X ε N(0, 1), and where each increment in time is independent of each other previous increment and is itself normally distributed with mean zero and variance t, such that X t+a −X t ε N(0, t). Then, the process dX=α X dt+δ X dZ follows a Geometric Brownian Motion, where α is a drift parameter, δ the volatility measure, dZ=ε t √{square root over (Δdt )} such that 1 n
[0000]
[
dX
X
]
∈
N
(
μ
,
σ
)
[0000] or X and dX are lognormally distributed. If at time zero, X(0)=0 then the expected value of the process X at any time t is such that E[X(t)]=X 0 e αt and the variance of the process X at time t is V[X(t)]=X 0 2 e 2αt (e δ 2 t −1). In the continuous case where there is a drift parameter α, the expected value then becomes
[0000]
E
[
∫
0
∞
X
(
t
)
-
rt
t
]
=
∫
0
∞
X
0
-
(
r
-
α
)
t
t
=
X
0
(
r
-
α
)
.
Summary Mathematical Characteristics of Mean-Reversion Processes
[0071] If a stochastic process has a long-run attractor such as a long-run production cost or long-run steady state inflationary price level, then a mean-reversion process is more likely. The process reverts to a long-run average such that the expected value is E[X t ]= X +(X 0 − X )e −ηt and the variance is
[0000]
V
[
X
t
-
X
_
]
=
σ
2
2
η
(
1
-
-
2
η
t
)
.
[0000] The special circumstance that becomes useful is that in the limiting case when the time change becomes instantaneous or when dt→0, we have the condition where X t −X t−1 = X (1−e −η )+X t−1 (e −η −1)+ε t which is the first order autoregressive process, and η can be tested econometrically in a unit root context.
Summary Mathematical Characteristics of Barrier Long-Run Processes
[0072] This process is used when there are natural barriers to prices—for example, like floors or caps—or when there are physical constraints like the maximum capacity of a manufacturing plant. If barriers exist in the process, where we define X as the upper barrier and X as the lower barrier, we have a process where
[0000]
X
(
t
)
=
2
α
σ
2
2
α
X
σ
2
2
α
X
_
σ
2
-
2
α
X
_
σ
2
.
Summary Mathematical Characteristics of Jump-Diffusion Processes
[0073] Start-up ventures and research and development initiatives usually follow a jump-diffusion process. Business operations may be status quo for a few months or years, and then a product or initiative becomes highly successful and takes off. An initial public offering of equities, oil price jumps, and price of electricity are textbook examples of this. Assuming that the probability of the jumps follows a Poisson distribution, we have a process dX=f(X, t)dt+g(X, t)dq, where the functions f and g are known and where the probability process is
[0000]
q
=
{
0
with
P
(
X
)
=
1
-
λ
t
μ
with
P
(
X
)
-
X
t
.
[0074] For credit risk methods, several of the models are proprietary in nature whereas the key models and approaches are illustrated below. The Maximum Likelihood Estimates (MLE) approach on a binary multivariate logistic analysis is used to model dependent variables to determine the expected probability of success of belonging to a certain group. For instance, given a set of independent variables (e.g., age, income, education level of credit card or mortgage loan holders), we can model the probability of default using MLE. A typical regression model is invalid because the errors are heteroskedastic and nonnormal, and the resulting estimated probability estimates will sometimes be above 1 or below 0. MLE analysis handles these problems using an iterative optimization routine. The computed results show the coefficients of the estimated MLE intercept and slopes.
[0075] For instance, the coefficients are estimates of the true population b values in the following equation Y=β 0 +β 1 X 1 +β 2 X 2 + . . . +β n X n . The standard error measures how accurate the predicted coefficients are, and the Z-statistics are the ratios of each predicted coefficient to its standard error. The Z-statistic is used in hypothesis testing, where we set the null hypothesis (Ho) such that the real mean of the coefficient is equal to zero, and the alternate hypothesis (Ha) such that the real mean of the coefficient is not equal to zero. The Z-test is very important as it calculates if each of the coefficients is statistically significant in the presence of the other regressors. This means that the Z-test statistically verifies whether a regressor or independent variable should remain in the model or it should be dropped. That is, the smaller the p-value, the more significant the coefficient. The usual significant levels for the p-value are 0.01, 0.05, and 0.10, corresponding to the 99%, 95%, and 99% confidence levels.
[0076] The coefficients estimated are actually the logarithmic odds ratios, and cannot be interpreted directly as probabilities. A quick but simple computation is first required. The approach is simple. To estimate the probability of success of belonging to a certain group (e.g., predicting if a debt holder will default given the amount of debt he holds), simply compute the estimated Y value using the MLE coefficients. To illustrate, an individual with 8 years at a current employer and current address, a low 3% debt to income ratio and $2,000 in credit card debt has a log odds ratio of −3.1549. The inverse antilog of the odds ratio is obtained by computing:
[0000]
exp
(
estimated
Y
)
1
+
exp
(
estimated
Y
)
=
exp
(
-
3.1549
)
1
+
exp
(
-
3.1549
)
=
0.0409
GARCH Approach
[0077] The GARCH (Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity) modeling approach can be utilized to estimate the volatility of any time-series data. GARCH models are used mainly in analyzing financial time-series data, in order to ascertain their conditional variances and volatilities. These volatilities are then used to value the options as usual, but the amount of historical data necessary for a good volatility estimate remains significant. Usually, several dozens—and even up to hundreds—of data points are required to obtain good GARCH estimates. In addition, GARCH models are very difficult to run and interpret and require great facility with econometric modeling techniques. GARCH is a term that incorporates a family of models that can take on a variety of forms, known as GARCH(p,q), where p and q are positive integers that define the resulting GARCH model and its forecasts.
[0078] For instance, a GARCH (1,1) model takes the form of
[0000] y t =x t γ+ε t
[0000] σ t 2 =ω+αε t−1 2 +βδ t−1 2
[0000] where the first equation's dependent variable (y t ) is a function of exogenous variables (x t ) with an error term (ε t ). The second equation estimates the variance (squared volatility σ t 2 ) at time t, which depends on a historical mean (ω), news about volatility from the previous period, measured as a lag of the squared residual from the mean equation (ε t−1 2 ), and volatility from the previous period (σ t−1 2 ). Detailed knowledge of econometric modeling (model specification tests, structural breaks, and error estimation) is required to run a GARCH model, making it less accessible to the general analyst. The other problem with GARCH models is that the model usually does not provide a good statistical fit. That is, it is impossible to predict the stock market, and of course equally if not harder, to predict a stock's volatility over time.
Mathematical Probability Distributions
[0079] This section demonstrates the mathematical models and computations used in creating the Monte Carlo simulations. In order to get started with simulation, one first needs to understand the concept of probability distributions. To begin to understand probability, consider this example: You want to look at the distribution of nonexempt wages within one department of a large company. First, you gather raw data—in this case, the wages of each nonexempt employee in the department. Second, you organize the data into a meaningful format and plot the data as a frequency distribution on a chart. To create a frequency distribution, you divide the wages into group intervals and list these intervals on the chart's horizontal axis. Then you list the number or frequency of employees in each interval on the chart's vertical axis. Now you can easily see the distribution of nonexempt wages within the department. You can chart this data as a probability distribution. A probability distribution shows the number of employees in each interval as a fraction of the total number of employees. To create a probability distribution, you divide the number of employees in each interval by the total number of employees and list the results on the chart's vertical axis.
[0080] Probability distributions are either discrete or continuous. Discrete probability distributions describe distinct values, usually integers, with no intermediate values and are shown as a series of vertical bars. A discrete distribution, for example, might describe the number of heads in four flips of a coin as 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. Continuous probability distributions are actually mathematical abstractions because they assume the existence of every possible intermediate value between two numbers; that is, a continuous distribution assumes there is an infinite number of values between any two points in the distribution. However, in many situations, you can effectively use a continuous distribution to approximate a discrete distribution even though the continuous model does not necessarily describe the situation exactly.
Probability Density Functions, Cumulative Distribution Functions, and Probability Mass Functions
[0081] In mathematics and Monte Carlo simulation, a probability density function (PDF) represents a continuous probability distribution in terms of integrals. If a probability distribution has a density of f(x), then intuitively the infinitesimal interval of [x, x+dx] has a probability of f(x) dx. The PDF therefore can be seen as a smoothed version of a probability histogram; that is, by providing an empirically large sample of a continuous random variable repeatedly, the histogram using very narrow ranges will resemble the random variable's PDF. The probability of the interval between [a, b] is given by
[0000]
∫
a
b
f
(
x
)
x
,
[0000] which means that the total integral of the function f must be 1.0. It is a common mistake to think of f(a) as the probability of a. This is incorrect. In fact, f(a) can sometimes be larger than 1—consider a uniform distribution between 0.0 and 0.5. The random variable x within this distribution will have f(x) greater than 1. The probability in reality is the function f(x)dx discussed previously, where dx is an infinitesimal amount.
[0082] The cumulative distribution function (CDF) is denoted as F(x)=P(X≦x) indicating the probability of X taking on a less than or equal value to x. Every CDF is monotonically increasing, is continuous from the right, and at the limits, have the following properties:
[0000]
lim
x
->
-
∞
F
(
x
)
=
0
and
lim
x
->
+
∞
F
(
x
)
=
1.
[0000] Further, the CDF is related to the PDF by
[0000]
F
(
b
)
-
F
(
a
)
=
P
(
a
≤
X
≤
b
)
=
∫
a
b
f
(
x
)
x
,
[0000] where the PDF function f is the derivative of the CDF function F.
[0083] In probability theory, a probability mass function or PMF gives the probability that a discrete random variable is exactly equal to some value. The PMF differs from the PDF in that the values of the latter, defined only for continuous random variables, are not probabilities; rather, its integral over a set of possible values of the random variable is a probability. A random variable is discrete if its probability distribution is discrete and can be characterized by a PMF. Therefore, X is a discrete random variable if
[0000]
∑
u
P
(
X
=
u
)
=
1
[0000] as u runs through all possible values of the random variable X.
Discrete Distributions
[0084] Following is a detailed listing of the different types of probability distributions that can be used in Monte Carlo simulation.
Bernoulli or Yes/No Distribution
[0085] The Bernoulli distribution is a discrete distribution with two outcomes (e.g., head or tails, success or failure, 0 or 1). The Bernoulli distribution is the binomial distribution with one trial and can be used to simulate Yes/No or Success/Failure conditions. This distribution is the fundamental building block of other more complex distributions. For instance:
Binomial distribution: Bernoulli distribution with higher number of n total trials and computes the probability of x successes within this total number of trials. Geometric distribution: Bernoulli distribution with higher number of trials and computes the number of failures required before the first success occurs. Negative binomial distribution: Bernoulli distribution with higher number of trials and computes the number of failures before the xth success occurs.
[0089] The mathematical constructs for the Bernoulli distribution are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
{
1
-
p
for
x
=
0
p
for
x
=
1
or
P
(
x
)
=
p
x
(
1
-
p
)
1
-
x
mean
=
p
standard
deviation
=
p
(
1
-
p
)
skewness
=
1
-
2
p
p
(
1
-
p
)
excess
kurtosis
=
6
p
2
-
6
p
+
1
p
(
1
-
p
)
[0090] The probability of success (p) is the only distributional parameter. Also, it is important to note that there is only one trial in the Bernoulli distribution, and the resulting simulated value is either 0 or 1. The input requirements are such that
[0091] Probability of Success>0 and <1 (that is, 0.0001≦p≦0.9999).
Binomial Distribution
[0092] The binomial distribution describes the number of times a particular event occurs in a fixed number of trials, such as the number of heads in 10 flips of a coin or the number of defective items out of 50 items chosen.
[0093] The three conditions underlying the binomial distribution are:
For each trial, only two outcomes are possible that are mutually exclusive. The trials are independent—what happens in the first trial does not affect the next trial. The probability of an event occurring remains the same from trial to trial.
[0097] The mathematical constructs for the binomial distribution are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
n
!
x
!
(
n
-
x
)
!
p
x
(
1
-
p
)
(
n
-
x
)
for
n
>
0
;
x
=
0
,
1
,
2
,
…
n
;
and
0
<
p
<
1
mean
=
np
standard
deviation
=
np
(
1
-
p
)
skewness
=
1
-
2
p
np
(
1
-
p
)
excess
kurtosis
=
6
p
2
-
6
p
+
1
np
(
1
-
p
)
[0098] The probability of success (p) and the integer number of total trials (n) are the distributional parameters. The number of successful trials is denoted x. It is important to note that probability of success (p) of 0 or 1 are trivial conditions and do not require any simulations, and hence, are not allowed in the software. The input requirements are such that Probability of Success>0 and <1 (that is, 0.0001≦p≦0.9999), the Number of Trials≧1 or positive integers and ≦1000 (for larger trials, use the normal distribution with the relevant computed binomial mean and standard deviation as the normal distribution's parameters).
Discrete Uniform
[0099] The discrete uniform distribution is also known as the equally likely outcomes distribution, where the distribution has a set of N elements, and each element has the same probability. This distribution is related to the uniform distribution but its elements are discrete and not continuous. The mathematical constructs for the discrete uniform distribution are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
1
N
mean
=
N
+
1
2
ranked
value
standard
deviation
=
(
N
-
1
)
(
N
+
1
)
12
ranked
value
skewness
=
0
(that is, the distribution is perfectly symmetrical)
excess
kurtosis
=
-
6
(
N
2
+
1
)
5
(
N
-
1
)
(
N
+
1
)
ranked
value
[0100] The input requirements are such that Minimum<Maximum and both must be integers (negative integers and zero are allowed).
Geometric Distribution
[0101] The geometric distribution describes the number of trials until the first successful occurrence, such as the number of times you need to spin a roulette wheel before you win.
[0102] The three conditions underlying the geometric distribution are:
The number of trials is not fixed. The trials continue until the first success. The probability of success is the same from trial to trial.
[0106] The mathematical constructs for the geometric distribution are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
p
(
1
-
p
)
x
-
1
for
0
<
p
<
1
and
x
=
1
,
2
,
…
,
n
mean
=
1
p
-
1
standard
deviation
=
1
-
p
p
2
skewness
=
2
-
p
1
-
p
excess
kurtosis
=
p
2
-
6
p
+
6
1
-
p
[0107] The probability of success (p) is the only distributional parameter. The number of successful trials simulated is denoted x, which can only take on positive integers. The input requirements are such that Probability of success >0 and <1 (that is, 0.0001≦p≦0.9999). It is important to note that probability of success (p) of 0 or 1 are trivial conditions and do not require any simulations, and hence, are not allowed in the software.
Hypergeometric Distribution
[0108] The hypergeometric distribution is similar to the binomial distribution in that both describe the number of times a particular event occurs in a fixed number of trials. The difference is that binomial distribution trials are independent, whereas hypergeometric distribution trials change the probability for each subsequent trial and are called trials without replacement. For example, suppose a box of manufactured parts is known to contain some defective parts. You choose a part from the box, find it is defective, and remove the part from the box. If you choose another part from the box, the probability that it is defective is somewhat lower than for the first part because you have removed a defective part. If you had replaced the defective part, the probabilities would have remained the same, and the process would have satisfied the conditions for a binomial distribution.
[0109] The three conditions underlying the hypergeometric distribution are:
The total number of items or elements (the population size) is a fixed number, a finite population. The population size must be less than or equal to 1,750. The sample size (the number of trials) represents a portion of the population. The known initial probability of success in the population changes after each trial.
[0113] The mathematical constructs for the hypergeometric distribution are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
(
N
x
)
!
x
!
(
N
x
-
x
)
!
(
N
-
N
x
)
!
(
n
-
x
)
!
(
N
-
N
x
-
n
+
x
)
!
N
!
n
!
(
N
-
n
)
!
for
x
=
Max
(
n
-
(
N
-
N
x
)
,
0
)
,
…
,
Min
(
n
,
N
x
)
mean
=
N
x
n
N
standard
deviation
=
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
n
(
N
-
n
)
N
2
(
N
-
1
)
skewness
=
(
N
-
2
N
x
)
(
N
-
2
n
)
N
-
2
N
-
1
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
n
(
N
-
n
)
excess
kurtosis
=
V
(
N
,
N
x
,
n
)
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
n
(
-
3
+
N
)
(
-
2
+
N
)
(
-
N
+
n
)
where
V
(
N
,
N
x
,
n
)
=
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
-
(
N
-
N
x
)
5
+
3
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
N
x
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
N
x
+
(
N
-
N
x
)
4
N
x
+
3
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
2
-
12
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
N
x
2
+
8
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
N
x
2
+
N
x
3
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
3
+
8
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
N
x
3
+
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
4
-
N
x
5
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
N
x
+
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
4
N
x
+
18
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
N
x
n
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
N
x
n
+
18
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
2
n
-
24
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
N
x
2
n
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
n
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
3
n
+
6
N
x
4
n
+
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
n
2
-
6
(
N
-
N
x
)
3
n
2
-
24
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
n
2
+
12
(
N
-
N
x
)
2
N
x
n
2
+
6
N
x
2
n
2
+
12
(
N
-
N
x
)
N
x
2
n
2
-
6
N
x
3
n
2
[0114] The number of items in the population (N), trials sampled (n), and number of items in the population that have the successful trait (N x ) are the distributional parameters. The number of successful trials is denoted x. The input requirements are such that Population ≧2 and integer,
[0115] Trials>0 and integer
[0116] Successes>0 and integer, Population>Successes
[0117] Trials<Population and Population<1750.
Negative Binomial Distribution
[0118] The negative binomial distribution is useful for modeling the distribution of the number of trials until the rth successful occurrence, such as the number of sales calls you need to make to close a total of 10 orders. It is essentially a superdistribution of the geometric distribution. This distribution shows the probabilities of each number of trials in excess of r to produce the required success r.
Conditions
[0119] The three conditions underlying the negative binomial distribution are:
The number of trials is not fixed. The trials continue until the rth success. The probability of success is the same from trial to trial.
[0123] The mathematical constructs for the negative binomial distribution are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
(
x
+
r
-
1
)
!
(
r
-
1
)
!
x
!
p
r
(
1
-
p
)
x
for
x
=
r
,
r
+
1
,
…
;
and
0
<
p
<
1
mean
=
r
(
1
-
p
)
p
standard
deviation
=
r
(
1
-
p
)
p
2
skewness
=
2
-
p
r
(
1
-
p
)
excess
kurtosis
=
p
2
-
6
p
+
6
r
(
1
-
p
)
[0124] Probability of success (p) and required successes (r) are the distributional parameters. Where the input requirements are such that Successes required must be positive integers >0 and <8000, Probability of success >0 and <1 (that is, 0.0001≦p≦0.9999). It is important to note that probability of success (p) of 0 or 1 are trivial conditions and do not require any simulations, and hence, are not allowed in the software.
Poisson Distribution
[0125] The Poisson distribution describes the number of times an event occurs in a given interval, such as the number of telephone calls per minute or the number of errors per page in a document.
Conditions
[0126] The three conditions underlying the Poisson distribution are:
The number of possible occurrences in any interval is unlimited. The occurrences are independent. The number of occurrences in one interval does not affect the number of occurrences in other intervals. The average number of occurrences must remain the same from interval to interval.
[0130] The mathematical constructs for the Poisson are as follows:
[0000]
P
(
x
)
=
-
λ
λ
x
x
!
for
x
and
λ
>
0
mean
=
λ
standard
deviation
=
λ
skewness
=
1
λ
excess
kurtosis
=
1
λ
[0131] Rate (λ) is the only distributional parameter and the input requirements are such that Rate>0 and ≦1000 (that is, 0.0001≦rate ≦1000).
Continuous Distributions
Beta Distribution
[0132] The beta distribution is very flexible and is commonly used to represent variability over a fixed range. One of the more important applications of the beta distribution is its use as a conjugate distribution for the parameter of a Bernoulli distribution. In this application, the beta distribution is used to represent the uncertainty in the probability of occurrence of an event. It is also used to describe empirical data and predict the random behavior of percentages and fractions, as the range of outcomes is typically between 0 and 1. The value of the beta distribution lies in the wide variety of shapes it can assume when you vary the two parameters, alpha and beta. If the parameters are equal, the distribution is symmetrical. If either parameter is 1 and the other parameter is greater than 1, the distribution is J-shaped. If alpha is less than beta, the distribution is said to be positively skewed (most of the values are near the minimum value). If alpha is greater than beta, the distribution is negatively skewed (most of the values are near the maximum value). The mathematical constructs for the beta distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
(
x
)
(
α
-
1
)
(
1
-
x
)
(
β
-
1
)
[
Γ
(
α
)
Γ
(
β
)
Γ
(
α
+
β
)
]
for
α
>
0
;
β
>
0
;
x
>
0
mean
=
α
α
+
β
standard
deviation
=
αβ
(
α
+
β
)
2
(
1
+
α
+
β
)
skewness
=
2
(
β
-
α
)
1
+
α
+
β
(
2
+
α
+
β
)
αβ
excess
kurtosis
=
3
(
α
+
β
+
1
)
[
αβ
(
α
+
β
-
6
)
+
2
(
α
+
β
)
2
]
αβ
(
α
+
β
+
2
)
(
α
+
β
+
3
)
-
3
[0133] Alpha (α) and beta (β) are the two distributional shape parameters, and Γ is the gamma function.
[0134] The two conditions underlying the beta distribution are:
The uncertain variable is a random value between 0 and a positive value. The shape of the distribution can be specified using two positive values. Input requirements:
[0137] Alpha and beta>0 and can be any positive value
Cauchy Distribution or Lorentzian Distribution or Breit-Wigner Distribution
[0138] The Cauchy distribution, also called the Lorentzian distribution or Breit-Wigner distribution, is a continuous distribution describing resonance behavior. It also describes the distribution of horizontal distances at which a line segment tilted at a random angle cuts the x-axis.
[0139] The mathematical constructs for the cauchy or Lorentzian distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
1
π
γ
/
2
(
x
-
m
)
2
+
γ
2
/
4
[0000] The cauchy distribution is a special case where it does not have any theoretical moments (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) as they are all undefined. Mode location (m) and scale (γ) are the only two parameters in this distribution. The location parameter specifies the peak or mode of the distribution while the scale parameter specifies the half-width at half-maximum of the distribution. In addition, the mean and variance of a cauchy or Lorentzian distribution are undefined. In addition, the cauchy distribution is the Student's t distribution with only 1 degree of freedom. This distribution is also constructed by taking the ratio of two standard normal distributions (normal distributions with a mean of zero and a variance of one) that are independent of one another. The input requirements are such that Location can be any value whereas Scale>0 and can be any positive value.
Chi-Square Distribution
[0140] The chi-square distribution is a probability distribution used predominatly in hypothesis testing, and is related to the gamma distribution and the standard normal distribution. For instance, the sums of independent normal distributions are distributed as a chi-square (χ 2 ) with k degrees of freedom:
[0000] Z 1 2 +Z 2 2 + . . . +Z k 2 d ˜χ k 2
[0141] The mathematical constructs for the chi-square distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
2
-
k
/
2
Γ
(
k
/
2
)
x
k
/
2
+
1
-
x
/
2
for
all
x
>
0
mean
=
k
standard
deviation
=
2
k
skewness
=
2
2
k
excess
kurtosis
=
12
k
[0142] Γ is the gamma function. Degrees of freedom k is the only distributional parameter.
[0143] The chi-square distribution can also be modeled using a gamma distribution by setting the shape
[0000]
parameter
=
k
2
and
scale
=
2
S
2
[0000] where S is the scale. The input requirements are such that Degrees of freedom >1 and must be an integer<1000.
Exponential Distribution
[0144] The exponential distribution is widely used to describe events recurring at random points in time, such as the time between failures of electronic equipment or the time between arrivals at a service booth. It is related to the Poisson distribution, which describes the number of occurrences of an event in a given interval of time. An important characteristic of the exponential distribution is the “memoryless” property, which means that the future lifetime of a given object has the same distribution, regardless of the time it existed. In other words, time has no effect on future outcomes. The mathematical constructs for the exponential distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
λ
-
λ
x
for
x
≥
0
;
λ
>
0
mean
=
1
λ
standard
deviation
=
1
λ
skewness
=
2
(
this
value
applies
to
all
success
rate
λ
inputs
)
excess
kurtosis
=
6
(
this
value
applies
to
all
success
rate
λ
inputs
)
[0145] Success rate (λ) is the only distributional parameter. The number of successful trials is denoted x.
[0146] The condition underlying the exponential distribution is:
The exponential distribution describes the amount of time between occurrences. Input requirements: Rate>0 and≦300
Extreme Value Distribution or Gumbel Distribution
[0148] The extreme value distribution (Type 1) is commonly used to describe the largest value of a response over a period of time, for example, in flood flows, rainfall, and earthquakes. Other applications include the breaking strengths of materials, construction design, and aircraft loads and tolerances. The extreme value distribution is also known as the Gumbel distribution. The mathematical constructs for the extreme value distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
1
β
z
-
Z
where
z
=
x
-
m
β
for
β
>
0
;
and
any
value
of
x
and
m
mean
=
m
+
0.577215
β
standard
deviation
=
1
6
π
2
β
2
skewness
=
12
6
(
1.2020569
)
π
3
=
1.13955
(
this
applies
for
all
value
s
of
mode
and
scale
)
excess
kurtosis
=
5.4
(
this
applies
for
all
values
of
mode
and
scale
)
[0149] Mode (m) and scale (β) are the distributional parameters. There are two standard parameters for the extreme value distribution: mode and scale. The mode parameter is the most likely value for the variable (the highest point on the probability distribution). The scale parameter is a number greater than 0. The larger the scale parameter, the greater the variance. The input requirements are such that Mode can be any value and Scale>0.
F Distribution or Fisher-Snedecor Distribution
[0150] The F distribution, also known as the Fisher-Snedecor distribution, is another continuous distribution used most frequently for hypothesis testing. Specifically, it is used to test the statistical difference between two variances in analysis of variance tests and likelihood ratio tests. The F distribution with the numerator degree of freedom n and denominator degree of freedom m is related to the chi-square distribution in that:
[0000]
χ
n
2
/
n
d
χ
m
2
/
m
~
F
n
,
m
or
f
(
x
)
=
Γ
(
n
+
m
2
)
(
n
m
)
n
/
2
x
n
/
2
-
1
Γ
(
n
2
)
Γ
(
m
2
)
[
x
(
n
m
)
+
1
]
(
n
+
m
)
/
2
mean
=
m
m
-
2
standard
deviation
=
2
m
2
(
m
+
n
-
2
)
n
(
m
-
2
)
2
(
m
-
4
)
for
all
m
>
4
skewness
=
2
(
m
+
2
n
-
2
)
m
-
6
2
(
m
-
4
)
n
(
m
+
n
-
2
)
excess
kurtosis
=
12
(
-
16
+
20
m
-
8
m
2
+
m
3
+
44
n
-
32
mn
+
5
m
2
n
-
22
n
2
+
5
mn
2
n
(
m
-
6
)
(
m
-
8
)
(
n
+
m
-
2
)
[0151] The numerator degree of freedom n and denominator degree of freedom m are the only distributional parameters. The input requirements are such that Degrees of freedom numerator and degrees of freedom denominator both >0 integers.
Gamma Distribution (Erlang Distribution)
[0152] The gamma distribution applies to a wide range of physical quantities and is related to other distributions: lognormal, exponential, Pascal, Erlang, Poisson, and Chi-Square. It is used in meteorological processes to represent pollutant concentrations and precipitation quantities. The gamma distribution is also used to measure the time between the occurrence of events when the event process is not completely random. Other applications of the gamma distribution include inventory control, economic theory, and insurance risk theory.
[0153] The gamma distribution is most often used as the distribution of the amount of time until the rth occurrence of an event in a Poisson process. When used in this fashion, the three conditions underlying the gamma distribution are:
The number of possible occurrences in any unit of measurement is not limited to a fixed number. The occurrences are independent. The number of occurrences in one unit of measurement does not affect the number of occurrences in other units. The average number of occurrences must remain the same from unit to unit.
[0157] The mathematical constructs for the gamma distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
(
x
β
)
α
-
1
-
x
β
Γ
(
α
)
β
with
any
value
of
α
>
0
and
β
>
0
mean
=
α
β
standard
deviation
=
αβ
2
skewness
=
2
α
excess
kurtosis
=
6
α
[0158] Shape parameter alpha (α) and scale parameter beta (β) are the distributional parameters, and Γ is the gamma function. When the alpha parameter is a positive integer, the gamma distribution is called the Erlang distribution, used to predict waiting times in queuing systems, where the Erlang distribution is the sum of independent and identically distributed random variables each having a memoryless exponential distribution. Setting n as the number of these random variables, the mathematical construct of the Erlang distribution is:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
x
n
-
1
-
x
(
n
-
1
)
!
for
all
x
>
0
[0000] and all positive integers of n, where the input requirements are such that Scale Beta>0 and can be any positive value, Shape Alpha≧0.05 and any positive value, and Location can be any value.
Logistic Distribution
[0159] The logistic distribution is commonly used to describe growth, that is, the size of a population expressed as a function of a time variable. It also can be used to describe chemical reactions and the course of growth for a population or individual.
[0160] The mathematical constructs for the logistic distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
μ
-
x
α
α
[
1
+
μ
-
x
α
]
2
for
any
value
of
α
and
μ
mean
=
μ
standard
deviation
=
1
3
π
2
α
2
skewness
=
0
(
this
applies
to
all
mean
and
scale
inputs
)
excess
kurtosis
=
1.2
(
this
applies
to
all
mean
and
scale
inputs
)
[0161] Mean (μ) and scale (α) are the distributional parameters. There are two standard parameters for the logistic distribution: mean and scale. The mean parameter is the average value, which for this distribution is the same as the mode, because this distribution is symmetrical. The scale parameter is a number greater than 0. The larger the scale parameter, the greater the variance. Input requirements:
[0162] Scale>0 and can be any positive value
[0163] Mean can be any value
[0164] Lognormal Distribution
[0165] The lognormal distribution is widely used in situations where values are positively skewed, for example, in financial analysis for security valuation or in real estate for property valuation, and where values cannot fall below zero. Stock prices are usually positively skewed rather than normally (symmetrically) distributed. Stock prices exhibit this trend because they cannot fall below the lower limit of zero but might increase to any price without limit. Similarly, real estate prices illustrate positive skewness and are lognormally distributed as property values cannot become negative.
[0166] The three conditions underlying the lognormal distribution are:
The uncertain variable can increase without limits but cannot fall below zero. The uncertain variable is positively skewed, with most of the values near the lower limit. The natural logarithm of the uncertain variable yields a normal distribution.
[0170] Generally, if the coefficient of variability is greater than 30 percent, use a lognormal distribution. Otherwise, use the normal distribution.
[0171] The mathematical constructs for the lognormal distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
1
x
2
π
ln
(
σ
)
-
[
ln
(
x
)
-
ln
(
μ
)
]
2
2
[
ln
(
σ
)
]
2
for
x
>
0
;
μ
>
0
and
σ
>
0
mean
=
exp
(
μ
+
σ
2
2
)
standard
deviation
=
exp
(
σ
2
+
2
μ
)
[
exp
(
σ
2
)
-
1
]
skewness
=
⌊
exp
(
σ
2
)
-
1
⌋
(
2
+
exp
(
σ
2
)
)
excess
kurtosis
=
exp
(
4
σ
2
)
+
2
exp
(
3
σ
2
)
+
3
exp
(
2
σ
2
)
-
6
[0172] Mean (μ) and standard deviation (δ) are the distributional parameters. The input requirements are such that Mean and Standard deviation are both >0 and can be any positive value. By default, the lognormal distribution uses the arithmetic mean and standard deviation. For applications for which historical data are available, it is more appropriate to use either the logarithmic mean and standard deviation, or the geometric mean and standard deviation.
Normal Distribution
[0173] The normal distribution is the most important distribution in probability theory because it describes many natural phenomena, such as people's IQs or heights. Decision makers can use the normal distribution to describe uncertain variables such as the inflation rate or the future price of gasoline.
Conditions
[0174] The three conditions underlying the normal distribution are:
Some value of the uncertain variable is the most likely (the mean of the distribution). The uncertain variable could as likely be above the mean as it could be below the mean (symmetrical about the mean). The uncertain variable is more likely to be in the vicinity of the mean than further away.
[0178] The mathematical constructs for the normal distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
1
2
π
σ
-
(
x
-
μ
)
2
2
σ
2
for
all
values
of
x
and
μ
;
while
σ
>
0
mean
=
μ
standard
deviation
=
σ
skewness
=
0
(
this
applies
to
all
inputs
of
mean
and
standard
deviation
)
excess
kurtosis
=
0
(
this
applies
to
all
inputs
of
mean
and
standard
deviation
)
[0179] Mean (μ) and standard deviation (δ) are the distributional parameters. The input requirements are such that Standard deviation>0 and can be any positive value and Mean can be any value.
Pareto Distribution
[0180] The Pareto distribution is widely used for the investigation of distributions associated with such empirical phenomena as city population sizes, the occurrence of natural resources, the size of companies, personal incomes, stock price fluctuations, and error clustering in communication circuits.
[0181] The mathematical constructs for the pareto are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
β
L
β
x
(
1
+
β
)
for
x
>
L
mean
=
β
L
β
-
1
standard
deviation
=
β
L
2
(
β
-
1
)
2
(
β
-
2
)
skewness
=
β
-
2
β
[
2
(
β
+
1
)
β
-
3
]
excess
kurtosis
=
6
(
β
3
+
β
2
-
6
β
-
2
)
β
(
β
-
3
)
(
β
-
4
)
[0182] Location (L) and shape (β) are the distributional parameters.
[0183] There are two standard parameters for the Pareto distribution: location and shape. The location parameter is the lower bound for the variable. After you select the location parameter, you can estimate the shape parameter. The shape parameter is a number greater than 0, usually greater than 1. The larger the shape parameter, the smaller the variance and the thicker the right tail of the distribution. The input requirements are such that Location>0 and can be any positive value while Shape>0.05.
Student's t Distribution
[0184] The Student's t distribution is the most widely used distribution in hypothesis test. This distribution is used to estimate the mean of a normally distributed population when the sample size is small, and is used to test the statistical significance of the difference between two sample means or confidence intervals for small sample sizes.
[0185] The mathematical constructs for the t-distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
t
)
=
Γ
[
(
r
+
1
)
/
2
]
r
π
Γ
[
r
/
2
]
(
1
+
t
2
/
r
)
-
(
r
+
1
)
/
2
mean
=
0
(
this
applies
to
all
degrees
of
freedom
r
except
if
the
distribution
is
shifted
to
another
nonzero
central
location
)
standard
deviation
=
r
r
-
2
skewness
=
0
excess
kurtosis
=
6
r
-
4
for
all
r
>
4
where
t
=
x
-
x
_
s
and
Γ
is
the
gamma
function
.
[0186] Degree of freedom r is the only distributional parameter. The t-distribution is related to the F-distribution as follows: the square of a value of t with r degrees of freedom is distributed as F with 1 and r degrees of freedom. The overall shape of the probability density function of the t-distribution also resembles the bell shape of a normally distributed variable with mean 0 and variance 1, except that it is a bit lower and wider or is leptokurtic (fat tails at the ends and peaked center). As the number of degrees of freedom grows (say, above 30), the t-distribution approaches the normal distribution with mean 0 and variance 1. The input requirements are such that Degrees of freedom≧1 and must be an integer.
Triangular Distribution
[0187] The triangular distribution describes a situation where you know the minimum, maximum, and most likely values to occur. For example, you could describe the number of cars sold per week when past sales show the minimum, maximum, and usual number of cars sold.
Conditions
[0188] The three conditions underlying the triangular distribution are:
The minimum number of items is fixed. The maximum number of items is fixed. The most likely number of items falls between the minimum and maximum values, forming a triangular-shaped distribution, which shows that values near the minimum and maximum are less likely to occur than those near the most-likely value.
[0192] The mathematical constructs for the triangular distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
{
2
(
x
-
Min
)
(
Max
-
Min
)
(
Likely
-
min
)
for
Min
<
x
<
Likely
2
(
Max
-
x
)
(
Max
-
Min
)
(
Max
-
Likely
)
for
Likely
<
x
<
Max
mean
=
1
3
(
Min
+
Likely
+
Max
)
standard
deviation
=
1
18
(
Min
2
+
Likely
2
+
Max
2
-
Min
Max
-
Min
Likely
-
Max
Likely
)
skewness
=
(
2
(
Min
+
Max
-
2
Likely
)
(
2
Min
-
Max
-
Likely
)
(
Min
-
2
Max
+
Likely
)
)
5
(
Min
2
+
Max
2
+
Likely
2
-
MinMax
-
MinLikely
-
MaxLikely
)
3
/
2
excess
kurtosis
=
-
0.6
[0193] Minimum (Min), most likely (Likely) and maximum (Max) are the distributional parameters and the input requirements are such that Min≦Most Likely≦Max and can take any value, Min<Max and can take any value.
Uniform Distribution
[0194] With the uniform distribution, all values fall between the minimum and maximum and occur with equal likelihood.
[0195] The three conditions underlying the uniform distribution are:
The minimum value is fixed. The maximum value is fixed. All values between the minimum and maximum occur with equal likelihood.
[0199] The mathematical constructs for the uniform distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
1
Max
-
Min
for
all
values
such
that
Min
<
Max
mean
=
Min
+
Max
2
standard
deviation
=
(
Max
-
Min
)
2
12
skewness
=
0
excess
kurtosis
=
-
1.2
(
this
applies
to
all
inputs
of
Min
and
Max
)
[0200] Maximum value (Max) and minimum value (Min) are the distributional parameters. The input requirements are such that Min<Max and can take any value.
[0201] Weibull Distribution (Rayleigh Distribution)
[0202] The Weibull distribution describes data resulting from life and fatigue tests. It is commonly used to describe failure time in reliability studies as well as the breaking strengths of materials in reliability and quality control tests. Weibull distributions are also used to represent various physical quantities, such as wind speed. The Weibull distribution is a family of distributions that can assume the properties of several other distributions. For example, depending on the shape parameter you define, the Weibull distribution can be used to model the exponential and Rayleigh distributions, among others. The Weibull distribution is very flexible. When the Weibull shape parameter is equal to 1.0, the Weibull distribution is identical to the exponential distribution. The Weibull location parameter lets you set up an exponential distribution to start at a location other than 0.0. When the shape parameter is less than 1.0, the Weibull distribution becomes a steeply declining curve. A manufacturer might find this effect useful in describing part failures during a burn-in period.
[0203] The mathematical constructs for the Weibull distribution are as follows:
[0000]
f
(
x
)
=
α
β
[
x
β
]
α
-
1
-
(
x
β
)
α
mean
=
β
Γ
(
1
+
α
-
1
)
standard
deviation
=
β
2
[
Γ
(
1
+
2
α
-
1
)
-
Γ
2
(
1
+
α
-
1
)
]
skewness
=
2
Γ
3
(
1
+
β
-
1
)
-
3
Γ
(
1
+
β
-
1
)
Γ
(
1
+
2
β
-
1
)
+
Γ
(
1
+
3
β
-
1
)
[
Γ
(
1
+
2
β
-
1
)
-
Γ
2
(
1
+
β
-
1
)
]
3
/
2
excess
kurtosis
=
-
6
Γ
4
(
1
+
β
-
1
)
+
12
Γ
2
(
1
+
β
-
1
)
Γ
(
1
+
2
β
-
1
)
-
3
Γ
2
(
1
+
2
β
-
1
)
-
4
Γ
(
1
_β
-
1
)
Γ
(
1
+
3
β
-
1
)
+
Γ
(
1
+
4
β
-
1
)
[
Γ
(
1
+
2
β
-
1
)
-
Γ
2
(
1
+
β
-
1
)
]
2
[0204] Location (L), shape (α) and scale (β) are the distributional parameters, and Γ is the Gamma function. The input requirements are such that Scale>0 and can be any positive value, Shape≧0.05 and
[0205] Location can take on any value.
|
A method and system allowing banks and financial institutions the capability to perform advanced risk analyses that central banks and banking regulators require, such that the banks are in compliance with the Basel II Accord requirements. This system is both a standalone and server-based set of software modules and advanced analytical tools that is used to quantify and value credit and market risk, as well as forecast future outcomes of economic and financial variables, and generate optimal portfolios that mitigate risks.
| 6
|
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to a structure and method to securely open and close awnings.
[0002] U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,293 discloses a tension assembly that locks a standard fluted roll bar. The '293 patent is a strap-like structure that maintains tension in fluted roll bar awnings.
[0003] U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,201 discloses a tool for attaching and removing swivel fittings. The '201 patent will not work for triangular or star-shaped rafter knobs.
[0004] Presently, people need to get up on chairs to screw or unscrew rafter knobs, also called manual fasteners to tighten awnings to keep the awning in an open position.
[0005] Further, if the awning is open or up, during high winds, the slider support may be caused to move, causing the awning and support arms or slider supports to move, possibly damaging the awning, support arms, or slider supports.
[0006] As can be seen, there is a need for an assembly that can be used to manually tighten or loosen rafter knobs and the sliders of fold-out awnings, and to further secure the sliders in both an axial direction and transverse direction to prevent damage from awnings that fold out, and encounter high winds.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] An awning assembly kit, comprising: a deployment arm ( 10 ) having a handle ( 38 ) at one end, and a manual fastener grip ( 14 ) at the other end; and a stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) having two opposed side faces ( 204 ), a top face ( 208 ) extending to a rear end ( 210 ) and a front end ( 211 ), a rear face ( 212 ) extending downwardly from said rear end ( 210 ), a bottom face ( 216 ) extending in the direction of said front end ( 211 ) and said bottom face ( 216 ) substantially parallel with said top face ( 208 ) terminating at an angled face ( 220 ), said angled face extending angularly toward said front end ( 211 ) to a first leg ( 225 ) of a U-shaped surface ( 224 ), the U-shaped surface has an opposed second leg ( 226 ) that is oriented substantially parallel with said first leg ( 225 ), said second leg ( 226 ) extending downwardly beyond said first leg ( 225 ) to a straight lock face ( 228 ), said straight lock face ( 228 ) extending forwardly to a beveled lock face ( 232 ), said beveled lock face ( 232 ) extending from said straight lock face ( 228 ) to a tip ( 209 ) of said front end ( 211 ), said stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) having a bolt aperture ( 244 ) extending substantially linearly through said stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) from said top face ( 208 ) to said bottom face ( 216 ), said bolt aperture ( 244 ) having an axis that is disposed substantially perpendicular with said top face ( 208 ).
[0008] A method of opening and securing an awning, comprising the steps of: securing a manual fastener grip ( 14 ) of a deployment arm ( 10 ) around an awning manually controllable fastener whereby said manual fastener grip ( 14 ) can rotate the manually controllable fastener; and fixing a stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) against a rafter slider support ( 300 ).
[0009] Yet another aspect is an awning slider securing apparatus, comprising: a stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) having two opposed side faces ( 204 ), a top face ( 208 ) extending to a rear end ( 210 ) and a front end ( 211 ), a rear face ( 212 ) extending downwardly from said rear end ( 210 ), a bottom face ( 216 ) extending in the direction of said front end ( 211 ) and said bottom face ( 216 ) substantially parallel with said top face ( 208 ) terminating at an angled face ( 220 ), said angled face extending angularly toward said front end ( 211 ) to a first leg ( 225 ) of a U-shaped surface ( 224 ), the U-shaped surface has an opposed second leg ( 226 ) that is oriented substantially parallel with said first leg ( 225 ), said second leg ( 226 ) extending downwardly beyond said first leg ( 225 ) to a straight lock face ( 228 ), said straight lock face ( 228 ) extending forwardly to a beveled lock face ( 232 ), said beveled lock face ( 232 ) extending from said straight lock face ( 228 ) to a tip ( 209 ) of said front end ( 211 ), said stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) having a bolt aperture ( 244 ) extending substantially linearly through said stabilizer bracket ( 200 ) from said top face ( 208 ) to said bottom face ( 216 ), said bolt aperture ( 244 ) having an axis that is disposed substantially perpendicular with said top face ( 208 ).
[0010] These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 is a pictorial of the awning deployment arm;
[0012] FIG. 2 is a pictorial of an exemplar embodiment of an awning manual faster grip;
[0013] FIG. 3 is a pictorial of an exemplar embodiment of an awning manual fastener grip;
[0014] FIG. 4 is a first pictorial of an exemplar of a stabilizer block;
[0015] FIG. 4A is a second pictorial of an exemplar of the stabilizer block;
[0016] FIG. 5 is a pictorial of the present invention in an operating environment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0017] The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.
[0018] FIG. 1 illustrates a deployment arm 10 . The deployment arm 10 has a handle 38 secured at a first end 34 , and a manual fastener grip 14 secured at a second end 30 .
[0019] The manual fastener grip 14 has a substantially cylindrical shaped head 22 having a distal face 26 on one side and a proximal face 18 on the other. Extending inwardly from the distal face 26 is a sidewall 46 , which may terminate at a 3 -point head surface 44 . In one exemplar the sidewall 46 has 3 a center axis 40 , having 3 substantially equilaterally disposed radii 100 . In one exemplar, said substantially equilaterally disposed radii 100 are connected by sidewall 46 that is defined by three different radii generated about three equilateral points 110 disposed radially outside of said distal face 26 .
[0020] In one exemplar the manual fastener grip 14 has a 3-point grip structure 42 to grip manual fasteners that are triangular, or triangular-like in shape, as also illustrated in FIG. 3 . FIG. 2 illustrates a 5-point grip structure 62 .
[0021] As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 , and 3 , the manual fastener grip 14 can have either a 3-point grip structure 42 or a 5-point grip structure 62 . In one exemplar, the manual fastener grip 14 is removable to allow the removal of, for example, the 3-point grip structure 42 , for replacement with the 5-point grip structure 62 . This can be done by many different structures, one of which may be an axle 76 that is received by a bore 64 that extends through the center axis 40 , 66 of the cylindrical shaped head 22 . The axle 76 may have a head 78 at one end and a locking pin 80 near the other end. The head 78 may have a diameter that is larger than that of the bore 64 to prevent the axle 76 from sliding though the bore 76 . The depressible locking pin 80 may be received by a pin aperture 92 that is disposed near the second end 30 .
[0022] In one exemplar, the deployment arm 10 is about 41 ″ long, the head 22 has a diameter of about 2 9/16″, and a height of about 1 ½″.
[0023] FIGS. 4 and 4 A illustrate a stabilizer block 200 . In one exemplar the stabilizer block 200 has two opposed side faces 204 disposed about ¾″ apart, which also defines the thickness of the stabilizer block 200 . The stabilizer block or stabilizer 200 has a top face 208 extending to a rear end 210 and a front end 211 . A rear face 212 extending downwardly from the rear end 210 of the top face 208 . Said rear face 212 is oriented substantially perpendicular to the top face 208 . A bottom face 216 extends away from said rear face 212 , and the bottom face is oriented substantially parallel to the top face 208 .
[0024] Extending forwardly and upwardly from the bottom face 216 is an angled face 220 , which terminates in an upside-down-U-shaped surface 224 . In one exemplar the angle between the angled face 232 and the top face 208 is about 360 . Thus the upside-down-U-shaped surface 224 has a first leg 225 that is closer to the rear face 212 than the second leg 226 . Both legs 225 , 226 are substantially parallel with one another. The second leg 226 extends downwardly beyond first leg 225 . The second leg 226 extending downwardly to terminate in a straight lock face 228 . The straight lock face 228 extending forwardly to terminate to a beveled lock face 232 . The beveled lock face 228 terminates to meet with the front end 211 of the top face 208 .
[0025] In one embodiment the beveled lock face 232 is disposed at an angle of about 47° with respect with the top face 208 .
[0026] In one exemplar the block 200 has a top face that is about 4 7/16″ long, the rear face 212 is about 1 ¾″ long, the bottom face 216 is about 1 7/32″ long, the angled face 220 is about 1 ⅜″ long, the opposed legs 225 , 226 of the upside down U-shaped surface 224 is are separated by a distance of about 13/32″, the straight lock face 228 is about ½″ long, the beveled lock face 232 is about 1 11/16″ long.
[0027] The block 200 may have a locking bolt aperture 224 extending from the bottom face 216 to the top face 208 , and the locking bolt aperture 224 is disposed near the rear face 212 . In one exemplar the locking bolt aperture extends substantially normal to both the top face 208 and the bottom face 216 .
[0028] A locking bolt 236 may extend through the locking bolt aperture 224 , having its head adjacent the top face 208 , and a threaded portion extending downwardly therethrough.
[0029] In operation, the deployment arm 10 is manually manipulated to secure the grip structure 42 , 62 to a rafter knob, also called a manually controllable fastener that tightens or loosens the awning support arms. When the appropriate grip structure 42 , 62 is secured to the manually controllable fastener, the deployment arm 10 can be turned to loosen or tighten the manually controllable fastener.
[0030] In operation the block beveled lock face 232 and straight lock face 228 is disposed in substantially continuous contact with the rafter slider support 300 . While at the desired location the stabilizer block 200 may be secured to the lower support arm 400 by a hole 410 in the lower support arm. The hole 410 is aligned to receive the locking bolt 236 , whereby a wing nut 240 may throatily engage with the locking bolt 236 to secure the stabilizer block 200 in place, and thus prevent the rafter slider support from moving.
[0031] It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
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This assembly kit allows one to stand on the ground to tighten or loosen rafter knobs via a deployment arm with fittings to secure the 3-pointed or 5-pointed rafter knobs. Further, once erected, the present invention has a stabilizer bracket that is secured to the slider support within an awning support arm.
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[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/265,264, filed Jan. 30, 2001, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
[0002] This invention was made in part with government support under Grant No. HD3608 1, HD36049 and CA-83982 awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The government may have certain rights in this invention.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] 1. Field of the Invention
[0004] The invention relates generally to cancer diagnostics and therapeutics and, more specifically, to aberrant activation and expression of lymphoid enhancer factor (LEF1) in colon cancer.
[0005] 2. Background Information
[0006] Constitutive activation of the Wnt signaling pathway is a root cause of many colon cancers 1-3 . Activation of the pathway is caused by genetic mutations that stabilize the β-catenin protein, allowing it to accumulate in the nucleus and form complexes with any of the four members of the lymphoid enhancer factor (LEF1) and T-cell factor (TCF1, TCF3, TCF4) family of transcription factors (referred to collectively as LEF/TCFs) to activate transcription of target genes 3, 4 . Target genes such as MYC, CCND1, MMP-7, and TCF7 (refs. 5-9) are normally expressed in colon tissue, so it is proposed that abnormal expression levels or patterns imposed by β-catenin/TCF complexes play a role in tumor progression.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The present invention relates to the seminal discovery that LEF1 is a new type of target gene in that it is ectopically activated in colon cancer. The pattern of this ectopic expression is unusual because it derives from selective activation of a promoter for a full-length LEF1 isoform that binds β-catenin, but not a second, intronic promoter that drives expression of a dominant negative isoform. β-catenin/TCF complexes can activate the promoter for full-length LEF1 suggesting that in cancer, high levels of these complexes misregulate transcription to favor a positive feedback loop for Wnt signaling by inducing selective expression of full length, β-catenin sensitive forms of LEF/TCFs.
[0008] In one embodiment, the invention provides an isolated polynucleotide comprising a truncated LEF1 polynucleotide or homolog thereof lacking nucleotides encoding a J-catenin binding domain and not adjacent to nucleotide sequences to which it is naturally adjacent. In a particular aspect, the polynucleotide encodes a polypeptide having about 283 amino acids beginning at a methionine codon within exon 3 of the human LEF-1 gene. In another aspect, the polynucleotide encodes a polypeptide beginning at about amino acid residue 116 of human LEF-1.
[0009] The invention also includes an isolated polynucleotide having regulatory activity and comprising nucleotides in intron 2 of human LEF-1 gene and within about 50 nucleotides 5′ of the third exon of human LEF-1 gene and homologs thereof (e.g., other species such as ovine, bovine, avian, murine, etc.).
[0010] The invention also includes a purified polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide described herein (e.g., a dominant negative truncated LEF-1 protein). In another embodiment, the invention includes isolated antibodies that bind specifically to a polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide of claim 1, or to immunogenic fragments thereof, with the proviso that the antibodies do not bind to human LEF-1 polypeptide or immunogenic fragments thereof. The antibodies may be polyclonal or monoclonal.
[0011] In addition, the invention includes a second downstream promoter of LEF-1, described in the examples, operably linked to either a polynucleotide described herein, or a polynucleotide of interest (e.g., a polynucleotide encoding a therapeutic protein or a therapeutic polynucleotide such as an antisense molecule).
[0012] In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a method for diagnosing or monitoring the recurrance or predisposition to colon cancer in a subject comprising detecting the level of expression of full length LEF-1 and truncated LEF-1 polynucleotide or the level of full length LEF-1 and truncated LEF-1 polypeptide in a sample from the subject, wherein an elevated level of fall length LEF-1 polynucleotide or polypeptide is indicative of the presence of colon cancer or predisposition thereto. In a preferred embodiment, the subject is a human.
[0013] The invention also provides a kit useful for for diagnosing or monitoring the recurrance or predisposition to colon cancer in a subject comprising a first container containing a nucleic acid probe for detecting the level of expression of full length LEF-1 and truncated LEF-1 polynucleotide. In another embodiment, the invention provides a kit useful for for diagnosing or monitoring the recurrance or predisposition to colon cancer in a subject comprising a first container containing an antibody for detecting the level of expression of full length LEF-1 and truncated LEF-1 polypeptide.
[0014] The invention also provides an isolated polypeptide comprising a LEF1 amino acid sequence consisting of a C-terminal fragment of LEF1, wherein the C-terminal fragment is from amino acid 116 to 398 of LEF1 and wherein the LEF1 amino acid sequence is not adjacent to an amino acid sequence that is naturally adjacent to the LEF1 amino acid sequence.
[0015] The invention provides a method of treating or inhibiting colon cancer in a subject comprising contacting a cell with an antagonist of a regulatory region encoding full length LEF-1 or an agonist (e.g., small molecule) of the polynucleotide of the invention, thereby treating or inhibiting colon cancer.
[0016] In yet another embodiment, the invention provides a method of treating or inhibiting colon cancer in a subject comprising contacting a cell with an antagonist of a full length LEF-1 polypeptide or an agonist of a truncated LEF-1 polypeptide, thereby treating or inhibiting colon cancer.
[0017] In another embodiment, the invention provides a method for screening for an agent (e.g., a compound, small molecule, peptide, mimetic, antisense, etc.) useful for the treatment of colon cancer comprising contacting a promoter sequence of LEF-1 or a truncated LEF-1 promoter operably associated with a detectable marker with a test agent, and detecting a decrease in detectable marker from the promoter of LEF-1 or an increase in detectable marker from the truncated promoter is indicative of an agent that is useful for the treatment of colon cancer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] [0018]FIG. 1 shows LEF1 and TCF7L2 (gene for TCF4 protein) expression in normal human colon tissue and human colon carcinomas. In situ hybridization with digoxigenin-labeled sense and antisense RNA complementary to the 3′ untranslated regions of human LEF1 or TCF7L2 mRNA were used as probes to detect endogenous messages in colon tissue. LEF1 mRNA (a-e), is not expressed whereas TCF7L2 mRNA (f-j), is highly expressed in normal colon tissue. Both LEF1 and TCF7L2 expression are detected in human colon carcinomas. Expression was detected in 10 of 10 colon carcinoma samples each derived from separate patients (k-o). Detection is specific as antisense, but not sense RNA probes (inset) detect high level expression of LEF1 and TCF7L2 in Jurkat T cells (p, q). Magnification for a, f is 10×(size bar is 100 mm), for b, d, g, i is 40×(size bar is 10 mm), and for c, e, h, j, k-q is 100×(size bar is 10 mm).
[0019] [0019]FIG. 2 shows a Northern analysis of LEF1 expression in normal thymus tissue and cancer cell lines and identification of a second promoter in intron 2 of human LEF1. a, Total RNA or polyA+RNA from the indicated tissues and cell lines was analyzed with probes from two different regions of the LEF1 cDNA. A probe from the open reading frame (ORF) detects two mRNAs of 3.6 kb and 2.2 kb. A probe from the 5′ untranslated region detects only the 3.6 kb mRNA (5′ UTR; the total length of the 5′ UTR in exon 1 is 1,186 nucleotides). Jurkat and 2017 cells 21 are human and mouse T lymphocyte cell lines respectively and Colo 320, DLD1, Colo 205 cells are derived from human colon carcinomas. Murine RNAs are not detected with the 5′ UTR probe because the nucleotide sequence in this region diverges significantly between human and mouse (Hovanes and Waterman, data not shown). The same Northern blot was probed with a control probe (GAPDH). b, LEF1 contains a promoter in intron 2. Fragments from the second intron of LEF1 were tested for promoter activity in Jurkat T lymphocytes using the pGL2 luciferase reporter plasmid. A 232 nucleotide fragment (EspI-XhoI) can act as a promoter for transcription in the forward but not the reverse orientation. Luciferase light units varied from 500 to 15,000. Data are derived from duplicate samples, and the results shown represent one of four replicative experiments. Fold activation was calculated as a ratio of luciferase levels from each reporter construct relative to the promoter-less pGL2 plasmid (vector). A schematic of exons 1-3 shows the relative positions of the introns, promoters and coding sequences for the LEF 1 bcatenin binding domain.
[0020] [0020]FIG. 3 shows LEF1 produces two different protein products that differ at the N-terminus. a, Predicted LEF1 protein products from the 3.6 and 2.2 kb mRNAs. The shorter LEF1 protein begins at amino acid 116 within the full length LEF1 sequence and is missing the b-catenin binding domain and a portion of the context-dependent activation domain. b, Jurkat T lymphocytes, but not colon cancer cells express LEF 1DN. Whole cell extracts (50,000 cell equivalents) were analyzed on western blots probed with monoclonal antibodies specific for fulllength LEF1 (REMB 1, Exalpha Biologicals), and TCF4 or TCF1 proteins (Upstate Biotech). REMB6 (Exalpha Biologicals) is a monoclonal antibody raised against LEF1 protein, but recognizes an epitope in the HMG box that is highly conserved in LEF/TCF family members. Polyclonal LEF1 antisera recognizes conserved epitopes in all mammalian LEF/TCF family members and isoforms. TCF polypeptides that cross-react with REMB6 and LEF 1 polyclona antibody are indicated by *. A polypeptide of 38 kD (LEF1 DN; asterisk) is detected by the LEF1 polyclonal antisera and REMB6 but not REMB1 and therefore matches the predicted structure of LEF1DN. A 2.2 kb in vitro transcribed RNA produces a single 38 kD LEF1DN product in rabbit reticulocyte lysates. Lanes 1-3 contain whole cell lysates from Jurkat T lymphocytes as a reference for the whole cell lysate from normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes in lane 4. Full-length LEF1 polypeptides are indicated in whole cell extracts from Jurkat cells and the colon cancer cells SW480 and Colo320 (75,000 cell equivalents). LEF1DN is only detected in Jurkat extract and is not present in the extracts from colon cells. c, LEF1DN can repress activation of reporter gene expression by β-catenin. The LEF/TCF reporter plasmid TOPtk was co-transfected into 2017 T lymphocytes with increasing amounts of an expression vector for DNLEF, a truncated form of LEF1 similar in structure to LEF 1 DN (aa 67-399) (ref. 22). Endogenous LEF/TCFs in Jurkat cells are able to work with b-catenin to activate the reporter gene 15-fold, but in the presence of DNLEF1, activation is reduced to basal levels.
[0021] [0021]FIG. 4 shows LEF-b 1 DN can repress activation of reporter gene expression by β-catenin. The LEF/TCF reporter plasmid TOPtk was co-transfected into Jurkat T lymphocytes with increasing amounts of an expression vector for ΔNLEF (amounts are indicated in micrograms of co-transfected plasmid), a truncated form of LEF1 similar in structure to LEF-1DN (aa67-399)The LEF1 promoter is activated by TCF1 and TCF4-β-catenin complexes in 2017 T lymphocytes. a, A luciferase reporter gene driven by the LEF1 promoter (−672, +305) was co-transfected with expression vectors for full length TCF1E or TCF4E and β-catenin. Activation was calculated using equivalent amounts of empty expression vector. TCF1E activated luciferase gene expression 7.0-fold and TCF4E activated 4.6-fold in this representative experiment. Fold activation by TCF1 over 5 replicate experiments is 8+3.65 (SD), for TCF4, 5.6-fold +3.7 (SD). Co-transfection of TCF1E and D19 β-catenin, a mutant that cannot bind to LEF/TCF proteins, did not activate the promoter. b, DNAase I footprint analysis of the LEF1 promoter with recombinant LEF1 protein reveals two binding sites downstream of the start site of transcription. The footprints are centered over two close matches to LEF/TCF consensus binding sites (YCTTTGWW): TCTTTGCTTT (+190) and TCTTTGTTC (+283). A fast migrating portion of intact probe obscures the +190 footprint with LEF1 protein in the second panel. Whole cell extracts from Jurkat T lymphocytes (express TCF4, TCF1 and LEF1) but not HeLa cells (little to no LEF/TCF expression) protect the +283 site but not the +190 site. c, Fragments of the LEF1 promoter were cloned into pGL2-enhancer plasmids and tested for activation by TCF1 and b-catenin. The region responsive to TCF/β-catenin encompasses the downstream LEF/TCF binding sites. Activation of the largest fragment (−672, +305) was 9 . 2 -fold, whereas activation of fragments that delete the +283 LEF/TCF binding site with (−672, +262) or without (−64, +262) the upstream sequences are activated 4.3− and 3.6-fold respectively. Removal of both the +190 and +283 binding sites (to +78) reduces activation to 1.6-fold. d, Transient overexpression of a GFP/APC fusion protein in SW480 cells reduces LEF1 promoter reporter gene activity (−672, +305) three-fold. The parent construct which expresses only the GFP portion does not inhibit promoter activity. Whole cell extracts from Colo320 cells overexpressing GFP/APC were analyzed by western analysis with b-catenin monoclonal antisera, and LEF/TCF polyclonal antisera (75,000 cell equivalents; inset). A decrease in b-catenin and LEF1 levels is observed, but not a decrease in TCF4 levels (indicated by filled circle).
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0022] The present inventors have shown by at least Northern analysis that the LEF1 gene is often expressed in colon cancer cell lines whereas it is not detectable in normal colon tissue 10, 11 . Here we used in situ hybridization to determine if LEF1 expression occurs in primary colon cancer tissue from patient biopsies and to determine if it is expressed in a small population of normal colon cells in crypts. Since the LEF/TCF family member TCF4 is expressed in normal colon11, we used human TCF4 probes as a reference. In striking contrast to TCF4, we did not detect LEF1 mRNA in normal mucosal tissue, not even in minor subpopulations of cells in the crypts of colon (FIG. 1 a - j ). However, we detected LEF1 mRNA in all colon carcinoma biopsies analyzed (10 out of 10, FIG. 1 k - n ). We conclude that within the limits of detection for in situ hybridization, the LEF1 gene is not expressed in any cell in normal colon tissue but is aberrantly activated during colon carcinogenesis.
[0023] In normal thymus tissue, two mRNAs of 3.6 kb and 2.2 kb are produced from LEF1 (FIG. 2 a , refs. 12, 13). However, in colon cancer and melanoma cells only the 3.6 kb mRNA is present (Colo 320, DLD1, Colo205, melanoma, and otherslo; FIG. 2 a ). Previously we determined that the 3.6 kb mRNA contains 1.2 kb 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions and a 1.2 kb open reading frame encoding a full length LEF1 polypeptide with β-catenin and HMG DNA binding domains 14. Here we probe the structure of the 2.2 kb mRNA by Northern analysis (FIG. 2 a ). Whereas probes from the LEF1 open reading frame and 3′ UTR could hybridize to both 3.6 and 2.2 kb mRNAs, we could not detect the 2.2 kb mRNA with a probe from exon 1 (5′ UTR, FIG. 2 a ). Extensive screening of cDNA libraries and other methods such as 5′ RACE did not uncover any evidence for alternative splicing to generate a smaller 2.2 kb mRNA (K. Hovanes, data not shown), therefore we considered the possibility of a second, downstream promoter.
[0024] The exon and intron structure of human LEF1 and TCF1 are highly similar and both genes express similar sets of isoforms 14-16. Although TCF1 produces only one detected mRNA on Northern blots, a second promoter in intron 2 drives expression of an additional, similarly sized mRNA encoding a truncated TCF1 isoform that does not have the β-catenin binding domain 15 . We searched introns 1 and 2 of LEF1 for regions containing a promoter and detected activity with fragments of the second intron when they were cloned into a luciferase reporter vector in the forward but not the reverse direction (XbaI-XhoI, EspI-XhoI, FIG. 2 b ). Within the smallest of these fragments is a consensus TATA box motif 50 nucleotides 5′ of the third exon. Promoter activity is destroyed when we delete these 50 nucleotides (T. Li, data not shown). The predicted protein product from this second promoter is a 283 amino acid polypeptide beginning at a methionine codon within exon 3 (amino acid 116 within full length LEF1) and is thus missing the β-catenin binding domain and crucial amino acids in the context-dependent activation domain (CAD, FIG. 3 a ). We mapped the transcription start site within the second promoter (T. Li, data not shown), and a 2.2 kb RNA beginning at this +1 position and including all downstream exons was generated for in vitro translation. A single 38 kD polypeptide was produced in this reaction (asterisk, FIG. 3 b ). Using LEF1 polyclonal antisera for western analysis, we detected a 38 kD polypeptide in extracts from Jurkat T lymphocytes that express 3.6 kb and 2.2 kb LEF1 mRNAs but not in extracts of SW480 or Colo320 colon cancer cells that express only the 3.6 kb mRNA (LEF1 pAb, FIG. 3 b ). We also used LEF1, TCF1 and TCF4 specific monoclonal antibodies to confirm that this polypeptide is a product of LEF1 and contains the HMG DNA binding domain but not the b-catenin binding domain (REMB1, REMB6, TCF1, TCF4, FIG. 3 b ).
[0025] Overexpression of this truncated LEF1 isoform represses the ability of b-catenin to activate reporter gene expression (AN-LEF1, FIG. 3 c ). Repression must occur because the truncated LEF1 protein can bind to the LEF/TCF sites and prevent b-catenin recruitment to the target reporter plasmid. Therefore, the 38 kD LEF1 protein may function as a natural antagonist for Wnt signaling and hereafter shall be referred to as LEF1DN for “dominant negative”. The structure of LEF1DN is similar to a truncated TCF1 isoform that can function as a dominant negative to suppress activation of reporter genes by full length TCF proteins 11, 17 . Expression of dominant negative forms of LEF/TCFs may be a general feature of LEF/TCF loci used to moderate the effects of Wnt signaling by competing with full length LEF/TCFs for target gene occupancy.
[0026] Since no LEF1 mRNA is detected in normal colon tissue, expression in cancer must be due to inappropriate activation of the first LEF1 promoter. We tested whether b-catenin/TCF complexes regulate the LEF1 promoter because it is known that Wnt3a can induce expression of chLEF1 in chick limb buds 18 and because genetic activation of the Wnt pathway has been observed in most spontaneous colon cancers 1-3. We observed that co-transfection of expression vectors for full length TCF1 or TCF4 and b-catenin with a luciferase reporter gene driven by the LEF1 promoter caused a seven-fold and 4.6-fold activation of luciferase expression respectively (FIG. 4 a ). Activation was dependent on β-catenin because co-transfection with D19 β-catenin, a mutant that cannot bind to LEF/TCFs (ref. 19), did not allow activation (FIG. 4 a ). We used DNAase I footprinting and recombinant LEF1 protein to identify two LEF/TCF binding sites at +192 and +283 relative to the LEF1 transcription start site (FIG. 4 b ). Partially fractionated whole cell extracts from Jurkat T lymphocytes, which express high levels of TCF1, TCF4 and LEF1, protected sequences over the +283 site suggesting that this is a high affinity LEF/TCF binding site. When we deleted this footprinted region (to +262), b-catenin activation of the promoter was reduced from 9.2-fold to 4-fold; when both downstream footprints were deleted, β-catenin activation of the promoter was nearly eliminated (FIG. 4 c ). Thus, TCF1 or TCF4 together with β-catenin can activate the LEF1 promoter through one or two response elements that lie in an unusual position downstream of the transcription start site. We also observed that b-catenin/TCF complexes can activate the LEF1DN promoter in intron 2, but to a modest level (2-3 fold). Clearly, additional factors or epigenetic mechanisms must modulate the ability of the Wnt pathway to access the LEF1 promoter but not the LEF1DN promoter in colon cancer. To test the model that LEF1 expression is regulated by b-catenin/TCF complexes in colon cancer cells, we co-transfected a GFP/APC (Green Fluorescent Protein/Adenomatous Polyposis Coli) expression plasmid with the LEF1 promoter luciferase reporter construct into SW480 cells (FIG. 4 d ). This APC fusion protein has previously been shown to reduce b-catenin protein in SW480 cells, and indeed we observed a three-fold decrease in LEF1 promoter activity (FIG. 4 d, 1.0 mg GFP/APC). There is no inhibition with the parent GFP expression plasmid but instead a modest increase in luciferase levels (FIG. 4 d ). We also overexpressed GFP/APC in Colo320 cells, which produce higher detectable levels of LEF1 protein on western blots, and observed a decrease of β-catenin and LEF1 levels, but no detectable decrease of TCF4 protein (FIG. 4 d ). We conclude that the LEF1 promoter is sensitive to the level of b-catenin in the nucleus of colon cancer cells, and thus is likely to be a Wnt gene target.
[0027] Although the current model for colon cancer predicts a correlation between colon tumorigenesis and high levels of LEF/TCF target gene expression, removal of one of these target genes from mice—the Tcfl locus itself—leads to the development of adenomas in the gut and mammary glands5. It has been suggested that loss of Tcf1 reflects loss of the putative tumor suppressor properties of the smaller dominant negative form of TCF1 which must be present in levels that exceed those of full-length TCF1 and TCF4 and therefore TCF1 is a candidate gene for loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in human colon cancer5. However, given our results that the highly similar LEF1 locus has two promoters that are differentially regulated in colon cancer, promoter misregulation at the TCF1 locus is a plausible alternative to TCF1 LOH. The promoter for dominant negative TCF1 could be down-regulated or shut off in cancer and the promoter that drives expression of full-length, β-catenin binding forms could be up-regulated, or turned on. Expression of full length LEF1 and TCF1 in the absence of the moderating influence of their dominant negative isoforms allows for the large pool of β-catenin protein to be fully exploited for target gene activation. LEF1/b-catenin complexes have been shown to transform normal chicken embryo fibroblasts20 but whether this complex contributes to the advancement and/or maintenance of tumors in colon is not known. In addition to providing insight into the mechanism of tumor progression, these genes may be used as important markers of Wntstimulated progression of carcinogenesis.
[0028] The following examples are intended to illustrate but not limit the invention.
EXAMPLE 1
Methods
[0029] In situ hybridization. We performed in situ hybridization of 5 mm sections from paraffm-embedded tissue of normal and malignant colon biopsy samples as described (“Non-radioactive In situ Hybridization”; Roche Molecular Biochemicals) with modifications (T. Milovanovic, T. Truong, and J. L. Marsh). Human TCF4 and LEF1 cDNAs encoding the 3′ untranslated regions were used to generate single-stranded antisense RNA with digitonin-conjugated UTP nucleotides. Probes were hybridized to tissue for 72 hours, then washed and incubated with alkaline phosphatase-conjugated anti-digoxigenin antibody (Roche) for one hour at 37° C. We developed tissues with 5-bromo4-chloro-3-indolylphosphate and 4-nitroblue tetrazolium chloride (BCIP/NBT; Roche), and used a 0.1% Fast Red solution for counterstain. All antisense and sense probes were tested for specificity on human Jurkat T lymphocyte cells which express both LEF1 and TCF4. The sense probes did not produce any detectable signal. Signals were visualized with an Olympus B50 microscope with Nomarski optics and photographs were captured with digital technology within 48 hours of hybridization. Northern Analysis. We analyzed LEF 1 expression by Northern analysis of 10 μg of total or 1 μg of polyA+RNA as described previously 10 . The LEF1 ORF probe was generated by StyI digestion (nt#821-1894), and the 5′ UTR probe was generated by BgIII digestion (nt#2-761). Melanoma RNA was purified from A2058 cells from a human metastatic melanoma (ATCC#11 147-CRL). Transient Transfection Assays. We subcloned fragments of intron 2 by the indicated enzymes and cloned them in both orientations into the SmaI site of pGL2-Enhancer plasmid (Promega). We transfected 5 μg of each promoter construct with 0.5 μg of CMV-LacZ reporter plasmid into 2017 T lymphocytes. Cell lysates were prepared for luciferase and β-galactosidase assays 20 hours post-transfection 14 . To test for dominant negative activity of a truncated LEF 1 protein, we co-transfected ΔNLEF1 (aa67-399) with 1 μg of the TOPtk reporter plasmid (gift of Dr. H. Clevers, Univ. Utrecht) and 0.5 μg of CMV-LacZ. To assay for β-catenin regulation of the LEF 1 promoter, we co-transfected 2 μg of TCF1 and TCF4 expression plasmids with a luciferase reporter plasmid driven by the LEF1 promoter (B 5 :−672, +305; ref. 14) and 4 μg of wild type or mutant Δ19 β-catenin expression plasmids into 2017 cells 19 . SW480 cells (250,000/35 mm well) were transfected using Effectene (Qiagen; manufacturer's protocols) and 0.5 μg of the B5 LEF1 promoter/luciferase reporter plasmid with 0.1 μg CMVLacZ and the indicated amounts of GFP/APC. Colo320 cells (500,000/35 mm well) were transfected with Effectene and the indicated amounts of GFP/APC expression vector. Whole cells were harvested 24 hours later for western analysis. Western Analysis. We separated proteins from 50,000 Jurkat cells or 75,000 colon cancer cells by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis and probed blots of these gels with the indicated antibodies. TCF1 and TCF4 monoclonal antibodies (Upstate Biotechnology) were used at a 1:1000 dilution to identify cross-reacting polypeptides detected by REMB6 and LEF1 polyclonal antisera. The REMB1 LEF1 monoclonal (Exalpha) was used at a 1:5000 dilution and REMB6 (Exalpha; detects all LEF/TCFs) at a 1:500 dilution. LEF1 polyclonal rabbit antisera (which also detects all LEF/TCF proteins) was used at a 1:1000 dilution. β-catenin levels were analyzed by monoclonal antisera from Transduction Laboratories (1:1000 dilution).
[0030] DNAase I Footprinting. Partially purified recombinant LEF1 (10 μg) and Jurkat and HeLa whole cell extracts (50 μg) were used in standard DNAase I footprinting assays as previously described 14 . The LEF1 promoter was labeled with 32 P at a phosphatased HindIII site in the polylinker region of B5 plasmid between the promoter and luciferase coding sequences.
[0031] Accession Numbers. The nucleotide sequence of the second intronic promoter has been submitted to Genbank (AF288570). Genbank AF288571 lists the nucleotide sequence of the human LEF1 cDNA and amino acid sequence of LEF1.
[0032] References:
[0033] 1. Kinzler, K. & Vogelstein, B. Lessons from hereditary colorectal cancer. Cell 87, 159-170 (1996).
[0034] 2. Polakis. Wnt signaling and cancer. Genes and Dev. 14, 1837-1851 (2000).
[0035] 3. Roose, J. & Clevers, H. TCF transcription factors: molecular switches in carcinogenesis. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1424, M23-37 (1999).
[0036] 4. Polakis, P., Hart, M. & Rubinfeld, B. Defects in the regulation of beta-catenin in colorectal cancer. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 470, 23-32 (1999).
[0037] 5. Roose, J. et al. Synergy between tumor suppressor APC and the beta-catenin-Tcf4 target Tcf1. Science 285, 1923-1926 (1999).
[0038] 6. He, T. C. et al. Identification of c-MYC as a target of the APC pathway. Science 281, 1509-1512 (1998).
[0039] 7. Tetsu, O. & McCormick, F. Beta-catenin regulates expression of cyclin D1 in colon carcinoma cells. Nature 398, 422-426 (1999).
[0040] 8. Crawford, H. C. et al. The metalloproteinase matrilysin is a target of beta-catenin transactivation in intestinal tumors. Oncogene 18, 2883-2891 (1999).
[0041] 9. Brabletz, T., Jung, A., Dag, S., Hlubek, F. & Kirchner, T. beta-catenin regulates the expression of the matrix metalloproteinase-7 in human colorectal cancer. Am. J. Pathol. 155, 1033-1038 (1999).
[0042] 10. Porfiri, E. et al. Induction of a beta-catenin-LEF-1 complex by wnt-1 and transforming mutants of beta-catenin. Oncogene 15, 2833-2839 (1997).
[0043] 11. Korinek, V. et al. Constitutive transcriptional activation by a beta-catenin-Tcf complex in APC-/- colon carcinoma. Science 275, 1784-1787 (1997).
[0044] 12. Waterman, M. L., Fischer, W. H. & Jones, K. A. A thymus-specific member of the HMG protein family regulates the human T cell receptor C alpha enhancer. Genes Dev. 5, 656-669 (1991). p 0 13. Travis, A., Amsterdam, A., Belanger, C. & Grosschedl, R. LEF-1, a gene encoding a lymphoid-specific protein with an HMG domain, regulates T-cell receptor alpha enhancer function. Genes Dev. 5, 880-894 (1991).
[0045] 14. Hovanes, K., Li, T. W. H. & Waterman, M. L. The human LEF-1 gene contains a promoter preferentially active in lymphocytes and encodes multiple isoforms derived from alternative splicing. Nucleic Acids Res. 28, 1994-2003 (2000).
[0046] 15. van de Wetering, M. et al. The human T cell transcription factor-1 gene. Structure, localization, and promoter characterization. J. Biol. Chem. 267, 8530-8536 (1992).
[0047] 16. Van de Wetering, M., Castrop, J., Korinek, V. & Clevers, H. Extensive alternative splicing and dual promoter usage generate Tcf-protein isoforms with differential transcription control properties. Mol. Cell. Biol. 16, 745-752 (1996).
[0048] 17. Morin, P. et al. Activation of beta-catenin-Tcf signaling in colon cancer by mutations in beta-catenin or APC. Science 275, 1787-1790 (1997).
[0049] 18. Kengaku, M. et al. Distinct WNT pathways regulating AER formation and dorsoventral polarity in the chick limb bud. Science 280, 1274-1277 (1998).
[0050] 19. Prieve, M. G. & Waterman, M. L. Nuclear Localization and formation of b-catenin-Lymphoid Enhancer Factor-1 complexes are not sufficient to activate gene expression. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19, 4503-4515 (1999).
[0051] 20. Aoki, M., Hecht, A., Kruse, U., Kemler, R. & Vogt, P. K. Nuclear endpoint of Wnt signaling: neoplastic transformation induced by transactivating lymphoid-enhancing factor 1. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 96, 139-144 (1999).
[0052] 21. Spolski, R. et al. Regulation of expression of T cell gamma chain, L3T4 and Ly-2 messages in Abelson/Moloney virus-transformed T cell lines. Eur. J. Immunol. 18, 295-300 (1988).
[0053] 22. Carlsson*, P., Waterman*, M. & Jones, K. The hLEF/TCF-1a HMG protein contains a context-dependent transcriptional activation domain that induces the TCRa enhancer in T cells. Genes Dev. 7, 2418-2430 (1993).
[0054] Although the invention has been described with reference to the above examples, it will be understood that modifications and variations are encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is limited only by the following claims.
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The present invention relates to the discovery that LEF1 is a new type of target gene in that it is ectopically activated in colon cancer. The pattern of this ectopic expression is unusual because it derives from selective activation of a promoter for a full-length LEF1 isoform that binds β-catenin, but not a second, intronic promoter that drives expression of a dominant negative isoform. β-catenin/TCF complexes can activate the promoter for full-length LEF1 suggesting that in cancer, high levels of these complexes misregulate transcription to favor a positive feedback loop for Wnt signaling by inducing selective expression of full length, β-catenin sensitive forms of LEF/TCFs. The invention provides diagnostic and therapeutic methodologies based on the discoveries described herein.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The extent of activities in the future on other planets such as Mars will be limited by the power that is available for such activities. Generally, the source of such power must come from Earth and be transported to its point of use on Mars or some other planet. Consequently, the size and weight of the potential power supply is limited due to the fact that it must be transported through space in a space vehicle which uses power in transit and is of necessity of limited size in view of the limits on the rocket motors necessary to place it in space.
Solar arrays have been used as a source of electrical energy in the past. However, such arrays are limited to situations where there is a dust free environment and where sunlight is readily available and there is also a problem with size since generally a large surface area is necessary in order to provide meaningful power. Also, solar arrays must be oriented properly to provide power and a storage mechanism must be provided for periods when there is no sunlight. Nuclear power sources that provide heat as a byproduct of nuclear radioactive energy are a potentially attractive source of power since these heat sources are very compact in relation to the potential available heat energy. However, there is a problem with such nuclear energy sources and that is the problem of converting the heat energy into a usable form of energy such as electrical energy.
It would be desirable that a power supply for use on a planet such as Mars use something that was available locally on the planet as a portion of the power supply system. In such a power supply system it would be expected that there would be a weight saving over a power supply system in which everything is brought in from outside the planet. Unfortunately, most planets are comparatively barren and would appear to contain little that could be used without expensive processing in conjunction with a power system. In the case of Mars, the surface is barren and the surface atmosphere is of low pressure and full of dust. This would appear to make the atmosphere unusable for anything connected with a power supply for use on a planet located in outerspace.
This invention avoids the problems associated with putting an effective power supply on other planets such as the difficulty of placing the power supply on the desired planet. This invention provides a compact effective power supply that is effective in a comparatively unhospitable environment such as on Mars. Moreover, this power supply makes use of the dust laden atmosphere of the planet Mars by having provisions for avoiding damage to the power supply caused by the dust in the atmosphere on the surface of Mars.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to power supplies and methods related thereto and more particularly to power supplies and methods for use outside the planet Earth.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that is adapted to be transported in space.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that is adapted to operate on a planet other than earth.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that uses the atmosphere on a planet other than earth for its operation.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that is usable in a hostile environment.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that is usable in an abrasive atmosphere.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that is usable in a dust laden atmosphere.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a power supply that uses a dust laden atmosphere in its operation.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a power supply that uses the dust laden atmosphere of Mars as a heat transfer fluid.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a power supply that uses the dust laden atmosphere of Mars but separates at least a portion of the dust from the Martian atmosphere prior to using the atmosphere as a working fluid.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that utilizes a low pressure drop yet efficient heat transfer system.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply which furnishes partial power during transit from earth to the destination planet when the destination planet atmosphere is not present.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply having a thermoelectric power conversion device and a variable conductance heat pipe thermal flux transformer.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that has two modes of heat rejection.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply with an efficient heat transfer system that uses laminar flow of the heat transfer fluid.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that uses a reliable heat source.
It is an object of the invention to provide a power supply that uses a heat source with a very long life.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a power supply with a heat source that furnishes a continuous uninterrupted source of heat.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a power supply which is highly reliable.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a power supply in which the critical components are duplicated in a backup or reserve power supply.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for providing power that uses an extraterrestrial atmosphere.
These and other objects of the invention are obtained from the extraterrestrial planetary power supply invention that includes a heat source, an open Brayton cycle combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator adapted to be driven by the Martian atmosphere and fluid heat transfer means comprising a portion of the Martian atmosphere for use by the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator as its working fluid and for receiving heat from the heat source. The power supply also includes a thermoelectric power source that provides a continuous but reduced source of electric power. The invention includes a method that uses an extraterrestrial atmosphere.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be hereinafter described in considerable detail with reference to the appended drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the extraterrestrial planetary power supply invention with portions broken away for the purpose of illustrating certain portions of the interior thereof;
FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken substantially on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1 showing the interior workings of the extraterrestrial planetary power supply and heat exchange fluid flow path and temperature distribution;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of the structure set forth in FIG. 1 with certain portions thereof broken away for clarity;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a portion of the structure illustrated in FIG. 3 taken in the direction 4--4 thereof; and
FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a portion of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2 taken within the circle 5 thereof
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The power supply invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 and is designated generally by the number 10. The power supply 10 comprises five basic elements or structures that are a nuclear heat source 12, a combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14, a thermoelement and heat pipe assembly 18, a heat exchanger 20 and a waste heat radiator 22 for radiating heat. The nuclear heat source 12 comprises a planar array of forty general purpose heat source modules 24 that are known in the art and each comprise four iridium clad plutonia pellets that generate heat primarily by the alpha decay of Pu-238. Each module 24 generates some 250 watts of thermal power and the modules are similar to those used in the Galileo radioisotope heat source.
The power supply 10 also has several important standby or backup elements that include a standby combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 26 and a standby heat exchanger 28 that are substantially similar to the previously described combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 and associated heat exchanger 20. A portion of the heat source 12 is associated with the standby heat exchanger 28.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 comprises a dust separator 32 located at its lower end for separating dust and the like from the atmosphere that is drawn into the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator, a compressor 34, an alternator 36, a turbine 38 and an outlet diffuser 40. The dust separator 32 is located just below the compressor 34 and comprises a hollow cylindrical member 42 whose central axis A generally coincides with the long central axis B of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14. This hollow cylindrical member 42 is held in place by thin support member 44 that connects the cylindrical member 42 to the lower end portion of the compressor 34. The lower portion 46 of the hollow cylindrical member 42 is tapered inward toward the central axis A and terminates at a generally circular shaped dust outlet opening 48. A cone shaped member 50 is located inside the lower tapered portion 46 above the opening 48 and is held in place by the support struts 52 that interconnect the lower tapered portion and the cone shaped member 50.
The compressor 34 has a hollow generally cylindrical inlet portion 54 that has a flared lower end portion 56 that is centrally located around the long axis B of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 and extends into the upper interior portion of the dust separator 32. As indicated in FIG. 2 the atmosphere laden with dust D is drawn into the top opening of the dust separator 32 between the exterior of the compressor inlet portion 54 and the interior of the dust separator 32. The atmosphere must then make substantially a 180 degree turn so that it enters into the compressor inlet portion 54. This results in the separation of the dust D from the atmosphere due to inertia of the heavier dust particles D and also due to Martian gravity. The separated dust particles D pass between the exterior of the cone shaped member 50 and the interior of the tapered portion 46 and pass out of the opening 48. The cone shaped member 50 serves to prevent dust D from being pulled upward into the compressor inlet portion 54.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the compressor 34 includes a compressor wheel 58 that is rigidly connected to a combined compressor and generator shaft 60 that is rotary mounted on the central axis B of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 26 on bearings 62 and 64. The compressor wheel 58 rotates and compresses the atmosphere within a compressor scroll 66 which causes the atmosphere within the scroll 66 to be compressed. The atmosphere that enters the compressor enters through the compressor inlet portion 54 and is compressed so that the atmosphere that exits the exit opening 68 of the compressor scroll 66 is compressed by 5 times so that the outlet pressure is five times the inlet pressure.
The alternator 36 is located immediately above the compressor 34 and it comprises an alternator rotor 70 rigidly connected to the rotatable shaft 60 and stator windings 72 secured in place around the rotatable alternator rotor 70. Cooling fins 74 are located at fixed intervals around the exterior of the stator windings 72 to cool the alternator 36. The start up and control of the operation of the alternator 36 is accomplished by a controller 75 that is electrically connected to the stator windings 72 via the leads 77 and 79. A backup controller 81 is connected to the controller 75 by the lead 83 and to the alternator (not shown) of the standby turbocompressor and turbogenerator 26 by the lead 85.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the turbine 38 is located immediately adjacent and above the alternator 36 and comprises a turbine wheel 76 rigidly fixed to the rotatable shaft 60 and a hollow turbine inlet scroll 78 that surrounds the turbine wheel 76. It should be noted that the turbine scroll 78 is configured so that the atmospheric pressure drops from the turbine scroll 78 inlet to its outlet so that the pressure at its outlet is only substantially 1/5 of its inlet pressure. As the turbine wheel 76 is turned it turns the shaft to which the wheel 76 is connected and this in turn turns the alternator rotor 70 which results in the alternator 36 generating electricity. The open outlet portion 80 of the turbine scroll 78 is connected to the lower open end portion 82 of the hollow outlet diffuser 40 through which the spent atmosphere is exhausted. It will, of course, be appreciated that all of the components of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 are present in the backup or standby turbocompressor and turbogenerator 26.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the atmosphere that is compressed by the compressor 34 leaves the exit opening 68 of the compressor scroll 66 and enters the open inlet portion 84 of the hollow heat exchanger inlet duct 86 to a honeycomb flow straightener 87 that is located at the entrance to a hollow heat exchanger housing 88 to straighten the atmospheric flow and provide for laminar flow and hence better heat transfer in the heat exchanger 20 as a result of a higher heat transfer coefficient at a lower pressure drop. The hollow heat exchanger housing 88 that receives the atmosphere comprises a curved hollow inlet section 90 with two separate curved paths 92 and 94. These hollow curved path portions 92 and 94 lead to respective generally rectangular shaped hollow substantially identical heat exchange sections 93 and 95. The heat exchange section 93 has a series of vertically oriented heat exchange fins 96 that extend from the outer wall 97 of the section 93 to its inner wall 98 and the heat exchange section 95 has a series of substantially identical vertically oriented heat exchange fins 99 that also extend from the outer wall 100 of the heat exchange section 95 to its inner wall 101. In view of this arrangement heat passes from the heat exchange fins 96 and 99 to the adjacently located passing atmosphere. It will be noted that the thermoelectric and heat pipe assembly 18 that will be hereinafter described in detail is located between the inner walls 98 and 101 of the heat exchange sections 93 and 95 and the array of heat source modules 24 of the heat source 12.
As indicated in FIG. 2, the temperature of the atmosphere increases greatly as it passes past the heat exchanger fins 96 and 99 to the surrounding moving atmosphere results in very hot atmosphere leaving the heat exchanger housing sections 93 and 95 and entering the hollow generally funnel shaped inlet duct 102 of the turbine scroll 78 where the atmosphere enters the inlet aperture 104 of the scroll 78 and then expands and exerts a pushing force against the substantially identical turbine blades 106 of the turbine wheel 76. This expansion of the atmosphere and pushing against the turbine blades 106 moves inwardly and upwardly and then the atmosphere enters the hollow outlet diffuser at a substantially lower temperature than it entered the turbine scroll 78.
As best illustrated in FIG. 2, as the turbine wheel 76 and the connected shaft 60 is turned as a result of the action of the atmosphere pressing against the turbine blades 106, the alternator rotor 70 that is also rigidly attached to the shaft 60 is also turned and since this is located inside the stator windings 72 it results in the alternator 36 generating an electrical current. The same shaft 60 that is turning the alternator rotor 70 also turns the connected compressor wheel 58 which in turn causes the compressor 34 to operate in the previously described manner.
The details of the nuclear heat source 12 and the interior of the heat exchanger 20 are illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4 where the array of heat source modules 24 are illustrated. Also, as illustrated, this array of heat source modules 24 is supported on its ends by a plurality of substantially identical support spring members 108 that are located on an end frame member 110. These support spring members 108 exert a spring force against the adjacent heat source module 24. A central support ring 112 is located around the center portion of the array of heat source modules 24. A plurality of support spring members 108 exert a spring force against the adjacent heat source modules 24 to support them and to accommodate differential expansion of the module 24 support structure.
The details of the support spring members 108 are illustrated in FIG. 4 where as illustrated, the support spring member 108 comprises an end support cap member 116 with a generally cylindrical interior aperture 118 that holds a belleville type spring 120 surrounding a generally cylindrical support member 122 that is also surrounded by a bellows 124. As illustrated, the cylindrical support member 122 has a step 126 that is contacted by the outer inner surface of the belleville spring 126 and hence the support member 122 is pushed outward away from the cap member 116 by the belleville spring 120. This support member 122 also contacts a block of pyrolytic graphite 128 that in turn contacts another graphite block 130 that in turn contacts the end of a heat module 24.
FIG. 5 illustrates in greater detail the thermoelectric and heat pipe assembly 18 portion of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2. The thermoelectric and heat pipe assembly 18 is located between the heat module 24 and the adjacent wall such as the wall 98 of the heat exchange section, such as the section 93 and comprises a graphite heat collector 132 with a generally rectangular shaped heat collector surface 134 that faces but is separated from the adjacent heat module 24. The opposite end portion 136 of the heat collector 132 is connected via a glass bond 138 to a multicouple 140 that uses heat differential to generate electric power in a manner known to those skilled in the art. The other side of the multicouple 140 is connected via a glass bond 144 to a tungsten interconnect 142 which is in turn connected to a heat pipe 146 by a compliant pad 148 known in the art and the other side of the heat pipe 146 is connected to the wall 98 of the heat exchange section 93. In view of this arrangement heat will continuously pass from the heat module 24 via the heat collector 132, through the multicouple 140 where electrical power is generated, to the heat pipe 146 where heat is transferred to the heat pipe working fluid. The multicouples 140 are electrically connected to the controller 75 as represented by the lead 150 in FIG. 2 to provide electrical power to the controller 75.
The power supply invention 10 is made and used in the following manner. In the preferred embodiment the compressor turbine wheel 58 is made in a conventional manner from titanium due to mass and erosion considerations. The turbine wheel 76 is made in a conventional manner from Inconel 792 and the associated surrounding turbine scroll 78 is made in a conventional manner from Inconel 617. The alternator 36 is a permanent magnet type that uses a Samarium-Cobalt magnet with an output of substantially 28 Volts Direct Current. The housing for the alternator 36 is made from Inconel as is the diffuser 40 and the exchanger housing 88. The separator 32 and the compressor scroll 66 are both made in a conventional manner from Inconel or titanium as are the other ducts. The heat exchanger fins 96 and 99 are made from copper and CuNi as is the radiator 22. The heat pipes 146 are made from Inconel and filled with a potassium working fluid. The multicouples 140 that are located between the heat pipes 146 and the heat modules 24 are conventional with GaP N-legs and standard P-legs and hence are not described in detail since they are known in the art. As previously indicated, the heat source modules 24 are known in the art. The power supply 10 is assembled using conventional techniques known in the art.
The power supply invention 10 is used in the following manner. While the power supply 10 is being transported to its destination in space, the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 or 26 will obviously not be working. However, the heat source modules 24 will still be generating heat and this heat will be transferred to the heat pipese 146 through the multicouples 140. The working fluid in the heat pipes 146 will then transfer the heat to the radiator 22 where the heat is radiated into space. The heat pipes 146 transfer heat from their warm areas to their colder areas and are very important to the power supply invention 10 since they allow the use of a higher temperature heat source than would be possible with just a combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 because of structural limitations associated with the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14. However, the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 also enhances the performance of the multicouples 140 and results in an increased electrical power output that is greater than when only the thermoelectric and heat pipe assemblies 18 are used. In this process the multicouples 140 generate electrical power that can be put to use.
When the power supply 10 is located on a suitable planet with an atmosphere, the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 is put into operation and its alternator 36 is put into use. The starting of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 is accomplished through the controller 75 that directs electrical power via the leads 77 and 79 to the alternator 36 which causes "motoring" of the alternator 36 or causes it to act as a motor and hence drive the compressor 34. Once the alternator 36 reaches operating speed, the controller 75 electrically extracts power from the alternater 36. If the controller 75 senses a speed drop in the alternator 36, it causes the backup controller 81 FIG. 2 ) to take the place of the controller 75 and start the alternator (not shown) of the standby turbocompressor and turbogenerator 26. The multicouples 140 will, of course, continue to generate useable electrical power when the turbine 36 is in use.
If the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 should fail, then the backup combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 26 and its associated back up heat exchanger 28 will be put into use. Not only does this backup system permit the continued production of electric power, but it also permits the periodic shut down of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 or 26 for inspection, servicing and repair in the case of a manned mission. When the power supply 10 is to be moved from a suitable planet, the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerators 14 and 26 will be shut down and the radiator 22 and associated heat pipes 18 and multicoupler put into use when the power supply 10 has no access to a suitable planetary atmosphere.
The method of the invention is practiced in the following manner. The power supply 10 is transported to a suitable extraterrestrial location in space through the use of a suitable space vehicle (not shown) in a manner known to those skilled in the art. During the transportation of the power supply to its intended extraterrestrial location electrical power ca be derived from the power supply 10 through the thermoelectric and heat pipe assembly 18 and the associated radiator 22 by positioning the radiator 22 so that it can radiate heat to a suitable location such as into space. Then when the power supply 10 is located at its intended location in space where there is a suitable atmosphere such as on Mars, the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 is activated through the use of the controller 75. This results in the intake of the extraterrestrial atmosphere into the power supply 10 and the operation of the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 to generate additional electrical power in addition to that provided previously by the thermoelectric and heat pipe assembly 18.
It should be noted that when the power supply 10 is transported to a suitable extraterrestrial location in space and then placed in operation at such a location in the previously described manner, two complete combined turbocompressors and turbogenerators 14 and 26 are provided as part of the power supply 10. However, in the method of the invention only one combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 or 26 is used at one time. However, if the one that is being used or is in operation should fail or be subject to possible failure, then the other combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 or 26 is brought into operation to replace the unit that has failed or is subject to failure. With the method of the invention one combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator 14 or 26 can be shut down for maintenance and the other combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator put into operation in order to continue to maintain a substantially consistent electrical output from the power supply 10.
Although the invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to a certain preferred embodiments, it will be understood that variations and modifications may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the appended claims.
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A method for generating power and a power supply for use in the atmosphere on Mars that use the Martian atmosphere as a working fluid. The power supply has an open Brayton cycle combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator that use the Martian atmosphere for their operation. The Martian atmosphere working fluid picks up heat derived from a nuclear heat source that transfers the heat to the working fluid by laminar flow heat exchange. The combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator have provisions for separating dust from the dust laden Martian atmosphere and for operating with any residual Martian atmospheric dust that is ingested into the combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator. Reliability of operation is achieved by having two functionally separate power operating units that each have their own combined turbocompressor and turbogenerator and by only using one power unit at a time.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
The technical field of the invention is shutter release systems for cameras, and in particular shutter release systems for electronically controlled cameras provided with either automatic focusing or automatic exposure setting mechanisms which provide these adjustments attendant to operation of the shutter release system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Automatic cameras now widely known in the art provide for automatic focusing and/or automatic lens aperture setting attendant to operation of the shutter release system. Such systems typically provide, upon initial operation of the shutter release button, a distance sensing and an illumination sensing operation. The former sensing operation produces an electrical control signal condition in the camera circuitry indicative of the distance to the object, and the latter sensing operation provides a similar control signal condition indicative of the brightness of the object under ambient illumination.
Responsively to these two sensing operations, the lens system is mechanically driven through a range of positions. Frequently a multi-position electrical contactor or synchronously driven potentiometer is used to provide an electrical signal condition indicative of the instantaneous lens position. The range control signal and the position-indicating signal condition are compared, by associated control circuitry to terminate the lens focus drive at the appropriate point. An aperture or shutter control system is similarly set into a state of motion to be similarly terminated at a position which will govern the degree of exposure of the film. This latter feature may take a variety of forms, such as a rotating drive for a conventional iris-type aperture. In the alternative it may also control exposure by controlling the action of the shutter itself. This shutter control may take a variety of forms, including controlling the separation between the two curtains of a focal-plane shutter, controlling the stroke length of an impulsively actuated shutter blade so as to govern the time necessary for it to return to a closed position, or the duration of the engagement time of a shutter blade initially engaged by the shutter release mechanism during the exposure process.
A common variant in such exposure control systems is to make the shutter from a pair of blades of overlapping configuration and shaped so that as they are moved apart from a closed position a progressively increasing aperture is formed therebetween, this relative motion between the two blades being subsequently reversed to terminate the exposure cycle. Such variable-aperture shutters are typically positioned at a point in the optical train to act as aperture stops, rather than field stops, for obvious reasons.
To provide for proper focusing, many of the more advanced automatic focusing systems provide for a substantial number of pre-established intermediate positions, to any one of which the lens may be driven. A scanning drive is most typically supplied by an energizing spring member, and is most typically terminated by a locking engagement of a pawl or similar mechanism which is electrically actuated to arrestingly terminate the scanning movement of the lens at one of these preset positions. Because of related timing and inertial effects, it is found to be necessary to couple some form of mechanical velocity regulator to the focus drive system to prevent excessive velocity build-up under the action of a drive spring sufficiently strong to give rapid initial acceleration. Here the objective is to secure a rapid acceleration of the system to a moving condition, but to hold the maximum resulting velocity to a reasonable limit so as to allow sufficient time for precise engagement of the stopping pawl, or other mechanism, into proper locking engagement with the focus drive system.
With respect to exposure control, and considering in particular the use of a variable aperture impulse-driven shutter to secure this feature, frequently a variable position shutter blade rebound stop member is employed to control the length of the shutter stroke, and hence the exposure. This stop is similarly spring driven from an initial position through a range of positions. This stop member is similarly locked by an engaging pawl or member at an appropriate position responsively to a control signal from the exposure control circuitry. Such a rebound stop must be similarly rapidly accelerated and thereafter held at a reasonable velocity to allow the locking mechanism to function with adequate precision.
Thus, both drive systems are typically initially cocked to a latched spring-loaded condition, released therefrom attendant to shutter button depression to have their velocities thereafter held at a relatively low value, and then are positively arrested at appropriate terminal positions. After both drive systems have been arrested, the shutter release system must automatically energize the shutter blades, this system also having been initially held in a cocked condition against the force of a shutter spring.
Prior art systems which provide for the necessary velocity-limiting of even a single scanning system, e.g., focus drive, and which provide for properly synchronized actuation of the shutter after termination of the scanning operation, generally suffer from undue complexity or expense, or tend to be wasteful of space. One basic problem which all such systems must cope with is the problem that the scanning system must be capable of stopping at an arbitrary point, after which time the shutter must be synchronously operated. One approach is simply to add an additional velocity limiter to a shutter-actuating member, most typically a spring-energized slide, the slide velocity regulator being arranged to prevent any substantial motion of the slide during the time necessary for movement of the scanning system to its most extreme position, after which time the slide velocity limiter disengages. The slide then is accelerated under the force of its energizing spring to impulsively actuate the shutter blades through an exposure cycle. Such systems require a pair of release latches which, when simultaneously released, release the shutter slide and the drive system from a cocked condition to carry out their respective motions. Furthermore, there must be provided cocking means for restoring both systems into engagement with their respective latches. Such systems are, in general, as stated above, complex.
An alternative approach is to omit the above-mentioned shutter slide velocity limiter, and to use instead a properly synchronized electromagnetic release of cocking the shutter slide from its associated latch. Associated control circuitry is used to operate the shutter latch to a released condition after the scanning drive-terminating control signal has been sensed. Such systems tend to be expensive, as compared to the double velocity-limiter system described above, since they replace the shutter slide velocity limiter at the cost of adding an electromagnet. As in the previous system, provision must be made for returning the scanning drive system and the shutter slide to a cocked condition by engaging a pair of release latches.
It would therefore be a desirable feature to provide in a camera having automatic focus and/or exposure setting capability a greatly simplified mechanical shutter release system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one of the features of the invention, a shutter actuating means (such as a shutter-actuating slide member) having a striker portion for energizingly striking a shutter is held in a cocked position against the force of a slide energizing spring by a single release latch actuatable to a released condition upon depression of the shutter button. At least one scanning drive system (either focus drive or exposure control drive), powered in the example shown by an energizing spring, is releasably coupled to the shutter slide so as to be held in a cocked starting position by the shutter slide latch. A velocity limiter, preferably in the form of a constant velocity escapement, is configured for engagement with the shutter-actuating slide only over an initial portion of the motion thereof after the release latch is tripped. This engagement is retained for sufficient time to allow the driven element (focus control member or exposure control member) to move to its opposite extreme position, if necessary, before disengagement of the velocity limiter from the shutter slide.
The scanning drive system is coupled to the shutter-actuating slide so that the speed of the scanning drive system is retardingly governed by the velocity limiter. Thus, the scanning drive system is held to a limited velocity throughout its entire range of adjustment. The coupling between the scanning drive system and the shutter slide, preferably configured as a lost-motion coupling, permits total disengagement of the scanning drive system, and in particular the force of the drive energizing spring, from the shutter-actuating slide attendant to freezing of the scanning drive system at its appropriate position by its associated scene sensing circuitry. Thereafter the shutter slide travels a short distance, whereupon the velocity limiter disengages from it. The shutter slide, now actuated solely by its own energizing spring, accelerates to strike the anvil of the shutter to actuate exposure. During the cocking return of the shutter slide, the coupling between the scanning drive system and the shutter slide is again re-established, the terminal portion of the cocking phase bringing the shutter slide and the drive system once again to their initial positions against the force of their energizing springs, the shutter slide again being captively secured by the release latch. A single release latch, a lost motion coupling, and a single automatically disengaging velocity limiter thus provide all of the necessary synchronization features at an absolute minimum of parts and system complexity.
According to a specific feature of the invention two such lost-motion couplings are provided, one to engage a focusing drive member coupled to move the lens, the other to engage an exposure control drive member, the position of which controls the exposure. During the initial phase of motion of the shutter slide subsequent to tripping the release latch, both scanning drive mechanisms are limited to the velocity set by the velocity limiter, each scanning drive mechanism disengaging from the shutter slide when its associated arresting mechanism is energized, the subsequent system motion proceeding as previously described.
According to a further feature of the invention the shutter system is of the progressively increasing aperture (variable aperture) type, and the exposure control feature is provided by rotating a cam responsively to the motion of the exposure control regulator member so as to rotate the cam to a a chosen orientation according to the previously mentioned sensings of the brightness of the object to be photographed. The cam is positioned to act as a variable-position rebound stop to limit the length of the advancing stroke of the variable aperture shutter. Thus, according to cam orientation the stroke will be short under high scene illumination and long under low scene illumination, thus controlling the exposure.
The present invention thus accomplishes with great simplicity what previous designs have only accomplished with substantial complexity. Total synchronization of all elements is secured using only a single release latch and a single velocity limiter. Other advantages and aspects of the invention will become apparent upon making reference to the specification, claims, and drawings to follow.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway front elevational view of the principal components of a shutter release system, a focus control system, and an exposure control system as mounted on a rear mounting board, the system being in a cocked condition.
FIG. 2 shows the elements of FIG. 1 in an intermediate condition during actuation of the shutter release cycle at a time when the exposure control system has been finally positioned, but before a focus control system has reached its final state.
FIG. 3 is similar to FIG. 1, further showing a pair of rotary exposure and focus control contactors not shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, and further showing the system with both control systems in a final position prior to opening the shutter.
FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3, further having central components removed to show the initial phase of the opening of a pair of variable aperture shutter blades.
FIG. 5 shows the principal elements of FIG. 3 at the extreme open limit of the shutter blades.
FIG. 6 shows the principal elements of the shutter system after shutter closure, and during the initial phase of a recocking operation.
FIG. 7 shows details of a pivotally mounted velocity limiter engaging a portion of the shutter system during the cocking operation.
FIG. 8 is a fold-out view of the central region of the rear mounting board of FIG. 1 confronting a front mounting board carrying a lens cell assembly.
FIG. 9 is a block schematic diagram of a control circuit governing the focus and exposure control systems.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
FIG. 1 shows in partial cutaway form the principal elements of the shutter release system of the present invention mounted on a rear mounting board 10. A shutter actuating slide 12 having a pair of elongated guide slots 14,16 disposed along the length thereof is held slidably secured to the rear mounting board by guide pins 18,20 having retaining crowns 22,24 thereon. A slide energizing spring 26 fastened at its righthand end to the shutter slide by a post 28 and at its lefthand end to the rear mounting board 10 by a pin 30 thus urges the shutter slide to the left. A shutter release bar (release lever) 32, rotatably mounted on a pivot 34, is configured at the righthand end with a release bar latch face 36 confronting a complementarily configured shutter slide latch face 38 provided on an extension of the shutter slide 12. Spring bias means 11 (not shown in FIG. 1; see FIG. 9) urge the shutter release bar 32 clockwise to hold the shutter slide 12 to the right in a cocked position as shown. A counterclockwise rotation of the shutter release bar 32 will release the latch engagement, allowing the shutter slide 12 to move to the left under the action of the slide energizing spring 26, ultimately to actuate the shutter through an exposure cycle.
Two principal control systems are also shown in FIG. 1. One system rotates a focus control ring 40 which varies the position of a lens cell assembly 42 along the optic axis 44, as shown in better detail in FIG. 8. The other system controls the exposure by adjusting the maximum stroke of an impulse-driven variable aperture shutter 46,48,50 as best shown in FIG. 5. An exposure control cam assembly 52 carries an integral step-shaped stroke limiter cam 54 disposed to obstructingly limit the shutter stroke. Rotation of the exposure control cam assembly 52 to a suitable point before the shutter is driven open will control the exposure, as will be discussed.
Considering first the focus control system in more detail, the rotatably mounted focus control ring has a central clear aperture 56. Gear teeth 56-58 are provided along one margin thereof engaging confronting teeth of a rotatable focus drive sector gear 60 mounted on a pivot 61. A focus drive energizing spring 62 attached at one end to pin 30 mounted on the rear mounting board and at the other to a post 64 on the sector gear 60 urges the sector gear in a counterclockwise direction. The focus drive sector gear 60 has a regulator extension 66 carrying a regulator pin 68 at the end thereof disposed so that the pin confronts an extension hook 70 on the shutter slide 12. In the cocked stage shown in FIG. 1, the engagement of the regulator pin 68 with the hook 70 prevents the sector gear 60 from rotating so as to drive the focus control ring 40 through the focusing range of the lens. A pinion 72 is further provided which is constantly engaged with the sector gear 60 throughout its entire range of positions, this pinion being integral with a focus control rotary contactor assembly 74 (see FIG. 3) which provides to a control circuit 76 (see FIG. 9) sensing information indicative of the orientation of the lens focusing ring 40, and hence of the lens focusing distance, during the rotation of the lens focusing ring during the shutter system actuation cycle.
The lens focus control ring 40 has along one edge thereof a number of ratchet teeth 78-78 disposed to serially confront a pawl 80 mounted on the end of a pawl arm 82 as the focus control ring is driven clockwise during the exposure cycle. The pawl arm is part of a focus control pawl assembly 84 including a control arm 86, both the pawl arm and the control arm being pivotally mounted on a common pivot 88. A pair of control pawl springs 90 (one not shown) bias the pawl arm 82 counterclockwise with respect to the control arm 86, and the control arm counterclockwise with respect to the pivot 88. In the cocked condition shown in FIG. 1, the pawl 80 is held in a retracted position by a cam lobe 92 adjacent the ratchet teeth 70-78 on the focus control ring 40, thus forcing the pawl arm 82 clockwise, which in turn because of the spring coupling therebetween, forces the control arm similarly clockwise. The motion of the control arm is limited by engagement of a magnetic armature 94 carried in one end thereof contactingly engaging a pole piece 96 of a focus control solenoid 98. A lost motion coupling between the pawl arm 82 and the control arm 86 consisting of a pin 87 on the pawl arm confronting an engaging face 89 on the control arm permits a secure pressing engagement between the armature 94 and the pole piece 96 without stressing the focus control pawl assembly 84.
As will subsequently be discussed, the control circuit shown in FIG. 9 is arranged so that when the shutter button 100 is depressed a control switch 102--102 is closed immediately before sufficient force is transferred to the shutter release bar 32 to release the shutter slide 12 from its cocked and latched position. As a result, the focus control solenoid 98 will hold the pawl 80 away from the ratchet teeth 78--78 of the rotating focus control ring 40 until deenergized at an appropriate time to freeze the control ring at the proper focusing position.
Considering next the exposure system in more detail, the rotatable exposure control cam assembly 52 rotatably mounted on a pivot 106 carries a pinion 108 integral therewith which engages an exposure control sector drive gear 110 rotatably mounted on a pivot 112. An exposure cam energizing spring 114 secured at one end to a post 116 fastened to the rear mounting board 10 and at the other to a portion of the sector drive gear 110 urges the sector gear in a counterclockwise direction, so as to rotate the exposure control cam assembly 52 in a clockwise direction. As in the case of the focus drive sector gear 60, the exposure control sector gear 110 is provided at one end thereof with a regulator extension 118 and a regulator pin 120, the pin being disposed in confronting engagement with a cutout 122 in the righthand end of the shutter slide 12. The exposure control cam assembly is provided with a number of ratchet teeth 124--124 disposed to serially pass an opposing exposure control pawl 126 mounted on a rotatable exposure control pawl assembly 128. The exposure control pawl assembly 128 functions in the same manner as the focus control pawl assembly 84, having a similar lost motion provided by control pawl springs 130 (one not shown) and a magnetic armature 132 at one end of an exposure control arm 134. This armature 132 is similarly held against a pole piece 136 of an exposure control solenoid 138 when a prominent exposure control cam lobe 140 confronts the exposure control pawl in the cocked state. As in the case of the actuation of the focus control system, the exposure control solenoid 138 is energized throughout an initial portion of the shutter actuation sequence until deenergized by the control circuit 76, thus causing the exposure control pawl 126 to engage one of the ratchet teeth 124--124 on an exposure control cam 111 integral with the exposure control cam assembly 52 to freeze the motion of this assembly at an appropriate position.
Provision is made to retard the leftward velocity of the shutter slide 12 upon tripping of the shutter release bar 32, so as to provide adequate time for the positioning of the focus and exposure control systems. This mechanism takes the form a of toothed rack 142 provided along a portion of the upper edge of the shutter slide so as to be engageable to a pinion 144 of a velocity limiter assembly 146 mcunted on a mounting plate 148. The velocity limiter takes the form of a gear train 150,152,154 driven by the pinion gear 144 as the rack 142 moves by, the gear train having its ratio such that a very high rate of rotation is imparted to the final gear 154 thereof. An oscillating fork 156 rotatably mounted on a pivot 158 is provided with a pair of tines 160--160 is disposed so that the tines are in confronting relationship with the serially presented teeth of the final gear 154. The spacing and configuration of the tines 160--160 is such that when the final gear 154 is rotated the impulsive alternate striking of the two tines by serially presented gear teeth sets up a rapid reciprocating oscillation of the fork 156 about its pivot pin 158, resulting in a significant limitation in the driven speed of the final gear. This limitation reflects back to the pinion gear 144 engaged with the rack on the shutter slide 12, resulting in a substantial limitation of the velocity of the shutter slide as long as the rack and the pinion gear are engaged, i.e., during initial phases of actuation of the shutter release system. It should be noted that during initial phases of actuation of the system, all three energizing springs 26,62,194 are forcing the shutter slide 12 to the left against the retarding influence of the velocity limiter 146.
The velocity limiter 146 shown herein represents merely one of a great many possible types. Fully equivalent limiters or regulators may be fashioned analogously to clock escapements, or as constant velocity centrifugal clutch systems, or simply as a high reflected inertial mass system involving a gear-coupled flywheel.
FIG. 2 shows an early phase of the shutter release system shortly after the shutter actuator bar 32 has released the shutter slide 12 to begin its movement to the left. It will be noted that the pinion gear 144 of the velocity limiter 146 is still engaged, thereby exerting a retarding force against any excessive build-up in shutter slide speed. FIG. 2 shows the system shortly after the control circuit 76 (FIG. 9) has deenergized the exposure control solenoid 98, allowing the exposure control pawl 126 to engage one of the teeth 124--124 of the exposure control cam 111, thereby freezing the rotation of the exposure control cam assembly 52. The proper adjustment has thus been made to control the exposure.
This arresting of the rotation of the exposure control cam assembly 52 has the immediate consequence of freezing the rotation of the exposure control sector gear 110, as a result of which the regulator pin 120 is no longer in contact with the cutout 122 in the end of the shutter slide 12. In particular it should be noted that the force of the exposure cam energizing spring 114 no longer causes a leftward force on the shutter slide 12. With respect to the focus control system, this system is still being driven to rotate the focus control ring 40, proper focus position not having yet been attained. Here it will be noted that the focus drive energizing spring 62 is still exerting a leftward force on the shutter slide because the regulator pin 68 is still forced against the extension hook 70.
FIG. 3 shows a later stage in the shutter actuation sequence wherein the focus control solenoid 98 has been deenergized to drop the focus control pawl 80 to engage one of the ratchet teeth 78--78 of the focus control ring 40, thereby arresting the rotation of this element. Further, it will be seen that the shutter slide 12 has moved to a point such that the regulator pin 68 on the focus drive regulator extension member 66 is no longer in contact with the hook 70 at the end of the shutter slide 12, as a consequence of which the focus drive energizing spring 62 no longer contributes to the leftward force on the shutter slide. Additionally, the velocity limiter pinion 144 is on the point of disengaging from the shutter slide rack 142. Upon such disengagement, the shutter slide 12 will then travel to the left under an acceleration governed solely by the slide energizing spring 26.
Thus, irrespective of the additional forces initially supplied to urge the shutter slide 12 to the left by the two energizing springs 62,194, the action of the velocity limiter 146 has been such as to prevent any substantial velocity build-up in the shutter slide while the two regulator pins 68,120 were in contact therewith. As a result, the shutter slide velocity which will ultimately be imparted as an impulse to open the shutter blades 46,48 will invariably be essentially of the same magnitude. Thus, by the use of lost motion couplings between the shutter slide 12 and the regulator pins 68,120, and by the use of a single velocity limiter 146, adequate time has been secured to allow the relatively massive mechanical structures of the focus and exposure adjustment systems to move to their final positions, while still allowing for a reproducable uniform striking force applied to the shutter blade system 46,48,50 by the shutter slide.
It will be noted with respect to FIG. 3 that the focus drive pinion 72 and exposure cam drive pinion 108 of FIG. 1 are respectively surmounted by the integral focus control rotary contactor assembly 74 and an exposure control rotary contactor assembly 164. Each assembly respectively has mounted on the forwardly facing surface thereof a central conducting strap 166,167 having pivotal integral contacting fingers 168--168,169--169 extending forwardly therefrom. FIG. 8 shows the relative position of the focus control rotary contactor 74 disposed generally opposite a front mounting board 170 having metallization pads 172--172 thereon. As the contactor 74 rotates, the fingers 168--168 shortingly bridge diametrically opposite pairs of these pads 172--172 to provide sensing information to the control circuit 76 shown in FIG. 9. A similar set of contacting pads are provided facing the contacting fingers 169--169 of the exposure control rotary contactor assembly 164. It is these sensings in conjunction with predetermined range and exposure information which are utilized by the control circuit 76 to deenergize the focus and exposure control solenoids 98,138 at the appropriate positions of the two systems.
FIG. 4 shows the initial phases of the opening of the shutter. The shutter will be seen to consist of overlapping upper and lower shutter blade leaves 46,48, each leaf having a guide slot 174,176 therein whereby the leaves are captively retained by a pair of guide pins 178,180. Each shutter leaf 46,48 is provided with a blade extension arm 182,184, the ends of each blade extension arm being attached by pivots 186,188 to the ends of a coupling bar mounted on its own pivot 192. A shutter return spring 194 anchored at one end to a portion of the coupling bar and at the other to a post 196 on the rear mounting board 10 provides a clockwise torque to the coupling bar to return the shutter blades 46,48 to the completely overlapping position wherein arcuate cutouts 198,200 in the shutter blade leaves are completely masked.
In the phase of shutter actuation shown in FIG. 4, the velocity limiter 146 already having been disengaged, the shutter slide 12 has moved rapidly to the left. An extension is formed on the lower edge of the shutter slide to form a striker 202, and a corresponding extension is formed at the upper edge of the upper shutter blade leaf 46 in a confronting relationship to form an anvil 204 in confronting relationship to the striker. FIG. 4 shows the early phases of shutter opening immediately after the striker 202 has struck the anvil 204 to impart a leftward movement to the upper shutter blade leaf 46, this movement being coupled to the lower blade leaf 48 by the coupling bar 50 to cause the lower shutter blade leaf to move rapidly to the right and in synchronism therewith against the force of the shutter return spring 194.
FIG. 5 shows the principal elements of the system at the extreme limit of travel of the shutter blades 46,48. It will be noted that the coupling bar 50 is provided with a small extension 206 generally confronting a series of cam steps 208--208 formed on the stroke limiting cam 54, this stroke limiting cam being integral with the exposure control cam assembly 52. Rotation of the exposure cam assembly 52 by a given amount positions the proper cam step to confront the coupling bar extension 206. The maximum stroke of the coupling bar 50 is therefore limited according to which cam step is positioned to confront it. The cutouts 198,200 in the shutter blade leaves 46,48 are configured so that the aperture of the shutter progressively increases as the stroke of the coupling bar 50 increases. Thus, by limiting the stroke of the coupling bar 50, the exposure is controlled. Immediately upon striking the interposed confronting cam step, the coupling bar 50 rebounds to drive the shutter leaves 46,48 to a closed configuration corresponding to that shown in FIG. 6.
FIG. 6 shows the initial phase of shutter recocking wherein a cocking lever 210, either electrically or manually actuated, has moved to engage a cocking face 212 configured on the shutter slide 12 to urge the slide to the right, ultimately to be captured once again by the shutter release bar 32 in the configuration shown in FIG. 1. It will be noted that during this process both regulator pins 68,120 will ultimately engage the shutter slide 12, thereafter rotating their associated sector gears 60,110 clockwise. This in turn will rotate the focus control ring 40 (FIG. 3) and the exposure control cam assembly 52 counterclockwise, their associated pawls 80,126 sliding over their confronting ratchet teeth 78--78,124--124, and ultimately being returned to the position shown in FIG. 1. Thus, not only is the shutter slide 12 itself recocked, but the focus drive system and exposure control system are both returned to the proper initial state.
Provision is made that the velocity limiter 146 properly engages during recocking. With specific reference to FIG. 7, it will be seen that the velocity limiter mounting plate 118, pivotally mounted to the rear mounting board 10 by means of the pivot pin 159, is urged clockwise by a loading spring 216 connected at one end to the gear mounting plate 148 and at the other to a pin 218 secured to the rear mounting board. The entire assembly 146 is therefore urged clockwise by the spring 216, normally forcing the pinion 144 into engagement with the rack 142. Under shutter slide return, the velocity limiting feature of the velocity limiter 146 will pose a severe strain on the system, in particular on, the teeth of the rack 142 and the pinion 144, since its function is not to allow the pinion 144 to rotate rapidly. By allowing the pivoting disengagement shown in FIG. 7, this problem is effectively overcome.
FIG. 8 shows further details of the lens focusing system. The camera lens 43, mounted in the lens cell assembly 42, is movably retained in a lens cell receiving sleeve 222 extending from the front mounting board 170 generally towards, and coaxially disposed with respect to, the focus control ring 40. A wave spring 224 disposed between the front mounting board 170 and the cell assembly tends to force the lens cell 42 towards the focus control ring, and an antirotation lug 226 guided by a lug guide slot 228 (one wall cut away for clarity) in the lens cell receiving sleeve 42 prevents rotation of the lens cell. With reference to the focus control ring 40, it will be seen that along the inner periphery of the ring are three annularly disposed ramps 230--230. The lens cell 42 is provided along the peripheral edges thereof with three ramp follower lugs 232--232, each lug being positioned to confront one of the three focus control ring ramps 230--230. Rotation of the focus control ring 40 counterclockwise as shown in FIG. 8 then causes each ramp 230--230 to force its associated follower lug 232--232 forward against the force of the wave spring 224, thereby moving the lens 43 progressively farther away from the rear of the camera.
With respect to representative control circuitry shown in block diagramamtic form in FIG. 9, a great variety of well known techniques may be used to accomplish the necessary control functions related to the focus and exposure adjustment systems described hereinabove. For example, the control circuit 76, powered by a battery 236, may be actuated to an active condition upon depression of the camera shutter button 100, here shown provided with pair of switch contacts 102--102 disposed between the shutter button and the leftmost end of the shutter release bar 32 shown in FIG. 1, the bar being urged in a clockwise direction by a loading spring 11. The control circuit 76 may be brought to an active condition before the shutter release bar 32 disengages the mechanical systems from a latched condition by contacting closure of these switch fingers 102--102 before shutter button pressure is applied to the shutter release bar. In such a case, well known techniques may be employed to provide for immediate energization of the exposure and focus control solenoids 138,98, and for providing for an immediate ranging pre-flash from an electronically powered flash tube 242, the reflected light intensity being detected by a first photodetector 246 to provide range information to the control system. Additionally, an ambient light photosensor 248 may also be employed to provide alternative control of the exposure control system for purely daylight operation. Similarly, the positional sensings of the rotary contactors 74,164, here shown schematically as a pair of rotary bridging switches 74' and 164' respectively, are fed to the control circuit 76 from their individual sensing pads 172--172 as the rotary contactors are rotated during the shutter actuation cycle. A great variety of techniques are known in the literature for accomplishing all of the aforementioned functions.
In summary of the foregoing, by the use of lost motion couplings and an intermittently coupled velocity limiter, the present invention may successfully employ very strong energizing springs to achieve reasonably rapid positioning of either the focus adjustment system or the exposure control system while still providing for a uniform shutter impulse irrespective of the final positioning of either of these systems. The necessity for multiple velocity limiters is eliminated, as is the need for any special mechanical synchronization members to insure that shutter opening is properly synchronized with respect to the positioning of the focus and exposure drive systems.
While the invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the broader aspects of the invention. Also, it is intended that broad claims not specifying details of a particular embodiment disclosed herein as the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention should not be limited to such details. Furthermore, while, generally, specific claimed details of the invention constitute important specific aspects of the invention, in appropriate instances even the specific claims involved should be construed in light of the doctrine of equivalents.
Thus, for example, although energizing springs are used as drive means for the rotary contactor assemblies of the two control systems, alternative configurations such as an electric motor drive through suitable friction or other threshold-disengaging clutches can equally will be employed without departing from the scope of the appended claims.
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A delayed shutter actuation system for cameras providing from pre-flash or ambient light sensings automatic focusing control, automatic aperture control, or both, features a spring-energized shutter slide member coupled to a velocity limiter over an initial portion of the release stroke. A spring-driven focus control member, or a spring-driven exposure control member, or both, are coupled through movable regulator members to the shutter slide through lost motion couplings so that their respective movement rates are governed by the velocity limiter until they are locked in proper position by electrically controlled locks controlled responsively to such sensings. During a terminal portion of the motion of the shutter slide the velocity limiter automatically disengages to allow an unimpeded motion of the slide to actuate the shutter. In the preferred form of the invention exposure control is secured by using a variable-aperture impulse shutter and a stroke-control cam positioned as a rebound limiter and rotatingly oriented responsively to motion of the exposure control member.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to bicycle roller-pegs and more particularly to lockable roller-pegs for trick bike grinding.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] BMX bicycling, street and vert or vertical bicycle trick riding commenced in about the early 1990's. Roller-pegs, affixed to bicycle axles, become a means by which bicycle tricks are facilitated.
[0003] The practice and application of “grinding” is common in both adolescents and adult street bicycle trick riding as seen at X- Games “Street” and vertical or “Vert” riding events and as witnessed at many city skate and bicycle parks on bicycles. For performing this stunt, typically a cylindrical metal tube peg is secured to the bicycle axles extending outward laterally about four inches. With the bicycle in motion, the rider steers the bicycle so as to ride the pegs onto various surface edges. After traversing the length of the selected surface the rider steers the bicycle back to another rideable surface.
[0004] The act of grinding using metal pegs with a bicycle has been around since about 1993. Since then there have been attempts to create a rolling peg, These relied on internal steel bearings, mechanical locks, were poorly constructed, very heavy and proved unacceptable to the stunt riding public. Other current peg designs do not offer the choice of a rolling peg surface. Current popular designs are fixed pegs that slide along and/or grind against the surface the peg is applied to. This grinding action limits both speed and distance, while contributing to tremendous wear on both the peg and surface the peg is grinding on. Typically, such pegs have been constructed of mild steel or metal alloys, enabling them to endure much of the imposed wear forces. The surfaces used for grinding very often are not covered by metal and the act of grinding imposes significant damage to these surfaces. The outer most edge of metal tube pegs wear and sharpen thus creating a very dangerous condition from which many riders sustain lacerating or puncture hole (cookie cutter like) injuries. Bicycle roller-pegs are known in the prior art as seen in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 625,368 to Thompson; U.S. Pat. No. 3.484,829 to Erickson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,918 to Peabody et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,983 to Wu; U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,897 to Hsieh et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,859 to Cheng; U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,887 to Lee; U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,761 to Lin; U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,044 to Blake.
[0005] The patents referred to herein are provided herewith in an Information Disclosure Statement in accordance with 37 CFR 1.97.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] This invention is a grinding or roller peg for a bicycle for use during stunt riding and grinding. This invention provides improved static or rolling functionality for adaptation to various non-motorized or motorized cycling sports, skating sports, sports in general, and various industrial machine applications. More specifically, this invention relates to roller peg construction to afford increased performance and reduced wear as compared to such pegs of the prior art.
[0007] The peg is generally cylindrical having a metal mandrel adapted for axle mounting, an outer plastic cover for rolling, sliding, skidding, or grinding; and a shaped metal drop out key ( 70 ) or washer to fix static or allow the plastic cover to roll or grinding against various selected surface.
[0008] The peg is installed by placing of the outer plastic cover over the metal mandrel and threading the female mandrel end to a threaded male bicycle wheel axle. At the operator's option, the peg may be used in a rolling or fixed static configuration. To affect the rolling configuration, the shaped metal drop-out key is removed and a round washer is placed between the plastic sleeve and the axle before installation. The round washer acts as a spacer between the mandrel and the bicycle frame thus affecting the rolling mode. During the fixed static configuration, the shaped metal drop out key is fitting into the receiving shaped dropout slot in the axle end of the outer plastic cover. The female end of the fixed roller peg assembly is then threaded onto the male bicycle wheel axle allowing the shaped metal drop-out key to slide into the bicycle frame axle drop-out slot. The peg assembly is then threaded onto the axle and securely tightened to the bicycle axle.
[0009] In accordance herewith, the construction of this invention affords distinct advantages in the form of enhanced operating performance and reduced wear as compared to peg constructions presently known. The above noted features and advantages of this invention as well as other superior aspects thereof will be further appreciated by those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description which follows in conjunction with the drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily appreciated as the same become better understood by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0011] FIG. 1 depicts a bicycle with roller-pegs ( 1 ) illustrating frame or fork means ( 400 ) and axle means ( 180 ).
[0012] FIG. 1A illustrates the detail 1 A from FIG. 1 showing frame or fork means ( 400 ), axle means ( 180 ), nut ( 300 ) with nut aperture ( 320 ) and drop out key ( 340 ), drop out key width ( 350 ) and roller peg ( 1 ) with cover bearing.
[0013] FIG. 2 is a section from FIG. 7 illustrating the roller peg ( 1 ) with mandrel ( 100 ) showing the mandrel surface ( 110 ), mandrel first end ( 120 ), mandrel socket cap ( 122 ) mandrel hex nut ( 124 ), mandrel socket drive ( 126 ), mandrel flange ( 130 ), mandrel second end ( 150 ), nut ( 300 ), mandrel threaded bore ( 160 ), mandrel axis ( 170 ), cover bearing ( 200 ), cover bearing first end ( 220 ), cover bearing aperture shoulder ( 230 ), cover bearing second end ( 250 ), cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ) and drop out key ( 340 ). Also seen is the threaded axle ( 180 ) and mandrel axis ( 170 ).
[0014] FIG. 3 illustrates the roller peg ( 1 ), the mandrel ( 100 ), mandrel first end ( 120 ), mandrel socket cap ( 122 ), mandrel hex nut ( 124 ), mandrel socket drive ( 126 ), mandrel flange ( 130 ), cover bearing ( 200 ), cover bearing first end ( 220 ) and cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ).
[0015] FIG. 4 shows the roller peg ( 1 ) illustrating the mandrel second end ( 150 ), mandrel threaded bore ( 160 ), cover bearing ( 200 ), cover bearing second end ( 250 ), cover bearing hex recess ( 255 ) and cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ).
[0016] FIG. 5 illustrates the roller peg ( 1 ) showing the mandrel ( 100 ), mandrel second end ( 150 ), mandrel threaded bore ( 160 ), cover bearing ( 200 ), cover bearing second end ( 250 ), cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ), nut ( 300 ), nut aperture ( 320 ) and drop out key ( 340 ).
[0017] FIG. 6 shows the nut ( 300 ), nut aperture ( 320 ), drop out key ( 340 ) and drop out key width ( 350 ).
[0018] FIG. 6A shows the nut ( 300 ) without a drop out key ( 340 ).
[0019] FIG. 7 is an exploded view of the roller peg ( 1 ) illustrating, in addition to what is shown in FIG. 2 , mandrel second end washer ( 157 ), cover bearing aperture shoulder ( 230 ), cover bearing aperture ( 260 ) and cover bearing aperture inside surface ( 270 ). Also illustrated is the bicycle frame or fork means ( 400 ), a fork end ( 440 ), fork bracket ( 460 ), slot means ( 480 ), slot width ( 485 ) and wheel spokes ( 490 ).
[0020] FIG. 8 illustrates the bicycle frame or fork means ( 400 ), bracket means ( 460 ), slot means ( 480 ), slot width ( 485 ), nut ( 300 ) and axle ( 180 ).
[0021] FIG. 9 is a front elevation of the nut ( 300 ) received at the drop out key ( 340 ) by the slot means ( 480 ) at the slot width ( 485 ).
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0022] FIGS. 1, 1A , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 6 A and 7 illustrate the roller peg ( 1 ) showing a mandrel ( 100 ) having a mandrel surface ( 110 ), a mandrel first end ( 120 ) and a mandrel second end ( 150 ). Seen is a mandrel flange means ( 130 ) which is proximal the mandrel first end ( 120 ). Also seen is the mandrel bore means ( 160 ), which may be smooth or threaded, extending from the mandrel second end ( 150 ) toward and proximal the mandrel first end ( 120 ). Also seen is socket means provided by a mandrel socket cap ( 122 ), mandrel hex nut ( 124 ) and mandrel socket drive ( 126 ), at the mandrel first end ( 120 ), providing means of tightening the mandrel to the threaded axle ( 180 ).
[0023] Also seen in FIGS. 1 through 7 is the cover bearing ( 200 ) having a cover bearing first end ( 220 ) and a cover bearing second end ( 250 ). Seen is a cover bearing aperture ( 260 ), having a cover bearing aperture inside surface ( 270 ), from the cover bearing first end ( 220 ) to the cover bearing second end ( 250 ); the cover bearing ( 200 ) has a cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ) and is primarily circular in cross-section. The cover bearing aperture ( 260 ) is sized to rotatably receive, at the cover bearing aperture first end ( 220 ), the mandrel ( 100 ) at the mandrel second end ( 150 ); the cover bearing aperture inside surface ( 270 ) rotatably and bearingly receives the mandrel ( 100 ) at the mandrel surface ( 110 ). A mandrel axis ( 170 ) is centrally positioned from the mandrel first end ( 120 ) to the mandrel second end ( 150 ) and from the cover bearing first end ( 220 ) to the cover bearing second end ( 250 ).
[0024] Additionally, the cover bearing ( 200 ), proximal the cover bearing first end ( 220 ), is recessed forming a cover bearing aperture shoulder ( 230 ) proximal the cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ) and extending to the cover bearing inside surface ( 270 ) thereby forming a bearing surface sized to rotatably and bearingly receive the flange means ( 130 ).
[0025] A cover bearing hex recess ( 255 ) is formed at the cover bearing second end ( 250 ); the cover bearing hex recess ( 255 ) is formed to rotatably and bearingly receive a mandrel second end washer ( 157 ) and or fixedly receive a nut ( 300 ). It is seen that the nut ( 300 ) has a nut aperture ( 320 ), which is smooth or threaded, and ; the nut ( 300 ) having or not having a drop out key ( 340 ). It will be appreciated that the user of the roller peg ( 1 ) will select the nut ( 300 ) with or without the drop out key ( 340 ) depending on the intent to have the cover bearing ( 200 ) rotate or remain stationary when grinding.
[0026] When the drop out key ( 340 ), with drop out key width ( 350 ) is utilized and received by the slot width ( 485 ) the cover bearing ( 200 ) will not rotate. When the nut ( 300 ) without drop out key ( 340 ) is used the cover bearing ( 200 ) will rotate. In the preferred embodiment the slot width ( 485 ) receives the drop out key ( 340 ) with drop out key width ( 350 ) and precludes rotation of the nut ( 300 ) and, by means of the nut ( 300 ) being received into the cover bearing hex recess ( 255 ), rotation of the cover bearing ( 200 ). The slot width ( 485 ) receives the drop out key width ( 350 ) so as to preclude rotation.
[0027] The nut aperture ( 320 ), the cover bearing aperture ( 260 ) and the mandrel bore means ( 160 ) are concentric with the mandrel axis ( 170 ). The drop out key ( 340 ) is generally planar extending outwardly from the nut ( 300 ) distal to the nut aperture ( 320 ) and generally aligned with the mandrel axis ( 170 ) and orthogonal to the nut ( 300 ). The drop out key ( 340 ) has, distal to the nut aperture ( 320 ), a drop out key width ( 350 ). The nut aperture ( 320 ) and mandrel second end washer ( 157 ) rotatably receives a bicycle threaded axle means ( 180 ). The mandrel bore means ( 160 ) and or the nut aperture ( 320 ) are threaded to fixedly receive the bicycle threaded axle means ( 180 ). In the preferred embodiment the mandrel bore means ( 160 ) is threaded.
[0028] The bore means ( 160 ), in the preferred embodiment, is comprised of a mandrel threaded bore ( 160 ). A mandrel socket cap ( 122 ) which forms socket means for wrench or socket head engagement for wrench rotation of the mandrel ( 100 ) for thread engagement of the bicycle threaded axle means ( 180 ) with either or both the mandrel threaded bore ( 160 ) and the nut ( 300 ).
[0029] Flange means ( 130 ), in the preferred embodiment is provided by a mandrel flange ( 130 ) extending outwardly from and generally orthogonal to the mandrel axis ( 170 ) and the mandrel surface ( 110 ).
[0030] The cover bearing ( 200 ) provides, in the preferred embodiment, the recess and bearing surface to bearingly receive the mandrel flange ( 130 ) and forming the cover bearing aperture shoulder ( 230 ) which is generally orthogonal to the mandrel axis ( 170 ) and the cover bearing outer surface ( 265 ). The cover bearing ( 200 ) is generally cylindrical.
[0031] The bicycle threaded axle means ( 180 ) is comprised of an axle ( 180 ) which is elongated and extends outwardly from a bicycle fork or frame means ( 400 ). In the preferred embodiment the bicycle fork or frame means ( 400 ) has a slot means ( 480 ) which fixedly receives the drop out key ( 340 ) wherein the drop out key width ( 350 ) is fixedly received. The bicycle fork or frame means ( 400 ) comprises a bicycle frame or fork blade ( 400 ). The bicycle frame or fork blade ( 400 ) has a bracket means ( 460 ) having slot means ( 480 ). The bicycle threaded axle ( 180 ) extends outwardly from the bicycle frame or fork blade ( 400 ) or through the slot means ( 480 ). In the preferred embodiment, the slot means ( 480 ) has a bracket slot width ( 485 ) distal to the bicycle threaded axle ( 180 ) which fixedly receives the drop out key ( 340 ). In the preferred embodiment the bicycle fork or frame means ( 400 ) is composed of a frame or fork end ( 440 ) forming a fork bracket ( 460 ) and having therein a fork bracket slot ( 480 ). The bicycle threaded axle ( 180 ) extends outwardly from the bicycle fork or frame means ( 400 ) or through the fork bracket slot ( 480 ). The fork bracket slot ( 480 ) has a fork bracket slot width ( 485 ) distal to the bicycle threaded axle ( 180 ) which fixedly receives the drop out key ( 340 ).
[0032] In the preferred embodiment the mandrel threaded bore ( 160 ) is threaded from the mandrel second end ( 150 ) toward the mandrel first end ( 120 ). At the mandrel first end ( 120 ) the mandrel socket cap ( 122 ) form a mandrel hex nut ( 124 ) and or a mandrel socket drive ( 126 ).
[0033] In the preferred embodiment the mandrel ( 1 ) is formed of rigid materials including metals, metal alloy, plastics and composite materials. The mandrel first end ( 120 ) has a machined or molded mandrel socket cap ( 122 ) offering a nut for socket or wrench operation and shown here as a mandrel hex nut ( 124 ) or a mandrel socket drive ( 126 ) for installing or removing the roller peg ( 1 ) from an axle. It will be appreciated that a number of nut configurations or drive receptacles, including for example Allen wrenches, will be equivalent to those described here and shown in the drawings.
[0034] The cover bearing ( 200 ) is formed of a rigid high impact material having bearing qualities including plastics, high impact polystyrene and metals. The cover bearing first end ( 220 ), cover bearing aperture shoulder ( 230 ), cover bearing second end ( 250 ), cover bearing hex recess ( 255 ) and cover bearing aperture ( 260 ) are formed by molding or machining. The cover bearing hex recess ( 255 ) is formed to fixedly receive a nut ( 300 ) such that rotation is precluded. A mandrel second end washer ( 157 ) may be interposed between the nut ( 300 ) and the cover bearing ( 200 ) thereby allowing a nut ( 300 ) with drop out key ( 340 ) to be utilized such that the nut ( 300 ) will bear on the mandrel second end washer ( 157 ) thus allowing the cover bearing ( 200 ) to rotate.
[0035] It will be appreciated that the roller peg ( 1 ) may be used in other axle type structures including, for example, conveyor systems and internal machine parts. Unlike the prior all art devices that are either continuously fixed or capable of rolling by use of sealed metal bearings, the device hereof enjoys the virtue of providing either fixed or roller action as selected by the user through the nature of the outer plastic cover bearing. The roller action, as mentioned throughout, affords enhanced operating performance and safety in terms of end user satisfaction in each area of potential use.
[0036] While a preferred embodiment of the present disclosure has been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the disclosure in its broader aspects. The appended claims are therefore intended to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the disclosure.
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A novel peg apparatus adapted for mounting onto various axles types (e.g. bicycle wheel, conveyor systems, internal machine parts). The device provides either fixed or roller action as preferred by the user. The roller action affords enhanced operating performance and safety in terms of end user satisfaction in each area of potential use. The peg includes an outer sheath made of one of a number of an industrial grade plastic which rotates around the threaded, fixed, mandrel and glides over various surfaces or, which may be locked in a static position to provide a skidding, or “grinding” effect.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS—CLAIM OR PRIORITY
[0001] The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/272,252, filed on Dec. 29, 2015, entitled “Configurable and Programmable Multi-Core Architecture with a Specialized Instruction Set for Embedded Application based on Neural Networks”, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] 1. Field
[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to computational modeling of convolutional neural networks.
[0004] 2. Description of Related Art
[0005] Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are biology-inspired computational networks composed of multiple neurons (also called nodes or cells) connected together. FIG. 1A is a simplified diagram of an artificial neuron 10 A and its operations (i.e., processing). As shown in FIG. 1A , each artificial neuron 10 A may combine multiple inputs 12 A together to produce one or multiple outputs 22 A using adaptive weights, W n , 14 A (numerical coefficients). The weighted sum is applied to a non-linear “activation function” 18 . In some cases, the activation function is the sigmoid function f(z)=1/(1+exp(−z)). In other cases, the activation function is f(z)−tan h(z)=(e z −e −z )/(e z +e −z ). Other activation functions are also well known. One key characteristic of artificial neural networks is that the weights, W n 14 A applied to the input signals i n may be obtained through a learning algorithm. Artificial neural networks have proven useful to approximate complex non-linear functions in which several different inputs combine to formulate an output. FIG. 1B is a simplified diagram of connections between a fully connected artificial neural network layer 30 with 3 input nodes 10 A-C and 4 output nodes 10 D- 10 G. Each node is similar to the node shown in FIG. 1A . The arrows between nodes each represent an N×N set of weights.
[0006] A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) 40 (see FIG. 1C ) may be a processing mechanism based on deep general ANNs. Deep general ANNs are networks having more than two layers. FIG. 1C is a simplified diagram of a CNN layer 40 in which multiple images (each of size s_x times s_y) are convolved together to produce multiple outputs (along the z axis). In contrast to artificial neural networks, CNNs include multiple intermediate (hidden) layers of neurons 10 A-G. That is, several layers of nodes lie between the input neurons and the output neurons. Each node performs a mathematical operation, known as a convolution, on its inputs. Nodes of a CNN 40 may be arranged in such a way that they process overlapping regions of inputs by sharing kernel weights over multiple input locations (i.e., portions of the input data). CNNs 40 may also use spatial subsampling and may pool the outputs of convolutions between layers. The concepts of subsampling and pooling are beyond the scope of this discussion and for simplicity are not discussed in detail. However, such techniques are well known in the art. Such techniques may make CNNs 40 particularly well suited to process images and videos. Examples of CNN 40 applications to which CNNs 40 are well suited include pattern recognition, visual object detection algorithms, and speech recognition.
[0007] In the CNN 40 , each layer applies a set of convolution kernels 44 to some or all of the input matrices 42 provided from a previous layer. Different applications (e.g., face detection, object recognition, scene labeling, etc.) may be implemented by employing different graph topologies of interconnected layers in which data flows from layer to layer in a feed-forward network. In one case, the first layer may receive input matrices 42 that contain data to be analyzed, for example captured images or audio sequences. The last layer generates the output matrix that in some cases represents whether a particular object or objects were detected. In addition, the output may also provide data indicating a level of certainty (probability) regarding whether each object was detected.
[0008] Even when different CNN-based applications share common goals, each CNN-based application might have a different network topology (graph) of interconnected processing layers, different sets of convolution weights (kernels), and different subsampling factors. In addition, CNN-based applications require parallel convolutions that involve several multiply-accumulate operations and nonlinear activation functions. The data flow through a CNN based application may require hardware implementations or software that employs graphic processing unit (GPU) accelerators. Currently, hardwired solutions for implementing CNN applications are inflexible and high-performance GPUs are not suitable due to their large physical area or footprint and high power consumption. Accordingly, there is a need for a solution that can reduce the area, reduce the power required and increase the flexibility of the CNN architecture to handle different configurations.
SUMMARY
[0009] Some embodiments disclosed herein include a programmable architecture specialized for CNN processing such that different applications of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) may be supported by reprogramming the processing elements. CNN processing is provided that can be consistently configured to detect different types of objects due to the programmable implementation of a CNN 40 in accordance with at least some of the embodiments disclosed herein. It may be desirable for embedded hardware implementations used within the CNN 40 to be highly optimized for area and power while achieving acceptable performance as a function of the intended environment. An optimized CNN architecture for the embedded space may be well-suited for use in computer vision, augmented reality, advanced driver assistance systems, video surveillance and robotics. Some of the embodiments disclosed herein include an optimized architecture that provides a low-area (i.e., small footprint) and low-power solution for embedded applications, while still providing the computational capabilities desirable for CNN applications that may be computationally intensive and which may use a large number of convolution operations per seconds to process inputs, such as video streams, in real time.
[0010] Some of the embodiments of the architecture disclosed herein include a plurality of Processing Elements (PEs), where each PE is an Application Specific Instruction Processor (ASIP) designed specifically for use with a specialized instruction set optimized for CNN processing. Accordingly, some embodiments disclosed herein may include a specialized instruction set architecture (ISA) developed for CNN processing. The presently disclosed method and apparatus may further include a reconfigurable streaming interconnect that is used to connect through a set of FIFO (first-in first-out) buffers to a set of PEs, such that different graph topologies of CNN processing may be supported.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] The features, objects, and advantages of the presently disclosed embodiments will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters identify like features throughout and wherein:
[0012] FIG. 1A is a simplified diagram of neuron processing model;
[0013] FIG. 1B is a simplified diagram of an artificial neural network (ANN);
[0014] FIG. 1C is a simplified diagram of a convolutional neural network (CNN) layer;
[0015] FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a CNN architecture in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus;
[0016] FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of activities in a CNN layer in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus;
[0017] FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a processing element detailing interfaces and internal instruction pipelines in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus;
[0018] FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of a reconfigurable streaming interconnect module including 10 FIFOs configured to be coupled to 8 PEs in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus;
[0019] FIG. 6 are simplified diagrams of multilayer CNN configurations in accordance with embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus; and
[0020] FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of design flow of a multicore CNN Engine Instruction Processor (IP) in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0021] Throughout this description, embodiments and variations are described to illustrate uses and implementations of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. The disclosure provided herein should be understood as presenting examples of the presently disclosed method and apparatus, rather than as limiting the scope of the claimed invention. Accordingly, the scope of the claimed invention should be defined exclusively by the claims appended to this disclosure, which are supported by this disclosure.
[0022] FIG. 2 is a simplified block diagram of a convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture 50 (sometimes referred to as an “engine”) in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. The CNN architecture 50 presents one variant of the proposed architecture in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. As shown in FIG. 2 , the CNN architecture 50 includes a reconfigurable streaming interconnect module 60 coupled to N processing elements (PE) 70 A-N. The interconnect module 60 may include several (e.g., 10) FIFOs 62 A-J whose input and outputs are reconfigurably coupled to one or more PEs of the N PEs 70 A-N. “N” is presented in italics to represent that it is a variable and not intended to indicate that there are a fixed number of PEs A-N (i.e., 13). Furthermore, when referring generally to the PEs, they are designated as PEs 70 . This convention applies to other features and components shown in the figures and discussed through this disclosure.
[0023] In some embodiments, each PE 70 may have a separate corresponding program (P) memory 74 and corresponding data (D) memory 72 , such that there is a one-to-one relationship between each PE 70 , one program memory 74 and one data memory 72 . Alternatively, one or more PEs 70 may be coupled to one or more data memories 74 or program memories 72 . The CNN architecture 50 may function as a soft Instruction Processor (IP) that can be configured before synthesis/implementation and then programmed on or for the final target. The CNN architecture 50 may include event lines 52 to receive events (interrupts) via input signals and a boot control interface 54 functioning as a register interface to configure booting of the CNN architecture 50 .
[0024] Due to the programmability of the PEs 70 as well as the flexibility of the streaming interconnect module 60 , the architecture 50 may be configured “in the field” to implement a wide range of diverse CNN processing applications. In some embodiments, a commercially available Synopsys Application Specific Instruction Processor (ASIP) technologies (ASIP Designer tool) may be employed to create a CNN accelerator IP that is both configurable before physical implementation and remains programmable afterwards.
[0025] FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of activities in a CNN layer 80 such as layer 40 shown in FIG. 1C in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. In some embodiments, the PEs 70 of the CNN architecture 50 have a specialized instruction set to optimize both the main computation steps of the CNN and the typical data movements required to implement those computational steps (i.e., reading data from and writing data to different sections of the CNN). The specialized instructions include multiple parallel multiplier-accumulators (MACs), look-up table (LUT) accelerators for the non-linear activation functions, synchronization primitives for multiprocessing and communication with external cores, as well as data movement and buffer management functions. In the data movement category, the specialized instructions may include direct memory access and transfer (DMA) functions that may load/store data on the external interfaces (via the AXI interconnect 56 in FIG. 3 ), FIFO push/pop functions to communicate and synchronize with the streaming interconnect module 60 and instructions to load/store vector registers in local memory.
[0026] FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a processing element 70 detailing interfaces and internal instruction pipelines in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. In some embodiments, different sets of instructions inside the PEs 70 can be mapped to different instruction pipelines 76 . Such mapping allows parallel processing and thereby increases resource usage and performance as shown in FIG. 4 . Accordingly, a PE 70 may include a typical instruction pipeline ( 76 A) to execute basic scalar operations (register load/store, basic ALU, jump, etc.), as well as some other CNN-related instructions executed in few cycles, such as a wait event. A PE 70 may also include independent pipelines 76 B-D for FIFO accesses, convolutions 76 B, non-linear activation functions 76 C, and instructions requiring many cycles such as DMA operations 76 D.
[0027] Since the convolution and activation functions are key components of the process performed in each CNN layer, in some embodiments, they are performed using dedicated vector registers. In some embodiments, the vector registers are arrays of hardware flip-flops capable of holding data and passing the data to and from the PE 70 . Two kinds of vector registers are provided: A-registers (accumulators) and W-registers (windows). In some embodiments, an A-register is used to hold intermediate values calculated during the parallel processing of N convolutions for one layer. The matrix elements 42 , 44 (see FIG. 1C ) used for the N parallel convolutions are stored in the W-registers. To support N parallel convolutions with a kernel having R rows and C columns, D is equal to at least R+1, where D is the number of W registers. L is equal to at least the greater of R times C and 8N, where L is the number of elements in each of the W registers. Using these registers (i.e., “data structure”), four convolution instruction variants may be supported. Each convolution instruction variant may be geared towards a different type of access pattern for the inputs and outputs of the convolution. In some embodiments, a CNN layer nonlinear activation function 86 may be implemented using an LUT mapped in the tightly-coupled data memory. The LUT may be optimized by using large data word accesses in the data memory 72 and by keeping a number of previously looked-up data words in local registers in some embodiments.
[0028] Based on the above configuration, one or more PEs 70 may efficiently implement the processing within a CNN layer or a part of the CNN layer. In some embodiments, one or more PEs 70 may operate/execute in parallel, following a pipeline mechanism implemented with additional PEs 70 , to implement the processing of the layers of a CNN application. To be efficient, every PE 70 in this pipeline should be active as much as possible. Some embodiments may provide point-to-point channels (FIFOs 62 A-J) as a communication mechanism between PEs 70 to increase PE efficiency. In some embodiments, the point-to-point connections are also runtime programmable to enable design flexibility. The point-to-point connection programmability enables dynamic association of a FIFO hardware resource 62 A-J to a dedicated communication channel between any two PEs 70 . A PE 70 may even “loopback” a FIFO 62 A-J onto itself in some embodiments.
[0029] As shown in FIG. 2 , CNN architecture 50 may include many PEs 70 connected together via FIFOs 62 of the interconnect module 60 . In some embodiments, a PE 70 may employ a Harvard or von Neumann memory architecture (Harvard—separate program or instruction memory and data memory and von Neumann—shared memory). In some embodiments, each PE 70 may have its own tightly coupled data memory 72 and program memory 74 (Harvard memory Architecture). In some embodiments, each PE 70 may include or consist of an ASIP specialized or developed to optimize CNN layer processing. In some embodiments, a PE 70 may include a set of vector registers, multiple MACs to enable parallel convolution calculation to generate multiple elements of an output matrix, such as feature map 88 , and special hardware for non-linear transformations (neuron activation simulation). An output matrix, such as feature map 88 , may comprise multiple consecutive element positions of the same matrix or same element position of different output matrices. In some embodiments, a PE 70 may also enable data to be moved in and out of his memory while performing computations (on other data) in parallel.
[0030] As shown in FIG. 4 , a PE 70 A of some embodiments may include several pipelines 76 A- 76 D that may operate in parallel to optimize CNN layer processing. A PE 70 may support multiple instruction groups via configured pipelines 76 . The supported instruction groups may include data transfer instructions via the data movement pipeline 76 D. The data transfer instructions may enable a PE 70 to employ DMA including sequencing loads (resp. stores) between external memory and local memory, push and pop access with FIFOs 62 , and load and store vector registers in local memory (data memory 74 in some embodiments). The supported instruction groups may also include synchronization instructions via the Scalar/RISC pipeline 76 A. The synchronization instructions may enable a PE 70 to wait for an event or raise an event. The supported instruction groups may also include convolution and maxpooling instructions via the convolution pipeline 76 A. The convolution and maxpooling instructions may enable a PE 70 to perform various convolution calculations. The supported instruction groups may also include neuron activation simulation instructions via the activation pipeline 76 C. The neuron activation simulation instructions may enable a PE 70 to perform various non-linear operation applied on the convolution results to simulate neuron activations.
[0031] The PE 70 pipelines 76 may allow parallel operations for different instructions. Such a configuration may enable cycle intensive instructions to be processed efficiently and in parallel including: (1) Read DMA and Write DMA where the number of instruction cycles depends on the data transfer size; (2) load and store vector registers where the number of cycles depends on the number of elements being moved; (3) push and pull FIFO where the number of cycles depends on the number of elements pushed or popped; (4) convolution where the number of cycles depends on the kernel size; and (5) activation function, such as sigmoid LUT, where the number of cycles depends on the number of elements not in the LUT. In some embodiments, the scalar/RISC 76 A pipeline may be a typical instruction pipeline. The scalar/RISC 76 A may execute basic scalar operations including register load/store, basic ALU, jump as well as some other CNN-related low cycle instructions, such as a wait event.
[0032] A PE 70 A with pipeline 76 may enable data movement to be performed in parallel with the core CNN layer processing (convolution and sigmoid calculations in some embodiments). Such a PE 70 A may keep key CNN hardware units busy thus increasing performance and resource usage. Increasing PE pipelines may increase area. In order to optimize (and minimize) PE area, without loss of generality, the number of parallel pipelines may be reduced. PE processing is not impacted, including core processing pipelines. In some embodiments read and write DMA pipelines may be shared, as well as push and pop FIFO pipelines. Further, to avoid data movement bottlenecks, the bit width of a PE 70 tightly coupled data memory 72 may be made very wide in some embodiments.
[0033] As shown in FIG. 3 , the convolution 84 and non-linear activation 86 (sigmoid in some embodiments) operations are elements of CNN layer processing. In some embodiments, the convolution 84 and non-linear activation 86 processing are performed using dedicated vector registers. As noted above, two types of vector registers may be employed. The first type are Accumulation registers (A-registers) denoted as A[M][N], where M is the number of parallel processes in each convolution, N is the number of convolutions being worked on in parallel. The second type are Window registers (W-registers) denoted as W[D][L], where D is the number of W-registers and L is the number of elements in each W-register. An A-register A[m][N], 0<=m<M, may be used to hold initial and final values for the processing of N convolutions in parallel, one element per convolution, where m is the number of the particular output feature maps stored in that A-register. Multiple A-registers may be provided, allowing convolution processing to be performed concurrent with other operations that employ A-registers, such as the non-linear activation 86 operation and simply moving data from or into A-registers. A typical value of M=2 can be sufficient in some embodiments.
[0034] In some embodiments, the matrix elements 42 , 44 used for the N parallel convolutions may be stored in a group of W-registers. To support N parallel convolutions, with a kernel of size R×C (R rows, C columns), D is equal at least R+1 and L is equal to at least MAX(RC, NC) (i.e., the maximum of R times C and N times C). Using the A[M][N] and W[D][L] configurations, four convolution calculations may be employed in embodiments, denoted as Conv0, Conv1, Conv2, Conv3.
[0035] In one convolution calculation denoted as the function Conv0(m, R, C, k), the register A[m][] may be used to hold the initial and final results, the size of the kernel may be R times C, and the registers W[0] to W[N−1][] may each holds R times C elements of N input Matrices, while register W[k][] may hold R times C elements of a kernel. The following Conv0 computation may be completed in R times C clock cycles, with N MACs per cycle:
[0000] A[m][i]=A[m][i]+Σ j=0 RC−1 ( W[i][j]*W[k][j ]), for i= 0 to N− 1
[0036] In another convolution calculation denoted as the function Conv1(m, R, C, k), the register A[m][] may be used to hold the initial and final results, the size of the kernel may be R×C, the registers W[0] to W[R−1][] may each hold at least N+C−1 elements of R consecutive rows of an input Matrix (same column positions), while register W[k][] may holds R times C elements of a kernel. The following Conv1 computation may be completed in R times C clock cycles, with N MACs per cycle:
[0000] A[m][i]=A[m][i]+Σ r=0 R−1 (Σ c=0 C−1 ( W[r][c+i]*W[k][Cr+c ]), for i= 0 to N− 1
[0037] In a third convolution calculation denoted as the function Conv2(m, R, C, k), the register A[m][] may be used to hold the initial and final results, the size of the kernel may be R×C; the registers W[0] to W[R−1][] may each hold at least 2N+C−2 elements of R consecutive row of an input Matrix (same column positions), while register W[k][] may hold R times C elements of a kernel. The following Conv2 computation may be completed in R times C clock cycles, with N MACs per cycle:
[0000] A[m][i]=A[m][i]+Σ r=0 R−1 (Σ c=0 c−1 ( W[r][c+ 2 i]*W[k][Cr+c ]), for i= 0 to N− 1
[0038] In a 4th convolution calculation denoted as the function Conv3(m, R, C, k), the register A[m][] may be used to hold the initial and final results, the size of the kernel may be R×C; the registers W[0] to W[R−1][] all together may hold R times C groups of N consecutive elements of different R times C inputs (same row/column positions), while register W[k][] may hold R times C elements of a kernel, one element associated with each input matrix. The following Conv3 computation may be completed in R times C clock cycles, with N MACs per cycle:
[0000] A[m][i]=A[m][i]+Σ r=0 R (Σ c=0 C ( W[r][Nc+i]*W[k][Cr+c ]) for i= 0 to N− 1
[0039] In some embodiments the Conv1( ) function may implement the classic convolution of a kernel over a section of an image, producing M consecutive elements of one line of the output matrix. The function Conv2( ) is similar to function Conv1( ) except that a subsampling factor of 2× or 4× may be implemented at the same time (that is, the output matrix line is 2× or 4× narrower) in some embodiments.
[0040] In some embodiments, the Conv3( ) function may be a special scenario/state occurring in the last layer of a CNN-application in which classification may be performed by summing all the input matrix after trivial convolution with a 1×1 kernel. To increase parallelism in some embodiments, the Conv3( ) function enables processing over N elements of R times C input images, processing N MACs in parallel.
[0041] The Conv0( ) function may be employed when a convolution is applied to only a limited number of positions. In this case, the R times C convolution may be applied over N different input matrices, all at the same position, resulting into N elements, each one being part of a different output matrix.
[0042] In some embodiments, max-pooling may consist of selecting the maximum value within a N×N input matrix. It shares some commonalities with the convolution function because it may be implemented using the same A and W registers where the MAC operation is replaced by a MAX operation. For each position i in a set of W[0] to W[N−1] registers the maximum value may be found and stored in register A[m][i]. The max-pooling instruction also enables a subsampling factor which will determine by how many elements (if any) the N×N matrix overlap on the input plane.
[0043] Another CNN specific operation that may be implemented by a PE 70 is the neuron activation 86 as represented by a non-linear computation in some embodiments. Neuron activation as represented by a non-linear computation may be implemented in different ways. In some embodiments, an optimized LUT-based implementation using a 2-step process of parallel saturation and parallel look-up may be employed.
[0044] In some embodiments, the LUT function may be mapped in the tightly-coupled data memory 74 of each PE 70 . The bit width of each LUT element may correspond to the bit width of the output matrix elements after non-linear transformation (typically 8 or 16 bits in some embodiments). The number of elements in a LUT corresponds to the “precision” or quality of the approximation and may be application-specific. In some embodiments, a saturate function may be provided to saturate each value after convolution to a maximal value. The saturate function may be applied in parallel to the N elements of a provided A[m] [] register. Then each i-th element after saturation of the vector A[m][] may be replaced by LUT[A[m][i]]. In some embodiments, the data memory word width is much larger than the LUT-element width, so many lookups may be performed at the same time for a specific data word. In addition in some embodiments, a number of data words that were previously looked-up may be kept in local registers to further minimize memory requests. This is somewhat analogous to an instruction cache (in particular, no write back may be required). In such an embodiment, an element is first looked-up inside the cached set of LUT data words, limiting data memory requests to only non-cached elements.
[0045] The resultant accelerated LUT functions may be used to approximate nonlinear activation functions such as sigmoid or hyperbolic tangent (tan h) to simulate neuron activations. In some embodiments, LUT functions may also be used to approximate other functions which may be costly to implement on a small processor including exponentials. Exponentials may be part of a softmax regression operation used at the end of the CNN processing to get a probabilistic answer in the last layer of a CNN graph. In another embodiment a rectifier which is simply f(x)=max(0,x) may be used as a non-linear function. A PE 70 may include an instruction to extract such a value from each element in the W registers while also optionally applying a parallel saturation operation on the output.
[0046] In some embodiments that employs the convolutions and activation functions as described, a PE 70 may be able to efficiently implement the processing included in a CNN layer as shown in FIG. 3 . Dependent on the layer processing requirements, a PE 70 may be able to implement/process several layers. Via a pipeline mechanism (include pipelines shown in FIG. 4 ), PEs 70 may be able to execute in parallel to process all layers of a CNN application. To be efficient, each PE 70 should be active or employed as much as possible. To increase or maintain PE 70 utilization, point-to-point channels (FIFOs 62 of interconnect module 60 in some embodiments) are provided as a communication mechanism between PEs 70 . To maximize PE 70 utilization and enable runtime configurability, the point-to-point connections should be programmable.
[0047] In some embodiments, the number of FIFOs 62 (see FIG. 2 ) and their depth may be varied during design as function of the number of PEs and convolution configurations to be processed. In some embodiments, FIFO to PE connectivity may be configured such that each FIFO 62 input is associated with only one PE 70 and each FIFO 62 output is also associated with only one PE 70 . In such an embodiment, a simple multiplexer/de-multiplexer network may be sufficient to enable runtime reconfigurable interconnections. No arbitration mechanism may be required since the FIFO-PE connections, once configured, are point-to-point. Since a PE 70 may have many inputs and be thereby coupled to many FIFO 62 outputs, a unique identifier may be associated with each FIFO. This ID may be provided with the push & pop instructions from a PE 70 in some embodiments. In some embodiments, a PE 70 may access an associated FIFO to provide data via either a blocking (wait for data availability/free space) or non-blocking (must retry an empty/full exception is returned) manner to enable flexible application programming
[0048] In some embodiments, a proposed reconfigurable interconnect architecture may include more FIFO than PEs. FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of a reconfigurable streaming interconnect module 60 including 10 FIFOs 62 configured to be coupled to 8 PEs via 8 outputs 61 A-H and 8 inputs 63 A-N. The reconfigurable streaming interconnect module 60 may include 8 master input ports 61 A-H, 8 master output ports 63 A-H, 10 FIFOs 62 A-J, 8 input demultiplexers (demux) 64 A-H, 10 input multiplexers (mux) 65 A-J, 10 output demux 66 A-J, and 8 output mux 67 A-H. The 8 master input ports 61 A-H may be coupled to each input demux 64 A-H, respectfully. The input demux 64 may be configurable coupled to any of the input mux 65 . The input mux 65 may be coupled to the FIFOs 62 , respectfully. The 10 FIFOs 62 may be coupled to each output demux 66 , respectfully. The output demux 66 may be coupled to any of the output mux 67 . The output mux 67 may be coupled to the master output ports 63 , respectfully.
[0049] The multiplexers 65 and 67 and demultiplexers 64 and 66 may be runtime configurable and enable the FIFOs 62 to be reconfigured based on the CNN layers to be supported/implemented. Due to the configurability of the multiplexers 65 and 67 and demultiplexers 64 and 66 , many different CNN graph topologies may be supported or implemented by the same hardware instance. FIG. 6 illustrates simplified diagrams of multilayer CNN configurations or “graph topologies” 90 A-F in accordance with embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus. Each configuration 90 including several layers (6 in 90 A and 90 B, 5 in 90 C and 90 D, and 4 in 90 E and 90 F) and require one to four PEs 70 A in each layer.
[0050] The combination of architecture 50 with PEs 70 as shown in FIG. 4 and a reconfigurable streaming interconnect module 60 shown in FIG. 5 enables re-configurability for different CNN graph topologies while requiring a small footprint (low-area) and reduced power consumption (low-power) over general digital signal processing (DSP) or related systems. On the hardware side, architecture 50 enables the selection of many hardware parameters including the number of PEs 70 , the number of FIFOs 62 , each FIFO 62 depth, tightly coupled data memory size(s) 74 and bit width, and tightly coupled program memory size(s) 72 . In some embodiments, tools may be employed to optimize the functionality of the reconfigurable streaming interconnect module 60 including multiplexers 65 and 67 and demultiplexers 64 and 66 and FIFOs 62 , the tools may include the commercially available Synopsys DesignWare ARChitect tool.
[0051] In some embodiments, PEs 70 employed in architecture 50 may be modeled with a language including the commercially available Synopsys ASIP Designer nML processor description language. In combination with ASIP PEs, their instructions may be optimized for CNN applications and variants of non-linear functions. In some embodiments, the architecture 50 hardware design, compilation chain, and simulator may all be generated from nML source. In such an embodiment, other architectural parameters may be easily configured including the number of vector registers, their width, the number of scalar registers, the convolution weights bit width, and the number of parallel MAC units employed for the convolutions.
[0052] Further, the specialized CNN instructions implemented by the PEs in combination with multiple instruction pipelines ( FIG. 4 ), may enable the architecture 50 to overlap data movement with core CNN processing operations such that high utilization of the parallel MAC units are achieved. In some embodiments, CNN graph applications may achieve high resource utilization with near-optimal performance for the provided hardware; up to 90% or more resource utilization in some embodiments.
[0053] In some embodiments, a processor may be programmable using the C language. In such an embodiment, CNN layer processing may be easily mapped on each PE and configured for the specifics of each application. The application specifics may include the type and size of a kernel, the size of the input and output matrices, the type of sigmoid or non-linear activation function, and the processing connectivity between output matrixes and input matrixes. Furthermore, the reconfigurable streaming interconnect module coupled to PEs of an architecture 50 enable application-specific instances of CNN graph topologies to be adapted to each resultant architecture 50 . FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of a design flow architecture 90 of a multicore CNN Engine IP 99 in accordance with some embodiments of the presently disclosed method and apparatus.
[0054] As shown in FIG. 7 , a designer may provide a CNN application code 92 A and CNN PE description 92 B to the design flow architecture 90 . A designer may employ ASIP technologies including the commercially available Synopsys ASIP Designer tool to configure the PEs. The CNN application code 92 A and the ASIP Designer tool module 94 A configuration may be supplied to a compiler module 96 A, debugger module 96 B, simulator module 96 C and Application Specific Instruction Processor ASIP register-transfer level RTL module 96 D. The compiler module 96 A may generate PE binaries 98 A based on the CNN application code 92 A and the ASIP Designer tool module 94 A configuration. Architecture 90 may employ an overall flow architecture tool, such as the Synopsys DesignWare ARChitect tool module 98 B to configure flow between PEs based on data from the ASIP RTL 96 D, a Reconfigurable streaming interconnect (RSI) register-transfer level (RTL) module 94 B and a Interconnect register-transfer level register-transfer level RTL module 94 C. The binaries module 98 A and the commercially available Synopsys DesignWare ARChitect tool module 98 B data may form a multicore CNN engine IP 99 in some embodiments.
[0055] The modules may include hardware circuits, single- or multi-processor circuits, memory circuits, software program modules and objects, firmware, and combinations thereof, as desired by the architect of architecture 50 and as appropriate for particular implementations of various embodiments. The apparatus and systems of various embodiments may be useful in applications other than implementing CNN graph topologies. They are not intended to serve as a complete description of all the elements and features of apparatus and systems that might make use of the structures described herein. Although the inventive concept may include embodiments described in the exemplary context of one or more industry standards, the claims are not intended to be limited by such embodiments.
[0056] The accompanying drawings that form a part of the present disclosure show, by way of illustration and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The embodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of various claimed inventions is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
[0057] Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, any arrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to include any and all adaptations, combinations or variations of various embodiments disclosed. Accordingly, combinations of the features disclosed with respect to the embodiments disclosed herein, are included in the present disclosure.
[0058] The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b), requiring an abstract that will allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In the foregoing Detailed Description, various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted to require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may be found in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Furthermore, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of the claimed invention.
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A programmable architecture specialized for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) processing such that different applications of CNNs may be supported by the presently disclosed method and apparatus by reprogramming the processing elements therein. The architecture may include an optimized architecture that provides a low-area or footprint and low-power solution desired for embedded applications while still providing the computational capabilities required for CNN applications that may computationally intensive, requiring a huge number of convolution operations per seconds to process inputs such as video streams in real time.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cosmetics case, and more particularly to a cosmetics case which is portable and convenient to use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various cosmetics cases have been used to satisfy demands that they should be compact and convenient for use, have an attractive appearance, and be such as to allow the cosmetics contained therein to be easily handled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to satisfy the above-mentioned demands and to provide a cosmetics case which can contain, according to the user's preference, cosmetics or alternatively dress making materials, by replacing cosmetic containers received in the case.
To satisfy the above-mentioned object, the portable cosmetics case, according to the present invention, comprises a flat box-like hollow case body defining therein an accommodation space and having an opening at one end, a mirror attached on the top plate of the body, and at least one cosmetic container removably received through the opening in the accommodation space. The cosmetic container being selected from the following forms: a cosmetic container at one end of which is mounted a lipstick or painting pencil; a cosmetic container of the upwardly opening box type containing one or more compact-type cosmetics; and a cosmetic container on which is mounted a painting stick having a brush or sponge at its free end.
The objects and features of the present invention will be better understood by the following detailed description made by way of examples, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cosmetics case, according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective bottom view of the cosmetics case shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view along line III--III of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view along line IV--IV of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 in which a portion is broken away to show the interior of the case construction;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a cosmetic container, according to the present invention, to be received in the case shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is an end view of a cosmetics case according to the second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a cosmetic container to be received in the case shown in FIG. 7;
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a cosmetic case, according to the third embodiment of the present invention, in which a cosmetic container, which is referred as a second cosmetic container, is pulled out from its recess;
FIG. 10 is a sectional view along line X--X of FIG. 9;
FIG. 11 is a bottom view of the cosmetics case shown in FIG. 9 with the cosmetic container being fully received in the case;
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a third cosmetic container to be received in the case shown in FIG. 9;
FIG. 13 is a perspective view of a fourth cosmetic container to be received in the case shown in FIG. 9;
FIG. 14 is a sectional view along line XIV--XIV of FIG. 9;
FIG. 15 is a perspective bottom view of the second cosmetic container shown in FIG. 9;
FIG. 16 is a perspective bottom view of the fourth cosmetic container shown in FIG. 13;
FIG. 17 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 14 but the case illustrated receives different cosmetic containers;
FIG. 18 is a longitudinal sectional view of FIG. 17;
FIG. 19 is a perspective view of a fifth cosmetic container, according to the present invention, received in the case shown in FIG. 17; and
FIG. 20 is a partially broken away perspective view of the cosmetics case shown in FIG. 9 but in this case containing another combination of cosmetic containers.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIGS. 1-6 show a cosmetics case according to the first embodiment of the present invention having a body 1 which forms a generally flat box which has an opening 2 (FIG. 5) at one end. This opening 2 opens sideway (rightward in FIG. 1) and downwardly. The body 1 is preferably formed of synthetic resin and is hollow to form an accommodation space 7 (FIGS. 3 and 4. In the embodiment shown, the accommodation space 7 is divided into five spaces by partition walls 14 (FIG. 3 only). To the top wall of the body 1, a mirror 3 (FIGS. 1 and 3-5) is adhered. The mirror 3 is adhered in a recess 8 of the top wall by adhesive 9 (FIGS. 3 and 4). A transparent plate 11 (FIGS. 1, 2 and 4) is secured to the body 1 at one end 10 opposite to the opening 2, in order to allow a view into the accommodation space 7. In the space 7 adjacent to the opening 2, a transversly extending retaining projection 12 (FIGS. 4 and 5) is formed.
In each of the divided small compartments of the space 7, a cosmetic container 5 (FIGS. 3, 4 and 6) is received releasably. In the embodiment shown, the cosmetic container 5 contains telescopically a lipstick 4 (FIGS. 3 and 4). Outer end portion 19 (FIGS. 4-6) of the container 5 is generally square shaped and each side of the outer end portion 19 has a claw recess 21 (FIGS. 4-6). When the container 5 is engaged in the compartment of the space 7, the outer end portion 19 makes contact with a lower edge 17 (FIG. 2 only) of the opening 2 of the case 1 and thus the lower surface is aligned with the bottom surface of the case 1. The other side surfaces of the outer end portion 19 are covered by portions 2a, 2b and 2c (FIGS. 1, 2 and 5) of the case 1 which are defined to form the opening 2 of the case 1. Thus, the space 7 is kept free from dust, and the completed case has an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The container 5 has a body formed by a cylindrical portion 20 (FIGS. 4 and 6) adjacent to the end portion 19. The cylindrical portion 20 has a peripheral projection 13 (FIGS. 4 and 6) which engages with the retaining projection 12 in the space 7 when the container 5 is received in the case 1. The cylindrical portion 20 has a cylindrical body 18 (FIGS. 4 and 6) which holds the lipstick 4 and a cover 6. The telescopic mechanism is operated by relative rotation between the cylindrical body 18 and the cover 6.
In operation, a desired container 5 is pulled out from a small compartment of the space 7, and the lipstick 4 projects from the cover 6. Painting of the lips can be easily performed with the aid of the mirror 3 attached to the case 1. The cosmetics case 1 is compact and easily carried.
FIGS. 7 and 8 show a cosmetic case, according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The case includes a case body 1' which is rounded at both sides. Half of the end opening of the body 1' is covered by a cover portion 2'a. Cosmetic containers 5' and 5" which are to be received in both side small compartments of the space 7 each include end portion 19" and a step 22 as shown in FIG. 8, which shows only the container 5". Also, each of the containers 5' and 5" has only one claw recess 21' or 21". The remaining construction of the case as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is similar to the case shown in FIGS. 1-6.
FIGS. 9-16 show a cosmetics case, according to third embodiment of the present invention. The cosmetics case includes a flat box-shaped case body 41 (FIGS. 9-11 and 14) which has an opening 42 (FIGS. 9 and 10) at one side and an accommodation space 47 (FIG. 10 only) in the body 41. On the top plate of the case body 41, a mirror 43 (FIGS. 9 and 10) is attached. In the accommodation space 47 a plurality of cosmetic containers are received through the opening 42 thereof. In the illustrated embodiment there is shown a second cosmetic container 60 (FIGS. 9-10 and 14-15) shaped generally like a box with its top opened and receiving cosmetics such as compacted face powders 61, 62 and 63 (FIGS. 9 and 10); a third cosmetic container 70 (FIGS. 9, 11-12 and 14) having a painting stick 72 (FIGS. 12 and 14) which has a painting brush or sponge 71 (FIG. 12 only) at one end; a fourth cosmetic container 80 (FIGS. 9, 11, 13-14 and 16) receiving cosmetics such as eyebrow or shade aid 81 (FIGS. 13 and 14) and 82 (FIG. 13 only) which are different from the cosmetics 61 - 63, and an eyebrow brush 83 (FIGS. 13 and 14).
The case body 41 is preferably formed from a synthetic resin material similar to the first embodiment and includes a recess 48 (FIG. 10 only) on the top surface to attach the mirror 43 formed of suitable material e.g. glass, metal plate or synthetic resin, by suitable adhesive 49 (FIG. 10 only). The rear end wall opposite to the opening 42 may be formed of transparent material to enable viewing into the space 47.
In the accommodation space 47, longitudinal parallel projections 54 (FIG. 14) are formed integrally with the bottom wall to reinforce the case body 41 and to act as guide rails for the cosmetic containers 60, 70 and 80. Further, on the bottom wall in the accommodation space 47 near the opening 42, a small retaining projection 52 (FIG. 10) is formed perpendicular to the projections 54. To engage with the projections 54, on the bottom wall of the containers 60 and 80, longitudinal recesses 56 (FIGS. 14-16) are formed corresponding to the projections 54. Also on each bottom wall of the containers 60 and 80, there is a small transverse projection 59 (FIGS. 10, 13, and 15-16) which controls the pull out position of the container 60 or 80 by engaging with the retaining projection 52 and a small transverse projection 58 (FIGS. 9-10, 13 and 15,16) which retains the container 60 or 80 in a closed or fully retracted position by engaging with the retaining projection 52 in the space 47. In place of the small projection 58, the vertical dimension of the cosmetic container may be made somewhat less at its outer end portion. Or, in place of the projection 52, the thickness of the bottom wall 54' of the case body 41 may be made somewhat thicker adjacent to the opening 42 relative to other portions, so as to retain the containers by means of the step portion formed by the change of thickness.
As before, the bottom wall 54' (FIG. 11) of the case body 41 is recessed to define edge 55 (FIGS. 10 and 11) which acts as the lower edge of the opening 42. The outer end portion 65 (FIGS. 9-11 and 15) of the second container 60 is generally rectangular and includes inward step surface 67 (FIGS. 10 and 15) to engage with the edge 55 of the case body 41. When the step surface 67 engages with the edge 55, the top and side surfaces of the outer end portion 65 are covered by the cover portions of the case body 41 to give a smooth box shape to the cosmetics case. On the lower surface 68 (FIGS. 11 and 15) of the outer end portion 65, a claw recess 66 (FIGS. 10-11 and 15) is formed. Similar step surfaces 77 and 76 (FIG. 12 only) and claw recesses 87 (FIGS. 13 and 16) and 86 (FIGS. 11 and 16) are formed on the outer end portions 75 (FIGS. 9 and 11-12) and 85 (FIGS. 9, 11, 13 and 16) of the third and fourth containers 70 and 80.
As shown in FIGS. 13 and 16, a recess 89 is formed on one side surface of the container 80 in which the brush 83 can be easily placed or taken out.
The third cosmetic container 70 includes a peripheral projection 73 (FIG. 12 only) to engage with the projection 52 in the space 47. The outer end portion 75 of the container 70 is square so that claw recesses 66 are formed on all side surfaces of the outer end portion 75 of the container 70.
In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 17-19, the cosmetics case shown in FIGS. 9-11 receives three lipstick containers 5 similar to that shown in FIG. 6 and three pencil containers 90 in place of the containers 60, 70 and 80.
The pencil container or fifth cosmetic container 90 holds a pencil shaped cosmetic 92 covered by a barrel 91 of, for example, wood or paper. The container 90 includes a square shaped outer end portion 95 which has claw recesses 96 on all side surfaces and an inward faced step portion 97. The container 90 has a peripheral recess to engage with the retaining projection 52 in the space 47 of the case body 41.
FIG. 20 shows the case body 41 of the cosmetics case shown in FIGS. 9-11 receiving in this case cosmetic containers 60, 70, 5 and 90.
It will be appreciated that the cosmetics case according to the present invention can receive suitable cosmetic containers selected from various cosmetic containers available, as desired by the user, and also is very convenient for transportation and use.
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A portable cosmetics case includes a hollow and flat box-like case body. The case body has an opening at one end which opens downwardly. A plurality of cosmetic containers containing e.g. lipsticks, a compacted powder case, and a painting brush are inserted in the case body. Each cosmetic container has an end portion closing the opening in the case body. Thus, the cosmetics case has a smooth box-like external appearance. The cosmetic containers received in the case body can be replaced as desired according to the user's preference.
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This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/713,311 filed Jun. 11, 1991, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminating apparatus wherein a laminate object (object to be laminated) is encapsuled by heat-reactive upper and lower laminate films to perform a laminate treatment by heating and pressurizing the laminate films while sandwiching the laminate object between the laminate films.
2. Related Background Art
In the past, a laminating apparatus wherein appearance and preservation of a sheet-shaped laminated object (referred to as "sheet" hereinafter) are improved by performing a laminate treatment while encapsuling and sealing the sheet between laminate films has been proposed.
FIG. 24 shows an example of such a conventional laminating apparatus.
In FIG. 24, the laminating apparatus 900 includes an upper laminate film roll 901a of an upper heat-reactive laminate film 902a and a lower laminate film roll 901b of a lower laminate film 902b. The laminate films 902a, 902b unwound from the respective laminate film rolls 901a, 901b are wound around respective pressure and heat rollers 903a, 903b which are urged against each other to be laminated and are tensioned by pull rollers 905a, 905b. The pressure and heat rollers 903a, 903b include heaters 906a, 906b for heating the rollers therein, respectively.
From a sheet supply 909 disposed at an upstream side of the paired pressure and heat rollers 903, a sheet 901 is fed to a nip between the pressure and heat rollers 903a, 903b which constitutes a joining point for the upper and lower laminate films 902a, 902b. The sheet 910 is sandwiched by the upper and lower laminate films 902a, 902b and is pressurized and heated by the paired pressure and heat rollers 903, so that it is adhered between the laminate films. Thereafter, the sheet with the laminate films is ejected out of the apparatus by means of the paired pull rollers 905. Trailing ends of the sheet 910 and of the laminate films 902a, 902b are cut by a cutter unit 911 arranged at a downstream side of the paired pull rollers 905.
Above a body 900 of the apparatus, there is arranged an operation portion 913 which has switches 915, 916 for manually setting the feeding speeds of the laminate films 902a, 902b and of the paired pull rollers 905, and the temperature of outer surfaces of the paired pressure and heat rollers 903.
However, in the case where the above conventional laminating apparatus is connected to an image forming system such as a copying machine, when the copying operation is started, if the temperature of the heaters does not reach a predetermined value, it is feared that the laminate films are not adhered to the sheet, thus producing a poor article. Particularly, since the heaters have a low temperature upon initiation of the laminate treatment, many poor articles will be produced until the heaters reach the predetermined temperature. Thus, much sheet and laminate films are consumed, which is wasteful.
Further, conventionally, for example, the control of the temperature of the heaters 906a, 906b was so effected that, after the electric power was turned ON, the temperature was controlled until the melting temperature of the heat-reactive adhesive was obtained, and, thereafter, the temperature was maintained in a constant value during the waiting for the laminate treatment and the laminating operation. Thus, since the temperature of the heaters is maintained in the constant value during the waiting for the laminate treatment and the laminating operation, the temperature of the whole laminating apparatus is considerably increased, so that the elements constituting the apparatus are also heated up, thus reducing the service life of the elements.
Incidentally, if the heater temperature during the waiting time is held to the same temperature as the heater temperature during the laminating operation, the efficiency of the electric power will be worsened.
Further, in the above-mentioned conventional laminating apparatus, pre-heaters sometimes were provided for pre-heating the laminate films 902a, 902b, as well as the heaters 906a, 906b. In this case, however, since the total consumption power of these heaters and pre-heaters had to be set to have a value lower than an acceptable electric power value, the consumption power of the heaters were required to be smaller than the case of no pre-heaters, with the result that it took a long time until the temperature required for the laminate treatment was obtained. Thus, it was feared that the rate of operation was considerably worsened.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to avoid poor articles due to the low temperature for heating laminate films and to eliminate the waste of a sheet and laminate films.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a laminating apparatus comprising a temperature detection means for detecting a temperature of a heating means for heating laminate films, and a control means for prohibiting the feeding of a sheet and the laminate films when the temperature detected by the temperature detection means is lower than a predetermined value. Thereby, when the heating temperature is low, the laminate treatment is not effected, thus reducing the poor articles and reducing the cost of the laminate treatment.
Another object of the present invention is to prevent the temperature of the whole apparatus from being increased due to the maintenance of the temperature at a constant value while waiting for the laminate treatment and during the laminating operation, thereby increasing the service life of the apparatus and preventing the performance of the apparatus from being reduced.
In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a laminating apparatus comprising a sheet detection means for detecting a sheet being fed, and a control means for heating a heating means up to an operation temperature capable of performing the laminate treatment when the detection means detects the sheet and for heating the heating means to a remaining heat temperature lower than the operation temperature when the sheet is not detected by the detection means. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the temperature of the whole apparatus from being increased, to prevent the service life and performance of the apparatus from being deteriorated, and to decrease the loss of the consumed electric power, thus reducing the power consumption.
A further object of the present invention is to prevent the rate of operation of the laminate treatment from being decreased.
In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides a laminating apparatus comprising a control means for controlling the activation and deactivation of each heating means in such a manner that the total consumption electric power of the plural heating means becomes lower than a predetermined electric power. More particularly, the laminating apparatus includes a pre-heating means for pre-heating laminate films, and a primary heating means for providing heat during a pressurizing operation by means of a pressurizing means and wherein the control means controls so that, when one of the pre-heating means and the primary heating means is activated, the other is deactivated, thereby successively heating the laminate films. Thereby, it is possible to heat the laminate films effectively for a short time, thus improving the rate of operation of the laminate treatment and reducing the power consumption.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an elevational sectional view of a laminating apparatus connected to an image forming system;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a detection mechanism for detecting a thickness of a sheet, arranged at regist rollers incorporated in the laminating apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIGS. 3A and 3B are partial sectional views of a sheet roll used in the laminating apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a development view showing a drive system of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing an example of control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing another example of control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 8 is an elevational sectional view of a main portion of a laminating apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9 is a control block diagram of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 8;
FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 8;
FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing an initial control sub-routine of the flow chart of FIG. 11;
FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing a pre-heat control sub-routine of the flow chart of FIG. 11;
FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing a laminate control sub-routine of the flow chart of FIG. 11;
FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing another control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 8;
FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing a further control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 8;
FIG. 17 is an elevational sectional view of a laminating apparatus according to a further embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 18A and 18B are partial sectional views of a sheet roll used in the laminating apparatus of FIG. 17;
FIG. 19 is a development view showing a drive system of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 17;
FIG. 20 is a block diagram of a control circuit of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 17;
FIG. 21 is a flow chart showing an example of control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 17;
FIG. 22 is a flow chart showing another example of control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 17;
FIG. 23 is a flow chart showing a further example of a control of the laminating apparatus of FIG. 17;
FIG. 24 is an elevational sectional view showing an example of a conventional laminating apparatus;
FIG. 25 is an exploded perspective view of a recording head of an ink jet image forming system; and
FIGS. 26A to 26G are explanatory views for explaining an ink jet recording principle.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows, in elevational section, a laminating apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which is connected to a copying machine.
In FIG. 1, a reader A has a platen glass 1 on which an original is rested. The original is illuminated by light from an illumination lamp 2. The light reflected from the original is further reflected by mirrors 3, 5 and is focused on a CCD 7 by means of a focusing lens 6, thus reading the original. The image information read by the reader A is sent to a printer B, where a latent image is formed on a photosensitive drum 11 by means of a scanner 10 on the basis of the image information.
Sheets 13 stacked in a sheet supply cassette 12 arranged in the printer B are fed to the photosensitive drum 11 one by one by means of a sheet supply roller 15. At a transfer station 16, the image formed on the photosensitive drum 11 is transferred onto the sheet 13. Thereafter, the sheet 13 is ejected out of the printer by means of a conveying belt 17 and ejector rollers 19.
In FIG. 1, a laminating apparatus C is removably connected to the printer B by means of a ratch mechanism 20. The laminating apparatus C includes a flapper 21 which is driven by a solenoid (not shown) to select the sheet 13 whether it is laminated or not, in response to a signal from a change-over switch (not shown) disposed in an operation portion 22 arranged on the laminating apparatus C. A display portion 23 is disposed in the proximity of the operation portion 22.
More particularly, when the command for not laminating the sheet 13 is inputted from the operation portion 22, the flapper 21 assumes a position shown by the broken line in FIG. 1, so that the sheet 13 is directed to a non-laminate path 25 and is ejected onto an ejector tray 27 by means of ejector rollers 26. On the other hand, when the command for laminating the sheet 13 is inputted from the operation portion 22, the flapper 13 is moved to a position shown by the solid line in FIG. 1, so that the sheet 13 is directed to a laminate path 29 to send the sheet to a laminate treatment station.
In FIG. 1, a pair of regist rollers 30 are disposed at a downstream side of the laminate path 29 and serve to provide the synchronism of the feeding of the sheet 13 and to correct the skew feed of the sheet. A regist pre-sensor 31 for detecting the presence of the sheet 13 is disposed at an upstream side of the regist rollers 30. At a downstream side of the regist rollers 30, there is arranged a feeding path 32 above which a heater 33 is disposed. When the heater 33 is turned ON, the feeding path 32 is heated to dry the sheet 13 being fed. The ON/OFF control of the heater 33 is effected by the changeover switch of the operation portion 22 in such a manner as to select whether the sheet 13 is heated or not.
A density detection sensor 35 such as an optical sensor is disposed between the paired regist rollers 30 and the heater 33, which sensor serves to detect the density of the image on the sheet 13. The ON/OFF control of the heater 33 may be effected on the basis of the image density information.
Sheet rolls 36a, 36b of laminate films 37a, 37b are arranged at upper and lower portions within the laminating apparatus C. Pre-heaters 39a, 39b are provided for pre-heating the laminate films 37a, 37b. Each of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b has a curved configuration to provide a wider area to heat the laminate film 37a or 37b, and the heating temperature of the pre-heaters are detected by sensors T 3 , T 4 arranged on surfaces of the pre-heaters.
Pressure rollers 40a, 40b serve to pinch the laminate films 37a, 37b heated by the pre-heaters 39a, 39b therebetween to heat and pressurize them, thereby performing the laminate treatment of the sheet 13. The heating of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b is effected by laminate heaters 44a, 44b arranged at shaft portions of these rollers, and the temperatures of the rollers are detected by sensors T 1 , T 2 disposed near the rollers. Separating pawls or claws 41a, 41b have free ends contacting the peripheral surfaces of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b, so that they can separate the laminate films 37a, 37b from the surfaces of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b if the former is adhered to the latter. A cutter unit 42 is constituted by a cutter 43, die 45 and a cutter motor and serves to cut a leading end and a trailing end of the laminate-treated sheet 13.
A laminate sensor 46 such as an optical sensor a reflection type serves to detect the leading and trailing ends of the laminate-treated sheet 13. Peripheral speeds of pull rollers 47a, 47b are set to be greater than those of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b, so that the laminated-treated sheet 13 is subjected to a predetermined tension between the pull rollers 47a, 47b and the pressure rollers 40a, 40b.
The sheet rollers 36a, 36b are subjected to predetermined loads in the sheet unwinding directions, and the laminate films 37a, 37b pulled by the pull rollers 47a, 47b are tensioned between the pull rollers 47a, 47b and the sheet rolls 36a, 36b via the pressure rollers 40a, 40b and the laminate heaters 39a, 39b.
A waste containing case 49 serves to collect the cut pieces of the laminate films 37a, 37b cut by the cutter unit 42 (laminate film pieces not including a portion of the sheet 13). The waste containing case 49 can be pulled out of the laminating apparatus. Laminate ejector rollers 59a, 59b serve to eject the laminated-treated sheet 13 out of the laminating apparatus C onto a laminate tray 51.
Next, constructural elements of the laminating apparatus C will be fully described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4.
First of all, the details of the paired regist rollers 30 will be explained with reference to FIG. 2 showing a sheet thickness detecting mechanism arranged at the regist rollers as an elevational view. As shown, a sheet thickness detecting lever 52 is engaged, at its one end, by a shaft 30a of one of the paired regist rollers 30. The sheet thickness detecting lever 52 is pivoted around a rotary shaft 53 when the sheet 13 enters into the nip between the regist rollers. A lever flag 55 is provided on the sheet thickness detecting lever 52, and lengths shown (lever lengths) l 1 , l 2 are set to have a relation l 1 >l 2 , so that the shifting amount of the regist roller 30 is converted into an amplified shifting amount of the lever flag 55. A sheet thickness detecting sensor 56 such as an optical sensor is arranged in confronting relation to the lever flag 55, so that the shifting amount of the lever flag 55 is detected linearly by the sheet thickness detecting sensor 56, thereby detecting the thickness of the sheet 13 being passed through the nip between the paired regist rollers 30.
Next, the construction of the sheet rolls 36 will be fully explained with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B.
FIGS. 3A and 3B are partial sectional views of the sheet rolls 36a and 36b which are wound around respective cores 57a and 57b. The core 57a can be rotated on a peripheral surface of a roll shaft 59 which is supported by side plates 60 of the laminating apparatus C via a tension adjusting nut 61. A tension spring 62 is disposed between the tension adjusting nut 61 and the core 57a, so that the load on the sheet roll 36 in the sheet unwinding direction can be adjusted on the basis of the tightness of the tension adjusting nut 61.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the sheet roll 36a is constituted by the laminate film 37a having a first thickness, and the sheet roll 36a is mounted on the first core 57a. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3B, the sheet roll 36b is constituted by the laminate film 37b having a second thickness, and the sheet roll 36b is mounted on the second core 57b. And, the first core 57a has no flange, whereas the second core is provided at its one end with a flange 57c.
Microswitches 63 secured to the side plate 60 serve to discriminate the cores. When the first core 57a is mounted on the side plates, the microswitch is turned OFF, whereas, when the second core 57b is mounted, the microswitch is turned ON by contacting the flange 57c. In this way, it is possible to discriminate the core 57a from the core 57b, and thus, to discriminate the difference in thickness of the laminate film 37a, 37b. Incidentally, in the illustrated embodiment, while the two laminate films 37a, 37b having different thickness were discriminated from each other, three or more laminate films having different thickness may be discriminated from each other, by changing outer diameters of the flanges and by providing three or more microswitches.
Next, the construction of a drive system will be fully described with reference to FIG. 4.
FIG. 4 is a development view showing the drive system of the laminating apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 4, a main motor 65 has an output shaft on which a motor gear 66 is fixedly mounted. The rotation of the main motor 65 is transmitted to a pull roller gear 71 and a laminate ejector roller gear 72 through a motor gear 62, idle gears 67, 68 and pull roller clutch 70, so that the pull rollers 47a, 47b and the laminate ejector rollers 50a, 50b are rotated. Incidentally, the rotations of the pull rollers 47a, 47b and the laminate ejector rollers 50a, 50b are controlled by ON/OFF of the pull roller clutch 70.
Further, the rotation of the main motor 65 is transmitted to an ejector roller gear 81 via the motor gear 66 and idle gears 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, so that the ejector rollers 19 are rotated.
Further, a pressure roller clutch 82 is disposed on a shaft of the idle gear 75, and the pressure roller clutch 82 is connected to a pressure roller gear 83 so that the rotations of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b are controlled by ON/OFF of the pressure roller clutch 82. Similarly, a regist roller clutch 85 is disposed on a shaft of the idle gear 77, and the regist roller clutch 85 is connected to a regist roller gear 86, so that the rotations of the regist rollers 30a, 30b are controlled by ON/OFF of the regist roller clutch 85.
On the other hand, a clock disc 87 being provided at its periphery with a plurality of slits is fixedly mounted on the output shaft of the main motor 65 opposed to the motor gear 66, and a clock sensor 89 comprising an optical sensor of a permeable type capable of detecting the slit is disposed in the vicinity of the clock disc 87.
Next, the laminate treatment of the sheet 13 ejected from the image forming system by means of the laminating apparatus C according to the present invention will be explained.
First of all, when a laminate ON switch arranged on the operation portion 22 of the laminating apparatus C is depressed, the solenoid (not shown) is activated to shift the flapper 21 to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 1, with the result that the sheet 13 ejected from the image forming system is directed to the laminate path 29. At the same time, the main motor 65 is rotated to rotate the ejector rollers 26. Incidentally, the paired regist rollers 30, pressure rollers 40a, 40b, pull rollers 47a, 47b and laminate ejector rollers 50a, 50b are stopped since the clutches 85, 82, 70 are in the OFF conditions.
When the leading end of the sheet 13 is detected by the regist pre-sensor 31, the clock sensor 90 (FIG. 5) starts to count the clock number. When the leading end of the sheet 13 abuts against the nip between the regist rollers 30 and thereafter the clocks required for forming a predetermined loop in the sheet are counted by the clock sensor 90, the regist roller clutch 85 is turned ON, with the result that the sheet 13 is fed to the feeding path 32 by means of the regist rollers 30. In this case, the loop in the sheet 13 formed in the laminate path 29 is maintained until the trailing end of the sheet 13 passes through the ejector rollers 19 of the laminating apparatus C. If a distance between the nip of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b and a position of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b nearest to the pressure rollers 40a, 40b is l, when the fact that the leading end of the sheet 13 in the feeding path 32 is shifted to a position ahead of the nip between the pressure rollers 40a, 40b by a distance (l+α) in the feeding path 32 is detected by the counts of the clock sensor 90, the pressure roller clutch 82 is turned ON to start rotation of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b. Incidentally, since a distance between the nip of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b and the nip of the regist rollers 30 is already known, the fact that the leading end of the sheet 13 reaches the position ahead of the nip between the pressure rollers 40a, 40b by the distance ("l+α") can be detected by counting the clocks corresponding to a value obtained by deducting the distance ("l +α") from the known distance, from when the rotations of the regist rollers 30 are started. In this way, the leading end of the sheet 13 is positioned at a position spaced apart from the leading end of the heated portions of the laminate heaters 39a, 39b by a value "α" rearwardly, with the result that the leading end of the sheet 13 can be laminated without fail.
The sheet 13 pinched by the heated upper and lower laminate films 37a, 37b is fed into the nip between the pressure rollers 40a, 40b together with the laminate films, and they are laminate-treated by being pressurized by the pressure rollers 40a, 40b. When the leading end of the sheet 13 so laminate-treated is detected by the lamiante sensor 46, the regist roller clutch 85 and the pressure roller clutch 82 are simultaneously turned OFF, thus stopping the feeding of the sheet 13. At the same time, the cutter motor (not shown) of the cutter unit 42 is activated to shift the cutter 43 downwardly, thus cutting the leading end of the laminate-treated sheet 13. When the cutter 43 is completely retracted at its original upper position after the sheet is cut, the regist roller clutch 85, pressure roller clutch 82 and pull roller clutch 70 are turned ON, thereby rotating the regist rollers 30, pressure rollers 40a, 40b and pull rollers 47a, 47b, respectively.
After the trailing end of the sheet 13 is detected by the regist pre-sensor 31, when the trailing end of the sheet 13 has just passed through the nip between the regist rollers 30, the regist roller clutch 85 is turned OFF, thus stopping the regist rollers 30. A shifting amount of the sheet from when the trailing end of the sheet 13 is detected by the regist pre-sensor 31 to when the trailing end of the sheet 13 passes through the nip between the regist rollers 30 is also measured by the clock sensor 90. When the trailing end of the laminate-treated sheet 13 is detected by the laminate sensor 46, after the distance between the laminate sensor 46 and the cutter 43 is calculated by the clock sensor 90, the pressure roller clutch 82 and pull roller clutch 70 are turned OFF, thus stopping the feeding of the laminate-treated sheet 13. At the same time, the cutter motor is turned ON, whereby the trailing end of the laminate-treated sheet 13 is cut by the cutter 43. After the cutting operation, the pull roller clutch 70 is turned ON to start rotation of the pull rollers 47a, 47b and the laminate ejector rollers 50a, 50b, thereby ejecting the laminate-treated sheet 13 onto the laminate tray 51.
By repeating the above-mentioned sequences, the sheets 13 successively ejected from the printer are laminated successively.
When the laminate treatment is effected regarding the sheet 13, the higher the density of the image on the sheet 13, the more the amount of absorbed heat; thus, in order to perform a better laminate treatment, the heating of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b and the laminate heaters 44a, 44b is controlled in consideration of the amount of heat absorbed by the sheet 13 at the pressure rollers 40a, 40b.
Further, since the thicker the sheet 13 the more the amount of absorbed heat, it is necessary to control the heat of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b and the laminate heaters 44a, 44b which is absorbed by the sheet 13 at the pressure rollers 40a, 40b.
Further, since the thicker the laminate films 37a, 37b the more the amount of heat absorbed by the laminate films 37a, 37b, is also necessary to control the pre-heaters 39a, 39b for heating the laminate films 37a, 37b. The above-mentioned control of the heaters is effected in such a manner that the greater the heat capacities of the laminate films 37a, 37b the higher the heating temperature.
Accordingly, in the laminating apparatus C according to the present invention, the sheet 13 and the laminate films 37a, 37b are heated in accordance with the variation in the density of the image on the sheet 13, thickness of the sheet 13 and the thickness of the laminate films 37a, 37b. To do so, the data from the density detecting sensor 35, sheet thickness detecting sensor 56 and core discriminating switch 63 can be feedback to the printer.
Next, the ON/OFF control and temperature control for the heater 33 will be explained. Incidentally, when the heater 33 is used, since the sheet is dried, it is not required to control the heat of the heaters 39a, 39b, 44a, 44b on the basis of the image density detection.
After the image is formed with ink in the image forming system, the sheet 13 is ejected from the system with the ink adhered thereon and in a wet condition. Thus, if the sheet 13 is laminate-treated while being wet, the moisture is sealed between the upper and lower laminate films 37a, 37b, with the result that bubbles are generated between the laminate films, thus worsening the laminate treatment. To avoid this, it is necessary to previously heat the sheet 13 prior to the laminate treatment to remove the moisture from the sheet.
However, if the sheet is excessively heated, the sheet is curled, which causes the curl and/or wrinkles in the sheet and the films during the laminate treatment. The moisture in the sheet 13 varies in accordance with the image density on the sheet, and the higher the image density the more the laminate treatment will be worsened.
Thus, in the laminating apparatus C according to the present invention, the image density is previously detected by the image density detecting sensor 35 and the heating temperature can be automatically controlled on the basis of the detected image density. That is to say, if the image density is high, the heater temperature is set to be high, whereas, if the image density is low, the heater temperature is set to be low. Incidentally, although the image forming systems include a system wherein an image is formed with toner without using the ink, in such a system, since the sheet is ejected after it is dried, it is not required for pre-heating the sheet prior to the laminate treatment. Thus, in this case, an operator may keep the heater activating switch on the operation portion 22 in an OFF condition.
Next, the above-mentioned control and operation will be fully described with reference to a block diagram shown in FIG. 5. Incidentally, here, the case where the heater 33 is not provided will be explained.
FIG. 5 shows a block diagram illustrating a control circuit for performing the above-mentioned operation. In FIG. 5, the control circuit is constituted by a well-known one-chip microcomputer 4 (referred to as "MCOM" hereinafter) incorporating ROM, RAM and the like. Input ports P 0 1-P 9 are connected to the above-mentioned laminate/non-laminate change-over switch 22, clock sensor 90 for counting the amount of rotation of the main motor 65 and the shifting amounts of the rollers 26, 30, 40a, 40b, 47a, 47b, 50a, 50b, pre-registration sensor 31 positioned ahead of the regist rollers and adapted to detect the leading and trailing ends of the sheet 13, laminate sensor 46 disposed between the pressure rollers 40a, 40b and the cutter unit 42 and adapted to detecting the leading and trailing ends of the sheet 13 after the laminate treatment, image density detecting sensor 35 for detecting the density of the image on the sheet 13 ejected from the image forming system, core discrimination switches 63 for discriminating the kind of the core (metal) relating to the sheet rolls 36a , 36b to discriminate the thickness of the laminate films 37a, 37b, sheet thickness detecting sensor 56 for detecting the thickness of the sheet 13 being passed through the regist rollers 30 by detecting the shifting amount of the regist roller, ON/OFF switch 22 for the heater 33, temperature sensors T 3 , T 4 for detecting the temperatures of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b, and temperature sensors T 1 , T 2 for detecting the temperatures of the pressure rollers 40a, 40b, respectively.
From output ports F 0 -F 7 of the MCOM 4, output signals regarding the ON/OFF operation of the solenoid 24 for the flapper 21 capable of switching the laminate/non-laminate paths, ON/OFF operation of the main motor 65, the main density detected by the density detecting sensor 35, thickness of the laminate films detected by the core discriminating switches 63, control of the rotational speeds of the rollers pre-set on the basis of the change in the thickness of the sheet detected by the sheet thickness detecting sensor 56, ON/OFF operation of the regist roller clutch 85 for activating and deactivating the regist rollers 30, ON/OFF operation of the pressure roller clutch 82 for activating and deactivating the pressure rollers 40a, 40b, ON/OFF operation of the pull roller clutch 70 for activating and deactivating the pull rollers 47a, 47b and laminate ejector rollers 50a, 50b, ON/OFF operation of the heater 33 for heating the sheet 13 prior to the laminate treatment and control of the heater temperature to set it to a predetermined value preset on the basis of the change in the image density on the sheet 13 detected by the density detecting sensor 35, ON/OFF operation of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b for pre-heating the laminate films 37a, 37b and temperature control of the surfaces of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b pre-set on the basis of the change in the image density detected by the density detecting sensor 35, the thickness of the laminate films discriminated by the core discriminating switches 63 and the thickness of the sheet detected by the sheet thickness detecting sensor 56, ON/OFF operation of the cutter motor 91 for performing the cutting operation for the laminate-treated sheet 13, operation for displaying the laminate treatment condition by means of a display means 91, and ON/OFF operation of the laminate heaters 44a, 44b for heating the pressure rollers 40a, 40b and temperature control of the laminate heaters 44a, 44b pre-set on the basis of the change in the image density detected by the density detecting sensor 35, the thickness of the laminate films discriminated by the core discriminating switches 53 and the thickness of the sheet detected by the sheet thickness detecting sensor 56, respectively, are outputted via drivers D 0 -D 7 , respectively.
The reading of the input signals or ON/OFF of the loads, and the controls to the various set values are carried out on the basis of the program stored in the ROM of the MCOM 4.
FIG. 6 shows a flow chart of the control regarding the illustrated embodiment.
When the operator depresses a start switch of the image forming system, the temperatures of various heaters in the laminating apparatus are detected by the temperature sensors T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , T 4 and these temperatures are compared with preselected aimed temperatures (step S701). If the temperatures are higher than the aimed temperatures, a laminate permission signal is generated and is sent to the image forming system (step S711). Then, the copying operation is started (step S712), and the laminate treatment operation is started at the same time when the sheet 13 is ejected from the image forming system (steps S713, S714).
In the step S701, if the temperature detected by the sensor T 1 , T 2 , T 3 or T 4 is lower than the corresponding aimed temperature, a laminate prohibition signal is generated (step S702), and then, it is judged whether the pre-heat temperatures of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b are lower than their aimed temperatures (step S703). If the pre-heat temperatures are lower than the aimed temperatures, the pre-heaters 39a, 39b are activated (step S704) to heat the pre-heaters up to their aimed temperatures and then are deactivated (steps S705, S706). Thereafter, the laminate heaters 44a, 44b are turned ON (step S708) to heat them up to their aimed temperatures and then are turned OFF (steps S709, S710). Then, a laminate prohibition release signal is sent to the image forming system (step S707). Thereafter, the laminate permission signal is generated (step S711) to send it to the image forming system, thus starting the copying operation (step S712). After the sheet is ejected (step S713), the laminate treatment operation is started (step S714).
The aimed temperatures are previously set in accordance with the thickness of the sheet, image density, thickness of the laminate films and the like, and appropriate temperatures are selected on the basis of the data from the density detecting sensor 35, sheet thickness detecting sensor 56 and core discriminating switches 63. The heaters 39a, 39b, 44a, 44b are controlled on the basis of the selected temperatures.
Incidentally, in the illustrated embodiment, when a plurality of sheets are used and are laminate-treated, since the image density and the thickness of a first sheet are not detected, the aimed temperatures regarding the first sheet are set only on the basis of the thickness of the laminate films. On the other hand, with respect to second, third sheets and so on, the aimed temperatures may be set on the basis of not only the thickness of the laminate films but also the thickness and the image density of the previous sheet.
Next, an example of another control will be explained with reference to a flow chart shown in FIG. 7.
In this embodiment, when the start switch of the image forming system is turned ON, the copying operation is started. In this case, if the temperatures of the heaters 39a, 39b, 44a, 44b do not reach the respective aimed temperatures, the copied sheet is held up, and, when the aimed temperatures are reached, the laminate treatment operation is started. Thereby, it is possible to save time from the copying operation to the laminate treatment operation.
More particularly, when the start switch is turned ON, the copying operation is started (step S801). The temperatures of the heaters 39a, 39b, 44a, 44b are detected by the temperature sensors T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , T 4 , and these temperatures are compared with preselected aimed temperatures (step S802). If the temperatures are higher than the aimed temperatures a laminate permission signal is generated and is sent to the image forming system (step S811). And, if the copied sheet 13 is in a waiting condition, the sheet waiting condition is released (step S812) to eject the sheet 13 out of the image forming system. At the same time, a laminate treatment operation is started (step S813).
If the temperatures detected by the temperature sensors T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , T 4 are lower than the aimed temperatures, the copied sheet 13 is waits (step S803). The waiting position of the sheet may be selected so that the leading end of the sheet 13 abuts against the regist rollers 30 in the laminate path 29. Alternatively, the sheet 13 may wait in the image forming system B. Alternatively, the sheet may wait by stacking the sheets.
At the same time as the sheet is waiting, a laminate prohibition signal is generated. And, first of all, it is judged whether the pre-heat temperatures of the pre-heaters 39a, 39b are lower than their aimed temperatures (step S804). If the pre-heat temperatures are lower than the aimed temperatures, the pre-heaters 39a, 39b are turned ON (step S805) to heat the pre-heaters up to their aimed temperatures and then are turned OFF (steps S806, S807). Then, the laminate heaters 44a, 44b are turned ON (step S808) to heat them up to their aimed temperatures and then are turned OFF (steps S809, S810). Then, a laminate prohibition release signal (step S814) is sent to the image forming system. Thereafter, the laminate permission signal is generated (step S811), the sheet waiting condition is released (step S812) and the laminate treatment operation is started (step S813).
In the previous embodiment, while the aimed temperatures were set in accordance with the thickness and image density of the previous sheet, and the thickness of the laminate films, in this embodiment, the aimed temperatures may be set on the basis of the data from various detection means arranged in the image forming system, as well as by using the above-mentioned setting method.
Incidentally, in the above-mentioned embodiments, when the laminate treatment is prohibited, the drive system in the image forming system should be stopped.
Next, another embodiment will be explained. This embodiment differs from the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in the construction for sandwiching the copied sheet with the laminate films and for performing the laminate treatment by heat and pressure.
FIG. 8 shows another embodiment and illustrates a laminate treatment portion 141 of a laminating apparatus C according to that embodiment.
In FIG. 8, a drive pressure roller 142 is driven in a direction shown by the arrow by means of a drive means (not shown). A driven pressure roller 143 is pressed against the drive pressure roller 142 with an appropriate force to be driven by the drive pressure roller 142 in a direction shown by the arrow.
At a right side of these pressure rollers 142, 143, there are disposed horizontal guide plates 144, 145 for guiding the sheet 13, and an interrupter 146 for detecting the sheet 13 is arranged at an intermediate portion of the guide plates 144, 145. At a left side of the pressure rollers 142, 143, there are disposed horizontal guide plates 147, 148 for guiding the laminate-treated sheet 13.
A sheet roll R 1 of a two-layer laminate film S 1 on an upper surface a of which heat-fusible adhesive is coated is rotatably supported at an upper and left side of the pressure rollers 142, 143, and a sheet roll R 2 of a two-layer laminate film S 2 on a lower surface a of which heat fusible adhesive is coated is rotatably supported at a lower and left side of the pressure rollers 142, 143.
Heaters H 1 , H 2 are attached to shafts of the pressure rollers 142, 143, respectively, and planer heaters H 3 , H 4 are disposed along a lower surface of the adhesive film S 1 and an upper surface of the adhesive film S 2 , respectively. Further, thermistors T 1 -T 4 for detecting temperature by using electrical resistance are mounted on the respective heaters H 1 -H 4 .
Next, the construction of the control system will be explained with reference to a control block diagram shown in FIG. 9.
The temperatures of heat means comprising the heaters H 1 -H 4 are measured by temperature detect means comprising the thermistors T 2 -T 4 , and the temperatures of the heat means H 1 -H 4 are controlled by feeding the measured signals to a control means 149. When the sheet 13 is detected by sheet detect means comprising the interrupter 146, the control means receives the detect signal to change the control temperature. Further, when the electric power source is turned ON, the control means provides a display on display means 150 via an LED and the like. The control may display the information such as "under waiting condition", "completion" and the like.
Next, the construction of the control circuit will be explained with reference to FIG. 10. The reference numeral 151 denotes a central processing unit (CPU); 152 denotes a read only memory (ROM) in which the control program is stored; and 153 denotes a random access memory (RAM) in which input data (data obtained from signals) is stored. A sheet detection circuit 154 is connected to an inlet port 158, and the loads such as the heaters 156 and display circuit 157 are connected to an outlet port 160. Further, a heater temperature detection circuit 155 is connected to an A/D conversion input portion 159, so that the serial voltage change signals representative of the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 are converted into digital signals, which are sent to the CPU 151.
In this way, the signals from the inlet port 158 and the A/D conversion input portion 159 are stored in the RAM 153 as the input data, and, on the basis of such data, the required commands are sent from the outlet port 160 to the heaters H 1 -H 4 and the display circuit in the control program stored in the ROM 152.
Next, the laminate treatment operation in the illustrated embodiment will be fully explained with reference to FIGS. 11 to 14.
FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the whole operation.
First of all, when the electric power source is turned ON, a predetermined initial control is effected (step S200). Thereafter, a pre-heat control sequence (step S250) is effected until the sheet 13 is detected (step S300). In the step S300, if the sheet 13 is detected, the program goes to a step S350, where a laminate control sequence is effected until the laminate treatment operation is finished. If the absence of the sheet 13 is detected after the laminate treatment operation is finished or during the laminate treatment operation, the program returns to the step S250.
The above control is repeatedly effected.
Next, each of the control sequences will be described.
FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a sub-routine for performing the initial control. When the power source is turned ON, the power LED ON condition is displayed on the display means 150 (step S201). In this case, the heaters H 1 -H 4 are kept in OFF conditions (step S203).
Next, in the pre-heat control sequence shown in FIG. 13, the pre-heat control is effected as the preparation for the laminate treatment operation. In the illustrated embodiment, the preparation temperature for the laminate treatment operation is set to 130° C.
First of all, in a step S251, it is judged whether the temperatures detected by the thermistors T 1 -T 4 are higher than 130° C. (step S251). If the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 are lower than turned ON (step S253) to heat the heaters H 1 -H 4 .
On the other hand, in the step S251, if the temperature of any one of the heaters H 1 -H 4 is higher than or equal to 130° C., the heater is turned OFF (step S255) to deviate the heat from that heater. That is to say, when the sheet 13 is not detected by the interrupter 146, the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 are adjusted to 130° C.
Next, the laminate control sequence shown in FIG. 14 is started when the sheet 13 is detected during the pre-heat control sequence. That is to say, if the sheet 13 is not detected by the interrupter 146 (step S353), the heaters H 1 -H 4 are naturally kept in the OFF conditions (step S367).
When the sheet 13 is detected by the interrupter 146 (step S353), if the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 are lower than a temperature (150° C. in the illustrated embodiment) sufficient to melt the heat-fusible adhesive (step S355), the heaters H 1 -H 4 are turned ON (step S357). As the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 increase above 150° C., when the control means 149 receives the signals from the thermistors T 1 -T 4 , the heaters H 1 -H 4 are turned OFF (step S359) on the basis of the command from the control means. As long as the sheet 13 is set in the laminating apparatus C, the steps S353, S355, S357 and S359 are repeated continuously.
In this way, by adjusting the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 to 150° C. during the laminate treatment operation, it is possible to perform the complete laminate treatment.
As mentioned above, in the illustrated embodiment, since the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 are maintained in the low value during the preparation for the laminate treatment, and the temperatures of the heaters H 1 -H 4 are maintained in the high value during the laminate treatment operation to perform the complete laminate treatment, the safety and service life of the laminating apparatus C can be improved and the consumption power can be reduced, thus improving the efficiency of the apparatus C.
Next, a further embodiment will be explained with reference to a flow chart shown in FIG. 15.
In this embodiment, after the power source is turned ON, the pre-heat control sequence (initial control step S200) is effected for a long time, and a wait timer is provided for preventing the power loss due to the heaters H 1 -H 4 which have the higher power consumption and for improving the safety of the apparatus. Accordingly, after the power source is turned ON, the initial control sequence (step S200) is effected, as in the previous embodiment. However, in this embodiment, then, the wait timer for measuring a time until the sheet 13 is detected is started (step S301).
Then, the pre-heat control sequence is effected in a step S250, and, in a step S303, it is judged whether the wait timer exceeds a preselected time (10 minutes in the illustrated embodiment). If not, the sheet 13 is detected in a step S300, as in the previous embodiment. If the sheet 13 is not detected, the program returns to the step S350. On the other hand, if the sheet 13 is detected, the program goes to a step S350 where the laminate control sequence is effected. After the laminate treatment operation is finished, the wait timer is clear (step S305), and then the wait timer is re-started (step S307). Then, the program returns to the step S250.
In the step S303, if the wait timer exceeds the pre-selected time, the heaters H 1 -H 4 are turned OFF (step S309), and the program is stopped (step S311). In this case, in order to re-use the laminating apparatus C, it is necessary to reset the power source.
Next, a further embodiment will be explained with reference to FIG. 16.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 15, if the sheet 13 was not detected after the wait timer exceeded the preselected time (for example, 10 minutes), the apparatus C was stopped. Thus, since the power source was turned OFF, it was necessary to reset the power source if the apparatus C was re-used after a certain time has been elapsed. To the contrary, in this embodiment, if the wait timer exceeds a preselected time (10 minutes in this embodiment) in the step S303, the program goes to the step S309 where the heaters H 1 -H 4 are turned OFF, as in the previous embodiment. Thereafter, the program goes to a step S313 which is repeated until the sheet 13 is detected by the interrupter 146, thus keeping the heaters H 1 -H 4 in the OFF condition. However, if the sheet 13 is detected, the program returns to the step S250, thus performing the normal laminate treatment operation. That is to say, it is possible to continue the normal laminate treatment operation without resetting the power source, and to reduce the power consumption and to ensure the safety of the laminating apparatus C.
Next, a still further embodiment will be explained.
In FIG. 17, a laminate film roll 205a of a laminate film 206a is disposed within a laminating apparatus C at an upper portion thereof, and the laminate film 206a unwound from the laminate film roll 205a are wound around a tension roller 207a, pre-heat roller 209a and pressure/heat roller (heating block) 210a acting as a laminate roller successively. On the other hand, a laminate film roll 205b of a laminate film 206b is disposed within the laminating apparatus C at a lower portion thereof, and the laminate film 206b unwound from the laminate film roll 205b are wound around tension rollers 207b, 207c, pre-heat roller 209b and pressure/heat roller 210b urged against the pressure/heat roller 210a successively.
The tension rollers 207a, 207c act as film holding rollers so that the laminate films 206a, 206b contact with the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b by predetermined length, and the slack of the laminate films 206a, 206b between the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b and the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b and the adhesion between the laminate films are prevented. Further, a laminate film roll unit X which can removably mount the laminate film roll 205b on the laminating apparatus C is constituted by the laminate film roll 205b, tension rollers 207b, 207c and like.
Pre-heaters 12a, 12b for heating the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are disposed at centers of the pre-heaters, and laminate heaters 213a, 213b acting as heat means for heating the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b are disposed at centers of the pressure/heat rollers. The heat means comprises the laminate heaters 213a, 213b, and the pressure/heat rollers (heating blocks) 210a, 210b for transmitting the heat of the laminate heaters 213a, 213b to the laminate films 206a, 206b. The surface temperatures of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are detected by a pre-heat roll temperature sensor 259 (FIG. 20) and the surface temperature of the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b are detected by a pressure roller temperature sensor 256.
At a downstream side of the paired pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b, a pair of pull rollers 215 comprising an upper roller 215a and a lower roller 215b urged against the upper roller are disposed and serve to pull the laminate films 206a, 206b overlapped at the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b and the sheet 13 (described later) rearwardly in a direction shown by the arrow 216. At a downstream side of the paired pull rollers 215, there are arranged a cutter unit 217 and a pair of ejector rollers 219. The cutter unit 217 comprises a cutter 217a and a die 217b and serves to cut trailing ends of the laminate films 206a, 206b and of the sheet 13.
At an upstream side of the paired pressure/heat rollers 210, there are disposed a sheet supply support 221 on which the sheets 13 are stacked, and an upper guide plate 223 cooperating with the sheet supply support 221 to form a sheet supply path 222. A pick-up roller 225 separably contacting with the sheet supply support 221 and a shutter member 226 for regulating a leading end of the sheet 13 to be inserted are arranged at an entrance opening 222a of the sheet supply path 222. Further, a sheet supply sensor 227 for detecting the supply of the sheet 13 is arranged between the pick-up roller (sheet supply means) 225 and the shutter member 226.
Next, the load applied to the laminate films 206a, 206b in the pulling direction (direction shown by the arrow 216) will be explained with reference to FIG. 18.
In FIG. 18A, the laminate film 206a is wound around a core metal 230a to form the laminate film roll 205a. A roll shaft 231 around which the core metal 230a is rotatably mounted is supported by a side plate 232 of the laminating apparatus C via a tension adjusting nut 233 which is threaded into the side plate. A tension spring 235 is disposed between the tension adjusting nut 233 and the core metal 230a, so that the load on the laminate film roll 295a in the pulling direction can be adjusted on the basis of the tightness of the tension adjusting nut 233.
Now, the laminate film roll 205a is constituted by the laminate film having a first thickness. The laminate film roll 205b shown in FIG. 18B is constituted by the laminate film 206b having a second thickness and is mounted on a core metal 230b. And, the core metal 230a has no flange, whereas the core metal 230b is provided at its one end with a flange 230c. In the vicinity of the core metals, core metal discriminating switches 236 are mounted on the side plate 232. When the core metal discriminating switch 236 is turned OFF, the first core metal 230a is discriminated, whereas, when the core metal discriminating switch 236 is turned ON, the second core metal 230b is discriminated
Incidentally, in the illustrated embodiment, while the two core metals 230a, 230b were discriminated from each other, three or more core metals, and accordingly, three or more laminate films having different thicknesses may be discriminated from each other, by changing outer diameters of the flanges and by providing three or more core metal discriminating switches 236.
Next, the drive system of the laminating apparatus C will be fully described with reference to FIG. 19.
In FIG. 19, a main motor 242 is secured to the side plate 232 via an attachment member (not shown) and has an output shaft on which a motor gear 243 and a clock disc 245 are fixedly mounted. The rotation of the motor gear 243 is transmitted to an idle gear 240 and an idle gear 241 rotatably mounted on a support shaft 246. A gear 266 integral with the support shaft 246 and a pull roller clutch 265 are mounted on the support shaft 246, and a pull roller gear 267 fixed to a shaft of the pull roller 215 is meshed with the gear 266. Further, the gear 266 is also meshed with an ejector roller gear 263 integral with the ejector roller 219. The rotation of the main motor 242 is transmitted to the paired pull rollers 215 and the paired ejector rollers 219 under the ON/OFF control of the pull roller clutch 265.
Further, the rotation of the motor gear 243 is transmitted to an idle gear 267' and an idle gear 269 rotatably mounted on a support shaft 270. A pressure roller clutch 271 and a gear 272 integral with the support shaft 270 are mounted on the support shaft 270. The gear 272 is meshed with a pressure roller gear 273 fixed to a shaft of the pressure/heat roller 210. The rotation of the main motor 242 is transmitted to the paired pressure/heat rollers 210 under the ON/OFF control of the pressure roller clutch 271.
The idle gear 269 is connected to a gear train comprising idle gears 280˜283. On a support shaft 275 on which the idle gear 281 is rotatably mounted, a gear 277 integral with the support shaft 275 and a pick-up roller clutch 276 are also mounted. The gear 277 is meshed with a pick-up roller gear 279 integral with the pick-up roller 225. By the ON/OFF control of the pick-up roller clutch 276, the rotation of the main motor 242 is transmitted to the pick-up roller 225. The idle gear 283 is meshed with an ejector roller gear 285 integral with the ejector roller 286, so that it is always rotated by the rotation of the main motor 242. The ejector roller 286 serves to eject the sheet 13 sent from the image forming system (not shown) out of the laminating apparatus without the laminate treatment.
The clock disc 245 has a plurality of slits (not shown), and a clock sensor 247 comprising an optical sensor of a permeable type for detecting the slit is disposed near the clock disc 245.
Next, the laminate treatment of the sheet 13 will be explained.
The leading end of the sheet 13 rested on the sheet supply support 221 (FIG. 17) is inserted into the inlet opening 222a and is abutted against the shutter member 226. When the sheet 13 is detected by the sheet supply sensor 227, a shutter solenoid 249 (FIG. 20) is activated to retract the shutter member 226 from the sheet supply support 221. At the same time, a pick-up solenoid 250 is also activated to lower the pick-up roller 225 to press the sheet 13 with a given pressure.
Thereafter, a pick-up motor 225a is turned ON to rotate the pick-up roller 225. The sheet 13 is fed by the rotation of the pick-up roller 225. When a predetermined time is elapsed, the main motor 242 is turned ON to rotate the paired pull rollers 215. The laminate films 206a, 206b are pulled by the paired pull rollers 215, and the paired pressure/heat rollers 210 and the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are driven. The non-adhered laminate films 206a, 206b are heated up to the first temperature by means of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b which have been previously heated, and then are heated up to the second temperature controlled to have the constant value by the paired pull rollers 215.
The sheet 13 is fed to the nip between the paired pressure/heat rollers 210 by means of the pick-up roller 225, where the sheet is sandwiched by the upper and lower laminate films 206a, 206b and is pressurized and heated by the paired pressure/heat rollers 210, thus performing the laminate treatment. After the pick-up roller 225 is rotated for a predetermined time period, the pick-up solenoid 250 is activated to retract the pick-up roller from the sheet supply support 221, and is stopped when the pick-up motor 225a is turned OFF.
When the trailing end of the sheet 13 is detected by the sheet supply sensor 227, the clock sensor 247 starts to count the number of slits of the clock disc 245. After a distance between the sheet supply sensor 227 and the cutter unit 217 is measured, the main motor 242 is turned OFF, thus stopping the feeding of the laminate-treated sheet 13. At the same time, the cutter motor 252 is turned ON, whereby the trailing ends of the laminate films 206a, 206b sandwiching the sheet 13 therebetween are cut by the cutter 217a. The cut laminate sheet is ejected out of the apparatus onto an ejector tray (not shown) by means of the ejector rollers 219.
By repeating the above-mentioned laminate treatment operations, the sheets 13 are successively laminate-treated.
Next, the control and operation of the laminating apparatus C will be explained with reference to a block diagram shown in FIG. 20.
In FIG. 20, the control operation is mainly effected by a well-known one-chip microcomputer (referred to as "MCOM" hereinafter) 260 incorporating a ROM, RAM and the like. In input ports P 0 ˜P 4 of the MCOM 260, various input signals from the sheet supply sensor 227 for detecting the presence of the pick-up roller 225 on the sheet supply support 221, pre-heat roller temperature sensors 259 comprising the thermistors for measuring the surface temperatures of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b, pressure/heat roller temperature sensors 256 for measuring the surface temperatures of the pull rollers 215, core metal discriminating switches 236 for discriminating the core metals 230a, 230b for the laminate films 206a, 206b to discriminate the thickness of the laminate films, and clock sensor 247 for counting the rotation amount of the main motor 242 and the peripheral shifting amounts of the pull rollers 215 are inputted respectively.
Further, from output ports F 0 ˜F 7 of the MCOM 4, output signals regarding the ON/OFF operation of the shutter member 226, ON/OFF operation of the pick-up solenoid 250 for shifting the pick-up roller 225 onto the sheet 13 and for urging the sheet at a given pressure, ON/OFF operation of the pick-up motor 251 for rotating the pick-up roller 225, ON/OFF operation of the laminate heaters 213a, 213b for heating the laminate films 206a, 206b, ON/OFF operation of the pre-heaters 212a, 212b for maintaining the surface temperatures of the pressure/heat rollers 210 at the constant value, ON/OFF operation of the cutter motor 252 for cutting the laminate-treated laminate sheet from the continuous laminate films 206a, 206b, and sheet detection display 227a for teaching the operator the receipt of the sheet 13 and the permission of the laminate treatment are outputted respectively.
Further, the NCOM 260 sends output signals to the pull roller clutch 265 (FIG. 19), pressure roller clutch 271, sheet supply motor 275 and pick-up roller clutch 276 and the like. The reading of the input signals or ON/OFF of the loads, and the controls to the various set values are carried out on the basis of the program stored in the ROM of the MCOM 260.
Next, the control of the surface temperatures of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b and the pressure/heat rollers (laminate rollers) 210a, 210b will be explained with reference to a flow chart shown in FIG. 21.
In FIG. 21, when a main switch SW is turned ON (step S401), the surface temperatures of the pressure/heat rollers (laminate rollers) 210 are detected by the pressure/heat roller temperature sensor 256, and the detected temperatures are compared with preselected aimed temperatures (step S402). If the detected temperatures are lower than the aimed temperatures, the laminate heaters 213a, 213b arc turned ON (step S403) to heat the laminate rollers up to the predetermined temperature, and then the heaters are turned OFF.
Then, the surface temperatures of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are detected by the pre-heat roller temperatures sensor 259 and the detected temperature are compared with preselected aimed temperatures (step S404). The preselected temperature is set on the basis of the information from the core metal discriminating switches 236 in accordance with the thickness of the films. If the detected temperatures do not reach the preselected temperatures, the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are turned ON (step S405) to heat the pre-heat rollers up to the predetermined temperature, and then, the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are turned OFF. In this way, the adjustment of the temperatures of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b and the pull rollers 215 is finished.
Then, it is judged whether the sheet 13 exists in the sheet supply path 222 of the sheet supply support 221, on the basis of the information from the sheet supply sensor 227. If negative, the adjustment of the temperatures is effected again. On the other hand, if the sheet 13 exists, only the temperature control of the pull rollers (laminate rollers) 215 is carried out (steps S407, S408).
It is judged whether the laminate treatment is finished or not, on the basis of the information from the sheet supply sensor 227 regarding the trailing end of the sheet 13 (step S409). If the sheet exists, the temperature control of the pressure/heat rollers (laminate rollers) 210 is carried out (steps S407, S408); whereas, if the sheet does not exist, the temperature adjustments of the pressure/heat rollers 210 and the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are carried out again (step S402, S404).
FIG. 22 shows a flow chart regarding the operation according to a further embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 22, after the power source is turned ON, the temperatures of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are compared with the temperatures of the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b, on the basis of the detected results of the pre-heat roller temperature sensor 259 and the pressure/heat roller temperature sensor 256, and the heaters regarding the combination of two rollers having the lower temperature (or the combination of two rollers having the lowest temperature and lowest but one temperature) are turned ON first (That is to say, preference of the heaters is determined (step S501).
If the temperature of the pre-heat rollers 209a, 209b are lower than those of the pressure/heat rollers, the heaters regarding the pre-heat rollers are turned ON to heat the later up to the preselected value, and then, the heaters are turned OFF (steps S502, S504, S506). At the same time, the other laminate heaters 213a, 213b are turned ON to heat the rollers to heat the rollers up to the predetermined value for a predetermined time period, and then, these heaters are turned OFF (steps S503, S505, S507).
FIG. 23 shows a flow chart regarding the operation in a still further embodiment of the present invention.
When the sheet 13 is detected by the sheet supply sensor 227 (step S601), the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are turned ON in order to previously heat the laminate films 206a, 206b by the heat means (pre-heaters 212a, 212b) (In this case, the laminate heaters 213a, 213b must be turned OFF). And, at the same time as the sheet 13 is supplied, the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are turned OFF (step S604) (That is to say, the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are preferentially turned ON and then turned OFF).
Then, the temperatures of the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b are detected by the pressure/heat roller temperature sensor 256, and the detected temperatures are compared with aimed temperatures (step S605). If the detected temperatures are lower than the aimed temperature, the laminate heaters 213a, 213b regarding the pressure/heat rollers 210a, 210b are turned ON (step S606). The activating time of the laminate heaters 213a, 213b is so selected that these heaters are turned OFF (step S608) after the trailing end of the sheet 13 is detected by the sheet detection sensor 257 (FIG. 20) (step S607).
As shown in the flow charts of FIGS. 21 and 22, when the laminate heaters 213a, 213b and the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are not simultaneously activated, but either one of them are activated, it is possible to set the available electric power (heating ability) of each heater to be higher than the case where the laminate heaters 213a, 213b and the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are independently controlled. That is to say, when the heaters are controlled independently, since there is the case where both heaters are simultaneously heated, the total electric power of the heaters must be limited within the acceptable range. To the contrary, when the heaters are controlled not to be activated simultaneously, the electric power of each heater may be limited within the acceptable range. Accordingly, the heating ability of each heater can be increased, thus shortening the heating time.
Further, in the illustrated embodiment, the laminate heaters 213a, 213b consume much quantity of heat to be cooled faster because they heat the sheet and the pair of laminate films; whereas, the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are not cooled quickly because they heat only one of the laminate films. Thus, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 21, during the laminate treatment operation, the efficiency of the laminate treatment is not worsened even when only the temperature control of the laminate heaters 213a, 213b is carried out. And, when the available electric power of the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are set to have a low value, the power consumption can be reduced accordingly.
Further, in the flow chart shown in FIG. 22, since the temperatures of the laminate heaters 213a, 213b are quickly decreased, in practice, the temperature control of the laminate heaters 213a, 213b are effected almost all. Also, in this case, similar to the above, when the available electric power of the pre-heaters 212a, 212b are set to have a low value, the power consumption can be reduced accordingly.
Now, as a recording means of the image forming system to which the laminating apparatus of the present invention is connected, an ink jet recording means is preferably used.
The ink jet recording means comprises liquid discharge openings for discharging ink liquid as flying droplets, liquid passages communicated with the discharge openings, and discharge energy generating means disposed in the liquid passages and adapted to generate the discharge energy for flying the liquid droplets in the liquid passages. By selectively energizing the discharge energy generating means in response to an image signal, the liquid droplets are discharged to form an image on a recording medium.
As the discharge energy generating means, for example, pressure energy generating means such as electrical/mechanical converters such as piezo-electric elements, electromagnetic energy generating means for discharging the ink by heating the ink by means of the electromagnetic wave and by applying pressure to the ink due to the heating action, or thermal energy generating means for discharging the ink by heating the ink liquid by means of electrical/thermal converters can be used. Among them, the thermal energy generating means using the electrical/thermal converters is most preferable since the discharge openings can be arranged with high density to perform the recording with high resolving power and the recording head can be compacted.
In the illustrated embodiment, an ink jet recording means of a serial-type which is one kind of ink jet recording means is used as the recording means.
FIG. 25 shows an exploded perspective view of the recording head constituting the recording means, and FIGS. 26A and 26G show a principle of the bubble jet recording process. Incidentally, the typical construction and principle thereof are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,723,239 and 4,740,796.
In FIG. 25, the reference numeral 1001a denotes a heater board wherein electrical/thermal converters (discharge heaters) 1001b and electrodes 1001c made of aluminium which supply electric powers to the electrical/thermal converters are formed on a silicon substrate by a film forming process. A top plate 1001e having partition walls for defining recording liquid passage (nozzles) 1001d is adhered to the heater board 1001a. Further, an ink cartridge (not shown) for supplying the ink to the recording head is removably mounted on the head in place.
The ink supplied from the ink cartridge to the recording head via a liquid supply tube is directed to a common liquid chamber 1001g in the head through a supply opening 1001f formed on the top plate 1001e and then is sent to the nozzles 1001d from the common liquid chamber 1001g. The nozzle 1001d have ink discharge openings 1001h, respectively, which are disposed at a predetermined pitch along a sheet feeding direction in confronting relation to the sheet.
In the illustrated embodiment, the recording head is mounted on a reciprocable carriage and the recording is performed by discharging the ink from the recording head in synchronism with the shifting movement of the carriage.
Now, a principle for forming the flying droplet in the jet recording process will be explained with reference to FIGS. 26A to 26G.
In the steady-state, as shown in FIG. 26A, a tension force of the ink 1002 filled in the nozzle 1001d is equilibrated with the external force at a discharge opening surface. In this condition, when the ink is desired to fly, the electrical/thermal converter 1001b disposed in the nozzle 1001d is energized to abruptly increase the temperature of the ink in the nozzle 1001d exceeding the nucleate boiling. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 26B, the ink portion adjacent to the electrical/thermal converter 1001b is heated to create a fine bubble, and then the heated ink portion is vaporized to generate the film boiling, thus growing the bubble 1003 quickly, as shown in FIG. 26C.
When the bubble 1003 grows to the maximum extent as shown in FIG. 26D, the ink droplet is pushed out of the discharge opening of the nozzle 1001d. When the electrical/thermal converter 1001b is de-energized, as shown in FIG. 26E, the grown bubble 1003 is cooled by the ink 1002 in the nozzle 1001d to contract. Thus, the growth and contraction of the bubble, the ink droplet is flying from the discharge opening. Further, as shown in FIG. 26F, the ink contacted with the surface of the electrical/thermal converter 1001b is quickly cooled, thus diminishing the bubble 1003 or reducing the volume of the bubble to a negligible extent. When the bubble 1003 is diminished, as shown in FIG. 26G, the ink is replenished in the nozzle 1001d from the common liquid chamber 1001g by a capillary phenomenon, thus preparing the next formation of the ink droplet.
Accordingly, by reciprocally shifting the carriage and by selectively energizing the electrical/thermal converters 1001b in response to the image signal, the ink image can be recorded on the sheet. Incidentally, in the ink jet recording system, it is preferable to arrange an ink recovery means at an end of a shifting range of the carriage.
Such ink recovery means serves to prevent the drying of the ink and thus the solidification of the ink around the discharge openings of the recording head by covering or capping the recording head in an inoperative condition. Incidentally, it is preferable to perform the ink recovering treatment, by sucking the ink from the discharge openings by a sucking force created by driving a pump connected to the ink recovery means, in order to prevent poor discharge of ink or to remove the ink from the discharge openings.
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The present invention provides a laminating apparatus comprising a sheet feeder for feeding a sheet on which an image is formed, a laminate film feeder for feeding laminate films, a heater for heating the laminate films being fed, a device for pressurizing the sheet and the laminate films being fed by the sheet feeder and the laminate film feeder, by overlapping the sheet and the laminate films, a temperature for detecting a temperature of the heater, and a controller means for prohibiting a laminate mode when the temperature detected by the temperature detector is lower than a predetermined set temperature.
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This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 628,372, filed Dec. 17, 1990, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to seals for use with rotational equipment, such as pumps, mixers and the like.
In most commonly available rotating equipment a seal is used for positioning between a stationary and a rotary portion, so as to prevent leakage of the fluids being pump, mixed, etc.
The seals are exposed to a considerable degree of friction, which leads to wearing of the seals to a condition where it has to be replaced. To achieve this purpose, the equipment has to be disconnected from the driving motors and skilled mechanics are called to replace the damaged or worn out seal. Such interruption of process leads to the loss of valuable time and labor. To eliminate such problems, a split seal was suggested to be used for use between a rotary and the stationary parts, the former being assembled around the rotating shaft and locked into position. An example of the use of such split seal is found in a seal manufactured by A. W. Chesterton Company of Stoneham, Mass. and available under the brand name of Chesterton 221 Split Seal.
However, the seal of A. W. Chesterton Company has a plurality of parts, each of which is subject to excessive wear and therefore damage, requiring often change of the split seal and therefore loss of valuable production time. Besides, the area of connection of two semi-circular parts is not entirely leak proof, since the connecting surfaces are flat and machine-polished before fitted and matched together.
The present invention contemplates elimination of the disadvantages associated with the known art and provision of a split seal which is simple and easy to manufacture and has a minimum parts which could be subject to breakage or damage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention achieves its objects by provision of a split, seal ring device for use in combination with a rotary and a stationary portion. The rotary assembly comprises a rotary body, or housing which accommodates at least a portion of a fractured seal ring and a flexible insert fittingly engaged between the rotary housing and the fractured seal ring. The fractured seal ring is fractured along two diametrically opposite uneven fracture lines, which are used instead of machined smooth surfaces of conventional seal ring faces, thus avoiding the use of bolts or other mechanical securing elements to secure two semi-circular portions of the seal ring. The flexible insert is also split along at least one split line and, when being removed, is hinged at a point opposite the split line, after the ends of the flexible insert, that are immediately adjacent the split line, are freed from engagement between the fractured seal ring and the rotary housing.
The stationary portion comprises a two-part flange, an elastomeric insert fitted between the flange parts, and a seal ring, the latter having a contact surface for contacting a contact face of the rotating fractured seal ring. The flange parts are bolted together and removably engaged with a fluid containing vessel.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a split seal device for use between a rotationary body and a stationary body.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a split seal device which is inexpensive and easy to manufacture.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a seal ring seal device which has minimum parts which could be subject to breakage or damage.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detail description of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Reference will now be made to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals, and wherein:
FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the seal device in accordance with the present invention; and
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional, detail view of the seal ring seal of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a detail end view of the fractured split ring and flexible insert in accordance with the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now to the drawings in more detail, the split seal of the present invention is designated by numeral 10. The split seal comprises an annular rotary body (rotary housing) 12, within which is mounted an elastomeric split rotary face cup or insert 14 which, in turn, is fitted between the rotary body 12 and a split rotary face 16.
The rotary body 12 has an outer lateral portion 18 and an inwardly extending integral web of a reduced diameter 22, extending at a right angle to the portion 18, towards a central opening 20, which is engaged about a rotating sleeve 50. The web 22 has two notches 23 located at diametrically opposite circumferential areas. The two notches 23 fit about two drive keys 25 (only one is shown in FIG. 1). A part of each drive key 25 is engaged in apertures 52 formed in a drive sleeve 50. The drive keys 25 are engaged within the notches 23 and transmit the rotary force from the seal sleeve 50 to the rotary housing, or body 12.
A plurality of grooves 27 are machined in the part 18 of the rotary housing 12 and extend radially, to some distance, towards the outer periphery of the rotary housing 12.
Drive lugs 30 of the rotary face cup up are formed by molding on the outer periphery of the insert 14 and are fitted within the grooves 27 to transmit the rotary drive force of the rotary assembly to the split rotary face 16.
The drive lugs 30 also act as a cushioning or dampening device to accept any shock loading transmitted to or from the split rotary face, or ring 16.
The resilient insert, or rubber cup 14 is fitted under an inwardly facing shoulder 15 of the rotary body 12. The insert 14 has a generally inverted L-shaped cross section and has a first transverse part 26 which extends inwardly towards the rotary sleeve 50 in tight engagement with one side of the web 22. The second, perpendicularly extending part 24 is formed integrally with the first part 24 and is mounted in substantially perpendicular relationship to the web 22 of the rotary body 12. The opposite side of the insert 14 is fittingly engaged about one side of the split rotary face 16.
The outer radial surface of the insert 14 has a series of raised riblets 41 (see FIG. 3) of an overall greater diameter than that of the machined recess of the rotary housing 12, so as to provide a positive compressive static seal between the split seal, or insert 14 and the rotary body 12.
The insert 14 is securely bonded, for example vulcanized, onto the outer circumference of the split seal ring 16, so as to retain the fractured portions of the split ring 16 in a leak-proof manner. After vulcanization, the resilient insert 14 is cut or otherwise separated, entirely through its cross-section, at one cut line 17 which is directly adjacent to the seal ring 16 fracture line. The resilient insert 14 also has a second cut 19 not extending entirely through the cross-section of the insert 14 and located at a point adjacent to the second seal ring 16 fracture line, and diametrically opposite to the location, wherein the first cut 17 is performed.
The second cut line of the insert 14 acts as a hinge line, allowing the two semi-circular sections of the seal ring 16 to be opened at the fracture points and removed from the seal sleeve 50. After having been removed from the seal sleeve 50, the two halves of the seal ring, or rotary face 16 can be brought together, with the cup 14 hinging again at 19 to form a circle and causing the two halves of the split ring 16 to properly align themselves along the fracture lines.
The split ring 16 has a raised shoulder 47 which defines one side of a groove 34 which is designed to facilitate removal of the ring 16 from the rotary body 12, when required. A pry bar or a screw driver is inserted into the groove 34, pushing and separating the split ring 16 from the rotary body 12.
As was mentioned above, the rotary face, or ring 16 is fractured at two points, roughly dividing the circumference of the annular body 16 into two semi-circular portions. It was found that the fractured surfaces are less prone to leakage and, in practical applications, are virtually leak-proof, as opposed to smooth machined surfaces currently used in the art. Additional advantage of using the fractured ring lies in the fact that no bolts or other securing mechanisms need to be used to secure the portions of the split ring 16 together.
On reassembly, the insert 14 is coated with a suitable lubricant before it is pushed into the rotary seal housing 12 to insure that the elastomeric drive lugs 30 properly engage the mating notches 27 of the rotary body 12.
On the opposite side from the insert 14, the rotary body 12 is provided with a cutout 46 formed by an inwardly facing shoulder 40 and a side of the web 22. Fitted within the space 46 is a cone spring 44 which extends inwardly towards a shoulder 54 of the seal sleeve 50 and contacts the sleeve 50 with its innermost end. The cone spring 44 is generally oval in cross section and circular in lateral section.
An interior groove 56 is formed on the inner surface of the sleeve 50. Fitted within the groove 56 is a sealing O-ring 58 to ensure liquid-tight engagement between the sleeve 50 and the rotating shaft 66.
The stationary portion of the device of the present invention comprises a stationary wear ring, or face 60 which is also split in two halves. One side 62 of the stationary ring halves 60 contacts a contact face 36 of the rotational ring 16, while its opposite side 64 is fitted within a cutout 72 formed by a split flange 70.
Extending through the outer circumference of the stationary ring 60 is an annular groove 61 which receives an O-ring 63 therein. The O-ring 63 is a split-type O-ring, with a ball and socket type joint of the split circumference. The two halves of the fractured stationary face 60 are mounted around the seal sleeve 50, with the O-ring 63 keeping the halves together.
The split flange 70 is formed by a first part and a second part which are secured together by a pair of cross bolts 74 (only one is shown) inserted in respective sockets, or apertures 76 formed in the body of the flange half 70. Provision of the two parts of the split flange allows exertion of uniform radial compressive force on the stationary face O-ring 63. A pair of alignment pins 78 extend from a mating face 71 of the flange part 70, so as to engage within corresponding holes of the second part of the flange.
The screws 74 are of the type conventionally called socket head cap screws which, when engaged into a threadable hole of the second part of the flange, bring the two halves of the split flange together, applying a uniform radial compressive force on the stationary face O-ring 63.
Socket head cap screws 86 pass through over size hole in the setting plates 80 (only one shown for clarity) and engage in threaded holes in the extended axial portion 73 of the split flange 70. Tightening of the screws 86 causes the flat surface 82 of the setting plates 80, mounted on the exposed surface of the axial extension 73 of the split flange 70 to align themselves with the exposed flat face 73.
With the setting plates 80 in this position, and a portion 84 of the setting plates 80 engaged in the groove 51 of the seal sleeve 50, the seal sleeve 50 is then positioned such as to provide a compressive force on the inside diameter of the cone spring 44. These compressive forces are transmitted through the entire section of the cone spring 44, resulting in a compressive force applied to the rotary housing 12 and the split rotary seal ring 16.
The axial displacement of the seal sleeve 50 relative to the rotary assembly and the compressive force applied to the split seal faces through the rotary body 12 allows "seal preloading" by applying a closing force which allows to form a positive seal at the interface between the rotary and stationary portions during static and dynamic operation of the seal device 10.
It should also be noted that the fluid hydraulics within the pump casing 100, or other vessel provide a positive sealing force (closing) or a negative sealing force (opening) under different circumstances.
A stationary elastomeric flange seal 90 is fitted within a rectangular, in cross section, groove 75 of the flange 70 and has an innermost end 92 which slightly extends into the groove 61 formed in the stationary face 60, slightly compressing the O-ring 63. The opposite, outer end 94 of the seal 90 compresses a split flange O-ring 96 which is fitted on a shoulder location at the outer end of the cutout, or groove 75 of the flange 70. A part of the O-ring 96 fits within an annular groove 102 of an adaptor 104. The adaptor 104 is optional, it fits with the vessel casing 100, as shown in FIG. 2.
The objective of using the static (stationary) seal 90 is to allow for deflections of the two halves of the flange 70 caused by joining them to the vessel casing 100. If the casing 100 is slightly misaligned, the seal 90 allows a small degree of flexibility to accommodate the miss-alignment and prevent possible fluid leaks between the two halves of the split flange. The O-ring 96 provides also a fluid seal between the split flange 70 and the adaptor 104.
The sleeve 50 is secured on the rotary shaft 66 by a set of screws 57 (only one is shown) fitted within internally threaded apertures 59 formed in the sleeve 50.
The flange 70 is removably attached to the adaptor 104 by a plurality (for example, four) bolts 77 passing through apertures 79 of the flange 70 to be received in co-aligned internally threaded openings 106 formed in the adaptor body 104.
As will be appreciated, the split stationary ring 60 is subject to friction and wear when engaging the face 36 of the split ring 16. When the wear of the ring 60 is considerable, it has to be changed and substituted by a new, undamaged ring. To facilitate removal of the stationary ring 60, the ring is fractured along uneven lines similar to the seal ring 16.
When it becomes necessary to change the wear ring 60 and the split ring 16, which is likewise exposed to friction and wear, the bolts 77 which connect the split flange 70 to the vessel casing 100 are removed and the cross bolts 74 which hold the two halves of the split flange together are removed. The two halves are separated and moved away from the engagement with the split stationary face 60 and the seal sleeve 50. The split O-ring 63 is separated, allowing for the removal of both halves of the face 60 from the rotating shaft 66 and the seal sleeve 50. The rotary face 36 then becomes exposed, which allows to put a screw driver or a pry bar into the face removal groove 34 formed in the split ring 16 and push against body 12, with the forward face of the rotary body 12 acting as a fulcrum point. The split rotary ring 16 and the insert 14 are then withdrawn from the rotary housing 12 and the rotary face 16 can be changed, as required.
Sometimes it is necessary to also change the static seal 90 which is positioned in the stationary flange 70. This can be also done while the two halves of the stationary flange 70 are separated. Assembly of the split ring seal and re-assembly with the vessel housing 100 is made in the reverse order.
The materials from which the split ring 16 can be manufactured can be selected from carbon, alumina ceramic, tungsten carbide or silicon carbide. The stationary ring 60 can be formed from alumina ceramic, silicon carbide, or tungsten carbide while the resilient inserts and O-rings can be formed from various elastomeric materials. The lugs 30 are also formed from similar material having sufficient strength to withstand compression forces imposed by the split ring 16, and resilient enough to absorb the shock of the initial, and continuing rotation, as well as any shock loadings applied during operation.
The setting plate screws 86 can be two or three in number, while the flange 70 retaining screws 77 can be three or four in number. It was observed that the use of two flange connecting bolts 74 is sufficient to retain the two halves of the flange 70 together.
Many changes and modifications can be made within the design of the present invention without departing from the spirit thereof. I therefore pray that my rights to the present invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.
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The invention relates to a split seal device for use between a stationary body and a rotary body. The device utilizes a fractured seal ring which is fractured along two diametrically opposite uneven fracture lines to prevent leakage of fluid. A vulcanized rubber insert which circumferentially engages the outer surface of the split ring is cut along about at least one split line and is fitted within a rotary housing, the latter being designed for mounting on a rotating shaft. The fractured split ring has a contact face for frictional contact with a corresponding contact face of a seal ring of the stationary body. The seal ring is likewise fractured along two diametrically opposite uneven fracture lines and is retained adjacent innermost end of the stationary body. To decrease shock of rotation, the lugs which engage the rotary face to the rotary housing, are made flexible and resilient. The split seal device is mounted for engagement with the flexible lugs in general co-axial alignment with the rotating body. The stationary portion has a two-part flange which is fixedly removably attached to a fluid containing vessel. An elastomeric insert is inserted between two parts of the flange.
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RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending applications Ser. No. 667,400, filed Nov. 2, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,860, and of Ser. No. 661,266, filed Oct. 15, 1984 now 4,561,597. The former is a continuation of Ser. No. 341,918, filed Jan. 21, 1982, now abandoned; and the latter is a continuation of Ser. No. 390,855, filed June 22, 1982, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
This invention relates generally to calcined clay products, and more specifically relates to a method for treating a substantially anhydrous white kaolin clay powder so as to improve the bulk handling characteristics of same when the product is loaded, unloaded and shipped.
In the course of manufacturing paper and similar products, including paper board and the like, it is well-known to incorporate quantities of inorganic materials into the fibrous web in order to improve the quality of the resulting product. A number of inorganic materials have long been known to be effective for these purposes, such as titanium dioxide, which can be incorporated into the paper in the form of anatase or rutile. Titanium dioxide, however, is among the most expensive materials which are so usable. Accordingly, in recent years, considerable efforts have been made to develop satisfactory replacements for the said titanium dioxide.
Among the materials which have thus found increasing acceptance as paper fillers are substantially anhydrous kaolin clays. Materials of this type are generally prepared by partially or fully calcining a crude kaolin clay, which may have been initially subjected to prior beneficiation steps in order to remove certain impurities, e.g. for the purpose of improving brightness in the ultimate product. As used in this specification, the term "substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder" shall include kaolin clays which have been heated to over 400° C. to render same anhydrous. The term thereby embraces (1) fully calcined kaolins--which usually have been heated above the 980° C. exotherm, as well as so-called (2) "metakaolin", which results from heating to lower temperatures--below the exotherm. Reference may be had in the foregoing connection to Proctor, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,014,836 and to Fanselow et al, 3,586,823, which disclosures are representative of portions of the prior art pertinent to fully calcined kaolins; and to Morris, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,519,453, to Podschus, 3,021,195 and 3,309,214, and to British Pat. No. 1,181,491, all of which are concerned with kaolins which are calcined to lower temperatures and which therefore can be regarded as metakaolins.
A calcined product having characteristics generally superior to previously available such pigments, is the ALPHATEX® product of Anglo-American Clays Corporation, assignee of the present application. This product again is a substantially anhydrous white kaolin clay pigment, which has unusual efficacy as a filler in paper sheets and similar paper products. The pigment also has application as a coating pigment for paper, and as a pigment in paints and other filled systems. It generally consists of aggregates of anhydrous kaolin clay particles, and exhibits exceptionally high light-scattering and opacifying characteristics when incorporated as a filler in paper. The said pigment is a powdered material of quite fine size--typically at least 65% by weight are of less than 2 microns equivalent spherical diameter (ESD). The said pigment exhibits a Valley abrasion value of less than 50 mg. and usually below 30 mg., (as determined by the Institute of Paper Chemistry Procedure 65).
ALPHATEX® is further described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,948 to A. D. McConnell et al, as being an anhydrous white kaolin clay pigment having high light scattering when incorporated as a filler in paper, the pigment consisting of porous aggregates formed from sub-micron sized kaolin clay platelets obtained by classification of a dispersed kaolin clay to a 100% less than one micron ESD fraction, the aggregates having an average specific gravity in the range of 0.5 to 0.6 and a mean internal pore size of less than 0.55 microns. The size distribution of the aggregates is such that not more than 5% by weight thereof are greater than 10 microns ESD, at least 75% are of less than 2 microns ESD, and not more than 15% by weight are of less than 1 micron ESD. The pigment has a Valley abrasion value below 30 mg, and a GE brightness of at least 93.
Calcined kaolin clay products such as ALPHATEX® are normally pulverized in a high energy impact mill and air-classified after calcination for the purpose of removing +325 mesh residue (to conform to specification for intended use in paper), or in order to remove larger abrasive particles. Such products are then sold by the manufacturer as a finally pulverized low-bulk density powder, which powder is extremely difficult to handle by conventional bulk handling systems. Because of the difficulties in handling such products, they are typically shipped in bulk in "sparger cars". These are bulk-hopper railroad cars fitted with special valves at the bottom which allow water to be injected into the car upon arrival at the customer's facility. Air is then injected into the car to agitate the water and powdered clay mixture. As soon as possible after the injection of the water and air, the fluid suspension is pumped from the car at about 30%-35% solids into a storage tank.
Because of the low-bulk density of the clay powders, typically only 35 to 40 tons of clay can be loaded into a 4,700/ft 3 rail car. The bulk density of this material would be measured in the laboratory to be about 10 to 12 lbs/ft 3 ; this material would pack to about 15 to 17 lbs/ft 3 in a fully loaded railroad car.
A further serious problem encountered when using the bulk sparger cars is the difficulty of mixing the dry-powdered calcined kaolin clay powder with water in a car having only air agitation available as a means of mixing.
A laboratory test has been developed which measures the ease with which the dry powder can be admixed with water. This test consists of placing a known volume of water in a beaker, then pouring a known weight of calcined clay on top of the water in the beaker with no agitation of any type, and measuring the time it takes for the clay to drop below the surface of the water. The specific test hereinafter referred to in this specification as the "wet-out test" is performed as follows: 100 grams of tap water are poured into a 600 ml. beaker. 50 grams of calcined clay are then poured into the beaker while simultaneously starting a stopwatch. As soon as all of the clay has disappeared under the surface of the water without any agitation, time is noted. The result is reported in terms of time, i.e. seconds.
The wet-out test just described, can be correlated or supplemented with a further test procedure which measures a quantity designed the "work index" ("WI"). In this test, a predetermined quantity of the dry powder to be tested is deposited in a predetermined amount of water, after which the slurry is mixed at a specific set speed with a standard mechanical mixer. A parameter indicative of the resistance encountered by the mixer blades, and thus of the viscosity of the slurry is observed and plotted as a function of time. The plot is a generally bell-shaped curve which, however, flattens into a relatively level "tail" when a fully stable slurry is achieved. The point of flattening out corresponds to completion of wet-out of the powder; and the area under the curve up to that point is a measure of energy input to achieve wet-out, and is designated the "work index" for the material tested.
A "tapped" bulk density measurement procedure is used in the laboratory, and is performed as follows: A pretared 100 ml cylinder is completely filled and tapped lightly until the level in the cylinder ceases to drop fairly rapidly. The level is then adjusted to 100 ml and container and clay are weighed. The bulk density quoted in lbs/ft 3 is then calculated as follows: ##EQU1##
In the past, efforts have been made to increase the bulk density of the calcined powders using compaction equipment, such as bricketting machines or pelletizers. However, these have proved to be unacceptable for several reasons. Among these is that bricketting machines tend to produce hard agglomerates, which are difficult to redisperse in water. This causes problems at the paper manufacturer's slurry make-down facility.
Further, pelletizing equipment which relies upon water as a binder has been found to require the addition of large quantities of water (roughly 40% of the weight of the clay) before acceptable pellets can be formed. This water either increases the shipping costs of the product or increases production costs in that it must be evaporated prior to shipment. Pelletizing equipment relying upon binders other than water also requires large amounts of binder and are found to result in a pelletized product which is difficult to make-down in water after pelletization and drying.
It has been found that one means of improving the wet-out rate of calcined kaolin clay powders is by the addition of dispersant or surfactant in dry form to the dry powder. For example, the addition of 5 pounds dry sodium hexametaphosphate to a ton of calcined kaolin clay powder will reduce the wet-out time from about 160 seconds to about 80 seconds. This method of improving the wet-out rate is expensive, however, and does nothing to increase the bulk density of the powder.
The wet-out rate can also be improved on a laboratory scale by grinding the powder in a small lab grinder using approximately 300 HP hrs energy input per ton of clay. In this way, it has been found that the wet-out rate can be reduced substantially.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Now in accordance with the present invention, it has been discovered that striking improvements in both the bulk density and the wet-out characteristics of substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powders as aforementioned, can be achieved by dry milling the said kaolin clay powders using energy inputs ranging from about 5 horsepower-hours per ton of dry clay up to about 40 horsepower-hours per ton of clay, perferably from about 10 to 20 HP-hrs per ton, with about 15 HP-hr per ton being relatively optimal.
The dry milling is conducted in a media mill, such as a tumbling mill, using media having a particle size of at least +5 mesh. The media can comprise balls, pebbles, rods, tubes, or pill-shaped, superellipsoidal bodies and the like. Geometrically regular bodies are preferable media, and where so used it is preferred that the thickness of same as measured along the shortest axis of symmetry be at least 1/4 inch. The media body can comprise various natural and/or synthetic materials, including porcelain and other ceramics, glass, steel, or other metals or alloys. The said dry milling should preferably be followed by pulverization in a high energy impact mill and air classification for the purpose of eliminating +325 mesh residue in order to eliminate larger abrasive particles.
Where ball-milling is used, various known mills can be employed. The said ball-milling may e.g. be carried out using apparatus such as a Patterson 6' diameter×3' 6" long continuous ball mill (center feed, peripheral discharge) in which the grinding media comprises porcelain balls of less than 5 inches diameter. Preferably, the grinding media comprises porcelain balls of from 3/4" to 2" diameter. Other materials can also be used for the balls--such as stainless steel and the other materials that have been mentioned. The increase of bulk density of the product does not increase the difficulty of making down the product to a residue-free slurry.
It should be appreciated in connection with the present invention that a procedure such as the mentioned ball-milling, is a completely unconventional operation for use with the dry, extremely fine powdered material which is here subjected to such treatment. The material, as indicated, is to begin with largely under 2 microns ESD in particle size; and this type of material is not normally subjected to ball-milling, since such techniques are not considered to result in substantial further particle size reduction--which is the usual objective of ball-milling.
The manner in which the dry-milling enables the completely unexpected results of this invention is not well understood at present, although it appears that the operation has effects other than size reduction. It appears rather that the particle shape of the components of the powder is altered to enable the objectives above set forth. It is thought that the said milling may act upon the particles as to increase the sphericity of same--with resultant improvement in packing and wetting-out characteristics. Of particular significance is that the characteristics of the calcined kaolin clay powder which render same of such great value e.g. as a paper filler, are not impaired to any substantial degree by the method of the invention, i.e. all of the desirable characteristics went to the paper by use of such material, such as increase in opacity, high light scattering, etc., remain substantially intact.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Practice of the present invention is illustrated by the following Examples:
EXAMPLE I
In Examples I to IX of the specification, the substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder subjected to the process of the invention, was the unmodified ALPHATEX® product previously described. The sample used as feed material for this Example was initially evaluated and found by the aforementioned test to have a 900 second wet-out time, and a bulk density of 9.7 lbs./ft 3 . This product was ball-milled using a work input of approximately 15 HP hours/ton of energy, using a 13 inch diameter mill charged with 291 each of 1/2, 3/4, and 1 inch porcelain balls. The resultant product was found to have a bulk density of 23 lbs/ft 3 . The product was then subjected to the wet-out test, previously described, and was found to have a 21 second wet-out time.
EXAMPLE II
Another sample of the above unmodified ALPHATEX® calcined kaolin clay pigment and exhibiting the same wet-out and bulk density as in Example I, was ball-milled in a 28 inch diameter 29 inches long batch type ball mill using 1/2 to 1 inch ceramic balls as the grinding media, also as previously described. In this instance, the energy input was 30 HP-hours/ton of dry clay. The resultant product was found to have a bulk density of 22 lbs/ft 3 and a wet-out time of 20 seconds.
EXAMPLE III
A sample of unmodified ALPHATEX® calcined kaolin clay pigment having a bulk density of 11.3 lbs/ft 3 and a wet-out time of 400 seconds was ball-milled in the apparatus described in Example II using ceramic balls as the grinding media. The energy input was the same as in Example II. The resultant product was found to have a bulk density of 17 lbs/ft 3 and a wet-out time of 40 seconds.
EXAMPLE IV
A sample of unmodified ALPHATEX® calcined kaolin clay pigment having a bulk density of 14.3 lbs/ft 3 , a wet-out time of 3 seconds and an ESD of 94% (±2%) less than 2 micron size by weight, was ball-milled in a Patterson 6' diameter 3' 6" long mill using ceramic balls as the grinding media, sized from 3/4" to 2 inches. In this instance, the energy input was approximately 15 HP-hrs/ton of dry clay. The resultant product was found to have a bulk density of 19 lbs/ft 3 , a substantially improved wet-out time of 21 seconds, and a virtually unchanged ESD of 93% (±2%) less than 2 micron size by weight.
EXAMPLE V
A further sample of the aforementioned unmodified ALPHATEX® calcined kaolin clay pigment having a bulk density of 10.5 lbs/ft 3 , a wet-out time of 600 seconds, and an ESD of 96% (±2%) less than 2 micron size by weight, was ball-milled in a Patterson 6' diameter 3' 6" long mill using ceramic balls as the grinding media, sized from 3/4" to 2 inches, and an energy input of approximately 15 HP-hrs/ton of dry clay. The resultant product was found to have a bulk density of 18 lbs/ft 3 , a substantially improved wet-out time of 18 seconds, and again a virtually unchanged ESD of 95% (±2%) less than 2 micron size by weight.
In the preceding Examples, the ball-milling step is conducted upon the calcined kaolin clay powder only subsequent to pulverization in a high energy impact mill and classification--and thus represents the final step in producing the product. This procedure can in some instances produce undesirable results, as where very close control on +325 mesh residue is necessary to conform to a desired specification. In such instances the ball-milling procedure of the prior Examples can change the size classification sufficiently to cause the product to exceed the desired (very low) +325 residue. In a preferable procedure therefore, and as illustrated in the ensuing Examples, the said ball-milling is followed by pulverization in a high energy impact mill and air classification for the purpose of eliminating +325 mesh residue, and in order to eliinate larger abrasive particles. Pulverization of the powder in a high energy impact mill after dry ball-milling does not negate the desired effects of the dry ball-milling on the final product.
In all of the following Examples, the substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder subjected to the process of the invention, was the powder which, upon pulverization and classification to eliminate undesirable larger particles as previously described, would (in the described prior art) become unmodified ALPHATEX® product.
EXAMPLE VI
A sample of substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder was subjected to pulverization and classification as above, to yield unmodified product, i.e. equivalent to prior art ALPHATEX®. This material was determined to have a 156 second wet-out time and a tapped bulk density of 11.5 lbs/ft 3 .
Another sample of the same powder was subjected to dry ball-milling followed by pulverization and classification to eliminate undesirable larger particles, and to yield a modified product in accordance with the invention. Ball-milling was accomplished using a work input of approximately 15 hp-hours/ton clay of energy, using a 13 inch diameter mill charged with 291 each of 1/2, 3/4, and 1 inch porcelain balls. Pulverization and classification was effected in a Hurricane® Mill, which is a product of C. E. Bauer Co. of Chicago, Ill., the said device being a high energy impact mill with an integral classifier. The resultant material was determined to have a 62 second wet-out time and a tapped bulk density of 14.7 lbs/ft 3 .
EXAMPLE VII
A sample of the substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder was subjected to pulverization and classification to yield unmodified product equivalent to prior art ALPHATEX®. This material was determined to have a wet-out time greater than 10 minutes and a tapped bulk density of 10.5 lbs/ft 3 .
Another sample of the same powder was subjected to dry ball-milling followed by pulverization and classification in accordance with the procedure of Example VI, to yield a modified product in accordance with the invention. This resulting material was determined to have a 94 second wet-out time and a tapped bulk density of 11.8/lbs/ft 3 .
EXAMPLE VIII
A sample of substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder was subject to pulverization and classification to yield unmodified product equivalent to unmodified ALPHATEX®. This material was determined to have a wet-out time greater than 10 minutes and a tapped bulk density of 10.5 lbs/ft 3 .
Another sample of the same powder was subjected to dry ball-milling followed by pulverization and classification in accordance with the procedure of Example VI to yield a modified product in accordance with the invention. This material was determined to have a 47 second wet-out time and a tapped bulk density of 13.7 lbs/ft 3 .
EXAMPLE IX
A sample of substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder was subjected to pulverization and classification to yield unmodified product equivalent to prior art ALPHATEX®. This material was determined to have an 82 second wet-out time and tapped bulk density of 12.5 lbs/ft 3 .
Another sample of the same powder was subjected to dry ball-milling followed by pulverization and classification as in Example VI, to yield a modified product in accordance with the invention. This material was determined to have a 53 second wet-out time and a tapped bulk density of 13.9 lbs/ft 3 .
EXAMPLE X
In this Example, a series of 22 further test samples of calcined kaolin powder generally produced in accordance with the procedure set forth in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,948 were utilized as the input to the process of the invention. More specifically, the samples were the output product from the calciner in the said patent, which product was then subjected to dry milling and/or to pulverization as indicated. Thus, in the instance of samples 1 through 3 no pulverization step was utilized either subsequent or prior to the dry milling step of the invention. In the case of each sample, the work input provided during the milling process was in the range of the invention, i.e. of 5 to 40 HP-hrs/ton of dry solids--the same milling time was used for each sample. A tumbling mill was utilized with different types of media, both with respect to the material of the media and with respect to the size of the media bodies. Wet-out time and work index were measured for each sample. The wet-out times measured in seconds, the associated work index, brightness of the resulting product, and bulk densities are set forth in Table I below. It is seen from samples 1 to 3 that where the method of the invention is utilized, even without any pulverization being employed, the wet-out time is sharply reduced in comparison to samples processed without the dry milling step of the invention. Samples 4 and 5 illustrate that in the absence of the milling step of the invention, even with pulverization, wet-out time is very high. As seen e.g. in Sample 6, wet-out is sharply reduced by practice of the invention.
Ceramic balls of various sizes are used in Samples 3 through 10. In Samples 11 through 14 steel balls of various sizes are found to be less effective, but nonetheless very useful in the invention. In Samples 15 through 19, ceramic rods of various dimensions are used, and are found to be efficaceous in the invention, as are the ceramic flats utilized in Samples 23, 22. Equally apparent is the increase in bulk density achieved by practice of the invention in all of the samples wherein the dry milling step is utilized.
TABLE I__________________________________________________________________________ Bulk Media Wet Out Work G.E. DensitySample Processing Media Size (") Time (sec) Index Brightness (lbs/ft.sup.3)__________________________________________________________________________ 1 No ball milling, no -- -- +300 271 91.7 9.8 pulverization, no TSPP 2 No ball mill, no -- -- +300 207 91.6 9.9 pulverization, 3 lbs/T TSPP* 3 Ball-milled, no Ceramic 1/3-1/2" 13 27 91.4 22.1 pulverization balls 1/3-3/4" 3 lbs/T TSPP 1/3-1" 4 No ball-mill, -- -- +300 293 91.4 14.3 pulverized no TSPP 5 No ball-mill, -- -- +300 180 91.7 13.4 pulverized 3 lbs/T TSPP 6 Ball-milled, pulverized Ceramic 1/3-1/2" 55 24.9 91.6 17.7 no TSPP balls 1/3-3/4" 1/3-1" 7 Ball-milled, pulverized Ceramic 1/3-1/2" 57 17.8 91.5 16.7 3 lbs/T TSPP balls 1/3-3/4" 1/3-1" 8 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1/2" 54 7.2 91.4 16.8 pulverized balls 3 lbs/T TSPP 9 Ball-milled, Ceramic 3/4" 75 4.6 91.5 15.9 pulverized balls 3 lbs/T TSPP10 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1" 83 8.3 91.4 16.4 pulverized balls 3 lbs/T TSPP11 Ball-milled, Steel 1/2" 78 16.6 91.5 14.6 pulverized balls 3 lbs/T TSPP12 Ball-milled, Steel 3/4" 60 24.2 91.5 15.6 pulverized balls 3 lbs/T TSPP13 Ball-milled, Steel 1" 80 31.2 91.5 16.3 pulverized balls 3 lbs/T TSPP14 Ball-milled, Steel 1/3-1/2" 81 28.3 91.5 16.0 pulverized balls 1/3-3/4" 3 lbs/T TSPP 1/3-1"15 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1/4 × 1/4 77 33.2 91.4 15.8 pulverized Rods 3 lbs/T TSPP16 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1/2 × 1/2 55 36.1 91.5 16.9 pulverized Rods 3 lbs/T TSPP17 Ball-milled, Ceramic 13/16 × 13/16 69 36.6 91.4 16.9 pulverized Rods 3 lbs/T TSPP18 Ball-milled, Ceramic 11/4 × 11/4 74 33.7 91.3 17.2 pulverized Rods 3 lbs/T TSPP19 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1/3-1/2 × 1/2 52 49.4 91.5 15.2 pulverized Rods 1/3-13/16 × 3 lbs/T TSPP 13/16 1/3-11/4 × 11/420 Ball-milled, Ceramic D 69 32.2 91.3 16.2 pulverized Flats 11/4 × 3/4 3 lbs/T TSPP oval21 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1/2 × 5/16 121 15.5 91.4 16.4 pulverized Flats oval 3 lbs/T TSPP22 Ball-milled, Ceramic 1/2 A 46 74.4 91.5 17.1 pulverized Flats 1/2 D 3 lbs/T TSPP__________________________________________________________________________ *Tetra sodium pyrophosphate
While the present invention has been particularly set forth in terms of specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood in view of the instant disclosure, that numerous variations upon the invention are now enabled to those skilled in the art, which variations yet reside within the scope of the present teaching. Accordingly, the invention is to be broadly construed and limited only by the scope and spirit of the claims now appended hereto.
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A method for increasing the bulk density and decreasing the time of wetting with water of a substantially anhydrous kaolin clay powder, comprising dry milling said powder in a media mill wherein the media is at least +5 mesh, and using work inputs of from about 5 to about 40 HP-hrs/ton of dry clay. The process enables improved handling characteristics for the treated clay with respect to bulk material handling systems.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This continuation application for patent claims priority to the continuation-in-part application having Ser. No. 11/238,934, which was filed on Sep. 29, 2005; which claims priority to the continuation-in-part application having Ser. No. 10/815,533, which was filed on Apr. 1, 2004, abandoned; which claims priority to the non-provisional patent application having Ser. No. 10/411,551, which was filed Apr. 10, 2003, abandoned; which claims priority to the provisional patent application having Ser. No. 60/371,441, which was filed on Apr. 11, 2002, and is owned by a common assignee.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates principally to a building block, one that is constructed, generally of waste material, such as fly ash, and can be either extruded or compressed under pressure into the fabrication of a building block for constructing buildings or the like.
[0003] There are numerous building blocks that are available in the art for use for the construction primarily of commercial industrial type of buildings, and even some blocks are used for constructing residential homes, as known. For example, most of these blocks are fabricated from concrete, poured into a form, left to cure, and then removed and allowed to dry, in preparation for usage. Blocks of this type, generally of concrete, can be formed in a variety of shapes.
[0004] Various prior art types of blocks, usually of the molded type, can be seen in the prior patent to Haener, U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,939, identified as An Insulated Building Block System. The patent to Putnam, U.S. Pat. No. 2,319,345, discloses another type of Fabricated Building Block. The patent to Crespo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,949, shows an Interlocking System for Building Walls, and it should particularly be noted that the shown block includes openings, and through which reinforcing rods may locate, during building construction. The patent to Schmall, U.S. Pat. No. 513,423, discloses another form of Building Block. The patent to Sherwood, U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,635, discloses a Building Block Unit and Method of Manufacturing the Same. This includes an interlocking type of feature that can hold the blocks together, even perhaps without connecting mortar. The patent to Stenekes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,265, shows A Corner and End Block for Interlocking Building Blocks System.
[0005] The patent to Hancock, U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,849, shows a Building Wall and Tapered Interfitting Blocks Therefore. Another patent to Hancock, U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,989, shows an Interlocking Building Type of Block That Can Be Fabricated into a Wall System, even perhaps with or without the use of mortar. U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,979, to Hancock, shows another Interlocking Form of Building Block.
[0006] The current invention is designed to provide for the construction of a building block, by a variety of methods, but one which does not rely on cement as it utilizes extensively what are currently considered as wood substitutes: wood chips, sawdust, textile waste, and fly ash, among other things.
[0007] For example, the U.S. patent to Strabala, U.S. Pat. No. 5,534,058, discloses a structural product fabricated from waste materials, and its method of making the same. The product includes as ingredients fly ash, cellulose-based material, and an adhesive binder for holding these ingredients together. The patent states that the mixture is particularly useful for forming structural products such as bricks, panels, roof shingles, studs, and the like. More specifically, the patent defines that the structural product, which may also be formed into blocks, comprises a substantially homogeneous blend from seventy to eighty-five percent (70 to 85%) by weight of a Class C fly ash, or a mixture of Class C fly ash and Class F fly ash. The mixture further includes about fifteen to thirty percent (15 to 30%) by weight of a cellulose based material, which can be pulp, wood, sawdust, pulverized cardboard, or the like. The block further includes an adhesive binder, which is categorized as an emulsion, even one which can be mixed with water to form a liquid. Preferably the adhesive binder is polyvinyl acetate, which can be added to the mixture as an emulsion. The mixture also includes an inner filler, and such material may include lime, Class F fly ash, or bottom ash, up to about thirty-five percent (35%) by weight of the total weight of the mixture.
[0008] The current invention likewise utilizes a fly ash as a primary ingredient, but varies substantially from what is identified in the Strabala patent, utilizing either a molding or pressure application to form its composite blocks, for use for a related purpose: construction.
[0009] Other prior art patents identifying the use of fly ash, as an ingredient for forming insulating and ceramic materials, and the like, include the patent to Sicka, U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,723, for Foamed Ceramic Comprising Fly Ash and Phosphoric Acid. U.S. Pat. No. 1,608,562, to Melandri, defines the Manufacture of Building Blocks, Slabs, Floors, Ceilings, Tiles, and the Like, from a mixture of fibers and cementous material, and hydrated lime. The patent to Halwani, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,211, describes a Lightweight Block Containing Stabilized Wood Aggregates. The patent to Riddle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,548, explains the use of Volcanic Fly Ash and Kiln Dust Mixtures, and a Process for Making Articles Therefrom. The patent to Patterson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,451, explains a Building Material Made From Waste Paper and a Method for Producing the Same. The patent to Wada, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,771, explains a Hydraulic Inorganic Mixture and Molded Articles Thereof. The patent to Lempfer, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,596, explains the Method of Producing Shaped Articles of Fiber/Binder Mixtures. The patent to Elias, U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,250, shows another type of Building Block. The patent to Vinson, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,119, shows a Cellulose Fiber-Reinforced Structure. The patent to Baes, U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,672, explains that Lightweight Insulating Boards and Process for Manufacturing the Same. The patent to Costopoulos, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,385, shows a Building Material Manufacturing from Fly Ash. The patent to Barrable, U.S. Pat. No. 4,132,555, explains a Building Board. Finally, and lastly, the patent to Nutt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,753,749, shows other Concrete Mixtures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] This invention relates primarily to the construction of a unique building block, one fabricated totally from waste materials and without a binding agent, and a number of systems by which the block may be fabricated and molded, into a high strength finished product. This invention contemplates three aspects relating to its concept: initially, the formulation and type of building block constructed, and two methods or systems by which the block may be fabricated, in preparation for usage.
[0011] Essentially, the building block of this invention can be fabricated of the open cavity type, but preferably, is constructed into the configuration of a solid block, thereby providing it with greater strength and less susceptible to fracture, because of the solid integrated nature of its construction. Because of the type of waste materials from which the block is fabricated, including wood pulp, or the like, the block will accept and hold a nail, screw, or the like, so that supplemental sheeting, rather exteriorly or interiorly, can be applied and held directly to it, during fabrication of a building. Furthermore, because of the inherent nature of its ingredients, it can also be subject to cutting by a power saw, or the like. In addition, the block of this invention, because of its mixture, has enhanced thermal resistant characteristics, as can be understood. In addition, it can be treated, with other ingredients, such as a boride, to render it termite and mold resistant. It can function as a sound insulation; even can be used as a sound wall in or near high-noise areas, like at airports and industrial parks, and as dividing walls for adjacent condominiums and apartments, to provide that type of insulation.
[0012] Significantly, the block of this invention has high strength and a large load bearing capacity due to its solid configuration, and obviously provides safety during usage, lowers energy bills, and as previously alluded to, is fabricated from generally waste ingredients, meaning that it will be low cost in construction. The block is made generally of about ninety-nine percent (99%) waste materials, and therefore, is earth-friendly as a “green” building material, as can be understood.
[0013] In the preferred embodiment, the block may be constructed having dimensions generally in the category of nine and one-half inches high, eight inches deep, and seventeen and one-half inches wide (9.5″×8″×17.5″) including the tongue and groove jointed edges. Obviously, other dimensions can be readily applied during fabrication of the blocks of this invention.
[0014] Generally, the formulae for the compressed or extruded blocks of this invention are designed to provide maximum usage of waste material, such as fly ash, as known in the art, without cement or other binder. For example, where it is desired to fabricate a block having dimensions generally within the range of nine and one-half inches by eight inches, and to any length (9.5″×8″×any length), depending upon the mold, it will include a Class C Fly ash in a range of about fifty percent (50%) to ninety percent (90%) by weight of the formulated block. Wood pieces or cellulose materials, such as chips or chunks, may be applied in the vicinity of ten percent (10%) to fifty percent (50%) by weight of the mixed formulation. Optionally, boron, or a boride, may be added in the range of one-half percent to five percent (½% to 5%), in order to furnish the mold retardancy and as a preventer of insect infestation, characteristics which are desirable particularly since the formulation of this invention includes ground wood ingredients, as previously explained. Class C fly ash is readily available in abundance from the many coal fired electric generating plants. In an alternate embodiment for the military, Portland cement may be added in a range of about two percent to twenty percent (2% to 20%), for ballistic or hardening purposes.
[0015] Other ingredients that may be used effectively in addition to fly ash include wood, wood ash, sugar beat waste lime, rice straw, wheat straw, cotton stalks, sugar cane, bamboo, sea shells, sand, river sand, quarry sand, and desert sand, all of which may be used as wood substitutes, to add further strength to the mixture, from between ten percent (10%) to thirty percent (30%) by weight, thereby reducing the amount of fly ash that may be necessary in the mixture, or for reducing the wood chip ingredient, in order to provide enhanced strength to the blocks, when formed, as can be understood. Obviously, the greater the quantity of sand or other granular material that is added to the block, reduces the wood pulp content, makes the block less isolative, and reduces the ability of the finished block to accept and hold a nail and a screw, when applied during the construction of a building.
[0016] Two other essential ingredients for the mixture for forming the building block of this invention includes the addition of a Plasticizer agent to the composition, during its mixing, for the purpose of providing a dispersion of the mixed components within the ingredients, including water, that results in a more thorough mix of the ingredients, and allows for their better flow ability, during the deposit of the formal into the forms. In addition, an accelerator is useful for re-acting the fine particles of the mixture with all of the other ingredients, during mixing, so as to more quickly and better form the slurry for addition to the forms, during molding of the blocks.
[0017] The system of manufacturing the blocks of this invention includes the extruding method, which incorporates a cyclone wood chip hopper, into which the chips may be placed, and in which hopper the fly ash from an outside silo may be delivered, to provide for the proper mixing. A variable speed feeder may be used to deliver the mixture to a pre-mixer, wherein treated water may be added, and a displacement compressor provides the necessary pressure on the mixture, as it is delivered to a variable speed extruder, that may extrude a continuous block, to desired cross sectional dimensions, such as nine and one-half inches by eight inches (9.5″×8″), but to any length. Such lengths may even be as great as four feet to sixteen feet long (4′ to 16′), for the extruded block, exiting from the extruder. The block may then be conveyed to another location for drying, curing, and storage, before it is shipped to the building site, for usage.
[0018] The preparation of the compressed block may be achieved through the usage of a hydraulic press, which exerts a ram force upon the block ingredients, delivered to the site of compression, where the blocks are instantly formed under modest pressure, into individual blocks, to dimensions as desired, and then exit the compression chamber by way of a conveyer, to a remote location for further drying and curing, or for storage until usage. The type of modified hydraulic press, that has found usage for the purposes of building the blocks of this invention, may be obtained from Vermeer Manufacturing Company, of Pella, Iowa, or a related type of hydraulic or other press.
[0019] It is, therefore, the principle object of this invention is to provide a unique building block that can be instantly manufactured for low cost from generally waste ingredients and materials.
[0020] Another object of this invention is to provide a molded, even one constructed under pressure, building block to a variety of dimensions, at the selection of the builder, and the owner.
[0021] Yet another object of this invention is to provide a building block that has retention attributes, and can hold a nail or screw, upon application.
[0022] Still another object of this invention is to provide a building block that may be fabricated having various grooves, in order to allow the locating of reinforcing bars, utility conduits, or the like.
[0023] Still another object of this invention is to provide a building block having a solid surface, and not necessarily made of the cavity type prior art block, and therefore exhibits a much larger load-bearing capacity than other type of fabricated blocks.
[0024] Still another object of this invention is to provide a building block that has a high fire resistance rating.
[0025] Another object of this invention provides a building block that will be insect and termite resistant because wood is a major ingredient, as organic inhibitors or coatings provide high resistance to insect infestation.
[0026] Still another object of this invention is to provide a building block having a high wood chip and piece content.
[0027] Another object of this invention is to provide a building block that may be held together without cement or other pozzolans, and does not necessarily require the usage of any mortar as normally used and required between blocks in typical applications.
[0028] Another object of this invention is to provide a building block that exhibits thermal insulation value in the range of R-16, and higher.
[0029] Still another object of this invention provides a building block that has excellent noise suppression benefits.
[0030] Yet another object of this invention is to provide a building block that eliminates the need for the stud-wall framing, and insulation batting. This can be achieved, because the building block already has good thermal insulation, and its wood content allows the builders to nail or screw the exterior and interior sheeting and other framing members, directly to the manufactured wall.
[0031] Another object of this invention is to provide a building block for use for constructing walls, which in certain jurisdictions, are already approved for general building usage.
[0032] Another primary object of this invention is to provide a sustainable building product, being composed primarily of waste materials. Hence, it provides a method by which waste material may be disposed of and utilized, without filling the landfills, with such waste material. For example, agricultural waste, logging waste, or even broken or waste wood pallets which can be chipped, can be used for the purpose of fabricating the blocks of this invention.
[0033] Another object of this invention is to have an appearance that does not reveal the ingredients used in the invention.
[0034] Another object of this invention is to form a block without any adhesive material mixed therein.
[0035] Another object of this invention is to improve the hydration of the mixture which results in a faster and more thorough chemical reaction of the components of the present invention.
[0000] These and other objects may become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the invention as described herein, and upon undertaking a study of the description of its preferred embodiment, when viewed in conjunction with the drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0036] In referring to the drawings,
[0037] FIG. 1 provides an isometric view of the fabricated building block of this invention;
[0038] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the system for processing by compression of the building blocks of this invention; and
[0039] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a portable hydraulic press utilized occasionally for the pressure forming of the blocks of this invention.
[0040] The same reference numerals refer to the same parts throughout the various figures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0041] In referring to the drawings, and in particular FIG. 1 , the example of the type of building block fabricated by the system of this invention is readily disclosed. The building block 1 will be of standard shape or appearance, but can be fabricated to any size, but generally may be in the range of four inches high, eight inches wide, and twelve inches in length (4″×8″×12″), but preferably nine and one-half inches high, eight inches wide, and seventeen and one-half inches in length (9½″×8″×17½″). Obviously, other dimensions may be used for the block of this invention, and depending upon which system is used to fabricate the blocks, as for example, in the extruded block, a block of any length, such as sixteen feet (16′) as previously stated, could be developed. Or, where the block is molded by hydraulic pressure, it may have a shape and proportions similar to those as shown in FIG. 1 . In addition, the block may be molded or extruded having supplemental configurations, such as the upper tongue 2 and lower groove 3 , and end grooves 4 , as noted. Preferably, the legs 5 will be greater than two inches (2″) each to provide structural strength to the areas of the block. The purpose of these grooves is to provide clearance, either for locating reinforcing bars or perhaps conduits that may extend through the wall and through which electrical wires, heating ducts or other types of utilities may be located. The preferred embodiment has a chamfered and protruding top or tongue and a matching bottom or groove.
[0042] The formulation for the block of this invention can be seen from the tables hereinafter provided.
[0000]
TABLE I
Extruded industrial blocks 9.5″ × 8″ × any length
Class C fly ash from 50% to about 90%
Ground wood from 10% to 50%
Boron from ½% to about 5%
[0000]
TABLE II
Compressed industrial blocks 9.5″ × 8″ × 17.5″
Class C fly ash from 50% to 90%
Portland cement 2% to about 20%
Ground wood from 10% to about 50%
Boron from ½% to about 5%, or
[0000]
TABLE III
Compressed industrial blocks 9.5″ × 8″ × 17.5″
Class C fly ash from 50% to about 90%
Ground wood from 10% to about 50%
Boron from ½% to about 5%
[0043] Water is applied in all these formulations from fifteen percent (15%) up to twenty-five percent (25%).
[0044] Plasticizer or water reducer is added to each of these tables approximately one-half ounce (0.5 oz.) to thirty ounces (30 oz.) per hundredweight of fly ash in the mixture.
[0045] Accelerator is added to each of these tables approximately zero (0) to approximately thirty-two ounces (32 oz.) per hundredweight of fly ash in the mixture.
[0046] These formulae are supplemented by a plasticizing or a water reducing agent, and an accelerating agent. A plasticizer increases the slump of the mixture and raises the viscosity of the mixture which improves the flow characteristics of the material, generally at low water levels in the mixture. Plasticizers such as preferably PLP from W.R. Grace & Co. of Cambridge, Mass., and alternatively Sika 6100 from Sika Corp. of Marion, Ohio, Melchem from General Resource Technology, Inc. of Eagan, Minn., and Polyheed FC100 from Master Builders, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio, have also shown a water replacement capability. Generally, the plasticizer provides for heightened dispersion of the mix components within the water resulting in a smooth faced block formed under pressure. More particularly, the plasticizer acts as a hydration agent or a wetting agent that mixes the components more thoroughly, thus reducing the incidence of the mixture balling. The plasticizer improves the ability of water to coat the surfaces of the solid components of the mix on the micro level. On the macro level, the resulting blocks do not reflect on their outside the chunky appearance of the aggregate or other mix components. Rather, the blocks take on the shape and surface texture of their forming chamber.
[0047] A water reducing agent disperses the fine particles of the mixture with less water. The agent enhances the effect of water throughout the mixture. The formulation is made into blocks with less gallons of water per hundredweight of formulation. Lessening the water requirement saves on weight and labor costs during fabrication of blocks. Water reducers such as preferably FC100 from MasterBuilders, and alternately Sika 6100 from Sika have readily reduced the water required in mixtures.
[0048] An accelerator makes the reaction of fine particles with the remainder of the mixture occur more quickly. The mixture solidifies at higher strength more quickly. An accelerator is also useful for low temperature casting where the accelerator augments ambient temperature and returns curing to normal duration from the cold delayed duration. Accelerators such as preferably RAPID-1 from Sika, and alternatively Pozzolith from Master Builders and Polychem Super Set from General Resource Technologies provide for increased strength once the mixture cures.
[0049] The co-action of the plasticizer and the accelerator improve the chemical reaction of the components within the mixture. The chemical reaction occurs faster and a greater amount of the components are reacted while a lower percentage of the components are wasted through non-reaction. Further, these formulae lack a binding agent, except Portland cement for the military formula, and thus the actions of the plasticizer, water reducer, and accelerator upon the mixture, under forming pressure, make a consistent and strong block.
[0050] As can be seen from FIG. 2 , the system for pressing the industrial building blocks of this invention is readily disclosed. As noted, the ingredients for the block are processed by the system, as disclosed. For example, pre-ground wood chips, as at 10 , are delivered by conveyor 11 , to a hammer mill 12 , to provide a secondary grinding or pulverizing of the chips. The ground and pulverized wood will be conveyed by a blower 13 , to a roto-paddle blower 14 , and delivered by conduit tubing 15 , for emitting into the upper end of a cyclone wood chip hopper 16 , as can be noted. Support structure, as at 17 , provides the bracing necessary for structurally holding the system in place.
[0051] From the cyclone wood chip hopper, the ground pulp, which may include wood chips, textile waste, bamboo, rice straw, wheat straw, or any other pulp ingredients, are delivered to a variable speed roto-feeder, as at 18 . Then the proper amount of the wood ingredient is delivered to a pre-mixer 19 , as noted. At this point, and into the pre-mixer, fly ash from an outside silo source 20 is delivered by way of a variable speed auger 21 , through a conduit 22 , to the pre-mixer. The fly ash may be generated and deposited into the silo from any of the sources for this ingredient. For example, it may be the fly ash from power plants or other installations.
[0052] In addition to the delivery of the wood chip component, and the fly ash from external sources, water, by way of the conduit 23 , is also metered into the pre-mixer, to provide some degree of texture that renders the mixture more pliable, and capable of being either extruded, or compressed, as can be understood. A plasticizer 27 and an accelerator 28 are pumped into the mixture for blending with the other ingredients. The amount of the ingredients added, including the treated water, plasticizer, and accelerator, can be determined from the formulations as previously set forth.
[0053] From the pre-mixture, a variable speed mixer further mixes the ingredients, as at 24 , and delivers it to a variable speed or hydraulic press 25 . At this point the blocks will then be conveyed upon the conveyor 26 , to a location of drying, curing, storage, or even for use for installation at a building site.
[0054] As an example of usage of the hydraulic press process, utilizing the system as shown in FIG. 2 , the raw feed stock, such as shredded wood, will be delivered to the plant site, which may be arranged at a landfill location. The wood chips are moved from the receiving hopper via the belt conveyor, as explained, to a hammer mill, where it is ground into small pieces. From there the wood is carried by an air stream to a cyclone, for the purpose of separating the wood from the air, where the wood particles then fall into the hopper. There it is fed via a variable speed auger to a continuous flow mixer, identified as the variable speed mixer.
[0055] Fly ash, such as Class C fly ash, is delivered by bulk truck, to the silo at the plant where the blocks are formed. The fly ash is carried by another mixer, by way of a variable speed auger during the process. The fly ash is generally obtained from coal burning power plants, and delivered in bulk to the silo where it is then delivered to the variable speed auger. In an alternate embodiment for the military, Portland cement by bulk trucks is also provided, in a variation on the formulae, to another silo, where it likewise may be added as an ingredient by a variable speed auger. The alternate embodiment also has a dispersant agent such as Ultra from W.R. Grace or Rheomix from Master Builders that spreads the cement throughout the mixture for even and thorough reaction.
[0056] In the preferred embodiment, calcium borate is delivered to the plant, and is likewise moved to the mixer by way of a variable speed auger. Obviously, the variable speed augers are all used to provide for the delivery of the precise amount of the ingredients, as determined necessary, for formulating the type of blocks to be molded or cast. Ground wood is delivered to the processing plant in bulk trailers. It is blended with ground wood, to provide further bulk. Treated water is injected into the mix blend just before it exits the mixer, on its way to the press. The hydraulic press forces the slurry through a dye, as in the preferred embodiment, yielding a nine and one-half inch by eight inch by seventeen and one-half inch (9.5″×8″×17.5″) block.
[0057] The second method for fabricating the blocks of this invention may be seen from FIG. 3 , which shows a modification to a hydraulic press, which is utilized to compression form the blocks, under hydraulic pressure, although other sources of pressure may be utilized.
[0058] The system for providing a hydraulic or other pressured compression for forming the compressed block of this invention is shown in FIG. 3 . As disclosed, this may be a more portable device. It includes the hydraulic ram machinery, such as shown at 30 , which is a device for providing pressure to a ram, generally under hydraulic pressure, and is available, as previously explained, from Vermeer Manufacturing Company, of Pella, Iowa. This particular hydraulic ram machinery includes a feed hopper 31 , into which the blended mix of material may be inserted, and is injected with some water from the liquid tank 32 , the mix being delivered from the hopper by way of an auger conveyor 33 , to a blender mixer 34 , as noted. At this location, the mix is completely blended, and then in dosages delivered to the compression chamber 35 where the hydraulic ram exerts significant pressure, up to two thousand two hundred sixty-five pounds per square inch (2265 psi), upon the mixture, to compress the material into a solid and uniform block, having the configuration designed from the mold provided within the compression chamber, to shape the style of block desired. At this point, when the hydraulic pressure is eased, the blocks are delivered along a conveyor 36 , where the blocks can be stacked upon skids, pallets, or the like, and then left to stand for drying and curing. Following this, the blocks can be either stored or shipped for usage.
[0059] During the delivery of the material to the hopper 31 , a laborer will generally be emptying bags of the pre-mixed powder containing material relating to the formulation as defined in Table II, which may be modified or varied with any of the other type of waste fly ash, such as that derived from sugar beet waste lime, of Table III, or have some of the sand provided therein, as analyzed in Table V.
[0060] In the formation of the blocks from the hydraulic or other pressure compressed blocks, the material will be formed similar in the manner as the pre-mix for the extruding process, including the delivery of the ground wood to the plant, for mixing, as previously explained. The material from the mixer, in the extruding process of FIG. 2 , will be left dry, and bagged, for delivery to the feed hopper 31 , of the Vermeer Block Press.
[0061] Generally, the same formula is used as in the extruding process, but in the high pressure press, other blends will also work because of the pressure involved, up to three thousand pounds per square inch (3000 psi), which is further effective in forming the desired block.
[0062] It is likely that a blend of the sugar beet waste lime could be employed in the hydraulic pressing process, with a blend of an approximately twenty-five percent (25%) by weight of the sugar beet waste lime, and seventy-five percent (75%) by weight of class C fly ash. The pre-mix is added to the feed hopper 31 , with a blender 34 , built into it. A twelve volt marine type pump delivers treated water to the mixture. This makes the press totally self contained and portable because the hydraulic press mounts directly upon the trailer frame. Once the hydraulic engine is turned on, the pre-mix is poured into the feed hopper, delivered to the blender; some moisture is added, generally in the amount to make a substantially viscous pre-mix. The press is then applied, after a batch of the materials is deposited into the mold, at the compression chamber, for immediately forming a hard block. A spray system may be used for adding the water at the blender/mixer, and the water tank assembly holds approximately one hundred gallons of water. The compression chamber, at the mold, may include a weighing device, to ensure that the proper amount of materials is added into the mold, before compression is initiated. The mold may also be constructed in a manner to provide the shape the block is desired, as for example, the mold may contain the semi circular protrusions, in order to form the tongues 2 and grooves 3 , and the end grooves 4 , within the finished block, when compressed.
[0063] In actual practice, the compressed blocks, formed by the hydraulic press of this invention, are achieved as follows. The dry pre-mixed product, that which has been bagged at the mixer 24 in the extruding process, may be packaged in either ninety pound (90 lb) bags or two thousand three hundred and fifty pound (2350 lb) super sacks. The contractor may have the product delivered to the job site, or have it collected at the mixing plant. Part of the contractor's equipment will require the usage of a large truck to haul the product, and to pull the block press 30 with it.
[0064] The first step the operator does is to check the fluid levels in the engine and hydraulic reverse tanks. Second, the engine is started, and warmed up. Third, the operator selects either the manual or automatic setting. The manual setting is used with the ninety pound (90 lb) bags, while the automatic setting is used with the super sacks. In either case, the powder is fed into the feed hopper 31 . From there, the material is fed into the blender by way of the auger 33 . It then falls by gravity into the open compression chamber, where the mold is provided. Water is blended with the powder as it passes down through the blender. The compression cylinder is activated, either manually by the operator, or by press controls. The pressure varies from three hundred to three thousand pounds per square inch (300 to 3000 lbs psi), as explained. When the pressure reaches the operator pre-set level, a second hydraulic cylinder, built into the machine, and arranged at a right angle at the rear of the compression chamber activates, pushing the compressed block out of the side ramp, onto the conveyor. Now, both cylinders retract, thus opening the compression chamber for more product from the blender. The cycle repeats, and each new block is pushed from the processor further onto the conveyor or ramp, for stacking onto a skid, or the like.
[0065] Variations or modifications to the subject matter of this invention may occur to those skilled in the art upon reviewing the disclosure as provided herein. Such variations, if within the spirit of this development, are intended to be encompassed within the scope of the invention as described herein. The description of the preferred embodiment, and as shown in the drawings and schematics, is set forth for illustrative purposes only.
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A compressed building block formed of a pre-mix of fly ash, either of the Class C type, is combined with either ground or pulverized wood chips, or with fine sand, and a plasticizer, and accelerator, then moisturized, and lastly either extruded or compressed in a mold into the configuration of a block. The block lacks a binder, except Portland cement for select military applications. A mold retardant may be added to the mixture, to provide the formed block with further beneficial attributes. The blocks may be formed by a system for extruding such blocks from the formulation, or they may be formed by means of a hydraulic or other press and pressed into the configuration of the desired block, needed for the construction.
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This is a divisional of Ser. No. 09/295,257, filed Apr. 20, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,831.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for the production of an anode for electrolytic capacitors as well as to anodes produced thus.
2. Description of the Related Art
For a capacitor comprising two metal plates separated by means of a dielectric of a given strength, the capacitance is a function of the dielectric constant of the dielectric, the vacuum dielectricity, the geometric area a well as the distance between the metal plates. In order to arrive at higher capacitance values at a given area, the thickness of the dielectric can be decreased, the effective surface of the metal plates can be increased by roughing and a dielectric with a higher dielectric constant can be used.
It is known that, compared with other metal oxides, aluminum oxide has considerable advantages due to the fact that from an aluminum foil can be generated anodically with electrochemical etching, films with the formation of aluminum oxide with good insulating properties and with high roughness such that very high capacitance values can be attained in spite of the relatively low dielectric constant of aluminum oxide in comparison with other metal oxides, such as those of titanium or tantalum.
GB-B 2 056 503 discloses a process for the production of an electrolytic capacitor in which a flexible substrate is used with a surface onto which an anodizable metal is vapor-deposited. The vapor deposition take place at an angle of incidence of less than 60° in the presence of oxygen and at a partial pressure not greater than 10 −1 Torr to form a porous metal layer. The porous metal layer is subsequently anodized and a capacitor is wound from such foils. The substrate can be aluminum and the anodizable metal can be tantalum or an alloy of two or several metals.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the task of the present invention to propose a process for the production of anodes, as well as the anodes themselves with the aid of which, in simple manner, capacitors of higher capacitance can be fabricated.
This task is solved through a process for the production of an anode for electrolytic capacitors from an aluminum foil as the substrate onto which an alloy of aluminum and a further metal whose oxide has a higher dielectric constant than aluminum oxide, is vapor-deposited to increase the surface roughness in several process steps at different angles of incidence in a vacuum with the formation of a porous layer and which is subjected to a subsequent anodic oxidation.
With anodes produced in this way, substantially higher capacitance values at an identical anodization voltage can be obtained than is the case when using conventional aluminum foils.
As an aluminum alloy, one which comprises a valve metal such as titanium, tantalum, niobium, zirconium or the like is preferably used.
In order to attain a surface of the porous layer of maximum size, the aluminum alloy is preferably vapor-deposited with a metal vapor beam in three successive process segments. For structuring a first thin adhering layer with first crystallization nuclei, in a first process segment the angle of incidence between the metal vapor beam and a surface normal should be large, for example at least 75°. In order to make optimum growth of crystals with dendritic structure possible, in a second process segment, medium angles of incidence, for example between 40° and 60°, are provided. At the conclusion of the crystal growth, in a third process segment, the aluminum alloy is vapor-deposited at any desired angle, preferably however at a small angle of incidence, for example maximally 40°.
In one process segment, the vapor deposition advantageously takes place in several process steps at differing angles of incidence. It is, in particular, meaningful to provide in the plane of incidence angles on both sides of the surface normal in order to attain growing-on of the crystals symmetrical with respect to vertical.
To improve the stability of the porous layer, the aluminum alloy can be vapor-deposited in one or several process steps while a protective gas such as, for example nitrogen, is introduced. This is, in particular, advantageous during the last process segment for the stabilization of the crystalline structure.
Depending on the desired results, the aluminum alloy is advantageously vapor-deposited at a foil temperature between 50° C. and 300° C.
A further increase of the capacitance can he attained if, after the vapor deposition and oxidation, the aluminum foil is subjected to a heat treatment for a given length of time of, for example, approximately 1 to 3 hours, for example in air or an inert gas atmosphere at a given elevated temperature of, for example 350 to 500° C. For example, argon can serve as the inert gas.
It is further proposed with the invention to subject the aluminum foil after the temperature treatment to a repeated oxidation.
As the substrate, for example, an aluminum foil with a percentage purity of approximately 99.5 is suitable.
Good values for the capacitances were attained in particular if the aluminum alloy comprises a fraction of valve metal between approximately 20 and 40%.
To heat and vaporize alloy metals disposed in one or several melting crucibles, for example, an electron beam is used with an energy adaptable appropriately to the particular metals. In this way, a uniform deposition of the alloy on the aluminum foil is obtained.
The invention relates also to anodes which have been produced according to the previously discussed process, as well as to electrolytic capacitors with such anodes.
The following Table shows the results of comparison experiments for aluminum foils of conventional type and aluminum foils according to the invention with Al—Ti or Al—Ta alloy coating with the alloys being anodized at constant growth rate under identical experimental conditions and at the identical final voltage Vf=22 V. It can be seen that higher capacitance values for aluminum foils with Al—Ta alloy coating or Al—Ti alloy coatings were attained, wherein the tantalum content was approximately 35%, and the titanium content was approximately 20 to 40%. Evident are also the still higher capacitance valves measured on samples after the heat treatment. To some extent, a doubling of the capacitance values resulted.
Physicochemical examination of the dielectricity films by means of photocurrent and electrochemical impedance spectrometry showed that the mixed oxide films behave like insulators with relatively large band intervals and very low dielectricity losses. The large band interval values, low dielectric losses in a wide frequency range (1 to 1.5 kHz) and better chemical stability of the mixed oxides in aqueous solutions, in comparison to an aluminum oxide, make the use of the films as dielectrica for electrolytic capacitors especially suitable.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The sole FIGURE shows schematically a vapor deposition of the aluminum alloy on an aluminum foil with reference to an embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An aluminum foil 1 is clamped into a guidance device 2 with a multiplicity of large deflection rollers 3 and small deflection rollers 4 . Between the particular deflection rollers 3 , 4 are disposed flat foil sections 5 a , 5 b , 6 a , 6 b , 6 c , and 7 a , 7 b , 7 c , which are each exposed to a metal vapor beam 8 . The metal vapor beam is generated by vaporizing alloy metals in one or several melting crucibles 9 . For this purpose, an electron beam 10 is guided such that it heats the alloy metals in all melting crucibles 9 simultaneously, and the electron beam can impinge on the different alloy metals at different energies. Through suitable arrangement of the melting crucibles 9 , a uniform distribution of the alloy on the aluminum foil 1 can be attained with tolerances in the range of ±5%.
During the vapor deposition of the alloy, the aluminum foil 1 is moved in a direction indicated by arrow A such that the aluminum foil 1 passes through all of the foil sections 5 a to 7 c. In the first process segment comprising the foil sections 5 a and 5 b, in two successive process steps, a first thin adhering layer with first crystallization nuclei is vapor-deposited with an angle of incidence between the metal vapor beam 8 and the surface normal (a direction normal to the surface) of the aluminum foil 1 in each instance being greater than 75°. By deflecting the aluminum foil 1 with a large deflection roller 3 about approximately 330° between the foil sections 5 a and 5 b, it is attained that the angles of incidence in the plane of incidence identical with the cutting plane are distributed on both sides of the surface normal in order to obtain a symmetrical structure of the crystallization nuclei. With a further large deflection roller 3 , the foil is carried to the foil section 6 a. In order for the large deflection roller 3 not to be exposed directly to the metal vapor beam 8 , the aluminum foil 1 is guided with two small deflection rollers 4 about the deflection roller 3 such that it is nearly completely encompassed by the aluminum foil 1 and is not exposed to the metal vapor beam 8 .
In the second process segment with the foil sections 6 a to 6 c (three process steps) dendritic crystals forming a porous portion of the layer are intended to grow. For this purpose, the metal vapor beam 8 impinges at medium angles of incidence between 40° and 60° on the aluminum foil 1 so that the crystals do not become too small since they otherwise oxidize completely during the structuring and do not participate in the capacitive structure. In the second process segment, the angles of incidence are also in the plane of incidence on both sides of the surface normal since crystals formed in this way are largest.
The third process segment comprises the foil sections 7 a to 7 c which are disposed in the form of a cupola. Between the foil sections 7 a and 7 b, and 7 b and 7 c, respectively, directly beneath the aluminum foil 1 are disposed gas immission openings 11 from which in suitable doses flows a protective gas, which in the present embodiment example is nitrogen. The nitrogen is captured by the metal vapor beam 8 just before application onto the aluminum foil 1 and covers the dendritic crystals with a protective nitrite layer which increases the mechanical stability of the porous layer.
On the back side of the aluminum foil 1 , not exposed to the metal vapor beam 8 , heating elements (not shown) are disposed in order to heat the aluminum foil 1 to a temperature between 50° and 300° at which temperature, the formation of the dendritic crystals preferably occurs. Via the deflection rollers 3 , 4 the aluminum foil 1 , if appropriate, can be cooled should this be necessary for a process segment.
The rate of transport of the aluminum foil 1 which affects also the temperature of the aluminum foil, is adjusted such that the thickness of the porous layer is between 0.5 μm and 5 μm.
With the method of vapor deposition according to the invention, surface increase factors between 20 and 40 have been achieved compared to a smooth aluminum foil.
The process according to the invention for generating anode foils for the production of electrolytic capacitors is to be preferred, not only from the industrial aspect but also from the standpoint of environmental protection, compared to those produced from known foils since they make superfluous the initial electrochemical etching which entails handling dangerous chemicals, large quantities of waste water and aluminum oxide powder.
Through the greater roughness attained due to the vapor deposition technique, the use of alloys with valve metals as well as that of thermal treatment succeeding the anodic oxidation and repeated anodic oxidation, aluminum foils for capacitors are proposed which represent a considerable improvement relative to the techniques used until now.
C 22v after 2
at 500° in air
and repeated
Fraction M
C 22v after 2 h
anodic
Estimated
% in
C 22v
at 500° in air
oxidation
oxide band
Sample (a)
Aluminum
i[mA/cm 2 ]
[μF/Cm 2 ]
[μF/cm 2 ]
[μF/cm 2 ]
interval [eV]
Al
0
0.21
0.26
/
/
6.3
Al-Ta
33.64
0.30
0.50
0.53
0.53
4.25
Al-Ti
39.70
0.40
0.48
0.75
0.67
3.87
Al-Ti
23.16
0.30
0.36
0.47
0.42
3.74
(a) Roughness factor
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An anode for an electrolytic capacitor includes aluminum foil as a substrate. On the aluminum foil is an alloy including aluminum and a further metal whose oxide has a higher dielectric constant than aluminum oxide. This alloy increases the surface roughness and is in vapor deposited in vacuum in several process steps at different angles of incident. A porous layer thereby is formed and a subsequent anodic oxidation is carried out.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/004,732, filed Jan. 11, 2011, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,361,430, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/335,707, filed Jan. 12, 2010, and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
FIELD
This disclosure relates generally to the field of graphene, functional graphene, and nanocomposites. Specifically, this disclosure relates to new, cost-effective methods of producing graphene and related materials.
BACKGROUND
The discovery of graphene in 2004 has sparked enormous scientific interest. This interest is largely due to the very interesting properties of graphene, which include an extremely large surface area (˜2630 m 2 g −1 ), high intrinsic mobility (˜200,000 cm 2 V −1 s −1 ), high Young's modulus (˜1 TPa), thermal conductivity (˜5,000 Wm −1 K −1 ), and optical transmittance (˜97.7%).
This suite of properties is superior to those observed for carbon nanotubes. In the case of carbon nanotubes, similar interest was generated when they were first discovered. The dream of new materials from carbon nanotubes has largely been unfulfilled due to the high cost of producing the carbon nanotubes. This same high cost situation currently exists with graphene. The original discovery of graphene utilized the sticky tape method. This method obviously can only be used for research purposes. A second method involves the epitaxial growth of SiC followed by thermal treatment to produce a layer of graphene. Chemical vapor deposition has also been shown to grow graphene on copper substrates. A wet chemical method of producing graphene involves the strong oxidation of graphite to produce graphene oxide followed by strong chemical reduction. The most promising known process is the graphene oxide; however, it begins with an expensive starting material. Another route to nanostructured materials and graphene is a method involving pyrolysis of polymers. In a slightly different approach to the exfoliation of graphite, supercritical fluids are utilized to accomplish exfoliation. A method for producing dispersions of graphite, graphite oxide and some graphene has been reported by utilizing ultrasound and surfactants. All of these processes are expensive and difficult to scale up to industrial scale.
Two of the critical properties of graphene are its strength and high surface area. If graphene can be fully exfoliated in polymers, the resulting nanocomposite may exhibit extraordinary strength. It may also potentially impart high electrical and thermal conductivity. There have been a number of patents reportedly utilizing graphene to make such nanocomposites. These composites, however, have not produced extraordinary property improvements.
SUMMARY
Therefore, it is an object of this disclosure to provide a new method of producing graphene, functional graphenes, and related nanocomposites having desired material properties.
This disclosure includes a process that unexpectedly can produce very inexpensive graphene and a new series of functionalized graphenes where the edges of the graphene have ester or amide groups or hydroxyls as a compound called graphenol in particulate or dispersions in solvents. The process can also produce graphene layers on metallic and nonmetallic substrates. Further, the graphenol, functional graphenes, and graphene can be utilized to form nanocomposites that yield mechanical property improvements exceeding anything reported previously.
These and other advantages of the disclosed subject matter, as well as additional novel features, will be apparent from the description provided herein. The intent of this summary is not to be a comprehensive description of the subject matter, but rather to provide a short overview of some of the subject matter's functionality. Other systems, methods, features and advantages here provided will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following FIGURES and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages included within this description, be within the scope of the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The features, nature, and advantages of the disclosed subject matter will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 shows an idealized structure of humic acid from soil;
FIGS. 2A and 2B show scanning electron micrographs of graphenol produced in accordance with the present disclosure;
FIG. 3 shows a screenshot of an atomic force microscopy analysis of a graphenol particle;
FIG. 4 shows a screenshot of an X-ray photoelectron spectrum analysis of humic acid;
FIG. 5 shows a screenshot of an X-ray photoelectron spectrum analysis of humic acid after reduction with hydrazine;
FIG. 6 shows a screenshot of an X-ray photoelectron spectrum analysis of humic acid after reduction with hydrazine and pyrolysis;
FIG. 7 shows an idealized structure of graphene oxide;
FIG. 8 shows an idealized structure of humic acid extracted from leonardite, lignite, or peat; and
FIG. 9 shows an idealized structure of graphenol.
FIG. 10 shows an idealized structure of an ester functionalized graphene.
FIG. 11 shows an idealized structure of an amide functionalized graphene.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Although described with reference to specific embodiments, one skilled in the art could apply the principles discussed herein to other areas and/or embodiments.
Those with skill in the art will recognize that the disclosed embodiments have relevance to a wide variety of areas in addition to those specific examples described below.
It has been discovered unexpectedly that graphene and a new family of edge functionalized graphenes and a hydroxyl functional compound, called graphenol, can be made from naturally occurring extracts from natural materials such as lignite, leonardite, peats, etc. (referred to generally as carbonaceous materials). The following is an overview of the disclosed process for producing graphenol and graphene:
First, the humic acid portion of a carbonaceous material is extracted with a strong base The solution is filtered and then reduced chemically with hydrazine or elemental hydrogen The graphenol solution is then passed through an ion exchange resin to remove the cations of the base (or if ammonium hydroxide is used as the base, heating may be used to expel ammonia and water) In the final step, the graphenol may be converted to graphene by pyrolysis under argon and/or an argon/hydrogen mixture at above approximately 400° C. Alternatively the dissolved humic acid can be precipitated by addition of acid separated dried and then can be reacted with either alcohols or amines to form esters or amides respectively The solid leonardite, lignite or peat can be reacted directly with alcohols or amines to form esters or amides which are dispersible in organic solvents
The disclosed process for producing functionalized graphenes, graphenol and graphene starts with leonardite, lignite, peat, or another suitable carbonaceous material as a naturally occurring source of humic acid. Leonardite is a highly oxidized lignite coal that occurs in large deposits in North Dakota and many other geographical locations around the world. Leonardite is normally associated with lignite deposits and is thought to be highly oxidized lignite. This leonardite typically contains a humic-acid-like material that constitutes approximately 75-85% of its mass. Lignite and peat generally contain smaller amounts of humic acid.
Humic acid is a soil term that is the organic portion contained in soil that is extractable in strong base and precipitates in acid solution. “Humic acid” does not refer to a single compound; the structure is very dependent on the source. Soil scientists have proposed a generalized structure that focuses mainly on the identifiable functionalities that render humic acid soluble in base. This is illustrated as structure 100 in FIG. 1 . Generally, the humic acid in soil is of low molecular weight and if reduced would only yield molecules of very small lateral dimensions.
The humic acid in leonardite is different from soil humic acid in that it has many more fused rings in the interior, and the molecular weight is much higher. Surprisingly, the molecular weights appear to be so large that the base extracted material is actually a colloidal suspension. Conventional molecular weight determinations have not recognized this and therefore would have drawn the conclusion that reduction of these base extracts would only yield low molecular weight compounds.
This material is extracted utilizing a strong base. The most common bases used in this step are sodium, potassium or ammonium hydroxides. Any strong base may be used, but the critical factor is that the carboxylic acid functionality must be converted to a carboxylate ion, which results in the formation of stable suspensions.
The next step is to chemically reduce the carboxylic acids of the dissolved humic acid or to esterify or convert the carboxylate to an amide. The reduction step has been accomplished in two ways. The conversion to esters or amides can be done in many ways and with a great variety of alcohols and amines.
The first reduction method is accomplished by placing the solution of humic acid in a pressure reactor with a hydrogenation catalyst or catalysts and then purging the vessel with argon followed by hydrogen. The vessel thus charged with the humic acid solution, catalysts, and hydrogen is then heated and stirred to effect the reduction of the carboxylic groups into alcoholic groups on the humic acid. The solution is then filtered or centrifuged to remove the catalysts. The degree of reduction may be tested at this point by acidifying the solution. If the humic acid has residual carboxylic acid groups, it will precipitate as the pH is lowered below approximately 2-3. At this stage, the nanoparticles are what we call “graphenol,” which is believed to be a novel compound. These colloidal suspensions are very stable and have remained suspended for months in the laboratory. Samples of solution from this step were spin coated onto mica and imaged with a scanning electron microscope, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B . The size of the graphenol flakes was quite surprising and was completely unexpected. This can be illustrated by calculating the molecular weight of a graphene particle that is one atom thick and 0.5 microns in the other two dimensions. The molecular weight would be ˜170,000,000, which is much larger than any molecular weights reported for humic acids.
The second method utilizes hydrazine as the reductant. In this method the humic acid is either extracted using a strong base solution or dimethylformamide and then treated with hydrazine. The characterization of this material again indicates that it is graphenol. This method may be less advantageous industrially due to the toxicity of hydrazine, but it illustrates the fact that the reduction step can be carried out utilizing a number of reducing agents.
FIG. 7 shows an idealized structure of graphene oxide (GO). As can be seen, the conjugated structure of double bonds has been destroyed by phenolic groups 300 and epoxide groups 302 . The result of this is that graphene oxide dispersions exhibit a light amber color. When GO is chemically reduced the suspensions become quite black because much of the conjugated aromatic structure is restored. It is clear however that the structure retains some defects since electrical conductivity is never recovered completely.
FIG. 8 shows an idealized structure of humic acid extracted from leonardite, lignite, peat, or another suitable carbonaceous material. The structure of this humic acid appears to be different from GO. As shown, the conjugate aromatic core is intact, and the edges are studded with carboxylic acid groups 306 , phenol groups 308 and aldehyde of ketone groups 310 . This structure is consistent with the very black color of base extracted solutions of humic acid derived from leonardite. It is quite different from humic acid derived from soil. The reduction of the structure in FIG. 8 results in the new compound that we call graphenol.
FIG. 9 shows the idealized graphenol structure and illustrates that the carboxylic groups 306 have been converted to alcohol groups 312 . The core is unchanged and affords the ability to conduct chemistry only at the edges which could yield strong interactions in composites.
The dispersion of graphenol from either process is then passed through a strong acid ion exchange resin in the acid form to remove the cations from the base utilized to dissolve the carbonaceous material. Alternatively, if ammonium hydroxide is used, the ammonia may be driven off by heating. In order to produce graphene, the ion exchanged solution of graphenol is dried and then placed in a furnace under an atmosphere of argon, typically at between approximately 400 to 800° C. The product from this step appears to be graphene, as can be seen in FIG. 6 . In this step the reduction can be accelerated by including a small partial pressure of hydrogen in the argon. The main methods of identifying the graphene include X-ray diffraction, SEM, AFM, and four point probe resistance measurements. At this step, the typical X-ray diffraction peak appears for graphite and becomes stronger the higher the temperature and the length of pyrolysis.
Further analysis of these flakes with atomic force microscopy (AFM) as shown in FIG. 3 demonstrates that the thickness of these particles is in the range of approximately 0.3 to 0.7 nanometers. The thickness of graphenol flake 102 is shown in AFM graph 104 along axis 106 . The Fourier transform of graph 104 is shown in spectrum 108 . One sheet of graphene is nominally 0.34 nanometers. Based on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared spectroscopy (IR), this material is a new compound we call graphenol. In graphenol, the carboxylic groups have been reduced to alcohol groups and any phenolic groups originally present still exist.
FIGS. 4-6 compare the XPS of leonardite humic acid and that of graphenol. FIG. 4 shows the spectrum of humic acid; FIG. 5 shows the spectrum of humic acid reduced with hydrazine; and FIG. 6 shows the spectrum of humic acid reduced with hydrazine and then pyrolyzed at 370° C. (i.e. graphenol).
It can be seen in FIG. 6 that most of the carboxylic acid groups have been eliminated and the largest peak is C—OH peak. The IR spectrum (not shown) contains a large peak at around 3600 cm −1 , which is characteristic of OH.
The hydrogenation catalysts that have been tested so far include Raney nickel, copper chromium oxide, and ruthenium oxide. It appears that all of these catalysts work equally well, but any hydrogenation catalysts can be employed in the process.
An alternative method of producing graphene that has also been discovered involves:
First extracting leonardite, lignite, or peat with a strong base or dimethylformamide to create a dispersion of humic acid Coating a substrate to form a thin film of the humic acid Drying the film Pyrolysis of the film under argon or argon/hydrogen at 400 to 800° C.
This process forms a thin layer of graphene on the substrate. In this process, one possible base is ammonium hydroxide dissolved in a water/alcohol mixture. The alcohol minimizes the “coffee stain” effect typically seen with just water solutions. Some alcohols known to be effective at this stage are methanol, ethanol and propanol. The ammonium hydroxide is advantageous as a base because in the drying step it can be evaporated away. Possible substrates are copper or nickel foils, but quartz, mica, or other suitable materials may also be used.
The graphenol particles are dispersible in polar liquids such as water or small alcohols. It is advantages to have functional graphenes that are dispersible in nonpolar organic solvents. It has been discovered that by reacting the humic acid extracted from lignite, leonardite, or peat with long chain alcohols or amines can be converted to hydrophobic functionalized functional graphenes that are dispersible in nonpolar organic solvents. FIG. 10 illustrates the structure when an alcohol is reacted with the humic acid to form an esterified graphene and FIG. 11 illustrates the structure formed when an amine is reacted with the humic acid to form an amide.
It has further been discovered that the graphenol, functionalized graphenes, or graphene particles can be dispersed and exfoliated into polymer systems and produce nanocomposites that exhibit improvements in physical properties never seen in clay or carbon nanotube polymer composites. The process of making these composites can be done in several different ways. The first method is to dissolve the polymer in a suitable solvent followed by dispersion of the graphenol, functionalized graphenes, or graphene with subsequent casting of films by removal of solvent. The second method is mainly applicable to the water dispersions of graphenol or solvent dispersions of the functionalized graphenes. In this method the graphenol dispersion is mixed with a polymer latex and then films are cast by letting the solvent evaporate. The third method involves the melt compounding of graphenol, functionalized graphenes, or graphene particles directly into the polymer melt in a high shear extruder. A fourth method is to incorporate the graphenol or graphene into the monomer system prior to polymerization and then to polymerize the polymer in the presence of the graphenol, functionalized graphene, or graphene. Finally, the fifth method is to disperse the graphenol, functionalized graphenes, or graphene into one component of a thermoset resin such as an epoxy or urethane.
For the sake of concreteness, the following nine examples are provided.
Example 1
Four grams of Agro-lig, a ground leonardite sample obtained from American Colloid Company, was dissolved in 400 mls. of 0.01 molar ammonium hydroxide. The solution was then filtered through a Gelman filter with pore size of 0.2 microns. The solution was charged into a 2 liter Parr pressure reactor along with 3 grams of Cu 1950P that had previously been activated. The system was then purged three times with 200 psi of hydrogen. It was then pressurized to 320 psi of hydrogen and heated for 23 hours at 150° C. The catalyst was removed by filtration. The resulting colloidal suspension was stable even at low pH, indicating that all the acid functional groups had been reduced to alcoholic groups. Spin coated samples of this solution were imaged with SEM and AFM and demonstrated that carbonaceous sheets that are 1 to 2 atomic layers thick and with lateral dimensions in the micron range were produced.
Example 2
Two grams of Ago-lig were dissolved in 300 mls. of dimethylformamide and 32 mls. of water. Twenty mls. of hydrazine were added and the mixture placed in a round bottom flask equipped with a reflux column. The mixture was refluxed at 100° C. for 14 hours. The resulting colloidal suspension was stable even at low pH indicating that all the acid functional groups had been reduced to alcoholic groups. Spin coated samples of this solution were imaged with SEM and AFM and demonstrated that carbonaceous sheets that are 1 to 2 atomic layers thick and with lateral dimensions in the micron range were produced.
Example 3
Four grams of Agro-lig, a ground leonardite sample obtained from American Colloid Company, was dissolved in 400 mls. of 0.01 molar sodium hydroxide. The solution was then filtered through a Gelman filter with pore size of 0.2 microns. The solution was charged into a 2 liter Parr pressure reactor along with 3 grams of Raney nickel that had previously been activated. The system was then purged three times with 200 psi of hydrogen. It was then pressurized to 740 psi of hydrogen and heated for 23 hours at 150° C. The catalyst was removed by filtration. The resulting colloidal suspension was stable even at low pH, indicating that all the acid functional groups had been reduced to alcoholic groups. The solution was passed through a column of strong acid ion exchange resin to remove the sodium cations. Spin coated samples of this solution were imaged with SEM and AFM and demonstrated that carbonaceous sheets that are 1 to 2 atomic layers thick and with lateral dimensions in the micron range were produced.
Example 4
Four grams of Agro-lig, a ground leonardite sample obtained from American Colloid Company, was dissolved in 400 mls. of 0.01 molar alcoholic ammonium hydroxide. The base solution was made in a 1:1 ratio of water and ethyl alcohol. The solution was then filtered through a Gelman filter with pore size of 0.2 microns. This solution was then spin coated onto copper and nickel foils. The spin coated samples were then air dried. The samples were then heated in a tube furnace at 600° C. under an atmosphere of argon containing 5% by volume hydrogen. The samples were then cooled and the resulting samples contained a film of graphene-like material covering the foil surface.
Example 5
The solution from example 1 was dried in air and ground to 325 mesh powder. The powder was then heated in a tube furnace under an atmosphere of argon containing 5% by volume of hydrogen for 5 hours at 700° C. The resulting powder was confirmed to be graphene by X-ray diffraction, XPS, and AFM.
Example 6
The solution from example 3 was mixed with a solution containing 1% polyvinyl alcohol. The solution was then cast to form a film containing 0.27% of the graphenol nanoparticles. The resulting composite yielded a modulus that was almost 5 times that of the pure polymer. The pure polymer had a tensile modulus of 164 mPa and the composite 780 mPa.
Example 7
A 2 gram sample of leonardite was mixed with 6 grams of steryl amine and heated to 140° C. for ten minutes. The resulting reaction mixture was then dispersed in tetrahydrofuran and filtered. The conversion of the humic acid to the amide is confirmed by the fact that the reaction mixture dispersed in the THF. Humic acid will not disperse in THF at all due to the polarity of the carboxylic groups. The resulting dispersion was a very dark brown liquid that appeared to be transparent but when exposed to a red laser beam exhibited the Tyndall effect which demonstrates that it is actually a colloidal dispersion of functionalized graphene. A sample of the dispersion was spin coated onto freshly cleaved mica and imaged with SEM and showed very clearly the plates of functionalized graphene.
Example 8
A I gram sample of leonardite was dissolved in 100 mls. Of pH 10 NaOH. The resulting solution was filtered to remove nonhumic acid components. The sample was then adjusted to pH 2 to precipitate the humic acid. The sample was rinsed and dried). 5 grams of the purified humic acid was mixed with one gram of steryl amine and heated for 30 minutes at 135° C. The resulting reaction mixture was then dispersed in toluene. The resulting solution was dark brown and exhibited the Tyndall effect. The solution was spin coated on a silicon wafer and imaged in an SEM. The presence of plates of functionalized graphene of average dimensions 300 nanometers was confirmed.
Example 9
A I gram sample of leonardite was dissolved in 100 mls. Of pH 10 NaOH. The resulting solution was filtered to remove nonhumic acid components. The sample was then adjusted to pH 2 to precipitate the humic acid. The sample was rinsed and dried). 5 grams of the purified humic acid was mixed with one gram of steryl alcohol and heated for 30 minutes at 150° C. The resulting reaction mixture was then dispersed in toluene. The resulting solution was dark brown and exhibited the Tyndall effect. The solution was spin coated on a silicon wafer and imaged in an SEM. The presence of plates of functionalized graphene of average dimensions 300 nanometers was confirmed.
The foregoing description of the exemplary embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the disclosed subject matter. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without the use of the innovative faculty. Thus, the subject matter claimed is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.
It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages that are included within this description, be within the scope of the claims.
Alternatively the carbonaceous material can be reacted with alcohols or amines to form esters or amides by two processes.
The first is to heat the carbonaceous material directly with either an alcohol or an amine through a condensation reaction to form an ester or amide.
The second is to first dissolve the carbonaceous material in base followed by filtration and subsequent precipitation with acid. The precipitate is washed and dried. The thus purified humic acid can then be reacted with alcohols or amines to form esters or amides.
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This disclosure includes a process that unexpectedly can produce very inexpensive graphene, functionalized graphenes, and a new compound called graphenol in particulate or dispersions in solvents. The process can also produce graphene layers on metallic and nonmetallic substrates. Further, the graphenol, functionalized graphenes, and graphene can be utilized to form nanocomposites that yield property improvements exceeding anything reported previously.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/255,467, System For Preventing Improper Insertion of Foup Door Into Foup, by Anthony C. Bonora, Gary M. Gallagher, Michael Ng, filed Dec. 13, 2000, incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to front opening unified pods, or FOUPs, and in particular to FOUPs which include mechanisms for preventing the FOUP door from being improperly inserted into the FOUP.
2. Description of Related Art
A SMIF system proposed by the Hewlett-Packard Company is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,532,970 and 4,534,389. The purpose of a SMIF system is to reduce particle fluxes onto semiconductor wafers during storage and transport of the wafers through the semiconductor fabrication process. This purpose is accomplished, in part, by mechanically ensuring that during storage and transport, the gaseous media (such as air or nitrogen) surrounding the wafers is essentially stationary relative to the wafers, and by ensuring that particles from the ambient environment do not enter the immediate wafer environment.
A SMIF system has three main components: (1) minimum volume, sealed pods used for storing and transporting wafers and/or wafer cassettes; (2) an input/output (I/O) minienvironment located on a semiconductor processing tool to provide a miniature clean space (upon being filled with clean air) in which exposed wafers and/or wafer cassettes may be transferred to and from the interior of the processing tool; and (3) an interface for transferring the wafers and/or wafer cassettes between the SMIF pods and the SMIF minienvironment without exposure of the wafers or cassettes to particulates. Further details of one proposed SMIF system are described in the paper entitled “SMIF: A TECHNOLOGY FOR WAFER CASSETTE TRANSFER IN VLSI MANUFACTURING,” by Mihir Parikh and Ulrich Kaempf, Solid State Technology , July 1984, pp. 111-115.
Systems of the above type are concerned with particle sizes which range from below 0.02 microns (μm) to above 200 μm. Particles with these sizes can be very damaging in semiconductor processing because of the small geometries employed in fabricating semiconductor devices. Typical advanced semiconductor processes today employ geometries which are one-half μm and under. Unwanted contamination particles which have geometries measuring greater than 0.1 μm substantially interfere with 1 μm geometry semiconductor devices. The trend, of course, is to have smaller and smaller semiconductor processing geometries which today in research and development labs approach 0.1 μm and below. In the future, geometries will become smaller and smaller and hence smaller and smaller contamination particles and molecular contaminants become of interest.
FOUPs are in general comprised of a vertically oriented FOUP door which mates with a FOUP shell to provide a sealed, ultraclean interior environment in which wafers may be stored and transferred. The wafers are supported either in a cassette which may be inserted into the shell, or to shelves mounted to the interior of the shell.
In order to transfer wafers between a FOUP and a process tool within a wafer fab, a pod is typically loaded (either manually or automatedly) onto a load port on a front of the tool so that the pod door lies adjacent the port door of the process tool. Thereafter, latch keys within the port door engage a latch assembly within the FOUP door to decouple the FOUP door from the FOUP, and at the same time couple the FOUP door to the port door. Details relating to such a latch assembly within a pod door are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,430, entitled “Sealable Transportable Container Having Improved Latch Mechanism”, to Bonora et al., which patent is owned by the assignee of the present application. The assembly disclosed therein includes a two-stage latching operation to securely latch a pod door to a pod shell as shown in prior art FIGS. 1 and 2 A- 2 B. The latch assembly is mounted within the pod door, and includes a latch hub 28 which engages first and second translating latch plates 30 . The port door includes a pair of latch keys that extend into slots 13 formed in the latch hub to thereby rotate the latch hubs clockwise and counterclockwise. Rotation of each latch hub 28 will cause translation of the first and second latch plates 30 in opposite directions.
FIG. 1 is a front view of an interior of the pod door illustrating the latch assembly in the first stage of the door latching operation. When a pod door is returned from its engagement with the port door to the pod, the latch keys within the port door rotate the latch hub 28 to thereby translate the latch plates 30 outwardly so that latch fingers 14 on the distal ends of the latch plates 30 extend in the direction of arrows A into slots 15 formed in the pod shell. The slots 15 conventionally include a transverse wall 17 formed in the pod shell which divides the slot generally in half. The fingers 14 include a space 19 which aligns over the wall 17 when the fingers 14 are received within the slots 15 .
FIG. 2A is a side view through line 2 — 2 of the latch assembly shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2B is a side view as in FIG. 2A but illustrating the second stage of the door latching operation. In particular, the latch hub 28 further includes a pair of ramps 40 so that, after the fingers 14 have engaged within the slots 15 of the pod shell, further rotation of the hub causes the proximal ends 32 of the latch plates engaged with the hub to ride up the ramps. This causes the latch plates to pivot in the direction of arrows B, about axes lying in the plane of each latch plate and perpendicular to the direction of latch plate translation. The effect of this pivoting during the second stage is to pull the pod door tightly against the pod shell to thereby provide a firm, airtight seal between the pod door and shell.
In order to separate a pod door from a pod shell, as when a pod is initially loaded onto a load port interface for wafer transfer, mechanisms within the port door engage the rotatable hub 28 and rotate the hub in the opposite direction than for pod latching. This rotation disengages the latch fingers 14 from the pod shell and allows separation of the pod door from the pod shell.
The Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (“SEMI”) standard relating to FOUP doors requires that the positions of the door mounting features, i.e., the rotatable latch hubs, the fingers on the latch plates and the slots in the FOUP shell, be symmetrical about a horizontal axis. The authors of the standard believed it would be convenient to allow the FOUP door to be inserted into the FOUP right side up or up side down. However, as it turns out, this symmetry of the mounting mechanisms about the horizontal axis provides a significant disadvantage as explained with reference to FIG. 3 .
FIG. 3 shows a FOUP 20 housing a plurality of wafers 21 . The FOUP door 22 is conventionally provided with a plurality of protrusions 23 defining a plurality of recesses 24 therebetween. The position of the protrusions 23 and recesses 24 are precision controlled so that upon insertion of the FOUP door 22 into FOUP 20 , the wafers 21 within the FOUP seat within recesses 24 to prevent the wafers 21 from getting dislodged. However, if the FOUP door is inserted up side down, the wafers 21 may not align within recesses 24 , and instead the protrusions 23 may contact the wafers 21 . This is true because in a conventional FOUP, a distance X between a top wafer and the top interior surface of the FOUP is different than a distance Y between the bottom wafer and the bottom interior surface of the FOUP, and thus the position of the protrusions and recesses are not symmetrical about the horizontal axis. Contact between the protrusions on the port door and the wafers can result in damage and/or destruction of each of the wafers within the FOUP. Thus, for 300 mm semiconductor wafers, an improper seating of the FOUP door in the FOUP can result insignificant monetary losses.
The error in loading a FOUP door into a FOUP up side down frequently occurs when the FOUP door is manually returned to an empty FOUP. For example, after FOUPs go through a cleaning process, technicians often manually return the FOUP door to the FOUP. FOUP doors are currently marked with an indicator as to which is the top and bottom side of a FOUP door. However, this marking is often overlooked or not understood when a FOUP door is manually inserted into the FOUP.
The empty FOUP including the up side down door is subsequently transferred to a load port. As indicated above, conventional load ports operate to transfer the FOUP door to and from the FOUP regardless of whether the door is up side down or right side up. Thus, upon arrival at the load port, the up side down FOUP door is removed as usual and wafers are loaded into the FOUP. However, upon the subsequent return of the FOUP door to the FOUP by the load port, the up side down door is driven into contact with the wafers, and damage and/or destruction of the wafers can occur.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an advantage of the present invention to provide a system for preventing FOUP doors from improper insertion into a FOUP.
It is a further advantage of the present invention to provide a mechanical system which physically blocks a FOUP door from being improperly inserted into a FOUP thereby preventing damage to the wafers therein.
It is another advantage of the present invention to provide a mechanical system for preventing improper insertion of a FOUP door into a FOUP without altering or adding to the outer edges or surfaces of a sealed FOUP.
These and other advantages are provided by the present invention in which the size, shape and/or location of the latch plate fingers and corresponding slots at the top edge of the FOUP are different than the latch plate fingers and corresponding slots on the bottom edge of the FOUP. Thus, unless the FOUP is correctly oriented right side up upon insertion of the door to the FOUP, the door will not properly fit into the FOUP. Thus, when a sealed FOUP is received at a load port to receive wafers, the FOUP door is right side up and the danger of wafer damage due to an up side down FOUP door is removed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a prior art front view of the interior of a FOUP door and shell;
FIGS. 2A and 2B are prior art side views of the interior of a FOUP door and shell;
FIG. 3 is a prior art side view of the interior of a FOUP showing the recesses within the FOUP door for preventing semiconductor wafers from becoming dislodged when the FOUP is sealed;
FIG. 4 is a front view of the interior of a FOUP door and shell according to the present invention including asymmetric top and bottom mounting features;
FIG. 5 is a front view of the interior of a FOUP door and shell showing how the mounting features of FIG. 4 prevent coupling of an up side down FOUP door into a FOUP;
FIG. 6 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing an alternative embodiment of the asymmetric mounting features for preventing improper insertion of a FOUP door into a FOUP;
FIG. 7 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing how the mounting features of FIG. 6 prevent an up side down FOUP door from being coupled to the FOUP;
FIG. 8 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing asymmetric mounting features according to a further alternative embodiment of the present invention for preventing improper coupling of a FOUP door into a FOUP;
FIG. 9 is a cross section view through line 9 — 9 of FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is a cross section view through line 10 — 10 of FIG. 8;
FIG. 11 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing how the mounting features of FIG. 8 prevent an up side down FOUP door from being coupled to the FOUP;
FIG. 12 is a cross section view through line 12 — 12 of FIG. 11;
FIG. 13 is a cross section view through line 13 — 13 of FIG. 11;
FIG. 14 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing asymmetric mounting features according to a further alternative embodiment of the present invention for preventing improper coupling of a FOUP door into a FOUP;
FIG. 15 is a cross section view through line 15 — 15 of FIG. 14;
FIG. 16 is a cross section view through line 16 — 16 of FIG. 14;
FIG. 17 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing how the mounting features of FIG. 14 prevent an up side down FOUP door from being coupled to the FOUP;
FIG. 18 is a cross section view through line 18 — 18 of FIG. 17;
FIG. 19 is a cross section view through line 19 — 19 of FIG. 17;
FIG. 20 is a side view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing a further alternative embodiment of the present invention for preventing improper coupling of a FOUP door into a FOUP;
FIG. 21 is a side view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing the embodiment of FIG. 20 prevents an up side down FOUP door from being coupled to the FOUP; and
FIG. 22 is a front view of an interior of a FOUP door and shell showing a further alternative embodiment of the present invention for preventing improper coupling of a FOUP door into a FOUP.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 4-22 which in preferred embodiments relate to a mechanical system for preventing improper insertion of a FOUP door into a FOUP. While the present invention is described with respect to a FOUP for housing 300 mm semiconductor wafers, it is understood that the present invention may be utilized on containers other than FOUPS and other than for housing semiconductor wafers. For example, the present invention may be utilized on bottom opening SMIF pods. Additionally, it is understood that the present invention may be utilized on containers housing workpieces such as reticles and flat panel displays. Moreover, while preferred embodiments of the invention relate to mechanical systems for physically preventing manual insertion of a FOUP door into a FOUP in an incorrect position, in an alternative embodiment, the present invention may operate with sensors to prevent automated insertion of a FOUP door into a FOUP in an incorrect position as explained hereinafter.
Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown a first embodiment of a FOUP according to the present invention including asymmetric top and bottom mounting features. The figure shows a FOUP door 22 fitting within a FOUP shell 25 (only the lower edge of which is shown in FIG. 4 ). With the exception of the latch plate fingers and slots in the FOUP shell described hereinafter, the latch assembly as used to advance and retract the fingers into and out of engagement with the pod shell are not critical to the present invention and they may vary in alternative embodiments. One such latch assembly for use with the present invention is as described in the Background of the Invention section including a two-stage latching operation. Those parts in the figures having like reference numerals to those described in the Background of the Invention section operate as described in the Background of the Invention section.
FIG. 4 further shows latch fingers 100 at the distal ends of the top latch plates 30 (reference to top, bottom, upper and lower herein refers to the perspective of the drawing sheets). The fingers 100 are sized and positioned to fit within respective slots 102 in the top edge of the pod shell upon actuation of latch hub 28 and advancing of the top latch plates 30 . The latch assembly further includes fingers 104 at the distal ends 34 of the bottom latch plates 30 . The fingers 104 are sized and configured to fit within respective slots 106 formed in a bottom edge of the FOUP shell. Fingers 104 and slots 106 may be as described in the Background of the Invention section, where slot 106 includes a transverse wall 108 which aligns with a space 110 when the lower latch plates 30 advance fingers 104 into slots 106 .
Referring now to FIG. 5, there is shown a FOUP door 22 which is being inserted up side down into the FOUP. As shown, when attempt is made to insert the FOUP door up side down, the fingers 104 are blocked and prevented from entering slots 102 at the top side of the FOUP, and fingers 100 are blocked (by wall 108 ) and prevented from entering slots 106 at the bottom of the FOUP. Thus, if attempt is made to insert the door into the FOUP up side down as shown in FIG. 5, the hub 28 will be prevented from rotating and the FOUP door will not couple to the FOUP.
In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, it is understood that the positions of the top fingers 100 and slots 102 on the one hand and the bottom fingers 104 and slots 106 on the other may be switched. It is further understood that other footprints and shapes of the fingers are contemplated than those shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, with the qualification that the top and bottom fingers fit in their respective slots when the FOUP door is properly seated in the FOUP and that at least one of the top pair and bottom pair not fit in the adjacent slot when the FOUP door is improperly seated in the FOUP.
Referring now to FIGS. 6 and 7, there is shown an alternative embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the shape of the four fingers 112 , 116 and slots 114 , 118 may be identical to each other, but the fingers may be positioned on the latch plates 30 so that the fingers 112 will fit in the slots 114 and the fingers 116 will fit in slots 118 only when the door is positioned right side up. For example, fingers 112 formed on latch plates 30 at the top of the FOUP may be positioned near to the sides of the FOUP, whereas the fingers 116 formed on the latch plates 30 on the bottom of the FOUP may be spaced relatively more inward from the sides of the FOUP. Similarly, the slots 114 in the shell at the top of the FOUP may be located near to the sides, and the slots 118 in the shell at the bottom of the FOUP may be spaced relatively more inward from the sides. In such an embodiment, when the FOUP door is correctly positioned right side up in the FOUP, the fingers at the top and bottom will properly align within the slots at the top and bottom. However, as shown in FIG. 7, when attempt is made to return the FOUP door 22 to the FOUP in an up side down position, the fingers 116 will not align with the slots 114 at the top of the FOUP and the fingers 112 will not align with the slots 118 at the bottom of the FOUP. As would be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the fingers 112 , 116 maybe placed at other positions on the latch plates than shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, with the provision that the fingers align with the slots when the FOUP door is inserted right side up and that the fingers not align with the slots when the FOUP door is inserted up side down.
Up to this point, the invention has been disclosed as varying the positions of the top fingers/slots relative to the bottom fingers/slots in a first dimension (i.e., left to right in the plane of the drawing sheets). However, it is further contemplated that the relative positions of the fingers/slots at the top of the FOUP may be varied relative to the positions of the fingers/slots at the bottom of the FOUP in a second direction (i.e., into and out of the plane of the drawing sheets). One such embodiment is shown in FIGS. 8-13. In this embodiment, the top latch plates may be angled downward from the proximal end to the distal end of the plate (i.e., into the drawing sheet) so that the fingers 120 fit into slots 122 at the bottom of the outer edge 128 in the FOUP shell when the FOUP door is inserted right side up. Similarly, the bottom latch plates may be angled upward from the proximal end to the distal end of the plate (i.e., out of the drawing sheet) so that the fingers 124 fit into slots 126 at the top of the outer edge 130 in the FOUP shell when the FOUP door is inserted right side up.
On the other hand, when the FOUP door 22 is inserted up side down, as shown in FIGS. 11-13, the fingers 124 do not align within slots 122 in the upper edge 128 and the fingers 120 do not align within slots 126 in the lower edge 130 .
In a further alternative embodiment shown in FIGS. 14 — 19 , the shape of the fingers and slots may be different in the top edge 128 than in the bottom edge 130 . For example, as shown in FIGS. 14-16, fingers 132 fit within slots 134 in the upper edge 128 , and fingers 136 fit within slots 138 at the bottom edge 130 , when the FOUP door 22 is seated in the proper position within the FOUP. However, as shown in FIGS. 17-19, when the FOUP door 22 is improperly positioned in the FOUP, the fingers 136 will not fit within slots 134 at the upper edge 128 of the FOUP, and the fingers 132 will not fit within slots 138 at the bottom edge 130 of the FOUP. It is understood that the shape of the fingers and slots in the upper and lower edges of the FOUP may vary from that shown in FIGS. 14-19 in alternative embodiments, with the provision that the shape of the upper and lower fingers correspond to the shapes of the upper and lower slots when the FOUP door is inserted right side up, and that the shape of the upper and/or lower fingers not fit within the adjacent slots when the FOUP door is inserted into the FOUP up side down.
Up to this point, improper insertion of the FOUP door into the FOUP has been prevented by asymmetric mounting mechanisms. However, the FOUP door may be mechanically blocked from mating within the FOUP by other mechanisms in alternative embodiments. One such embodiment is shown in FIGS. 20 and 21. In this embodiment, a pin 140 is fixedly mounted somewhere on the interior of the FOUP shell 25 in a position that does not interfere with the wafers being seated or transferred into and out of the FOUP. Such a position may be for example near the corners or sides of the FOUP. The pin 140 may extend out of the open end of the FOUP such that when the FOUP door 22 is properly seated in the FOUP, the pin 140 is received within a well 142 formed in the interior surface of the FOUP door. However, according to this embodiment, when attempt is made to insert the FOUP door up side down, the well 142 is now located at the opposite end of the FOUP as shown in FIG. 21, so that the pin 140 abuts against the interior surface of the FOUP door 22 to prevent the FOUP door 22 from mating within the FOUP. The pin is preferably formed of a low wear material to minimize particulate generation.
The preferred embodiments of the invention described above mechanically prevent a technician from manually coupling a FOUP door to a FOUP in an up side down position. Thus, when a FOUP is received at a load port, it is assured that the FOUP door is in the right side up position, and there is no danger that the FOUP door will contact wafers seated within the load port. It is understood that the various above-described embodiments may be combined with each other to further differentiate the upper fingers and slots from the lower fingers and slots.
In a further alternative embodiment, instead of mechanically preventing improper insertion of a FOUP door into a FOUP by a technician, various sensors may be provided at a load port for ensuring that the FOUP door is in the proper orientation before automated return of the FOUP door to the FOUP. For example, as shown in FIG. 22, a hole 150 may be provided through one of the latch plates 30 in the FOUP door. According to this embodiment, a surface in the FOUP door beneath the hole 150 may for example have a greater reflectance than the latch plates themselves. This embodiment may further include an optical sensor such as a retroreflective sensor mounted in the port door to emit a beam out of the port door to the FOUP. The retroreflective sensor is positioned so that, when the FOUP door is properly positioned right side up, the beam from the retroreflective sensor is transmitted through a transparent window (not shown) in the FOUP door cover, which beam passes through the hole 150 and is reflected back to the sensor. However, if the FOUP door is up side down, the beam will not be transmitted back to the sensor, and the controller can then identify that the FOUP door is in an up side down position and should not be returned to the FOUP. In an alternative to this embodiment, the FOUP door cover may itself have a reflective patch on the outer surface of the cover which aligns with an optical sensor in the port door as described above. In such an embodiment, when the FOUP door is properly positioned right side up, the signal from the optical sensor will be reflected back to the sensor from the reflective patch. However, if the FOUP door is up side down, the signal from the optical sensor will not be reflected back. Thus, the controller can determine whether or not the FOUP door is right side up or up side down and return or not return the FOUP door to the FOUP accordingly.
Although the invention has been described in detail herein, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments herein disclosed. Various changes, substitutions and modifications can be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.
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An apparatus for preventing improper engagement of a pod door and a pod. Specifically, misalignment of at least one latch finger connected t the pod door with latch engagement slots in the pod prevents a pod door from mechanically engaging a pod.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is entitled to the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/200,848 filed on Dec. 3, 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention is in the field of peptide synthesis related to treatment of diseases mediated by human relaxin, such as vasoconstriction, and in particular to the process of synthesizing the Chain B of relaxin and use thereof in the treatment of diseases mediated by relaxin.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Relaxin (RLX) is a low molecular weight protein of approximately 6,000 Da belonging to the insulin-growth factor family that circulates during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and throughout gestation in women. It is also produced by the prostate in men. RLX is also a pregnancy hormone in rats. In both species, circulating levels derive from the corpus luteum. Relaxin consists of two peptide chains, referred to as A and B, joined by disulfide bonds with an intra-chain disulfide loop in the A-chain in a manner analogous to that of insulin. Relaxin is synthesized in the corpora lutea of ovaries during pregnancy, and is released into the blood stream prior to parturition. The availability of ovarian tissue has enabled the isolation and amino acid sequence determination of relaxin from the pig (James et al (1977), Nature, 267, 554-546), the rat (John et al (1981) Endocrinology, 108, 726-729), and the shark (Schwabe et al (1982) Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 380, 6-12).
[0004] Three separate human relaxin genes have been identified and designated as H1 (Hudson et al (1983) Nature, 301, 628-631), H2 (Hudson et al (1984) Embo. J, 3, 2333-2339), and H3 (R. A. Bathgate et al. J. Biol. Chem. 277 (2002), pp. 1148-1157). The peptide encoded by the H2 gene is referred to as “relaxin” as it is the major stored and circulating form in the human (Winslow et al (1992) Endocrinology, 130, 2660-2668).
[0005] Evidence has accumulated to suggest that relaxin is more than a hormone of pregnancy and acts on cells and tissues other than those of the female reproductive system (E. D. Lekgabe et al., Endocrinology 147 (2006), pp. 5575-5583; I. Mookerjee et al., Endocrinology 147 (2006), pp. 754-761). Relaxin causes a widening of blood vessels (vasodilatation) in the kidney, mesocaecum, lung and peripheral vasculature, which leads to increased blood flow or perfusion rates in these tissues and stimulates an increase in heart rate and coronary blood flow, and increases both glomerular filtration rate and renal plasma flow (T. D. Hewitson et al., Endocrinology 148 (2007), pp. 660-669; Bani et al (1997) Gen. Pharmacol. 28, 13-22). The brain is another target tissue for relaxin where the peptide has been shown to bind to receptors (Osheroff et al (1991) Proc. NaI. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 88, 6413-6417; Tan et al (1999) Br. J. Pharmacol 127, 91-98) in the circumventricular organs to affect blood pressure and drinking (Parry et al (1990) J Neurodendocrinol 2, 53-58; Summerlee et al (1998) Endocrinology 139, 2322-2328; Sinnahay et al (1999) Endocrinology 140, 5082-5086).
[0006] Important clinical uses arise for relaxin in various diseases responding to vasodilation, such as coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, kidney disease associated with arteriosclerosis or other narrowing of kidney capillaries, or other capillaries narrowing in the body, such as in the eyes or in the peripheral digits, the mesocaecum, lung and peripheral vasculature (C. S. Samuel et al., Pharmacol. Ther. 112 (2006), pp. 529-552; S, Nistri et al., Cardiovasc. Hematol. Agents Med. Chem. 5 (2007), pp. 101-108; D. Bani and M. Bigazzi, Curr. Med. Chem .- IEMA 5 (2005), pp. 403-410; T. Dschietzig et al., Pharmacol. Ther. 112 (2006), pp. 38-56).
[0007] In view of the ongoing problems associated with hypertensive vascular disease, it is clear that there is a need in the art for additional means of treating hypertensive vascular disease. The present invention addresses this need and provides related advantages as well.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] This application provides processes for synthesizing human relaxin Chain B for treatment of diseases mediated by relaxin. This application in particular discloses processes of synthesizing the Chain B of human relaxin using a solid and solution phase (“hybrid”) approach. Generally, the approach includes synthesizing three different peptide intermediate fragments using solid phase chemistry. Solution phase chemistry is then used to couple the fragments.
[0009] In one aspect, the application provides a process for preparing a relaxin Chain B peptide comprising the step of:
[0000] a) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 3) Z-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-OH
wherein:
Z is H—; and
[0010] one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0011] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the steps of:
[0000] b) coupling the peptide fragment of step a) in solution to H-Ser-OtBu in order to provide a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4) Z-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection; and
c) removing the N-terminal protecting group to afford a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4) Z-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H; and
[0012] one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0013] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the steps of:
[0000] d) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 2) Z-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection;
e) coupling the peptide fragment of step d) in solution to the peptide fragment of step c) in the presence of an alkali metal halide in order to provide a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection; and
f) removing the N-terminal protecting group to afford a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H; and
[0014] one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0015] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the steps of:
[0000] g) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 1) Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Boc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection; and
h) coupling the peptide fragment of step f) in solution to the peptide fragment of step g) in the presence of an alkali metal halide in order to provide a peptide including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 6) Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Boc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0016] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the step of:
[0000] i) contacting the peptide resulting from step h) with acid in order to remove the N-terminal protecting group and deprotect the amino acid side chains to afford the deprotected relaxin Chain B amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 7) Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
wherein:
Z is H.
[0017] In one aspect, the application provides a process for preparing a relaxin Chain B peptide comprising the step of:
[0000] a) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 3) Z-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-.
[0018] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the step of:
[0000] b) coupling the peptide fragment of step a) in solution to H-Ser(tBu)-OtBu in order to provide a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4) Z-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-.
[0019] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the steps of:
[0000] c) removing the N-terminal protecting group to afford a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4) Z-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H;
[0020] d) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 2) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
e) coupling the peptide fragment of step c) in solution to the fragment of step d) in the presence of an alkali metal halide in order to provide a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr (OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
f) removing the N-terminal protecting group to afford a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr (OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H.
[0021] The application also provides the above process, further comprising the steps of:
[0000] g) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ. ID NO. 1) Z-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu (OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Boc-;
h) coupling the peptide fragment of step f) in solution to the peptide fragment of step g) in the presence of an alkali metal halide in order to provide a peptide including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 6) Z-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu (OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Arg(Pbf)- Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala- Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser (OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Boc-;
i) contacting the peptide resulting from step h) with acid in order to remove the N-terminal protecting group and deprotect the amino acid side chains to afford the deprotected relaxin Chain B amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 7) Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
wherein:
Z is H.
[0022] In one aspect, the application provides a process for preparing a relaxin Chain B peptide comprising the step of:
[0000] a) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 2) Fmoc-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-;
b) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4) H-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H;
[0023] c) coupling the peptide fragment of step a) in solution to the fragment of step b) in the presence of an alkali metal halide in order to provide a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr (OtBu)-Trn-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-;
d) removing the N-terminal protecting group to afford a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr (OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H.
[0024] In one aspect, the application provides a process for preparing a relaxin Chain B peptide comprising the step of:
[0000] a) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr (OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H;
[0025] b) introducing a peptide fragment including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ. ID NO. 1) Z-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu (OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Boc-;
c) coupling the peptide fragment of step a) in solution to the peptide fragment of step b) in the presence of an alkali metal halide in order to provide a peptide including the amino acid sequence of
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 6) Z-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu (OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Arg(Pbf)- Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala- Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser (OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is N-terminal protecting group Boc.
[0026] In one aspect, the application provides a peptide of the amino acid sequence
[0000] (SEQ. ID NO. 1) Z-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu (OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Boc.
[0027] In one aspect, the application provides a peptide of the amino acid sequence
[0000] (SEQ. ID NO.2) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc.
[0028] In one aspect, the application provides a peptide of the amino acid sequence
[0000] (SEQ. ID NO. 3) Z-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-OH
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc.
[0029] In one aspect, the application provides a peptide prepared by the process of claim 4 comprising the amino acid sequence
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4) Z-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc.
[0030] In one aspect, the application provides a peptide of the amino acid sequence
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5) Z-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln (Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr (OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc.
[0031] In one aspect, the application provides a peptide of the amino acid sequence
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 6) Z-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu (OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Arg(Pbf)- Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala- Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser (OtBu)-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Boc or Fmoc.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0032] The embodiments of the present invention described herein are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed in the following detailed description. Rather, the embodiments are chosen and described so that others skilled in the art can appreciate and understand the principles and practices of the present invention.
[0033] The present invention related to a novel process to synthesize the relaxin Chain B peptide. The relaxin Chain B peptide has the following formula
[0000]
(SEQ. ID NO. 7):
H-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly-
Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly-
Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
DEFINITIONS
[0034] The phrase “a” or “an” entity as used herein refers to one or more of that entity; for example, a compound refers to one or more compounds or at least one compound. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more”, and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein.
[0035] As used in this specification, whether in a transitional phrase or in the body of the claim, the terms “comprise(s)” and “comprising” are to be interpreted as having an open-ended meaning That is, the terms are to be interpreted synonymously with the phrases “having at least” or “including at least”. When used in the context of a process, the term “comprising” means that the process includes at least the recited steps, but may include additional steps. When used in the context of a compound or composition, the term “comprising” means that the compound or composition includes at least the recited features or components, but may also include additional features or components.
[0036] As used herein, unless specifically indicated otherwise, the word “or” is used in the “inclusive” sense of “and/or” and not the “exclusive” sense of “either/or”.
[0037] The term “independently” is used herein to indicate that a variable is applied in any one instance without regard to the presence or absence of a variable having that same or a different definition within the same compound. Thus, in a compound in which R appears twice and is defined as “independently carbon or nitrogen”, both R's can be carbon, both R's can be nitrogen, or one R can be carbon and the other nitrogen.
[0038] When any variable occurs more than one time in any moiety or formula depicting and describing compounds employed or claimed in the present invention, its definition on each occurrence is independent of its definition at every other occurrence. Also, combinations of substituents and/or variables are permissible only if such
[0039] The term “optional” or “optionally” as used herein means that a subsequently described event or circumstance may, but need not, occur, and that the description includes instances where the event or circumstance occurs and instances in which it does not. For example, “optionally substituted” means that the optionally substituted moiety may incorporate a hydrogen or a substituent.
[0040] The term “about” is used herein to mean approximately, in the region of, roughly, or around. When the term “about” is used in conjunction with a numerical range, it modifies that range by extending the boundaries above and below the numerical values set forth. In general, the term “about” is used herein to modify a numerical value above and below the stated value by a variance of 20%.
[0041] As used herein, the term “including the amino acid sequence” preferably means “having the amino acid sequence”.
[0042] As used herein, the term “alkali metal halide” means a salt comprising an alkali metal ion such as Li + or Cs + and a halide ion such as F − , Cl − , Br − , or I − . In a preferred embodiment, the alkali metal halide is LiBr.
[0043] Generally, the amino acids from which peptides are derived can be naturally occurring amino acid residues, non-natural amino acid residues, or combinations thereof. The twenty common naturally-occurring amino acid residues are as follows: A (Ala, alanine), R (Arg, arginine); N (Asn, asparagine); D (Asp, aspartic acid); C (Cys, cysteine) Q (Gln, glutamine), E (Glu, glutamic acid); G (Gly, glycine); H (His, histidine); I (Ile, isoleucine); L (Leu, leucine); K (Lys, lysine); M (Met, methionine); F (Phe, phenylalanine); P (Pro, proline); S (Ser, serine); T (Thr, threonine); W (Trp, tryptophan); Y (Tyr, tyrosine); and V (Val, valine).
[0044] The nature and use of protecting groups is well known in the art. Generally, a suitable protecting group is any sort of group that can help prevent the atom to which it is attached, typically oxygen or nitrogen, from participating in undesired reactions during processing and synthesis. Protecting groups include side chain protecting groups and amino- or N-terminal protecting groups. Protecting groups can also prevent reaction or bonding of carboxylic acids, thiols, and the like.
[0045] A side chain protecting group refers to a chemical moiety coupled to the side chain (R group in the general amino acid formula H2N—C(R)(H)—COOH) of an amino acid that helps prevent a portion of the side chain from reacting with chemicals used in steps of peptide synthesis, processing, and the like. The choice of a side chain protecting group can depend upon various factors, for example, the type of synthesis performed, processing to which the peptide will be subjected, and the desired intermediate product or final product. The side chain protecting group also depends upon the nature of the amino acid itself. Generally, a side chain protecting group is chosen that is not removed during deprotection of the alpha-amino groups during synthesis. Therefore, the alpha-amino protecting group and the side chain protecting group are typically not the same.
[0046] In some cases, and depending upon the type of reagents used in solid phase synthesis and other peptide processing, an amino acid may not require the presence of a side chain protecting group. Such amino acids typically do not include a reactive oxygen or nitrogen in the side chain.
[0047] Examples of side chain protecting groups include acetyl (Ac), benzoyl (Bz), tert butyl, triphenylmethyl (trityl), tetrahydropyranyl, benzyl ether (Bzl), 2,6-dichlorobenzyl (DCB), t-butoxycarbonyl (BOC), 2,2,4,6,7-pentamethyldihydrobenzofuran-5-sulfonamide (Pbf), nitro, p-toluenesulfonyl (Tos), adamantyloxycarbonyl, xanthyl (Xan), benzyl, methyl, ethyl, and t-butyl ester, benzyloxycarbonyl (Z), 2-chlorobenzyloxycarbonyl (2-Cl-Z), t-amyloxycarbonyl (Aoc), and aromatic or aliphatic urethan-type protecting groups, photolabile groups such as nitro veratryl oxycarbonyl (NVOC), and fluoride labile groups such as trimethylsilylethyl oxycarbonyl (TEOC).
[0048] For example, side chains of the amino acid residues of peptide fragments can be protected with standard protecting groups such as OtButyl (OtBu), t-butyl (t-Bu), trityl (trt), and t-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc). In the present invention, preferred side chain protecting groups include the OtBu group for Asp, Glu, and Thr, the tBu group and the OtBu group for Ser, the Trt group for Cys and Gln, the Pbf group for Arg, and the Boc group for Trp and Lys.
[0049] An amino terminal protecting group includes a chemical moiety coupled to the alpha amino group of an amino acid. Typically, the amino-terminal protecting group is removed in a deprotection reaction prior to the addition of the next amino acid to be added to the growing peptide chain, but can be maintained when the peptide is cleaved from the support. The choice of an amino terminal protecting group can depend upon various factors, for example, the type of synthesis performed and the desired intermediate product or final product obtained.
[0050] Examples of amino terminal protecting groups include: (1) acyl-type protecting groups, such as formyl, acryloyl (Acr), benzoyl (Bz) and acetyl (Ac); (2) aromatic urethan-type protecting groups, such as benzyloxycarbonyl (Z) and substituted Z, such as p-chlorobenzyloxycarbonyl, p-nitrobenzyloxycarbonyl, p-bromobenzyloxycarbonyl, p-methoxybenzyloxycarbonyl; (3) aliphatic urethan protecting groups, such as t-butyloxycarbonyl (BOC), diisopropylmethoxycarbonyl, isopropyloxycarbonyl, ethoxycarbonyl, allyloxycarbonyl; (4) cycloalkyl urethan-type protecting groups, such as 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc), cyclopentyloxycarbonyl, adamantyloxycarbonyl, and cyclohexyloxycarbonyl; and (5) thiourethan-type protecting groups, such as phenylthiocarbonyl. Preferred protecting groups include 9-fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl (Fmoc), 2-(4-biphenylyl)-propyl(2)oxycarbonyl (Bpoc), 2-phenylpropyl(2)-oxycarbonyl (Poc), and t-butyloxycarbonyl (Boc).
[0051] Representative process embodiments, wherein peptides are made using SPPS techniques, will now be described in more detail. Any type of support suitable in the practice of SPPS can be used in accordance with the inventive methods. In preferred embodiments, the support comprises a resin that can be made from one or more polymers, copolymers, or combinations of polymers such as polyamide, polysulfamide, substituted polyethylenes, polyethylene glycol, phenolic resins, polysaccharides, or polystyrene. The polymer support can also be any solid that is sufficiently insoluble and inert to solvents used in peptide synthesis. The solid support typically includes a linking moiety to which the growing peptide is coupled during synthesis and which can be cleaved under desired conditions to release the peptide from the support. Suitable solid supports can include linkers that are photocleavable, TFA-cleavable, HF-cleavable, fluoride ion-cleavable, reductively-cleavable, Pd(O)-cleavable, nucleophilically-cleavable, or radically-cleavable. Preferred linking moieties are cleavable under conditions such that the cleaved peptide is still substantially protected by side chain protecting groups.
[0052] Preferred solid supports include acid sensitive solid supports, for example, hydroxymethyl-polystyrene-divinylbenzene polymer resin (“Wang” resins, see Wang, S. S. 1973, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 95: 1328-33), 2-chlorotrityl chloride resin (see Barlos et al. (1989) Tetrahedron Letters 30(30): 3943-3946), and 4-hydroxymethyl-3-methoxyphenoxybutyric acid resin (see Richter et al. (1994), Tetrahedron Letters 35(27): 4705-4706), as well as functionalized, crosslinked poly N-acryloylpyrrolidone resins, and chloromethylpolystyrene dinvinylbenzene polymer resins. These types of solid supports are commercially available from, for example, Calbiochem-Novabiochem Corp., San Diego, Calif.
[0053] When SPPS is utilized, the synthesized peptide is preferably cleaved from the solid support (such as a resin) prior to utilization of the inventive methods described herein. Peptides synthesized via SPPS techniques can be cleaved using techniques well known to those skilled in the art. For example, solutions of 1% or 2% trifluoracetic acid (TFA) in DCM or a combination of a 1% and a 2% solution of TFA in DCM can be used to cleave the peptide. Alternatively, acetic acid (HOAC) can be used to cleave the peptide. The specific cleavage reagent, solvents and time selected for cleavage will depend upon the particular peptide being cleaved. These parameters are within the skill in the relevant art.
[0054] General procedures for production and loading of resins that can be utilized in SPPS are described in “Principles and Practice of Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis” (Edited by Greagory A. Grant, 1992, W.H. Freeman and Company) and references therein, and are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Specific procedures for loading of Wang resins are described for example in Sieber (1987) Tet. Lett. 28: 6147-50, and Granadas et al. (1989), Int. J. Pept. Protein Res. 33: 386-90.
[0055] As noted herein, Fmoc is a protecting group used in certain embodiments for protection of the alpha-amino moiety of an amino acid. Depending upon which amino acid is being loaded, and at what point in the peptide fragment intermediate it is to be attached, the side chain of the amino acid may or may not be protected.
[0056] In some embodiments, the peptide fragment intermediates of the invention are synthesized by SSPS techniques using standard Fmoc protocols. See, for example, Carpin et al. (1970), J. Am. Chem. Soc. 92(19): 5748-5749; Carpin et al. (1972), J. Org. Chem. 37(22): 3404-3409, “Fmoc Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis,” Weng C. Chan and Peter D. White Eds. (2000) Oxford University Press Oxford Eng. The Fmoc-protected amino acids, either with or without side-chain protecting groups as desired, that are used in loading the resin and in peptide synthesis are available commercially from Genzyme Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cambridge, Mass.; Bachem Biosciences Inc., Torrance, Calif.; Senn Chemicals, Dielsdorf, Switzerland; and Orpegen Pharma, Heidelberg, Germany, or are readily synthesized using materials and methods well known in the art. As an alternative to the above procedure, the resin can be purchased, for example, pre-loaded with the appropriate Fmoc-alpha-N-protected amino acid (for example, from Bachem Biosciences Inc. or Senn Chemicals).
[0057] The loaded resin is washed with a solvent, such as NMP. The resin is then agitated with nitrogen bubbling in a swelling solvent to swell the resin beads. The Fmoc group is removed from the terminal amine using piperidine in NMP. The deprotected resin is then washed with NMP to remove Fmoc by-products and residual piperidine.
[0058] The amino acid residue or fragment to be coupled is activated for reaction at its carboxy terminus and coupled. The coupling cycle is repeated for each of the subsequent amino acid residues of the peptide fragment intermediate. Following the final coupling cycle, the resin is washed with a solvent such as NMP, and then washed with an inert second solvent such as DCM. Peptide fragment intermediates synthesized via SPPS techniques can be cleaved from the resin using techniques well known to those of skill in the art, for example by the addition of a solution of an acid such as TFA in DCM. The cleaved peptide intermediate can then be isolated.
[0059] The present invention is directed to synthetic methods for making the peptide relaxin (RLX) Chain B using solid and/or solution phase techniques. Peptide molecules of the invention may be protected, unprotected, or partially protected. Protection may include N-terminus protection, side chain protection, and/or C-terminus protection. While the invention is generally directed at the synthesis of relaxin Chain B, its counterparts, fragments and their counterparts, and fusion products and their counterparts of these, the inventive teachings herein can also be applicable to the synthesis of other peptides, particularly those that are synthesized using a combination of solid phase and solution phase approaches. The invention is also applicable to the synthesis of peptide intermediate fragments associated with impurities, particularly pyroglutamate impurities. Preferred relaxin Chain B molecules useful in the practice of the present invention include natural and non-natural relaxin Chain B and counterparts thereof.
[0060] As used herein, a “counterpart” refers to natural and non-natural analogs, derivatives, fusion compounds, salts, or the like of a peptide. As used herein, a peptide analog generally refers to a peptide having a modified amino acid sequence such as by one or more amino acid substitutions, deletions, inversions, and/or additions relative to another peptide or peptide counterpart. Substitutions may involve one or more natural or non-natural amino acids. Substitutions preferably may be conservative or highly conservative. A conservative substitution refers to the substitution of an amino acid with another that has generally the same net electronic charge and generally the same size and shape. For instance, amino acids with aliphatic or substituted aliphatic amino acid side chains have approximately the same size when the total number of carbon and heteroatoms in their side chains differs by no more than about four. They have approximately the same shape when the number of branches in their side chains differs by no more than about one or two. Amino acids with phenyl or substituted phenyl groups in their side chains are considered to have about the same size and shape. Listed below are five groups of amino acids. Replacing an amino acid in a compound with another amino acid from the same groups generally results in a conservative substitution.
[0061] Group I: glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, serine, threonine, cysteine, methionine and non-naturally occurring amino acids with C 1 -C 4 aliphatic or C 1 -C 4 hydroxyl substituted aliphatic side chains (straight chained or monobranched).
[0062] Group II: glutamic acid, aspartic acid and normaturally occurring amino acids with carboxylic acid substituted C 1 -C 4 aliphatic side chains (unbranched or one branch point).
[0063] Group III: lysine, ornithine, arginine and normaturally occurring amino acids with amine or guanidino substituted C 1 -C 4 aliphatic side chains (unbranched or one branch point).
[0064] Group IV: glutamine, asparagine and non-naturally occurring amino acids with amide substituted C 1 -C 4 aliphatic side chains (unbranched or one branch point).
[0065] Group V: phenylalanine, phenylglycine, tyrosine and tryptophan.
[0066] A “highly conservative substitution” is the replacement of an amino acid with another amino acid that has the same functional group in the side chain and nearly the same size and shape. Amino acids with aliphatic or substituted aliphatic amino acid side chains have nearly the same size when the total number carbon and heteroatoms in their side chains differs by no more than two. They have nearly the same shape when they have the same number of branches in their side chains. Examples of highly conservative substitutions include valine for leucine, threonine for serine, aspartic acid for glutamic acid and phenylglycine for phenylalanine.
[0067] A peptide derivative generally refers to a peptide, a peptide analog, or other peptide counterpart having chemical modification of one or more of its side groups, alpha carbon atoms, terminal amino group, and/or terminal carboxyl acid group. By way of example, a chemical modification includes, but is not limited to, adding chemical moieties, creating new bonds, and/or removing chemical moieties. Modifications at amino acid side groups include, without limitation, acylation of lysine e-amino groups, N-alkylation of arginine, histidine, or lysine, alkylation of glutamic or aspartic carboxylic acid groups, and deamidation of glutamine or asparagine. Modifications of the terminal amino group include, without limitation, the des-amino, N-lower alkyl, N-di-lower alkyl, and N-acyl (e.g., —CO-lower alkyl) modifications. Modifications of the terminal carboxy group include, without limitation, the amide, lower alkyl amide, dialkyl amide, and lower alkyl ester modifications. Thus, partially or wholly protected peptides constitute peptide derivatives.
[0068] In preferred embodiments, the present invention provides methodologies for synthesizing synthetic relaxin Chain B peptides having the following formula
[0000] (SEQ. ID NO. 7): Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Boc- or Fmoc-.
[0069] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 7) has the formula:
[0000]
H-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly-
Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly-
Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
[0070] The present invention provides improved methodologies for making relaxin
[0071] Chain B peptides including side chain protected versions such as the peptide having the formula
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 6): Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Boc- or Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0072] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 6) has the formula:
[0000]
Boc-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu
(OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Arg(Pbf)-
Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-
Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser
(OtBu)-OtBu.
[0073] The present invention provides improved methodologies for making relaxin Chain B peptides including side chain protected versions of fragments thereof such as the peptide having the formula
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 5): Z-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0074] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 5) has the formula:
[0000]
H-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-
Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-
Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0075] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 5) has the formula:
[0000]
Fmoc-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-
Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-
Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0076] The present invention provides improved methodologies for making relaxin Chain B peptides including side chain protected versions of fragments thereof such as the peptide having the formula
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 4): Z-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OtBu
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0077] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 4) has the formula:
[0000]
H-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0078] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 4) has the formula:
[0000]
Fmoc-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0079] The present invention provides improved methodologies for making relaxin Chain B peptides including side chain protected versions of fragments thereof such as the peptide having the formula
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 3): Z-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-OH
wherein:
Z is H- or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0080] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 3) has the formula:
[0000]
H-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-OH
[0081] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 3) has the formula:
[0000]
Fmoc-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-OH
[0082] The present invention provides improved methodologies for making relaxin Chain B peptides including side chain protected versions of fragments thereof such as the peptide having the formula
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 2) Z-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly- OH
wherein:
Z is H or N-terminal protecting group Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0083] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 2) has the formula:
[0000]
H-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-
Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
[0084] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 2) has the formula: Fmoc-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
[0085] The present invention provides improved methodologies for making relaxin Chain B peptides including side chain protected versions such as the peptide having the formula
[0000] (SEQ ID NO. 1) Z-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly- OH
wherein:
Z is H, N-terminal protecting group Boc- or Fmoc-; and
one or more residues of said sequence optionally include side chain protection.
[0086] In a preferred embodiment (SEQ. ID NO. 1) has the formula:
[0000]
Boc-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-
Glu(OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
[0087] Alkali metal halides such as LiBr facilitate the couplings of the above fragments 2 and 3′ as well as 1 and 2+3′ by increasing solubility of the fragments. In a preferred embodiment, LiBr is used in the solution phase couplings to increase solubility of the fragments. The concentration may be from approximately 5 to 20 equivalents LiBr to equivalent fragment.
[0088] By way of example, Scheme 1 shows an illustrative scheme for synthesizing relaxin Chain B peptides and their counterparts. Scheme 1 is believed to be particularly suitable for the scaled-up synthesis of relaxin Chain B peptides. Scaled-up procedures are typically performed to provide an amount of peptide useful for commercial distribution. For example the amount of peptide in a scaled-up procedure can be 500 g, or 1 kg per batch, and more typically tens of kg to hundreds of kg per batch or more. In preferred embodiments, the inventive methods can provide such improvements as reduction in processing (synthesis) time, improvements in the yield of products, improvements in product purity, and/or reduction in amount of reagents and starting materials required.
[0089] The synthesis shown in Scheme 1 below uses a combination of solid and solution phase techniques to prepare the peptide product.
[0000]
[0090] All patents, published patent applications, other publications, and pending patent applications cited in this specification are incorporated by reference herein in their respective entireties for all purposes.
EXAMPLES
Example 1
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 2+3′ (H-AA(13-29)-OtBu)
[0091] The relaxin chain B Fragment 2 (Fmoc-AA(13-24)-OH) (10.88 g) and Fragment 3′ (H-AA(25-29)-OtBu) (4.44 g) was mixed in a 500 mL 3-neck round bottom flask with bath 25° C. The solution of LiBr (3.5 g) in THF (120 mL) and NMP (80 mL) was charged to the flask containing the mixture while stirring. The pot temperature spiked from 24° C. to 27° C. After 10 min agitation, HOBt Hydrate (0.64 g) and BOP (2.0 g) were charged to this solution with THF (20 mL) rinse. Then, DIEA (1.6 mL) was charged to the reaction mixture. The reaction was agitated at 25° C. bath and monitored by HPLC. Overnight reaction completion check indicated that the reaction was not completed. Two kicker charges were performed (first, 0.304 g of Fragment 2/0.099 g of BOP/0.16 mL of DIEA, and later, 0.605 g of Fragment 2/0.20 g of BOP/0.32 mL of DIEA). After the total of 20 hour reaction, the coupling was completed. Piperidine (5.0 mL) was charged to the reaction mixture. After 2 hours' stirring, the Fmoc removal was done. Then Pyridine Hydrochloride (10.01 g) was charged to the reaction mixture with a 2.5° C. temperature spike. After stirring for 35 min, the reaction mixture then was quenched in water (800 mL) with 15° C. bath. After 20 min stirring, the solid was isolated by filtering, washing with water (2×100 mL) and drying overnight to give 16.37 g solid. The isolated solid (15.4 g) then was re-slurried in a 250 mL mixture of MTBE/n-Heptane (50/50) at 35° C. for 1.5 hour, and at 25° C. for 3 hours. Then the solid was isolated by filtering, washing with n-Heptane (2×20 mL) and drying over weekend to give 14.66 g solid product with purity of 48.6% AN. Yield: 104.4% (based on Fragment 2).
Example 2
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 1+2+3′ (Boc-AA(1-29)-OtBu)
[0092] The relaxin chain B Fragment 2+3′ (H-AA(13-29)-OtBu) (13.46 g) and Fragment 1 Boc-AA(1-12)-OH) (6.07 g) was mixed in a 500 mL 3-neck round bottom flask with 25° C. bath. The solution of LiBr (3.5 g) in THF (120 mL) and NMP (80 mL) was charged to the flask containing the mixture while stirring. The reaction temperature spiked to 28° C. After 15 min agitation, HOBt Hydrate (0.65 g), BOP (2.0 g) and DIEA (1.6 mL) were charged to this solution with NMP (5 mL) rinse. The reaction was agitated at 25° C. bath and monitored by HPLC. Base on the HPLC results, two kicker charges were performed (first, 1.17 g of Fragment 1/0.44 g of BOP/0.3 mL of DIEA/5 mL THF rinse, and later, 1.50 g of Fragment 1/0.43 g of BOP/0.3 mL of DIEA/5 mL THF rinse). Overnight reaction completion check indicated that one more kicker charge was needed (0.2 g of BOP/0.2 mL of DIEA). After the total of 20 hour reaction, the coupling was completed. The reaction mixture then was quenched in water (800 mL) with 10° C. bath. After 60 min stirring at 25° C., the solid was isolated by filtering, washing with water (4×50 mL) and drying overnight to give 20.77 g solid product with purity of 56.4% AN. Yield: 93.2% (based on Fragment 2+3′)
Example 3
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B (H-AA(1-29)-OH) Crude
[0093] The slurry of the relaxin chain B Fragment 1+2+3′(Boc-AA(1-29)-OtBu) (20.25 g) in DCM (80 mL) was mixed with the deprotection cocktail containing TFA (293 mL), DTT (13 g) and Water (13 mL) at 25° C. bath. After 3 hours' agitation, the reaction mixture was cooled to −5° C., and quenched by charging cold (−20° C.) MTBE (1200 mL) to it in 15 min while maintaining the reaction temperature <18° C. The quenched reaction mixture was stirred at 15° C. bath for 45 min. The solid product was filtered, washed with MTBE (5×50 mL), and dried overnight in vacuum oven. A 15.68 g of relaxin Chain B Crude (21.8% wt/wt) was obtained with a purity of 19.4% AN. Yield: 127.4% (based on Fragment 1+2+3′).
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B, H-AA(1-29)-OH
[0094] H-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
Example 4
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 1, Boc-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu(OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
[0095] The solid phase synthesis of Fmoc-AA(1-12)-O-2CT resin was carried out in a 3-L, glass-fritted resin flask. H-Gly-2-CT resin (100.00 g) with a loading of 0.43 mmol/g was charged to the resin flask and swelled in DCM (1000 mL) for 30 min at ambient temperature. The dichloromethane (DCM) solvent was drained, and the resin was washed with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP) (3×1000 mL).
[0096] All Fmoc deprotections of the resin were carried out by treating the resin with 20% piperidine/40% NMP/40% DMSO (v/v/v) (2×1000 mL). After the second piperidine/NMP/DMSO treatment, the resin was sequentially washed with NMP (1000 mL), IPA (2×1000 mL), DCM (1000 mL), IPA (2×1000 mL), NMP (1000 mL), IPA (2×1000 mL), and 50% NMP/50% DMSO (3×1000 mL).
[0097] To prepare the activated ester solution, the amino acid and 6-chloro-hydroxybenzotriazole hydrate (6-Cl HOBT) were weighed, dissolved in NMP, treated with diisopropylcarbodiimide (DIC), and diluted with DMSO in a flask. The resultant solution was added to resin flask, the preparation flask was rinsed with DMSO into the resin flask, which was then stirred with the resin for 190-295 min at ambient temperature. A sample was taken for a bromophenol blue (BPB) test to confirm reaction completion. After the coupling reaction was complete, the coupling solution was drained and the resin was sequentially washed with NMP (1000 mL), IPA (2×1000 mL), and 50% NMP/50% DMSO (v/v) (2×1000 mL).
[0098] The sequence of removing the Fmoc group and coupling the next amino acid was repeated for the remaining amino acids in the fragment (i.e., in the order of Cys(Trt)→Leu→Lys(Boc)→Ile→Val→Glu(OtBu)→Glu(OtBu)→Met→Trp(Boc)→Ser(tBu)→Boc-Asp(OtBu).
[0099] The fully-built peptide was cleaved from the resin by stirring the resin in 50% TFE (trifluoroethanol)/50% DCM (v/v) (1000 mL) at ambient temperature for 15.5 h. The cleavage solution was drained, and the resin was washed with DCM (6×1000 mL). Removal of solvents under vacuum from the combined filtrates at 20° C.-25° C. gave a 98.4% yield of Chain B Fragment 1 (78.8% purity, AN).
[0000] All reagent amounts used in this example are listed in the following table:
[0000]
Amino
6-Cl
DIC
Coupling
Acid
HOBT
NMP
(mL)/
DMSO
Piperidine
Time
Material
(g)/Eq
(g)/Eq
(mL)
Eq
(mL)
(mL)
(min)
Fmoc-
50.37/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
197
Cys(Trt)-
OH
Fmoc-
30.39/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
229
Leu-OH
Fmoc-
40.29/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
295
Lys(Boc)-
OH
Fmoc-Ile-
30.39/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
197
OH
Fmoc-
29.19/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
236
Val-OH
Fmoc-
38.14/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
33.3/5.00
500
400
198
Glu(OtBu)-
OH•H 2 O
Fmoc-
38.14/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
33.3/5.00
500
400
204
Glu(OtBu)-
OH•H 2 O
Fmoc-
31.94/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
197
Met-OH
Fmoc-
45.29/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
190
Trp(Boc)-
OH
Fmoc-
32.98/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
206
Ser(tBu)-
OH
Boc-
24.88/2.00
21.88/3.00
500
20.0/3.00
500
400
198
Asp(OtBu)-
OH
Example 5
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 2; Fmoc-AA(13-24)-OH; Fmoc-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-OH
[0100] The solid phase synthesis of Fmoc-AA(13-24)-O-2CT resin was carried out in a 1.5-L, glass-fritted resin flask. H-Gly-2-CT resin (85.00 g) with a loading of 0.43 mmol/g was charged to the resin flask and swelled in DCM (850 mL) for 30 min at ambient temperature. The DCM solvent was drained, and the resin was washed with NMP (3×510 mL).
[0101] All Fmoc deprotections of the resin were carried out by treating the resin with 20% piperidine/80% NMP (v/v) (2×595 mL) for 30 min each. After the second piperidine/NMP treatment, the resin was sequentially washed with NMP (3×850 mL), DCM (2×850 mL), and NMP (2×850 mL).
[0102] To prepare the activated ester solution, the amino acid and 6-Cl HOBT were weighed, dissolved in NMP, treated with DIC, and diluted with DMSO in a flask. The resultant solution was added to resin flask. The preparation flask was rinsed with DMSO into the resin flask, which was then stirred with the resin for 3-67 hr at ambient temperature. A sample was taken for a Kaiser test to confirm reaction completion. After the coupling reaction was completed, the coupling solution was drained and the resin was washed with NMP (3×850 mL). The sequence of removing the Fmoc group and coupling the next amino acid was repeated for the remaining amino acids in the fragment (i.e., in the order of Cys(Trt)→Ile→Ala→Ile→Gln(Trt)→Ala→Arg(Pbf)→Val→Leu→Glu(OtBu)→Fmoc-Arg(Pbf).
[0103] Most of the fully-built peptide was cleaved from the resin by stirring the resin in 50% TFE/50% DCM (v/v) (850 mL) at ambient temperature for 18 h. The cleavage solution was drained, and the resin was washed with DCM (4×850 mL). The solvents were removed from the combined filtrates under vacuum at 20° C.-25° C. To remove the final traces of TFE, the product was slurred in DCM (910 mL) and toluene (200 mL) and stripped to a low volume on a rotary evaporator. Toluene was added and the slurry was stripped to a low volume. The product was dried in a vacuum oven at 11 mmHg at ambient temperature and gave an 81.0% yield of Chain B Fragment 2 (91.9% purity, a. n.).
[0000] All reagent amounts used in this example are listed in the following table:
[0000]
Amino
6-Cl
DIC
Coupling
Acid
HOBT
NMP
(mL)/
DMSO
Piperidine
Time
Material
(g)/Eq
(g)/Eq
(mL)
Eq
(mL)
(mL)
(hr)
Fmoc-
42.81/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
18
Cys(Trt)-
OH
Fmoc-Ile-
25.83/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
3
OH
Fmoc-
24.07/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
44
Ala-
OH•H 2 O
Fmoc-Ile-
25.83/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
67
OH
Fmoc-
44.64/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
3
Gln(Trt)-
OH
Fmoc-
24.07/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
15
Ala-
OH•H 2 O
Fmoc-
47.43/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
3
Arg(Pbf)-
OH
Fmoc-
24.81/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
16
Val-OH
Fmoc-
25.83/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
3
Leu-OH
Fmoc-
31.10/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
15
Glu(OtBu)-
OH
Fmoc-
47.43/2.00
18.60/3.00
425
17.0/3.00
425
238
4.5
Arg(Pbf)-
OH
Example 6
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 3; Fmoc-AA(25-28)-OH; Fmoc-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-OH
[0104] The solid phase synthesis of Fmoc-AA(25-28)-O-2CT resin was carried out in a 1.5-L, glass-fritted resin flask. H-Trp-2-CT resin (100.00 g) with a loading of 0.65 mmol/g was charged to the resin flask and swelled in DCM (1000 mL) for 30 min at ambient temperature. The DCM solvent was drained, and the resin was washed with NMP (3×1000 mL).
[0105] All Fmoc deprotections of the resin were carried out by treating the resin with 20% piperidine/80% NMP (v/v) (2×600 mL) for 20 min each. After the second piperidine/NMP treatment, the resin was washed with NMP (6×1000 mL).
[0106] To prepare the activated ester solution, the amino acid and 6-Cl HOBT were weighed, dissolved in NMP, treated with DIC, and diluted with DMSO in a flask. The resultant solution was added to resin flask. The preparation flask was rinsed with DMSO into the resin flask, which was then stirred with the resin for 2.5-7 hr at ambient temperature. A sample was taken for Kaiser and BPB tests to confirm reaction completion. After the coupling reaction was completed, the coupling solution was drained and the resin was washed with NMP (3×1000 mL). The sequence of removing the Fmoc group and coupling the next amino acid was repeated for the remaining amino acids in the fragment (i.e., in the order of Thr(OtBu)→Ser(OtBu)→Fmoc-Met-OH.
[0107] The fully-built peptide was cleaved from the resin by stirring the resin in 50% TFE/50% DCM (v/v) (1500 mL) at ambient temperature for 23.5 h. The cleavage solution was drained, and the resin was washed with DCM (4×1000 mL). The solvents were removed from the filtrate on a rotary evaporator under vacuum at 20° C.-25° C. The DCM washes were added sequentially to the distillation vessel after the previous strip was completed. The product was dried overnight at 19 mmHg at ambient temperature and gave a 104.0% yield of Chain B Fragment 3 (95.2% purity, a. n.).
[0000] All reagent amounts used in this example are listed in the following table:
[0000]
Amino
6-Cl
Coupling
Acid
HOBT
NMP
DIC
DMSO
Piperidine
Time
Material
(g)/Eq
(g)/Eq
(mL)
(mL)/Eq
(mL)
(mL)
(hr)
Fmoc-
51.57/2.00
33.07/3.00
520
30.2/3.00
260
400
7
Thr(OtBu)-
OH
Fmoc-
49.85/2.00
33.07/3.00
520
30.2/3.00
260
400
3
Ser(OtBu)-
OH
Fmoc-
48.29/2.00
33.07/3.00
520
30.2/3.00
260
400
2.5
Met-OH
Example 7
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fmoc-Fragment 3′; Fmoc-AA(25-29)-OtBu; Fmoc-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0108] The relaxin Chain B Fragment Fmoc-3 (62.09 g, 64.80 mmol) was dissolved in DCM (700 mL). H-Ser(tBu)-OtBu (28.34 g, 130.4 mmol, 2.0 equiv.), N-hydroxysuccinimide (29.83 g, 259.2 mmol, 4.0 equiv.), and 4-methylmorpholine (29.2 mL, 265.5 mmol, 4.1 equiv.) were added sequentially. The reaction solution was cooled to 0° C., and N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDAC.HCl) (49.90 g, 260.3 mmol, 4.0 equiv.) was added. After 64 hr, the ratio of Fmoc 3/Fmoc 3′ was 20.4/67.2 by HPLC. Kicker charges of all the reagents were added, 1 equiv. of N-hydroxysuccinimide, 4-methylmorpholine, and EDAC.HCl and 0.5 equiv. of H-Ser(tBu)-OtBu. The reaction was stirred another 15 hr at 0° C. After the kicker charges the Fmoc 3/Fmoc 3′ ratio was 1.4/85.8, indicating the reaction was completed. The solution was extracted with 8% NaHCO 3 (3×310 mL). The organic layer was washed with 50% citric acid (300 mL). The solvent was stripped to a low volume, and replaced with TFE. The product was precipitated from solution by adding deionized (DI) water (1500 mL), filtered, washed with DI water (2500 mL), and dried over night at ambient temperature. A weight of 81.04 g (108.0%) of Chain B Fmoc-Fragment 3′ (Fmoc-AA(25-29)-OtBu) was obtained with a purity of 87.3% a. n. by HPLC.
Example 8
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 3′; H AA(25-29)-OtBu; H-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0109] The relaxin Chain B Fragment Fmoc-3′ (48.01 g, 41.47 mmol) and diethylamine (25 mL, 17.68 g, 242 mmol) were dissolved in dimethylformamide (DMF) (125 mL) and stirred at room temperature for 4 hr. The reaction solution was cooled to 10-12° C. and heptane (3000 mL) was added. The product oiled out in the DMF layer, so the heptane was decanted. The Fragment 3′ was precipitated by adding heptane (5500 mL) at 18° C., and stirring for 30 min. The product was filtered and dried over night at ambient temperature, yielding 32.7 g (84.3%) of crude 3′ which had an HPLC purity of 85.7% a. n. This crude produce was redissolved in THF (250 mL) and precipitated with DI water (3000 mL), which was filtered, washed with DI water (1000 mL) and dried at ambient temperature over the weekend, yielding 29.08 g (75.0% from Fmoc-fragment 3′) with a purity of 87.1% a. n. by HPLC.
Example 9
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 2+3′; H-AA(13-29)-OtBu; H-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0110] The relaxin Chain B Fragment 3′ (43.83 g, 46.87 mmol) and Fragment 2 (117.48 g, 45.25 mmol) were placed in a reaction flask. The mixture was stirred slowly. Lithium bromide (LiBr) (35.00 g, 403.0 mmol) and THF (1200 mL) were dissolved in NMP (800 mL). This solution was added to the slowly stirring peptides at 22° C. and stirred until the peptides dissolved. (Benzotriazol-1-yloxy)tris(dimethylamino) phosphonium hexafluorophosphate (BOP reagent) (23.42 g, 52.95 mmol), 1-hydroxybenzotriazole hydrate (HOBT.H 2 O) (6.93 g, 51.29 mmol), diisopropylethylamine (DIEA) (19.8 mL, 14.69 g, 113.7 mmol) and THF (110 mL) were added and the solution was stirred at ambient temperature overnight. Piperidine (50 mL) was added and stirred for 2 hr. Pyridine hydrochloride (125.53 g, 10.9 mol) was added and stirred for 15 min. The reaction solution was added to rapidly stirring cool (10-15° C.) DI water (8100 mL) over ˜3 min, stirred for another 20 min, filtered, washed with DI water, and dried at ambient temperature overnight, yielding 153.70 g, (95.3%) of Fragment 2,3′.
Example 10
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B Fragment 1+2+3′: Boc-AA(1-29)-OtBu; Boc-Asp(OtBu)-Ser(tBu)-Trp(Boc)-Met-Glu(OtBu)-Glu(OtBu)-Val-Ile-Lys(Boc)-Leu-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Arg(Pbf)-Glu(OtBu)-Leu-Val-Arg(Pbf)-Ala-Gln(Trt)-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys(Trt)-Gly-Met-Ser(OtBu)-Thr(OtBu)-Trp-Ser(OtBu)-OtBu
[0111] The relaxin Chain B Fragment 2+3′ (131.22 g) and Fragment 1 (86.92 g) were placed in a reaction flask. The mixture was stirred slowly. Lithium bromide (35.00 g, 403.0 mmol) and THF (1200 mL) were dissolved in NMP (800 mL). This solution was added to the slowly stirring peptides at 22° C. and stirred until the peptides dissolved. BOP reagent (24.88 g, 56.25 mmol), HOBT.H 2 O (7.03 g, 52.02 mmol), and DIEA (24.5 mL, 18.18 g, 140.7 mmol) were added and stirred at ambient temperature overnight. The reaction completion was followed by HPLC. Kicker charges (each containing ˜5% BOP reagent and ˜5% DIEA) were added until the reaction was completed. The reaction solution was added to rapidly stirring DI water (8100 mL), stirred for 1.5 hr, filtered, washed with DI water, and dried at ambient temperature, yielding 216.72 g, (99.3%) of Boc-Fragment 1, 2, 3′.
Example 11
Synthesis of Relaxin Chain B; H-AA(1-29)-OH; H-Asp-Ser-Trp-Met-Glu-Glu-Val-Ile-Lys-Leu-Cys-Gly-Arg-Glu-Leu-Val-Arg-Ala-Gln-Ile-Ala-Ile-Cys-Gly-Met-Ser-Thr-Trp-Ser-OH
[0112] A solution of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) (2880 mL), DCM (360 mL), dithiothreitol (DTT) (181.0 g, 1.17 mol), and DI water (180 mL) was prepared and added to the relaxin Chain B Boc-Fragment 1, 2, 3′ (213.12 g (39.11 mmol). The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 5 hr. The reaction was cooled to −5 to −10° C. and t-butyl methyl ether (MTBE) (12.0 L) was added slowly over 75 min, while maintaining the pot temperature at −5 to −10° C. The slurry was filtered, washed with MTBE and dried at ambient temperature, yielding 148.38 g (44.79 mmol, 114.5%) of relaxin Chain B.
[0113] The foregoing invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example, for purposes of clarity and understanding. It will be obvious to one of skill in the art that changes and modifications may be practiced within the scope of the appended claims. Therefore, it is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the following appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
[0114] All patents, patent applications and publications cited in this application are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes to the same extent as if each individual patent, patent application or publication were so individually denoted.
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This application discloses processes for synthesizing human relaxin Chain B for treatment of diseases mediated by relaxin. This application in particular discloses processes of synthesizing the Chain B of human relaxin using a solid and solution phase (“hybrid”) approach. Generally, the approach includes synthesizing three different peptide intermediate fragments using solid phase chemistry. Solution phase chemistry is then used to couple the fragments.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 (e) (1) of provisional application Ser. No. 60/031,912, filed Nov. 22, 1996.
The following copending applications are related to the present application: U.S. Ser. No. 08/586,358, entitled "Dual Etching of Ceramic Materials With an Elevated Thin Film," filed Jan. 16, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,749; U.S. Ser. No. 08/838,663, entitled "Reduced Stress Electrode for Focal Plane Array of Thermal Imaging System and Method," filed Apr. 9, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,390; and U.S. Provisional Ser. No. 60/031,223, entitled "Infrared-Sensitive Conductive-Polymer Coating," filed Nov. 22, 1996.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to a conductive-polymer coating for infrared (IR) radiation absorption, and a method and apparatus for making the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
IR detector arrays are described in (1) U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,532, Hopper, March 1978; (2) U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,278, Hanson, May 1988; (3) U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,681, Hanson, December 1988; and (4) "LOW-COST UNCOOLED FOCAL PLANE ARRAY TECHNOLOGY", by Hanson, Beratan, Owen and Sweetser; presented Aug. 17, 1993 at the IRIS Detector Specialty Review. Various manufacturing and fabrication techniques for several different IR sensing array systems are described in these references.
The physical requirements of uncooled IR arrays and a brief description of current fabrication processes will be presented to aid in the understanding of the improvements realized by the novel methods to be described.
A line scanner may contain from several hundred to a few thousand individual picture elements (pixels); an area imager may contain several thousand to tens of thousand individual pixels. Each of these pixels typically consists of a capacitor (or resistor or another type of electronic element) that has a heat sensitive dielectric, i.e., sensitivity to IR intensity. Making use of the fact that the charge stored by a capacitor is proportional to the product of its terminal voltage and its capacitance, electronic circuitry can be attached to the two terminals of the pixel capacitor to measure the intensity of the IR impinging on a specific pixel. Obstructions in the imaging field are removed and the electrical connections to these capacitors are simplified if one of the capacitor terminals is made common to all. Hundreds to tens of thousands of electrical connections must still be accomplished between the other isolated terminals of the pixel capacitors and the electronic sensing circuitry. In addition, the pixel capacitors must be thermally isolated from each other, even while having one terminal connected to all the other common terminals.
The common side of the pixels is referred to as the optical coating and generally must (1) efficiently absorb IR energy at the desired wavelengths. (2) provide a continuous electrical path to supply a bias voltage to all pixels and (3) attach to or form an electrode for each of the pixel capacitors. The optical coating is typically a composite of a plurality of thin films having the desired physical properties, such as IR absorbability, electrical conductivity, thermal isolation, etc. The optical coating side of the device will be referred to as the frontside, and the opposite side will be referred to as the backside.
The thicker heat sensitive dielectric forms the array substrate and is typically a pyroelectric or ferroelectric ceramic material such as barium-strontium-titanate (BST).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As described in the prior references and subsequently here, typical optical coatings consist of a plurality of films of specific insulating a conducting properties at critical thicknesses. These films generally require several different processes and equipment to manufacture. Structurally, these composite films are typically mechanically brittle and fragile.
A preferred embodiment of this invention replaces the fragile prior art optical coating with a semi-flexible, robust conducting-polymer coating, which has been discovered to generally have high--greater than 90%--IR absorption at the desired wavelengths. In addition, this coating can be deposited by a single, novel apparatus, which will also be described. Although electrically conducting polymers are not new (see W. E. Loeb, U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,707, issued Jan. 31, 1967), the present invention is believed to be the first to use an electrically conducting polymer as an optical coating for IR absorption, and in particular as a physically robust optical coating providing IR absorption, electrical conductivity and limited thermal conductivity.
One embodiment of the present invention is a conductive-polymer coating for an infrared detection system. The system may comprise an integrated circuit substrate itself comprising a plurality of mesas and comprising via connections on an upper portion of each of the mesas. The system further comprises a plurality of backside electrical contacts bonded to the via connections, a plurality of infrared-sensitive pixels overlying the electrical contacts, and a conductive-polymer coating overlying and electrically connecting the pixels.
A method of forming an embodiment of the present invention may comprise forming a conductive-polymer coating over a substrate, forming a contact metal on a backside of the substrate, and processing the contact metal, the substrate and the common electrode to form capacitor pixels of the contact metal, the substrate and the corresponding portion of the coating.
The forming of a conducting polymer may include codepositing an electrically insulating organic polymer and a low-melting-point electrical conductor. The insulating organic polymer may consist of, for example, one of the various compositions from the generic parylene family, including: poly(p-xylylene), poly-(chloro-p-xylylene), 2-methyl-p-xylylene, 2-ethyl-p-xylylene, 2-chloro-p-xylylene, 2-acetyl-p-xylylene, 2-cyano-p-xylylene, 2-boromo-p-xylylene, and dichloro-p-xylylene. As used herein, the term "low-melting-point," when used in reference to the electrically conducting component of the conducting polymer, means a temperature of less than 1000° C. The low-melting-point electrical conductor may be a metal or a semiconductor material, and generally has a melting point of less than about 1000° C., typically less than about 700° C., preferably less than about 600° C., more preferably less than about 500° C., and most preferably less than about 400° C. It may consist of, for example, lead, tin, indium, cadmium, bismuth, antimony, magnesium, lithium, europium, strontium, selenium, samarium, polonium, zinc, and thallium or other metals or semiconductors or compositions with a low melting temperature. In addition, an elevation layer may be formed between the common electrode and the conductive-polymer. The individual pixels may be formed by ion milling, reactive ion milling, chemical etching, laser vaporization or other equivalent methods.
Another embodiment of the present invention is an apparatus for forming a conductive-polymer coating for an infrared detection system. The apparatus may comprise an upper vacuum chamber, a shutter assembly mounted inside the upper vacuum chamber, a substrate holder disposed inside the shutter assembly, wherein the shutter assembly is capable of shielding or exposing the substrate to the upper vacuum chamber, an orifice connected to the upper vacuum chamber for control of a flow rate for the upper vacuum chamber, a first mechanical pump system connected to the orifice, a lower vacuum chamber connected to the upper vacuum chamber on a side opposite the shutter assembly, an electron beam assembly for providing the low-melting-point electrical conductor in vapor form, disposed inside the lower vacuum chamber, wherein the electron beam assembly is directed toward the shutter assembly in the upper vacuum chamber, a second mechanical pump system and a cryopump connected to the lower vacuum chamber, a polymer generation chamber for providing polymer vapor, connected to the upper vacuum chamber on a side perpendicular to the shutter assembly, a vaporizer surrounding a first portion of the polymer generation chamber, a pyrolysis furnace surrounding a second portion of the polymer generation chamber, and a post pyrolysis heater surrounding a third portion of the polymer generation chamber.
Another embodiment of the present invention is a method of manufacture for forming a conductive-polymer on a substrate. The method may comprise generating a low-melting-point electrical conductor in vapor form, generating a polymer vapor with a pyrolysis furnace, mixing the conductor vapor and the polymer vapor in a first vacuum chamber, and exposing the substrate to the vapors to allow deposition of the vapors on the substrate through, e.g., condensation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as other features and advantages thereof, will be best understood by reference to the detailed description which follows, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 illustrates a vertical cross section of a prior art IR sensing array with an elevated optical coating;
FIG. 2 illustrates a vertical cross section of a novel IR sensing array utilizing an elevated conductive-polymer optical coating;
FIG. 3 shows a vertical cross section of a novel IR sensing array utilizing a planar conductive-polymer optical coating with conductive electrodes on each pixel;
FIG. 4 illustrates a vertical cross section of a novel IR sensing array utilizing an elevated conductive-polymer optical coating with a common electrode layer;
FIG. 5 shows a vertical cross section of a novel IR sensing array utilizing a planar conductive-polymer optical coating without the conductive electrodes on each pixel;
FIG. 6 illustrates the apparatus used to deposit a conductive-polymer on an IR sensing array;
FIG. 7 shows a graph of absorption versus wavelength for an actual sample of the coating produced with the apparatus of FIG. 6; and
FIG. 8 illustrates a vertical cross section of a conductive-polymer optical coating overlaying an infrared-sensitive layer.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
This invention will be described with the aid of FIGS. 1 to 6 and Tables 1 and 2. The figures show exaggerated thin film layer thicknesses for descriptive purposes and are not to actual or relative scale. Although specific IR sensor designs have been sketched in the figures, this invention is generic to all such arrays using an IR absorbing optical coating.
FIG. 1 shows a cross section of a prior art IR sensing array system which consists of a sensing array and a signal processing IC 24. The impinging IR radiation is absorbed by the optical coating 10 composed of layers 26, 28 and 29 as described in Table 1. This coating is electrically and mechanically connected to metal 12 which forms the top electrode of the pixel capacitor and is electrically common to all other pixels via layer 29. The thermally sensitive dielectric material 14 of the pixel capacitor is typically BST. The backside of the pixel capacitor is metal 18 which is electrically and thermally isolated from all other pixels. The pixel capacitors are supported by mesas 16, which also provide metal via connections 20 provide electrical connection to substrate 24 at 22.
FIG. 2 shows the same type of device with basically the same general functionality as that just described above with reference to FIG. 1, except that elevated conductive-polymer optical coating 31 is substituted for optical coating 10. The conducting polymer is formed by codeposition of an insulating organic polymer and a low-melting-point electrical conductor. The novel method of deposition of film 31 is described in more detail below. The functions of the three layers in the prior art optical coating are replaced by a single conductive-polymer optical coating layer which provides IR absorption, electrical connectivity and thermal isolation for the pixel capacitors. In addition, the conductive-polymer is mechanically more robust than the materials used in the prior art.
TABLE 1______________________________________ID# Description Material (dim) Alternates______________________________________10 Optical coating 3 layered 1/4 IR wavelength12 Conducting NiCr TiWelectrode14 Thermally sensitive Barium strontium Other infrared-sensitivesubstrate titanate pyroelectric or ferroelec- tric materials, or perovskites.16 Isolation mesas Polyimide PMMA, photoresist18 Backside electrical 4-layer composite Multiple alloys or layerscontact of 15-60 μm In suitable for IC bonding, 0.5-1.5 μm Au such as Ni/In. 0.5-1.5 μm NiCr 0.2-1.0 μm TiW20 Metal via TiWconnection22 Via connectionto substrate24 Signal processing IC Si or GaAs26 Transparent coat NiCr 50A NiCr 25-100A28 1/4 wavelength Parylene 1.4 μm 1/4 wavelengthseparator coat at desired IR29 Electrical conduct- NiCr 1000A NiCr 500-2000Aing coat Bimetal layer 20A - 5 μm Other metals30 Common electrode NiCr 1000A NiCr 500-2000A Bimetal layer 20A - 5 μm Other metals31 Elevated conduc- Parylene and lead Different combinationstive-polymer optical of parylene and lead,coating (combina- tin, indium, cadmium,tion of an insulating bismuth, antimony,organic polymer and magnesium, lithium,a low-melting-point europium, strontium,electrical conductor) selenium, samarium, polonium, zinc, thallium, tellurium, germanium telluride, cadmium telluride, cadmium tin, cadmium zinc, germanium, or other metals or semiconductors or compositions with a low melting temperature.32 Planar conductive- Parylene and lead Same as drawing elementpolymer optical 31 above.coating78 Conductive-polymer Parylene and lead Same as drawing elementcoating 31 above.80 IR sensitive material Barium strontium Materials from drawing titanate element 14 above. For example, (Ba,Sr,Ca,Pb)(Ti,Zr)O.sub.3, (Pb,La)(Zr,Ti)O.sub.3, bismuth titanate, potassium tantalate, lead scandium tantalate, lead niobate, potassium niobate, lead zinc niobate, lead magnesium niobate, tantalum pentoxide, yttrium oxide. Donor, acceptor, or donor and acceptor doped oxides listed above or combinations of the above materials______________________________________
FIG. 3 shows an alternate embodiment, an IR sensing hybrid having basically the same general functionality as those described with reference to FIG. 2, but the planar conductive-polymer optical coating 32 is not elevated as in the previous figures. As is described more fully in the referenced prior art, the planar optical coating typically is easier to manufacture, but may provide less thermal isolation between pixels.
FIG. 4 shows another alternate embodiment, an IR sensing hybrid similar to that described with reference to FIG. 2, except that the elevated coating consists of conductive-polymer 31 overlying NiCr layer 30. In this embodiment NiCr layer 30 functions as the common electrode connection between the pixels, allowing conductive-polymer 31 to contain less metal than the embodiment in FIG. 2 because less conductivity is required of conductive-polymer 31.
Alternatively, NiCr layer 30 may be replaced with a bimetal layer of, for example, NiCr and TiW, as described in Long et al., "Reduced Stress Electrode for Focal Plane Array of Thermal Imaging System and Method," U.S. Patent No. 5,847,390. Alternatively, a compressive bimetal layer can provide for reduced stress on the IR sensing array if one layer is made of tensile material and the other layer is made of compressive material.
FIG. 5 shows yet another alternate embodiment, an IR sensing hybrid similar to that described with reference to FIG. 3, but without conducting electrodes 12 between capacitor dielectric 14 and conductive-polymer optical coating 32. In one alternative of this embodiment, conductive-polymer 32 is manufactured to have a high concentration of conductive material near capacitor dielectric 14 to provide a good electrical connection to capacitor dielectric 14; and the concentration of conductive material in coating 12 decreases upward through layer 32 away from capacitor dielectric 14. In a second alternative of this embodiment, the conductor concentration remains constant throughout layer 32.
The conductor to organic ratio in the conductive-polymer can be varied over a wide range and the specific value selected depends on the specific application. The ratio may be constant vertically through layer 31 or 32, or may vary from a higher conductor concentration at the bottom to a lesser one at the top. Alternatively, the deposition process may deposit all conductor near dielectric material 14, and then introduce the organic to the deposition process to provide the conductive-polymer over the conductor. Alternatively, this may be reversed for an application that requires more conductivity at the top of the layer. Common electrode 30 may or may not be used underlying the conductive-polymer, depending on the application. Conducting electrode 12 may not be used, depending on the application, with its bias function performed by the conducting polymer.
The optical coatings described above are deposited using the novel apparatus and processes which will be described with the aid of FIG. 6 and Table 2.
TABLE 2______________________________________ID# Description Function______________________________________33 Mechanical vacuum Achieves moderate vacuum to reducepump initial load on cryopump 6434 Vacuum valve Seals process chambers from roughing pump 45.35 Cold trap Condenses gaseous products to protect 45.36 Orifice/pump flow Optimizes dwell time for depositionregulating valve uniformity37 Upper vacuum Deposition chamber for codepositionchamber of conducting polymer on IR sensor array at a moderate vacuum.38 Cooling water outlets39 Lower vacuum Provides higher vacuum for electronchamber beam gun 56.40 Cooling water inlets41 Gas inlet and control Predepostion substrate shield. Admits inert(optional) gas such as nitrogen, argon or helium to maintain proper flow and pressure for deposition chamber 37 to keep organic from depositing on the substrate during initial stabilization.42 Substrate holder Provides water cooled, stable mounting for substrate.43 Coolant source Provides cooling for cold trap 35 (typically liquid nitrogen).44 Shutter assembly Externally actuated shutter exposes and shields substrate mounted on 42 to desired gaseous deposition species.45 Mechanical vacuum Achieves moderate vacuum topump enable polymer flow.46 E-gun driven electrical Mixes with polymer vapor forconductor material in deposition on substrate.vapor form47 Vacuum valve. Seals process chambers from roughing pump 33.48 Post pyrolysis heater Prevents undesired deposition.50 Pyrolysis furnace Converts organic dimer (vapor) into required state (monomer, then polymer) for forming a material bond with conductor(s) (typically run at 680-700° C.52 Vaporizer Converts liquid/solvent/solid state of organic dimer insulator to gaseous.54 Loading door Provides access to load 52.56 Electron beam Provides all components to vaporizeassembly conductor and control concentration by means of electronic controls and sensors.57 Polymer generation Creation of polymer (dimer to monomer to polymer).58 Cod trap Condenses vapor products harmful to 64.60 Mechanical gate valve Allows isolation of 64.64 Cryopump Achieves higher vacuum required for 39.66 Housing for E-beam E-beam power supplies may be storedelectronics, and for in a separate rack.additional monitoringand controllingelectronics forfurnace control.68 Housing for furnace/process control.70 Vacuum gauge72 Heated valve Redirects polymer flow prior to opening(optional) the shutter (if used, typically redirects flow to duplicate setup of orifice 36, coolant source 43, cold trap 35, vacuum valve 34, and mechanical vacuum pump 45).74 Baffle (2 each) Provides for uniform flow in chamber 37.76 Vacuum interlock Safety precaution______________________________________
To achieve the proper IR absorption and electrical conductivity simultaneously with a codeposited film, significantly better deposition control is generally required than that afforded by a standard vacuum metal deposition from a heated boat. Leob, U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,707, discloses a deposition apparatus for the prior process, with a single vacuum chamber and a melt pool for evaporating the metal. The present invention uses two differentially pumped chambers 37 and 39, and conductor deposition is achieved by means of an electron gun 56 operating under vacuum produced by cryopump 64, thus providing film uniformity and deposition control.
The functions of the components of FIG. 6 are described in Table 2. In operation, the IR sensing array substrate (signal processing IC 24 of FIGS. 2-5) is first mounted to substrate holder 42 prior to pump down. Vaporizer 52 is loaded with parylene or another suitable organic polymer. The electron gun material holder in electron beam assembly 56 is loaded with lead or another suitable low-melting-point electrical conductor, or combination of conductors. The vacuum system is sealed, cold traps 35 and 58 are stabilized, and roughing pumps 33 and 45 provide the initial pump down for their respective chambers 39 and 37. After chambers 37 and 39 are sufficiently low in pressure, cryopump 64 is actuated through valve 60 to provide the higher vacuum/lower pressure required for the E-gun chamber 39. With shutter 44 closed to protect the substrate, pump flow regulating valves 36, the e-gun rate from electron beam assembly 56, the pyrolysis decomposed parylene flow rate from pyrolysis furnace 50, and the inert gas bled in by inlet 41 are all adjusted and electronically controlled to maintain the required differential pressures between chambers 37 and 39. These pressures typically range from 40-80 μm for the process chamber 37 and 10 -4 to 10 -5 Torr for the E-gun chamber 39. Baffles 74 provide for uniform flow through chamber 37.
After all flows have stabilized, shutter 44 is actuated to expose the substrate mounted on holder 42 for deposition of the combined lead vapor 46 and parylene vapor 57 for the length of time needed for the desired material thickness. Concurrently, cooling water through inlets 40 and outlets 38 maintain all surfaces at preset temperatures.
Subsequently, shutter 44 closes and flow is terminated to complete the deposition of the robust conductive-polymer optical coating. The vacuum system may then be raised in pressure and opened to the atmosphere in a conventional manner to remove the processed substrate. Optical measurements performed on this conductive-polymer have shown a high IR absorption factor of greater than 90%.
Although the substrate holder is referred to as holding a single substrate were in the process chamber, a plurality of substrates may be coated at the same time. In addition, although lead is used as the low-melting-point electrical conductor component of the conductive-polymer, other metals or semiconductors, along or in various combinations, with low-melting-point temperatures may be used.
There also exist various compositions of parylene ("parylene" is the generic name for polymers based on poly-para-xylylene) that could be used in this application. The specific vacuum, mechanical, heating, electronic and structural components and parameters of the deposition apparatus of FIG. 6 have a wide latitude of selection.
After parylene deposition is completed, the substrate can be placed in a plasma reactor and reactively etched with CF 4 and oxygen to achieve greater IR absorption. Typically, the substrate is ashed for less than five minutes, and preferably for about one to two minutes. This subsequent ashing step may or may not be used depending on the application. Proper electronic control of the deposition process may produce a coating with an IR absorption percentage of greater than 90%, even without the ashing step. Alternatively, other organic etches such as other fluorine compounds or oxygen alone could be used as the gases in the plasma etch step.
FIG. 7 is a graph showing percent of incident radiation absorption versus wavelength for a conductive-polymer coating which was plasma ashed after being formed with the above-described apparatus. As the graph illustrates, the layer has greater than 90% absorption for wavelengths in the 3-14 μm range. In addition, the absorption is fairly uniform over this infrared wavelength region.
This conductive-polymer coating is useful for many applications in which IR radiation absorption is required. FIG. 8 illustrates a structure in which conductive-polymer coating 78 is applied to IR sensitive layer 80. This combination or its equivalent may be used, for example, in solar collectors, cooled IR detectors, uncooled IR detectors, IR sensitive capacitors, or IR sensitive bolometers. Conductive-polymer coating 78 absorbs over 90% of the incoming IR radiation and transfers it to underlying IR sensitive layer 80. The increase in IR absorption significantly increases the performance over that of a structure without the conductive-polymer coating.
Although the invention is shown as applied to uncooled IR sensor arrays, the conductive-polymer optical coating can be used in any application requiring a 3-14 μm IR absorptive layer, such as in solar collectors, or cooled IR sensor applications (e.g., 3-5 μm). The conductive-polymer coating is generally useful for any type of underlying infrared sensor. For example, the underlying sensor may function as the dielectric in a capacitor, or as a resistive element in a bolometer structure. In addition, although the electrically conducting material vapor was described as being formed with an electron beam, other processes capable of forming the vapor may be used, such as chemical vapor deposition.
While this invention has been described with reference to illustrative embodiments, this description is not intended to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications and combinations of the illustrative embodiments, as well as other embodiments of the invention, will be apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description. It is therefore intended that the appended claims encompass any such modifications or embodiments.
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This is a system and method of forming a conductive polymer optical coating on an infrared detection system. The apparatus may include an upper vacuum chamber, a shutter assembly mounted inside the upper vacuum chamber, a substrate holder disposed inside the shutter assembly, wherein the shutter assembly is capable of shielding or exposing the substrate to the upper vacuum chamber, an orifice connected to the upper vacuum chamber for control of a flow rate for the upper vacuum chamber, a first mechanical pump system connected to the orifice, a lower vacuum chamber connected to the upper vacuum chamber on a side opposite the shutter assembly, an electron beam assembly for providing a low-melting-point electrical conductor vapor, disposed inside the lower vacuum chamber, wherein the electron beam assembly is directed toward the shutter assembly in the upper vacuum chamber, a second mechanical pump system and a cryopump connected to the lower vacuum chamber, a polymer generation chamber for providing polymer vapor, connected to the upper vacuum chamber on a side perpendicular to the shutter assembly, a vaporizer surrounding a first portion of the polymer generation chamber, a pyrolysis furnace surrounding a second portion of the polymer generation chamber, and a post pyrolysis heater surrounding a third portion of the polymer generation chamber.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] (a) Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention is related to a motor main shaft and auxiliary shaft coaxial drive system, and more particularly, to a compact coaxial dual drive system in a single motor by having axially inserted the auxiliary shaft into the main shaft of the motor and both shafts are respectively provided with transmission at different speed ratio for output or input.
[0003] (b) Description of the Prior Art
[0004] In a conventional dual shaft drive system, usually two motors are coaxially provided by having their independent main shaft coaxially connected in series and separately driven, or having a main shaft of a single motor provided separately from the revolving shaft driven by other dynamic drive. Taking the passive bike generally available in the market that is subject to the manual drive or motor drive or simultaneous drive by both for example, both of an auxiliary shaft of the manual drive and a main shaft of a motor are usually separately located in the absence of an coaxial structure. Therefore it has the flaws of consuming larger space and more complicate structure; and the same flaws are observed with other applications operating on dynamic and manual mixed drive, e.g., moped, light weight wheeled vehicle or any other carrier or mechanical load.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The primary purpose of the present invention is to provide a motor main shaft and auxiliary shaft coaxial drive system. The system provides dual transmission input or output at single end or both ends by having its main shaft made in hollow to receive insertion of an auxiliary shaft coaxially adapted with separate transmission to link to respective load. The auxiliary shaft may be driven by other dynamic source, and a controllable clutch being provided between the main shaft and the auxiliary shaft of the motor. The auxiliary shaft is coupled to the main shaft of the motor either to be driven by the motor main shaft or to drive the motor main shaft; or the motor main shaft is disengaged from the auxiliary shaft by manipulating the clutch.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a basic structure of a motor unit of the present invention with motor stator provided externally and motor rotor provided internally.
[0007] FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1 .
[0008] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a structure of a preferred embodiment of the present invention to jointly drive a load by a motor main shaft and an auxiliary shaft coaxially inserted into the motor main shaft.
[0009] FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. 3 .
[0010] FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a basic structure of a motor unit of the present invention with motor rotor provided externally and motor stator provided internally.
[0011] FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG. 5 .
[0012] FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a structure of another preferred embodiment of the present invention to jointly drive a load by a motor main shaft and an auxiliary shaft coaxially inserted into the motor main shaft taken from FIG.5 .
[0013] FIG. 8 is a side view of FIG. 7 .
[0014] FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having provided a controllable clutch at where between the hollow motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft coaxially inserted into the motor main shaft.
[0015] FIG. 10 is a side view of FIG. 9 .
[0016] FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention with two units of power trains respectively provided with a one-way transmission.
[0017] FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having its power chain driven by the main shaft of the motor of the present invention provided with a one-way transmission, and the power chain driven by the auxiliary to directly drive the rotation part of the load.
[0018] FIG. 13 is a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having a one-way transmission provided to the power train driven by the auxiliary shaft and the power chain driven by the motor main shaft to directly drive the rotation part of the load.
[0019] FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having a one-way transmission in sequence of a first power train, a second power train and a rotation part of a load.
[0020] FIG. 15 is a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having a one-way transmission in sequence of the second power train, the first power train and the rotation part of the load.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0021] In a conventional dual shaft drive, such as that applied in a carrier of two or more than two wheels driven by manual and motor, the manually driven auxiliary shaft and the motor main shaft are usually separately provided at different places instead of being co-axially provided; therefore consumes comparatively larger space. The co-axially provided motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft is specially designed to correct the defective of consuming too much space by inserting the auxiliary shaft into the motor main shaft each respectively provided with a transmission, such as a dual chain gear structure to drive a load, so to save space and reduce the structural complexity. Meanwhile, the auxiliary shaft may be driven by manual or by other dynamic source, or alternatively, a controllable clutch may be provided to manipulate the coupling of the auxiliary shaft to the motor main shaft for transmission or to disengage from the motor main shaft.
[0022] As illustrated in FIG. 1 for a schematic view of a basic structure of the present invention, wherein, a motor unit is comprised of a motor stator provide externally and a motor rotor provided internally. FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1 . The present invention is essentially comprised of a motor unit 100 provided with a hollow motor main shaft 101 , and an auxiliary shaft 102 co-axially inserted to the hollow motor main shaft 101 . The motor unit 100 is provided externally a motor stator 103 and internally a motor rotor 104 . The motor rotor 104 freely revolves around the motor stator 103 and is provided with a hollow motor main shaft 101 to coaxially receive the insertion of the auxiliary shaft 102 , which in turn freely revolves around the motor main shaft 101 , and a proper bearing structure is each provided among revolving structures in the motor unit 100 .
[0023] FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a structure of a preferred embodiment of the present invention to jointly drive a load by a motor main shaft and an auxiliary shaft coaxially inserted into the motor main shaft; and FIG. 4 is a side view of FIG. 3 . Wherein, the hollow motor main shaft 101 and the auxiliary shaft 102 in the motor unit 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is respectively adapted with a transmission at different speed ratios to drive a common load. That is, two transmission units at different speed ratios are respectively adapted to where between the load rotation part 201 and the motor main shaft 101 , and the load rotation part 201 and the auxiliary shaft to jointly drive the load rotation part 201 that revolves in a bearing structure 202 . Wherein, a first transmission 211 is provided for the motor main shaft 101 to drive the load rotation part 201 thus to form the first power train while the second transmission 212 is provided for the auxiliary shaft 102 to drive the load rotation part 201 thus to form a second power train. Meanwhile, two one-way transmission units 221 , 222 are respectively provided between the load rotation part 201 and the first transmission 211 and the second transmission 212 depending on the transmission functional desired, so to transmit the revolving power from the motor main shaft 101 or the auxiliary shaft 102 to the load rotation part 201 , which is prevented from engaging the inverse transmission to the motor main shaft 101 or the auxiliary shaft 102 on the prime mover side.
[0024] Furthermore, if two-way transmission is required between each transmission and the load rotation part 201 , a linkage for direct transmission may be selected; or a one-way transmission is provided between the load rotation part 201 and the transmission 211 or 212 as applicable while the other transmission 211 or 212 is selected for direct transmission linkage.
[0025] If structural requires, the coaxial drive system of the motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft may be comprised of a motor unit having the motor rotor provided externally and the motor stator provided internally as illustrated in FIG. 5 for a schematic view showing a basic structure of a motor unit of the present invention with motor rotor provided externally and motor stator provided internally; and FIG. 6 for a side view of FIG. 5 . Wherein, an internal motor stator 303 provided with a through hole of the motor unit 300 is unilaterally fixed with the through hole in the internal motor stator 303 to receive the insertion of an auxiliary shaft 302 while an external motor rotor 304 freely revolves around the internal motor stator 303 and the auxiliary shaft 302 , and the motor main shaft 301 having a hollow structure is driven by the external motor rotor 304 .
[0026] FIG. 7 is a schematic view of a structure of another preferred embodiment of the present invention to jointly drive a load by a motor main shaft and an auxiliary shaft coaxially inserted into the motor main shaft taken from FIG. 5 , and FIG. 8 is a side view of FIG. 7 . Wherein, the first transmission 211 is provided between the load rotation part 201 and the motor main shaft 301 having a hollow structure driven by the external motor rotor 304 of the motor unit 300 ; while the second transmission 212 is provided between the load rotation part 201 and the auxiliary shaft 302 coaxially penetrating the through hole of the internal motor stator 303 .
[0027] Furthermore, the coaxial drive system of the motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft may be adapted with a controllable clutch at where between the motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft as illustrated in FIG. 9 for a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having provided a controllable clutch at where between the hollow motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft coaxially inserted into the motor main shaft, and in FIG. 10 , a side view of FIG. 9 . The preferred embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 takes the motor unit 100 provided with an external motor stator and an internal motor rotor as shown in FIG. 1 while a controllable clutch 500 is provided between the motor main shaft 101 and the auxiliary shaft 102 . The first transmission 211 and the second transmission 212 operate at different speed ratios. To avoid interference of the operation by both transmission units 211 , 212 at different speed ratios, a one-way transmission to prevent interference is each provided at where between the load rotation part 201 and the first transmission 211 provided in relation to the motor main shaft 101 serving as the prime mover side, and at where between the load rotation part 201 and the second transmission 212 provided in relation to the auxiliary shaft 102 . Accordingly, when the controllable clutch 500 is disengaged, the revolving power from the motor unit 100 drives from the motor main shaft 101 the load rotation part 201 through the first transmission 211 ; or when the controllable clutch 500 is in closed status, the motor unit 100 simultaneously drives the motor main shaft 101 and the auxiliary shaft 102 , and then drives the load rotation part 201 respectively through the separately adapted first transmission 211 and second transmission 212 operating at different speed ratios and the interference resulted from different speed ratios is eliminated by the one-way transmission provided at where between the first transmission 211 or the second transmission 212 adapted in relation to the motor main shaft 101 and the auxiliary shaft 102 , and the load rotation part 201 .
[0028] The structure of the controllable clutch 500 provided between the motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft may be also applied in the motor unit 300 having an external motor rotor and an internal motor stator as illustrated in FIG. 5 with the structural principles for the controllable clutch 500 , the first transmission 211 , the second transmission 212 and the load rotation part 201 same as that of the preferred embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 .
[0029] If an eccentric type of clutch is used for the controllable clutch 500 of the coaxial drive system of the aforesaid motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft, an eccentric clutch that is closed in normal condition and is disengaged when the speed increases up to a preset value, or another eccentric clutch that is disengaged in normal condition and is closed when the speed increases up to a preset value depending on the function required. Meanwhile, the relation between the speed ratios of the first transmission 211 and the second transmission 212 and the layout of the one-way transmission may be relatively adapted according to the transmission mechanism.
[0030] The additional one-way transmission in the power train to eliminate interference due to different ratios during the operation of the first power train and the second power train comprised of two transmission units 211 and 212 operating at different speed ratios and the load rotation part 201 in those preferred embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 10 may be provided in the following methods:
[0031] (1) As illustrated in FIG. 11 for a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention with two units of power trains respectively provided with a one-way transmission, two one-way transmission units 221 , 222 are respectively provided at an interference point in the related power transmission operation for two power trains to avoid interference, the first power train is formed between the input side of the first transmission 211 driving by the motor main shaft 101 or 301 and the output side of the first transmission 211 , and the load rotation part 201 ; and the second power train is formed between the input side of the second transmission 212 driving by the auxiliary shaft 102 and the output side of the second transmission 212 , and the load rotation part 201 .
[0032] (2) As illustrated in FIG. 12 for a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having its power chain driven by the main shaft of the motor of the present invention provided with a one-way transmission, and the power chain driven by the auxiliary to directly drive the rotation part of the load, the first power train is formed between the first transmission 211 driven by the motor main shaft 101 or 301 and the load rotation part 201 and is provided with the first one-way transmission 221 ;
[0033] while the second power train is formed by having the second transmission 212 driven by the auxiliary shaft 102 to directly drive the load rotation part 201 .
[0034] (3) As illustrated in FIG. 13 for a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having a one-way transmission provided to the power train driven by the auxiliary shaft and the power chain driven by the motor main shaft to directly drive the rotation part of the load, the second power train is formed between the second transmission 212 driven by the auxiliary shaft 102 or 302 and the load rotation part 201 provided with the second one-way transmission 222 ; while the first power train is formed by having the first transmission 211 driven by the motor main shaft 101 to directly drive the load rotation part 201 .
[0035] (4) As illustrated in FIG. 14 for a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having a one-way transmission in sequence of a first power train, a second power train and a rotation part of a load, the output side of the second transmission 212 driven by the auxiliary shaft 102 is driven first through the first one-way transmission 221 by the output side of the first transmission 211 driven by the motor main shaft 101 or 301 ; and the load rotation part 201 is driven through the second one-way transmission 222 by the output side of the second transmission 212 driven by the auxiliary shaft 102 for the first power train to drive the second power train in one direction, in turn the second power train drives the load rotation part 201 in the same direction, resulting in a one-way transmission mechanism comprised of the first power train, the second power train and the load rotation part in sequence.
[0036] (5) As illustrated in FIG. 15 for a schematic view showing another preferred embodiment yet of the present invention having a one-way transmission in sequence of the second power train, the first power train and the rotation part of the load, the output side of the first transmission 211 driven by the motor main shaft 101 is driven first through the second one-way transmission 222 by the output side of the second transmission 212 driven by the auxiliary shaft 102 or 302 ; and the load rotation part 201 is driven through the first one-way transmission 221 by the output side of the first transmission 211 driven by the motor main shaft 101 for the second power train to drive the first power train in one direction, in turn the first power train drives the load rotation part 201 in the same direction, resulting in a one-way transmission mechanism comprised of the second power train, the first power train and the load rotation part in sequence.
[0037] To sum up, the coaxial drive system comprised of the motor main shaft and the auxiliary shaft of the present invention by having the motor main shaft made in a hollow structure to receive co-axially the insertion of the auxiliary shaft in adaptation of the one-way transmission provided at the load rotation part is compact and reduce the complexity of a specific drive, and an optional clutch is provided between the motor main shaft and the coaxially inserted auxiliary shaft as required is innovative and providing specific function. Therefore, this application for patent is duly filed accordingly.
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A motor main shaft and auxiliary shaft coaxial drive system to provide dual transmission input or output at single end or both ends by having its main shaft made in hollow to receive insertion of an auxiliary shaft coaxially; with separate transmission to link to respective load; the auxiliary shaft may be driven by other dynamic source; a controllable clutch being provided between the main shaft and the auxiliary shaft of the motor; the auxiliary shaft being coupled to the main shaft of the motor either to be driven by the motor main shaft or to drive the motor main shaft; or the motor main shaft to be disengaged from the auxiliary shaft manipulating the clutch.
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This application is a continuation of and claims priority to co-owned and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/369,850 filed Feb. 9, 2012 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS” now U.S. Pat. No. 8,447,612, which is a continuation of and claims priority to co-owned and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/711,692 filed Feb. 24, 2010 and entitled “ADAPTIVE INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS AND METHODS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,117,037, which is a continuation of and claims priority to co-owned and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/506,975 filed Aug. 17, 2006 and entitled “SMART ELEVATOR SYSTEM AND METHOD”, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,711,565, which is a divisional of and claims priority to co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/935,957 filed Sep. 7, 2004 and entitled “ELEVATOR ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHOD”, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,693, which is a divisional of co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/651,451 filed Aug. 29, 2003 and entitled “SMART ELEVATOR SYSTEM AND METHOD”, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,071, which is a continuation of co-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/330,101 filed Jun. 10, 1999 and entitled “SMART ELEVATOR SYSTEM AND METHOD”, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,175, each of the foregoing incorporated into the present application by reference in its entirety. This application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/703,666 filed Feb. 10, 2010 entitled “Adaptive Advertising Apparatus and Methods”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,065,155, Ser. No. 12/704,431 filed Feb. 11, 2010 entitled “Adaptive Advertising Apparatus and Methods”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,078,473, Ser. No. 12/711,692 filed on Feb. 24, 2010 entitled “ADAPTIVE INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS AND METHODS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,117,037, Ser. No. 12/711,857 filed Feb. 24, 2010 and entitled “ADAPTIVE INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS AND METHODS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,065,156, Ser. No. 13/364,194 filed Feb. 1, 2012 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,553, Ser. No. 13/362,902 filed Jan. 31, 2012 and entitled “ADAPTIVE INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,370,158, Ser. No. 13/357,487 filed Jan. 24, 2012 and entitled “ELECTRONIC INFORMATION ACCESS SYSTEM AND METHODS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,301,456, Ser. No. 13/369,850 filed Feb. 9, 2012 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,447,612, Ser. No. 13/404,606 entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,290,781, Ser. No. 13/404,980 entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,296,146, Ser. No. 13/404,853 entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION APPARATUS”, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,290,778, Ser. No. 13/405,046 entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION PRESENTATION METHODS” now U.S. Pat. No. 8,296,153, each filed on Feb. 24, 2012, Ser. No. 13/406,408 entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION SELECTION AND DOWNLOAD APPARATUS AND METHODS” filed on Feb. 27, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,311,834, and Ser. No. 13/410,080 entitled “NETWORK APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR USER INFORMATION DELIVERY” filed Mar. 1, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,551, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This application is also related to co-owned and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/728,512 filed Dec. 27, 2012 and entitled “SMART INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS” now published as U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0205214, Ser. No. 13/728,715 filed Dec. 27, 2012 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS” now published as U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0185640, Ser. No. 13/733,098 filed Jan. 2, 2013 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS” now published as U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0191750, Ser. No. 13/737,833 filed Jan. 9, 2013 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS” now published as U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0188055, and Ser. No. 13/737,853 filed Jan. 9, 2013 and entitled “TRANSPORT APPARATUS WITH COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS” now published as U.S. Patent Application No. 2013/0191023, Ser. No. 13/750,583 filed Jan. 25, 2013 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS”, Ser. No. 13/752,222 filed Jan. 28, 2013 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS”, Ser. No. 13/753,407 filed Jan. 29, 2013 and entitled “COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION AND DISPLAY APPARATUS”, Ser. No. 13/755,682 filed Jan. 31, 2013 and entitled “INTELLIGENT ADVERTISING METHODS”, Ser. No. 13/758,898 filed Feb. 4, 2013 and entitled “INTELLIGENT ADVERTISING APPARATUS”, each incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of personnel transport apparatus, and specifically to elevators and similar devices for transporting people from one location to another which incorporate various information technologies.
2. Description of Related Technology
Elevators and similar personnel transport devices (such as moving walkways or shuttles) are important aspects of modern urban life. Commonly used in office buildings, airports, shopping malls, and other large structures, these devices transport large numbers of people and equipment between two locations on a routine basis. Elevators in particular are widely used throughout the world.
Depending on loading, a person may spend up to several minutes on an elevator during travel between floors. Significant amounts of time may also be spent waiting for the elevator to arrive when called. This time is usually “dead” from the standpoint that very little can be accomplished or very few tasks undertaken during these few minutes. However, often times an individual may require information which will be of use after leaving the elevator. For example, the person may wish to obtain travel information such as directions to the nearest airport or public transportation node, or the location of a nearby restaurant. Weather-related information or traffic reports may also be useful. A plethora of different types of information, including financial data, breaking news headlines, sports scores and the like may also be of interest to one waiting for or riding on an elevator or other transport device.
An associated problem relates to determining the location of a person, firm, or store within a building when unfamiliar. Building directories are often posted in the lobby of the building, yet these require the user to manually or visually locate the name of the person, firm, or store which they are looking for, and remember the location information associated therewith. Additionally, such directories often do not provide precise location information, but rather merely a floor number and/or suite number. The user often times does not have a graphical representation of the desired location in relation to the elevators, thereby resulting in additional wasted time in finding the location once off of the elevator. Even if a graphical display is provided, it often requires the user to spatially orient themselves to determine relative location.
Security is also a concern when riding elevators late at night or to remote locations. Many elevator systems are used partly or entirely within parking garages, which often may be sparsely populated at off hours. People are all too frequently assaulted or robbed when departing from elevators under such conditions. Unfortunately, existing elevator systems do not have the facility to provide the occupant(s) with the ability to selectively observe the area immediately surrounding the elevator doors on one or more destination floors, or otherwise take precautions to enhance their security.
Another problem associated with existing elevator systems relates to their loading capacity. Often, especially at peak use hours such as during the noon hour, the call buttons for several different floors within a building will be activated, and elevator cars which are at or near their loading capacity will respond. With no additional room available in the elevator, the person depressing the call button on a given floor is left to wait for the elevator doors to close, depress the call button again, and wait for another (hopefully partially vacant) car to arrive. This process not only delays the person waiting for the car, but also those on the elevator car(s), and those waiting on other floors.
In addition to the foregoing, many elevators must have a means of restricting access to certain floors during certain time periods while not interfering with other operations. These elevators generally also include means by which certain users may gain access to the restricted floors, such as a magnetic striped card which is inserted into a card reader on the elevator. However, such card readers are prone to wear and having to re-swipe the card several times in order to obtain access. Furthermore, as the card wears due to repeated swiping or bending (such as when left in the pocket of the individual carrying the card), the card will be more prone to failure and will eventually require replacement. Also, such cards are prone to unauthorized use. Someone stealing or finding the lost card can simply insert it into the card reader of the elevator and gain access to the restricted floor(s). It is also noted that since access is restricted to certain floors typically during late-night or weekend hours, HVAC and lighting systems are typically turned off or dormant in order to conserve energy. Hence, when the user arrives at one of these restricted access floors, several minutes are typically spent turning on the HVAC, lights, and any other number of electrical devices. Some systems require the user to insert their magnetic strip card in a separate reader, such as in the control room for the HVAC (which is typically located on a different floor), in order to initiate equipment operation. This is obviously time consuming and cumbersome.
Lastly, there is often an element of discomfort associated with riding an elevator car, especially when several individuals are present in the car. Due in part to minimal space within the car and nothing to occupy the occupants attention visually, there is a natural tendency for one to stare up, down, or forward at the door of the elevator, or at the visual floor indicators so as to avoid prolonged eye contact with the other occupants.
Heretofore, many of the technologies necessary to address the aforementioned issues have not been available or, alternatively, have been cost or space prohibitive to implement. However, recent advances in data networking, thin or flat panel display technology, personal electronics, and speech recognition and compression algorithms and processing have enhanced the viability of such features from both technological and commercial perspectives.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for an improved elevator system and method of operation which will reduce the time spent waiting for and travelling on the elevator car, reduce the frustration associated with repeated stops at different floors, and allow the occupants of the elevator (as well as those waiting for the car) to use their time more efficiently and obtain needed information. Additionally, such an elevator system would enhance the security of the occupants upon egress, and allow for automatic recognition of an individual in order to provide access to certain restricted locations and initiation of certain functions such as lighting and HVAC.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one aspect, computerized apparatus useful for locating an organization or entity, the organization or entity being disposed within a building or structure, is disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes: a wireless interface; data processing apparatus; a touch-screen input and display device; a speech digitization apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus; and a storage apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus. In one variant, the storage apparatus comprises at least one computer program, the at least one program being configured to: receive a digitized speech input via the speech digitization apparatus, the input relating to an organization or entity which a user wishes to locate; based at least in part on the input, causing recognition of at least one word therein relating to the organization or entity, and identification of a location associated with the organization or entity based at least in part on the at least one recognized word, the location being inside of the building or structure; and provide a graphical or visual representation of the location on the touch screen input and display device in order to aid a user in finding the organization or entity, the graphical or visual representation of the location also comprising a graphical or visual representation of at least the immediate surroundings of the organization or entity, the immediate surroundings being inside the building or structure.
In another aspect, computerized apparatus is disclosed. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a wireless interface; data processing apparatus; a touch-screen input and display device; a speech recognition apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus; and a storage apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus. In one variant, the storage apparatus includes at least one computer program, the at least one program being configured to: receive a digitized speech input via the speech recognition apparatus, the input relating to an organization or entity disposed within a building or structure which a user wishes to locate; based at least in part on the input, cause identification of a location inside of the building or structure associated with the organization or entity; and provide a graphical or visual representation of the location on the touch screen input and display device in order to aid a user in finding the organization or entity, the graphical or visual representation of the location comprising a map graphic showing the location of the organization or entity relative to other organizations or entities proximate thereto inside of the building or structure. In another variant, the digitized speech is generated based at least in part on user speech received via a microphone in communication with the speech recognition apparatus, the microphone being mounted within the computerized apparatus proximate the touch-screen input and display device so that the user can speak into the microphone while viewing the touch-screen input and display device; and the computerized apparatus is further configured to provide a user a graphical representation of directions from their current location to the organization or entity, the graphical representation of directions comprising the map graphic displayed on the touch-screen input and display device having at least one arrow showing the path for the user to follow inside of the building or structure; and includes an interface compliant with an IEEE 802.11 standard.
In another embodiment, the computerized apparatus includes: a wireless interface; data processing apparatus; a touch-screen input and display device; a speech recognition apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus; and a storage apparatus in data communication with the data processing apparatus, the storage apparatus comprising at least one computer program, the at least one program being configured to: generate a digitized speech input relating to an organization or entity within a building to which a user wishes to obtain directions; utilize the speech recognition apparatus to cause identification of at least one word or phrase within the digitized speech input; cause determination of a location associated with the organization or entity, the location having been determined based at least in part on the at least one word or phrase; display the directions from the user's current location within the building to the organization or entity on the touch screen input and display device; and provide a graphical or visual representation of the location of the organization or entity on the touch screen input and display device in order to aid a user in finding the organization or entity, the graphical or visual representation of the location also comprising a graphical or visual representation of the immediate surroundings of the organization or entity within the building, including other entities or organizations proximate thereto.
In another embodiment, the computerized apparatus is configured to help a user navigate indoors, and comprises: a wireless interface; means for data processing; a capacitive touch-screen input and display means; a speech recognition apparatus in data communication with the means for data processing; and computerized logic configured to: produce a digitized speech input, and identify via at least the speech recognition apparatus at least one word or phrase therein, the at least one word or phrase relating to an organization or entity disposed within a building and to which a user wishes to obtain directions; receive from a remote network entity via the wireless interface, a location associated with the organization or entity, the location having been determined based at least in part on the input; display the directions from the user's current location to the organization or entity on the capacitive touch screen input and display means; and provide a graphical or visual representation of the location on the touch screen input and display means in order to aid a user in finding the organization or entity, the graphical or visual representation of the location also comprising a graphical or visual representation of the immediate surroundings of the organization or entity within the building, including one or more other organizations or entities proximate thereto.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the information and control system of the invention, showing those components local to each elevator car.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a first embodiment of the interface panel of the information and control system of FIG. 1 , including the touch keypad and the display device.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the information and control system network architecture.
FIG. 4 is a logic diagram illustrating the operation of one embodiment of the building directory sub-system of the invention.
FIG. 5 is a plan view of one embodiment of a building directory sub-system graphic location file, as shown on the display device of the information and control system.
FIG. 6 a is a plan view of one embodiment of a network input device having dedicated function keys thereon.
FIGS. 6 b and 6 c illustrate one embodiment of an exemplary coordinated graphic weather display according to the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a plan view of one embodiment of the PED data download terminal of the invention.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the capacity sensing sub-system according to the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a plan view of one embodiment of the elevator floor sensor array used in conjunction with the capacity sensing sub-system of FIG. 8 .
FIG. 10 is a logic diagram illustrating the method of operation of the capacity sensing sub-system of FIG. 8 .
FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the monitoring and security sub-system of the present invention.
FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of the elevator car touch panel used in conjunction with the monitoring and security sub-system of FIG. 11 .
FIG. 13 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the monitoring and security sub-system of the present invention.
FIGS. 14 a and 14 b are plan views of one embodiment of the parking and video monitoring displays, respectively, of the monitoring and security sub-system of FIG. 11 .
FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the identification and access sub-system of the present invention.
FIG. 16 is a logic diagram illustrating the operation of the identification and access sub-system of FIG. 15 .
FIG. 17 is a plan view of one embodiment of a utility services selection display associated with the identification and access sub-system of FIG. 15 .
FIG. 18 a is a logic diagram illustrating the operation of a first embodiment of the prompt mode of the adaptive advertising sub-system of the invention.
FIG. 18 b illustrates the library data file structure used in conjunction with the advertising sub-system of the invention.
FIG. 18 c is a logic diagram illustrating the operation of a second embodiment of the advertising sub-system of the invention.
FIG. 18 d is a logic diagram illustrating the operation of a third embodiment of the adaptive advertising sub-system of the invention.
FIG. 19 is a logic diagram illustrating the operation of a fourth embodiment of the adaptive advertising sub-system of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Reference is now made to the drawings listed above, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.
It is noted that while the system and methods of the invention disclosed herein are described primarily with respect to an elevator car, certain aspects of the invention may be useful in other applications, including, without limitation, other types of personnel transport devices such as trams or shuttles or moving walkways, or stationary devices such as kiosks within the lobby or elevator waiting areas of a building. As used herein, the term “building” is meant to encompass any structure, whether above ground or underground, permanent or temporary, used for any function.
General Description
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2 , one embodiment of an improved elevator information system is generally described. As shown in FIG. 1 , the system 100 includes an input device 102 , speech recognition (SR) module 104 , central processor 106 with associated motherboard 121 , video RAM 107 , non-volatile storage device 108 containing a database (not shown), graphics co-processor 109 , volatile or dynamic storage device 110 with associated DMA module 139 , audio amplifier and speaker module 111 , speech synthesis module 112 , micro-controller 123 , PCI slots 147 , and display device 113 . The system also includes a serial bus with universal asynchronous receiver transmitter (UART) 117 or alternatively universal serial bus (USB), as described in greater detail below with respect to FIG. 7 . As shown in FIG. 2 , the input device 102 of the present embodiment is a touch-sensitive keypad and/or display screen of the type well known in the electrical arts. The input device 102 includes a variety of different functional keys 114 on a keypad 116 (and/or on a touch-sensitive display screen 113 , as described below) which allow the user to initiate a query of the database either manually via the keypad 116 , display device 113 , or audibly through the speech recognition module 104 .
As shown in FIG. 1 , the speech recognition module 104 of the present invention includes a high quality, high SNR audio microphone 118 , analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 141 , and linear predictive coding (LPC)-based spectral analysis algorithm run on a digital signal processor 125 having associated SR module RAM 127 . It will be recognized that other forms of spectral analysis, such as MFCC (Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients) or cochlea modeling, may be used. Phoneme/word recognition in the present embodiment is based on HMM (hidden Markov modeling), although other processes such as, without limitation, DTW (Dynamic Time Warning) or NNs (Neural Networks) may be used. Myriad speech recognition systems and algorithms are available, all considered within the scope of the invention disclosed herein.
In the present embodiment, CELP-based voice data compression is also utilized for transmission and storage of voice data. CELP algorithms in general are useful for converting analog speech to a compressed digital format which is more rapidly and easily manipulated and stored within a digital system using less bandwidth and memory. CELP algorithms and low bit rate vocoder technology are well known in the signal processing art, and accordingly will not be described further herein. Note that as used herein, the term CELP is meant to include any and all variants of the CELP family such as, but not limited to, ACELP, VCELP, and QCELP. It is also noted that while CELP is used as the basis of compression within the system 100 , other types of compression algorithms and techniques, whether based on companding or otherwise, may be used. For example, PCM (pulse code modulation) or ADPCM (adaptive delta PCM) may be employed, as may other forms of linear predictive coding (LPC).
As illustrated in FIG. 1 , signals generated by the microphone 118 are digitized by the ADC 141 and processed using the aforementioned speech recognition algorithm and the DSP 125 to produce digital representations of the user's speech. The speech library or dictionary stored within the SR module memory 127 is used by the DSP 125 to match phenome strings resulting from the LPC analysis with known words. Once a “match” is identified, the central processor 106 and/or micro-controller 123 implement the desired functionality, such as retrieving one or more data files from the storage device 108 for display on the display device 113 .
The DSP 125 of the present embodiment is a Texas Instruments TMS320C6x VLIW digital signal processor or equivalent, although it will be recognized that other types of processors may be used. The 'C6x DSP is chosen for its speed and capability, thereby allowing for real-time speech recognition. The central processor 106 and associated motherboard architecture (e.g., northbridge, southbridge, etc.) is optimally an Intel Pentium II®-based design, although others, such as the AMD K600-series processors, may be used in place of the Pentium II®. The aforementioned USB is also advantageously used with the Pentium architecture.
The information and control system keypads 116 and displays 113 ( FIG. 2 ) are placed at waist and eye level, respectively, within the elevator car 180 to facilitate easy access and viewing by the user, and limit the amount of incidental contact by passengers in the elevator. A plurality of different input/display devices are optimally disposed within the smart elevator to allow multiple occupants to obtain information simultaneously. A capacitive “touch keypad” is used as the input device 102 in the present embodiment to increase input device longevity and thwart vandalism. Specifically, since the function keys 114 on the keypad 116 do not have a mechanical actuating device (such as a spring and set of electrical contacts) which will wear with time, they will as a general rule last longer. Additionally, since the keypad 116 has no openings in the vicinity of the individual keys, any incidental contact with deleterious substances such as cleaning fluids will not affect the operation of the system or degrade its longevity. Similarly, vandalism is discouraged, since there are no openings or other access points present within the interior of the elevator car. The keypad 116 may also be covered with a protective coating of the type well known in the art without affecting the operation of the panel, since, if properly chosen, such a coating merely acts as a dielectric for the capacitor formed between the underlying contacts and the user. It will be recognized, however, that any number of input devices, including “mechanical” keypads, trackballs, light pens, pressure sensitive “touch” keypads, or the like may be used in conjunction with the present invention if so desired. The touch keypads 116 are, in the present embodiment, mounted flush with the vertical wall surfaces 177 of the elevator car so as to make them as physically unobtrusive as possible.
The touch-screen display 113 generates a variety of different messages or display formats is based on the user's input and query. These messages and formats are stored as digital data on the storage device 108 (and temporarily in video RAM 107 ) which is accessed by the processor 106 . The display devices 113 of the present embodiment are low profile capacitive LCD touch screen devices of the type well known in the art, although other types of displays, including “flat” cathode ray tubes, plasma, or TFT displays may be used. Such displays optimally limit the amount of space required external to the interior volume of the elevator car to accommodate the system 100 of the present invention. Furthermore, it is noted that a non-touch sensitive display (not shown) may be used with the aforementioned input device 102 if desired, the latter acting as the sole input device (other than the speech recognition module 104 and associated microphone 118 ).
In the embodiment of FIGS. 1-2 , the processor 106 , video RAM 107 , storage devices 108 , 110 , and other components (including necessary power supplies, not shown) are disposed within equipment storage housings (not shown) located on the exterior of the elevator car 180 so as to be invisible to the occupants thereof. This arrangement is used primarily to allow rapid access to and processing of data by the system 100 , thereby facilitating the rapid delivery of information to the system user. Hence, the information and control system 100 of each elevator car is to a degree “self contained”, with the exception of several common functions performed by a central server 170 .
As shown in FIG. 3 , the central server 170 is located remotely from the elevator cars and connected to the elevator car “clients” 180 via a local area network architecture such as a bus, star, ring, star/bus, or other similar topology. A bus topology is shown in FIG. 3 . The network may operate according to any number of networking protocols including, for example, ATM, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, IP, IP over ATM, or X.25. Connection cabling from the peripheral component interconnect (PCI) slots 147 on each motherboard 121 carrying the network interface devices (such as a LAN card) is run alongside the existing elevator power and control cables within the cable bundle servicing each car.
In an alternative embodiment, data may be transferred between the elevator cars 180 and the remote server 170 via a wireless interface 310 ( FIG. 3 ) such as a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) or frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) system as specified by IEEE Standard 802.11. It will be recognized, however, that any wireless interface capable of accommodating the bandwidth requirements of the system 100 may be used. Optical networking architectures and protocols (such as SONET) may also be used if desired; optical modulators and demodulators 320 , 322 of the type well known in the data networking arts are employed for transferring data between the server 170 and the client(s) 180 in such architectures.
It will be appreciated that many different arrangements for the disposition of various components within the system, including, inter alia, the processor/motherboard, storage devices, server, and memory (and the transfer of data and signals there between) are possible, all of which are encompassed within the scope of the present invention.
Building Directory Sub-System
The operation of the building directory sub-system is now described in greater detail with reference to the logic diagram of FIG. 4 , and the components of FIGS. 1-3 . As used herein, the term “building directory sub-system” refers to that collection of components, firmware, and software within the information and control system 100 of FIG. 1 which perform the building directory functions as described in the following paragraphs.
Upon entering the elevator, the user initiates the “Building Directory” function of the system by pressing a function key 122 on the keypad 116 or touch display 113 . The keypad 116 and/or key 122 may be labeled with an appropriate label such as “Building Directory” or the like. Upon depressing the function key 122 , a signal is generated which prompts the system to respond with an audible and/or visual query to the user, depending on how the system is pre-configured. For an audible query, the sub-system of the present embodiment retrieves a pre-stored CELP (or other compressed format) data file from one of the storage devices 108 , 110 and converts that file to an analog audio representation of voice via the speech synthesis module 112 and processor 106 . Speech synthesis technology is well known in the signal processing arts, and accordingly will not be discussed further herein. The audio signal from the synthesis module 112 is applied to the amplifier and audio speaker 111 to generate a voice prompt, such as “Name?”. Alternatively, or simultaneously if desired, the system 100 retrieves a separate data file from the storage device 108 , 110 which represents the current building directory. The building directory data file contains a plurality of entries relating to tenants in the building where the system 100 is located. Each entry is parsed into data fields which contain, inter alia, the firm or entity name, its location (such as floor and suite number), and a list of the first and last names of all persons employed there. The processor 106 (and associated graphics co-processor 109 with video RAM 107 ) initiate the display of all retrieved data entries in the directory file on the display device 113 in a convenient format, such as an alphabetical list from which the user can select their desired option. The user may then speak the specific name of the party they wish to find, or select the name using the touch display 113 or other input device (such as a track ball; not shown). When the user speaks the name of the party desired, the speech recognition module 104 takes the analog signal from the microphone 118 and converts it to a digital format by way of the DSP 125 and compression algorithm, as previously described. The directory file is retrieved (if not already done), and the digitized and coded speech compared to the contents of the directory file to find any matches. Any matching fields within the entries of the data file are provided to the user, either audibly via the speech synthesis module 112 and speaker 111 using prompts, or visually via the display 113 . In the present embodiment, audible prompts for a single matching entry are of the form: “[Name], [Company], located at Suite X on Floor Y”. For multiple matching entries, the audible prompts are produced in a sequential, predetermined order (such as the numerical sequence number of the entries within the directory file). For example, the first matching entry (alphabetically) would be synthesized in the foregoing form, followed by the second entry, etc. Upon hearing the desired match in this voice activated embodiment, the user simply states “Stop”, to choose the entry desired. At this point, a separate audio prompt is generated (such as “Select (floor number) Floor?”) which prompts the user to either select the floor number associated with the matched directory item and terminate their session (such as by stating “yes”), or continue on with the next entry (such as by stating “no”) until all entries are exhausted. The directory sub-system is programmed to store in memory 110 and “remember” previous files retrieved within a given user's session so as to not repeat the same selections during that same session. For example, if there are five “Smith” entries in the directory file, and the user enters the query “Smith”, the sub-system will select a different “Smith” entry on each subsequent user query during the same session until the correct Smith is located or all matching entries have been exhausted. In the present embodiment, a session is defined as the time period between two successive selections of the “Building Directory” function key 122 , or the expiration of a predetermined period of time without a user input after selection of that function. The sub-system is also optionally programmed to allow the user to append defining information to the initial query statement to form a Boolean search statement. For example, if the first “Smith” selected by the sub-system is not the desired one, the user may then append the query by saying “ABC Corporation” or “John” in response to the next “Select (floor number) Floor?” query by the sub-system. The sub-system will then recognize the new entry, and search all fields in all “Smith” entries to locate those listings having both the name “Smith” and “ABC Corporation” (or “John”), using Boolean “AND” logic. The user will then be prompted again to “Select (floor number) Floor?”. If no matching entries are found, the sub-system will either notify the user to this effect, such as using an audio message such as “No matches found”, or will display or announce the nearest approximation of the query based on a confidence rating. The confidence rating is calculated, for example, by the processor 106 running an algorithm; such confidence rating calculation algorithms are well understood, and indicate the quality of the match using a numeric value or index.
As used herein, the term “match” includes any predetermined criteria for correlating one piece of data to another. For example, the building directory sub-system may be programmed to consider two pieces of data a “match” when all bits with the exception of the least significant bit (LSB) are identical. Many such criteria are possible, and all are considered to be within the scope of the invention disclosed herein. Furthermore, partial matches, such as when the user enters one word which is matched within several different entries of the directory file, may be used as the basis for an appended search, as described below.
The directory file described above also optionally has a location graphic data file appended or linked thereto, which is retrieved from the storage device 108 , 110 or the server 170 . The location graphic file is displayed on the display device 113 as a floor map graphic 502 illustrating the location of the selected person or firm 504 on that floor in relation to the elevator cars 180 , as illustrated in FIG. 5 . For example, the location of the individual or firm being sought is illuminated or colored, made to flash, and/or an illuminated arrow 506 is made to point to the desired location from the elevator. Numerous different and well understood visual and audible formats for providing the user with the desired information may be used with equal success, all of which are considered within the scope of the present invention.
The directory system 200 of the present embodiment also optionally includes directory files for nearby office buildings or establishments, thereby alerting the user through visual or audible prompt that they are in the wrong location once a match is confirmed by the user.
The user's session is terminated, or a new query initiated, when the “Building Directory” function key 122 is again depressed, after a predetermined time period without a user input, or upon the occurrence of some other event as desired.
Network Interface
The information system 100 described above may also include other functional aspects. As illustrated in FIG. 3 , one embodiment of the system includes a network interface 300 (such an internet or intranet data link) which permits the user to rapidly access updated information on a variety of predetermined topics of interest. For example, the input device 102 and/or display 113 of FIG. 2 is configured to include dedicated function keys 602 correlating to Internet hypertext markup language (HTML)-based hyperlinks, the hyperlinks corresponding to URLs (universal resource locators) for news headlines, weather, sports scores, financial data, directions to local airports or public transportation, etc, as shown in FIG. 6 a . Alternatively, the function keys 602 provide the user access to addresses within a local or remote server 170 via a LAN or intranet, which has the desired information stored thereon. The function keys may also be integrated with the touch display 113 (and the components previously described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 above) to allow the user to interact with the system 100 via both the input device 102 and “soft” function keys on the touch display 113 . For example, if the “Weather” function key 604 is selected, the display would retrieve and generate an HTML page with representation of a map of the United States with hyperlinks for each state ( FIG. 6 b ). Once a state or geographical area was selected by the user via the hyperlinked “soft” keys 620 on the touch display 113 , the user would be presented with the desired weather information on the display, such as the current weather conditions and five-day forecast in a mixed textual/graphic format such as that of FIG. 6 c . Preset function keys and graphic representations with icons are used in the present embodiment to facilitate rapid access and display to a more narrowly tailored collection of data, since most users will have only seconds to locate, interpret, and remember the desired information. The generation of textual, graphic or mixed media displays based on HTML or other languages or formats is well known in the computer arts, and accordingly will not be described further herein.
The information and control system 100 may also be programmed to provide information via the display unit(s) 113 on a rotating basis without the need for user intervention. For example, a given display unit 113 may be programmed to display a summary of local weather for the next five days (such as that shown in FIG. 6 c ) for a first period of time, followed by a brief summary of breaking headlines for a second period, followed by financial highlights for a third period, and so forth. The update rate (i.e., the time between changing of the displays) should be adjusted so as to permit for adequate recognition and use by the occupants. An update rate of approximately 10-15 sec. should be sufficient for most topics and applications, although this period may be varied as needed.
Referring again to FIG. 3 , connection of the information and control system 100 to external LANs, WANs, intranets, or internets (e.g., the Internet) is accomplished via the network interface 300 . In one embodiment, this interface 300 comprises a so-called “cable modem” of the type well known in the networking arts. Such cable modems effectively overlay IP data on a coaxial cable which is also used to supply analog video data to the end user. In the case of an elevator system, cabling between the system server 170 and each car 180 may be run in parallel with the existing electrical services cable bundle, or alternatively a wireless interface (such as the aforementioned DSSS or FHSS transceiver 310 ) employed to transmit data between the cars and the server 170 . Many configurations for transmitting data between the cars and the system server 170 may be used. Alternatively, a dedicated integrated services data network (ISDN) line may be used to by the server 170 to access external networks such as the Internet. Furthermore, it is feasible to utilize a wireless link as the network interface 300 between the server 170 and the LAN, intranet, or interne 307 .
Information Download to PED
Referring now to FIG. 7 , another embodiment of the information and control system 100 of the present invention is described. In this embodiment, the system 100 is additionally provided with one or more data terminals 702 which allow the user to plug a personal electronic device (PED) 704 having a standardized interface into the system to obtain a “download” of information. As used herein, the term “PED” includes, but is not limited to, personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as the to Apple Newton®, US Robotics/3COM PalmPilot®, or Palm III®, laptop computer, notebook computer, or the like. The data terminal includes a connector 712 which is a 9-pin RS-232 serial connection of the type well known in the electronic arts, although other types of connectors and protocols may be used. The download between the system 100 and the PED 704 may be automatically initiated by plugging the PED 704 into the data terminal 702 and thereby mating the connector 720 of the PED 704 with the connector 712 of the data terminal 702 , or manually initiated by the user via the input device 102 , touch display 113 , or the PED 704 software. The data terminal 702 is connected to the serial bus and processor 106 of the system 100 as shown in FIG. 1 , whereby the processor 106 retrieves data stored on the storage device 108 , 110 , or alternatively downloads data from an external source via the network interface 300 . A universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) 117 or universal serial bus (USB; not shown) of the type well known in the computer arts is used to electrically interface the processor 106 of the system 100 and the PED 704 .
As shown in FIG. 7 , the PED 704 is received within a conformal slot 706 formed in the display panel 708 , thereby automatically aligning the data connector 720 of the PED 704 to that of the system 100 . The slot 706 includes a spring-loaded cover 713 , and is sealed against any introduction of deleterious fluids or other material, and the terminal pins 710 of the connector 712 are recessed so as to avoid incidental damage. Once the download is complete, the user simply removes the PED from the slot. Based on the volume of data downloaded, the entire transaction takes only a few seconds. Application software resident on the PED 704 is adapted to receive the downloaded data, store it within the storage device of the PED (not shown), and display it at a later time. In one embodiment, the downloaded information comprises an electronic “newspaper” having information relevant and useful to the user, such as national/local news, weather, sports, and the like. Other types of information, such as the building directory, firm resumes, local telephone directory, maps of the local area, and such may be downloaded as well. In another embodiment, the user may select the type of information downloaded using a menu of function keys 114 on the panel keypad 116 or touch screen display 113 . For example, the user first selects the “Download” function key, which then activates a menu on the touch display 113 which allows him/her to select from a number of pre-determined types of information using either dedicated function keys or alternatively functions shown on the touch screen display 113 . In yet another embodiment, the to configuration of the data downloaded via the terminal 702 is determined based on data received from the RFID tag of the user, as described in greater detail below with respect to FIG. 15 . In this fashion, the user may automatically receive information “tailored” to his/her needs.
Capacity Sensing Sub-System
Referring now to FIG. 8 , the elevator system of the present invention further optionally includes a capacity sensing sub-system 800 which detects the loading of the elevator ear and selectively bypasses floors when the capacity is met, unless the floor is selected by one of the occupants of the car. In the embodiment of FIG. 8 , the flooring 804 of the elevator car 180 is equipped with a plurality of piezoelectric sensors 806 which generate electrical signals based on the pressure (and force) applied to them. Such sensors are well known in the electrical arts, and it will be recognized that other types of sensors and sensing arrangements may be used. The sensors 806 are calibrated or nulled for the weight of the elevator flooring 804 and any pre-load resulting therefrom. The electrical signal produced by each of the sensors 806 is amplified and made linear by a first stage amplifier 808 and fed to a summing amplifier 810 which sums the values for all of the sensors 806 to produce a composite signal 812 proportional to the summed signals of all the sensors. The composite signal 812 is integrated or averaged over the entire time travelling between floors by an integrator circuit 813 (or alternatively, an algorithm running on the processor 814 ), thereby accounting for any apparent increase in weight due to acceleration in the upward direction or deceleration in the downward direction, or apparent decrease in weight due to deceleration in the upward direction or acceleration in the downward direction. Linearization of the output of each sensor 806 is required when the voltage output of the sensor is not linear with respect to pressure; this allows the linear signals to be summed directly within the summing amplifier 810 , the output of which 812 is linear in voltage with respect to pressure.
The composite signal 812 from the integrator 813 is correlated using the processor 814 to a known weight using a proportionality or scaling constant stored in memory 815 , and ultimately to a first estimate of the number of occupants within the car_by way of another scaling constant also stored in memory 815 . For example, if a total pressure reading equating to 1500 lbs. (after null calibration) was obtained from the summing amplifier 810 , it could be correlated to an occupancy of ten persons, assuming that the average person weighs 150 lbs. and that their distribution within the car was uniform.
However, such “average” cases of weight and distribution thereof within the car 180 do not always occur, since often times people riding in the car may have significant disparities in size and weight, or may be transporting heavy objects. Furthermore, weights which are not an integer multiple of the scaling constant present the system with an ambiguity that must be resolved; i.e., how to round fractional amounts of a person. Accordingly, to address these situations, the first embodiment of the sub-system 800 of the present invention compares the foregoing first occupancy estimate to the number of different sensors 806 supplying a non-zero signal to the summing amplifier 810 as measured by a counter circuit 811 . The number of sensors 806 supplying a non-zero signal is used as a lower limit on the occupancy estimate. Additionally, the number and disposition of sensors 806 within the car 180 are chosen to provide the sub-system 800 with information regarding the distribution of weight therein. For example, the elevator car 180 of the present embodiment is equipped with sixteen sensors positioned in a 4×4 array of four rows and four columns, each sensor 806 being centered within its fractional ( 1/16 th ) area of the flooring, as shown in FIG. 9 . Assume that the weight of 1500 lbs. is distributed within this car of FIG. 9 such that sensors “1” and “2” produce signals proportional to 100 lbs. each, sensors “10” and “11” produce signals proportional to 110 and 40 lbs. respectively, and sensors “13” and “14” produce signals proportional to 150 lbs. each. Hence, the total weight present in the car is 650 lbs. Assuming a scaling constant of 150 lbs. per person, a first occupancy estimate (O E ) of 4.33 persons is produced. Since six different sensors 806 are producing non-zero signals, with four of the six (i.e., “1”, “2”, “13”, and “14”) producing signals equal to those of at least one adjacent sensor. As used herein, two sensors are adjacent when they are within one row and one column of each other. The remaining two of the six sensors in this example (i.e., “10” and “11”) are producing signals different from those of adjacent sensors. Looking purely at the number of sensors producing non-zero signals (six), there could theoretically be as many as six different entities within the car, assuming that no entity can take up less than 1/16 th of the available floor space within the car. Specifically, two 100 lb. people could be standing next to one another atop sensors “1” and “2”, a 110 lb. and 40 lb. person atop sensors “10” and “11”, respectively, and two 150 lb. people atop sensors “13” and “14”. This number is the uncorrected occupancy maximum value, O maxa . Alternatively, however, it may be concluded that as few as three people could be in the car, based on the assumption that a person may occupy up to and including two adjacent sensors (i.e., no more than 2/16ths or ⅛th of the floor space in the car). For example, a 200 lb. person could be standing atop sensors “1” and “2”, with their weight equally distributed. Similarly, a 150 lb. person could be standing atop sensors “10” and “14”, with weight shifted mostly onto sensor “10”. The third (300 lb.) person could be atop sensors “13” and “14”, with weight equally distributed. This latter value is the occupancy minimum based sensor data, O mins . Note that for purposes of calculating O mins , each sensor is only counted once.
Hence based on the foregoing, the sub-system 800 would need to resolve the ambiguity between (i) the first estimate calculated based purely on weight and a predetermined scalar quantity; (ii) the maximum theoretical number of occupants based on weight sensor data; and (iii) the minimum theoretical number of occupants based on weight sensor data. To resolve this ambiguity, the sub-system 800 of the present embodiment imposes the restriction that any entity atop a sensor producing a signal proportional to less than an arbitrary lower threshold (say, 50 lbs. in the present example) which is adjacent to another sensor producing a non-zero signal is part of the same entity atop that adjacent sensor. In the foregoing example, sensor “11” registers only 40 lbs. of weight, and is adjacent to both sensors “10” and “14”, which have non-zero output. Hence, the signal output from sensor “11” is assumed to be part of the same entity which is atop sensors “10” or Since no other sensors in the foregoing example registered less than the assumed threshold of 50 lbs., all other sensors are presumed to have a distinct entity atop them. Hence, the corrected maximum number of entities calculated by the system (O maxc ) is reduced from 6 to 5. Note that once a sensor having a weight value less than the threshold is “paired” with another adjacent sensor, that adjacent sensor can not be paired with any others, thereby preventing double-counting. This restriction also addresses the instance where the measured weight on a given sensor of interest is above the lower threshold value, yet is due to two entities each located on adjacent sensors as well as the sensor of interest.
To further assist in resolving occupancy estimate ambiguity, the foregoing information is also correlated with the number of different floors selected within the elevator on the selection panel 820 . Specifically, the number of different floors selected on the elevator car selection panel are used as a second lower limit or occupancy minimum, O minp . Using the preceding example, if the sub-system 800 detects that five different floors were selected, the system would recognize the presence of five persons, one corresponding to each different floor selected. It is assumed that the instance wherein one person selects multiple floors (such as through inadvertent or mistaken floor selection) would occur infrequently, and would also not be of any significance since the number of people actually on the elevator in such instances would always be less than the estimate derived by the system, thereby affording more space within the car than estimated. In the converse situation, for is example when the first occupancy estimate or maximum estimate indicate the presence of several different persons, yet the number of different floors selected is fewer, the system does not set the fewer number of floors equal to the number of occupants, since the additional weight is likely represented by additional passengers getting off at the same floor(s), or few passengers having cargo or other weighty objects with them in the elevator.
Lastly, the sub-system 800 utilizes (i) the first occupancy estimate O E , (ii) the corrected occupancy upper limit O maxc determined by the number of sensors 806 with non-zero output that exceed the predetermined threshold value, (iii) first occupancy minimum O mins as determined by the number of adjacent sensor pairs, and (iv) second occupancy minimum O minp as determined by the number of floors selected within the car 180 , to produce a final occupancy estimate. Specifically, this final occupancy estimate O f is the greater of the first occupancy estimate, corrected occupancy upper limit, the first occupancy minimum, and the second occupancy minimum. In the foregoing example, these quantities are 4.33 persons, 5 persons, 3 persons, and 5 persons; hence, O f equals 5 persons. Note that the highest value is chosen for conservatism; this all but eliminates instances of the elevator car stopping at a floor with an active call signal when no additional room exists, yet does not so under-utilize the car's capacity so as to be grossly inefficient. FIG. 10 illustrates the logical flow of the foregoing embodiment of the method.
As a second example of the operation of the capacity sensing sub-system 800 , consider if 16 children each having a weight of 75±20 lbs. (and an average weight of 75 lbs.) were present in the previously described elevator car. The total combined weight would equal 1200 lbs., and therefore O E would equal 1200/150 or 8. If O E alone were used in this instance, it would severely overestimate the remaining capacity of the elevator car. Next, assume each child to take up the space associated with one sensor, whether individually or in combination; hence, O maxu would equal 16, and O mins would equal 8. Since no sensors 806 would register less than the assumed threshold value of 50 lbs. (i.e., each sensor would be associated with one whole child or one-half of two children), O maxc would equal O maxu . If 2 different floors were selected by the 16 children, then O minp would equal 2. Hence, in this example, O f would equal O maxu or 16 persons, which matches the actual occupancy exactly.
Note that due to the reduced size of children as compared to the average adult, it may be possible to have somewhat more children than adults within a given floor space of the elevator car; however, this effect is considered minimal since a child is generally much shorter than the average adult, and hence grows disproportionately in height as opposed to width (the latter relating to floor space required to accommodate them). Stated differently, there is a minimum of floor space that any free-standing human requires; this value can be estimated and built into the sensor array design of the present invention.
When the capacity of the elevator car 180 is reached, either by total sensed weight or by the maximum number of occupants allowed (a predetermined value) as estimated by the sub-system 800 , any subsequent call signals received by the elevator control circuit 830 are routed to another available car based on inputs received from a micro-controller 817 . In this fashion, the fully loaded car bypasses those floors with people desiring to get on the elevator, unless those floors are selected by one or more of the occupants of the car 180 .
Similarly, as each successive floor selected by occupants of the elevator car 180 is reached (as based on an door open sensor 850 within the elevator control logic, or other indicia), the sub-system 800 recalculates the first occupancy estimate O E , the corrected occupancy upper limit O maxc , the first occupancy minimum O mins , and the second occupancy minimum O minp and produces a new final occupancy estimate O f based thereon. Hence, occupancy estimation according to this embodiment is an ongoing and dynamic process.
Monitoring and Security Sub-System
Referring now to FIGS. 11 and 12 , the information system 100 of the present invention optionally also includes an external monitoring and security sub-system 1100 to enhance the safety of the occupants and provide “early warning” of possible threats. Specifically, the aforementioned display device(s) 113 within the car 180 may be configured using one or more preset function keys to provide a display of the area immediately surrounding access to the elevator on certain selected floors, such as parking garages. Video cameras 1102 of the type well known in the electronic arts are positioned at certain advantageous locations 1104 surrounding the elevator car doors on certain floors of interest generate a video signal which is passed to the information system displays 113 through the aforementioned coaxial cable in the elevator wiring harness 1108 . These video signals are selectively input to the display unit 113 for viewing by the car occupants. As shown in FIG. 12 . the display unit is controlled using “Video” function keys 1110 on the keypad 116 or touch screen 113 to permit the user to select one or more floors to view. “PIP”, or “picture-in-picture” technology of the type well known in the electronic arts, along with a video multiplexer 1112 allows users to cascade two or more images on the display 113 if required. The user can over-ride the car stopping at any selected floor if desired, simply by depressing the “Override” function key 1114 followed by the numeric key corresponding to the floor number. This override function can be instituted any time up until the signal is generated by the elevator control circuit 830 and associated logic to open the elevator car doors 1106 at that floor. The user can also contact a remote security station 1125 if desired using a “Security Call” function key 1120 present on the keypad 116 or the touch screen 113 , and/or initiate temporary additional lighting 1122 in the area by depressing a “Lights” function key 1124 .
The features described above can also be “locked out” during certain periods of the day (such as during busy morning or afternoon hours) when many people ride the elevators and the viewing, override, security, and lighting functions are generally not needed. For example, programming of the processors 106 within each elevator car in an office building could institute the monitoring/override function from the hours of 6 pm until 8 am and during weekends. Such programming can be reconfigured using the remote system server 170 and associated input device 171 , as shown in FIG. 11 .
In an alternate embodiment ( FIG. 13 ), one or more miniature CCD cameras 1310 are positioned at various locations 1104 around the elevator doors 1106 , so as to be effectively invisible to any person standing in those locations. In this fashion, criminals waiting to assault the occupants of the elevator car upon their egress would likely not be alerted to the presence of the monitoring system or cameras, thereby removing incentive for them to wait in unmonitored areas so as to avoid being seen by the cameras. The CCD cameras 1310 of the embodiment of FIG. 13 output analog signals to amplifiers 1312 , a sample and hold circuit 1314 , and A/D converters 1316 , and then to a digital signal processor 1318 running a video compression algorithm via a multiplexer 1319 . Serial and parallel drivers 1320 , 1322 and a clock driver 1324 are also used to support operation of the CCD 1310 , as is well understood in the electronic arts. The compressed data is then modulated onto an RF carrier by the modulator 1330 , or alternatively a direct sequence or frequency hopping spread spectrum waveform for transmission to the display unit 113 , which incorporates a spread spectrum receiver 1331 and video driver circuit 1333 . Using the foregoing architecture, video images generated by the CCD cameras 1310 are digitized and compressed so as to reduce the bandwidth required to transfer images to the display unit(s) 113 . It will be recognized that other architectures for generating and transmitting video data between a remote location of the cameras 1310 and the display unit 113 of the present invention are possible; the foregoing embodiments are merely illustrative of two of such architectures.
Referring again to FIG. 11 , the monitoring and security sub-system 1100 described above also optionally provides for the display of data from motion detectors 1140 mounted in the vicinity of the elevator doors 1106 , yet out of the field of view of the video cameras 1102 , 1310 . A well known tactic of criminals is to wait in poorly lighted areas adjacent to elevators in order to ambush unsuspecting victims emerging from the elevator once the doors are closed. In lieu of multiple video cameras 1102 , motion detectors 1140 (such as those of the ultrasonic type) or alternatively, infrared radiation detectors 1150 may be mounted in such areas to apprise the occupants of the elevator that a person is likely present in an area adjacent to the elevator doors on a given floor. This information is displayed to the user within the elevator using any number of display formats, such as a light emitting diode, or flashing portions of an electronically generated display of the floor of interest corresponding to the locations of the detector(s), as shown in FIG. 12 .
In addition to the aforementioned “early warning” features, the present invention also optionally includes the capability by which the user can select the specific location on the floor of interest to which they will be traveling from inside the elevator car, thereby enabling additional lighting, video surveillance, or other features. In one embodiment, shown in FIG. 14 a , a video or graphic representation 1402 of the floor selected by the user is generated and displayed on the display unit 113 of the information system 100 . Specifically, the floor display 1402 is initiated after the user depresses a dedicated function key (for example, a “Safety” function key on the keypad to 116 , or “soft” key on the touch screen 113 ; not shown) followed by the floor number or designation. The user then inputs the destination to which they will be travelling on that floor by touching a corresponding area of the touch screen 113 . This input is converted to coordinates within the floor by an algorithm running on the processor 106 ( FIG. 1 ), which are then correlated by the processor 106 to one or more of several zones 1404 within the floor lighting system and/or security video monitoring systems present within the building. This lighting and video monitoring equipment is then selectively activated for the zone(s) between the elevator doors and the destination, thereby providing enhanced visibility for the user during their travel, and also video monitoring by the building's centralized security facility 1125 . Lighting and video monitoring is activated through a micro-controller 123 and associated control circuitry 1412 connected to the keypad 116 as shown in FIG. 1 , although other configurations may be used. An audio or visual alarm 1414 is actuated in the security facility 1125 to alert security personnel of the activation of the video monitoring function for that floor/zone, thereby drawing their attention thereto. Alternatively, in another embodiment, the signal from the remote video equipment is routed to the system 100 and display 113 within the elevator car 180 , thereby allowing the occupant to monitor the areas which they will be traversing. In such embodiment, the video presented on the display panel screen is segmented into multiple parallel “windows”, such as into four segments 1420 a - d corresponding to four video cameras located between the elevator car and the selected destination on the floor of interest as shown in FIG. 14 b.
The operation of the foregoing functions is best illustrated by the example of a parking garage in the basement of an office building, in which a user has parked during late night hours. Such garages typically are located on the ground level or basement of the building and are open to pedestrian access, thereby making them more accessible to criminals. During late night or weekend hours, these garages are also often deserted. When the user enters the elevator car 180 on a higher floor within the building, they first select the floor number to which they desire to travel, in this case the garage (“G”) level. The user may then depress the “Video” function key 1110 followed by the key on the keypad 116 (or touch screen 113 ) to monitor the video camera output at the door of the elevator 1106 on the garage level, as well as any motion or IR sensors 1140 , 1150 located thereabouts. Assuming no indications of danger are present, the user then depresses the “Safety” function key 1111 , which displays a map or plan view 1402 of the floor selected in relation to the elevator doors 1106 . The user then touches the map 1402 in the general area where their car is parked, which activates the lighting in the zones between the elevator doors and the selected location if not already activated, and initiates a direct video feed to the building security office 1125 (or other desired location) from the video cameras 1102 , 1310 covering those zones. These functions may be put on a timer or controlled by another input (such as the timeout of a motion sensor 1140 in the area) such that the monitoring functions are ceased at an appropriate time or upon the occurrence of a desired event. The system may also be programmed to handle multiple zones on the same floor (such as when multiple passengers on the elevator car 180 are parked on the same level), or multiple zones on different floors.
Identification and Access Sub-System
Referring now to FIGS. 15 and 16 , the occupant identification and access sub-system 1500 of the present invention is described. As shown in FIG. 15 , the identification and access sub-system 1500 generally comprises an RFID tag 1502 , reader 1504 , and access database 1510 of the type well known in the art, which uniquely and automatically identifies occupants of the elevator, and provides them access to certain restricted floors. In one embodiment, the RFID tag 1502 of the present invention authenticates the tag reader 1504 of the access sub-system 1500 such that when the tag 1502 is interrogated by the reader 1504 (such as when the user steps into the elevator car 180 ), an appropriate code or password must be provided within the RF signal from the reader for the tag 1502 to radiate its RF identification signal. See FIG. 16 . In this fashion, unauthorized access to the RF signature or emissions of the tag 1502 through use of an unauthorized reader are frustrated. However, this technique can potentially be defeated through the coincident monitoring of the tag's emissions at close range when interrogated by an authorized reader 1504 , and subsequent replication of the monitored emissions from the tag 1502 to the authorized reader 1504 . Accordingly, in conjunction with the aforementioned reader authentication process, the RFID tag 1502 and reader 1504 of the present invention also optionally utilize an encrypted data protocol, such that any transmissions from the tag 1502 are encrypted, and accordingly must be decrypted by the authorized reader 1504 before the access database 1510 is searched. In one embodiment, the RFID tag 1502 and reader 1504 comprise a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) communication system incorporating a PN (pseudo-noise) spreading code of the type well known in the communications art. In another embodiment, a frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) having a hopping sequence is used to enhance security. The use of passwords, encrypted data protocols, and spread spectrum techniques for security is well known in the art, and accordingly will not be described further herein. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,775 entitled “Modulated spread spectrum in RF identification systems method” issued Jul. 23, 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,629,981 entitled “Information management and security system” issued May 13, 1997, both incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
In the embodiment of FIG. 15 , an RFID interrogator/reader 1504 is placed within the walls of the elevator car 180 . The reader 1504 has limited range and is directional in nature such that it will not interfere with the readers of other elevator cars nearby or other RF devices. The reader 1504 interrogates the passengers of the car based on sensing their presence, such as by (i) the user depressing the elevator call button and the doors being provided an “open” signal by the control system; or alternatively (ii) by sensing pressure on the one or more piezoelectric sensors 806 present within the flooring of the car as shown in FIGS. 8-9 above. As will be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, myriad different schemes for activation of the reader 1504 are possible, all being contemplated for use with the invention disclosed herein. As shown in FIGS. 15 and 16 , the reader interrogates any RFID tags 1502 in the possession of the car occupants, which in turn respond by emitting RF energy at a particular frequency when proper authentication of the reader occurs. The RFID tags 1502 of the present invention are advantageously embedded within a thin profile access card 1506 for ease of carrying by the user, although other configurations may be used. The RF signal(s) received by the reader 1504 are then compared by the processor 106 to a list of known or authorized entrants and their accessible locations residing within a database 1510 stored on the file server 170 or locally on the storage device 108 , 110 in order to find the entry or entries corresponding thereto. At this point, any matching entries found cause the processor 106 to signal a micro-controller 1513 to initiate a call signal to the control logic 1507 for a specific floor or floors authorized for access during after-hours operation per the data file 1510 , subject to proper password entry by the user. The user is then required to authenticate using a password input via the input device 102 or touch screen 113 located inside elevator 180 . Alternatively, one or more recessed or view-obstructed alpha-numeric keypads (not shown) are disposed within the elevator car to permit the user to enter their password without it being seen by other occupants.
In the event that multiple RFID tags 1502 are present on the car 180 , yet multiple occupants carrying such tags wish to go to a single location (such as if one person with authorization for access to floor “A” is accompanying persons with authorization for other floors only), the other tag holders need only not authenticate the non-desired floors, at which point the system will refuse access to those floors, and not generate a call signal via the micro-controller 1513 . Hence, people may only egress the elevator on the authenticated floor(s), or the lobby.
Additionally, the access sub-system 1500 can optionally notify security (and/or the destination floor) of the user's destination and identity, and maintain a record of access. Such notification may be useful for monitoring the location of individuals within the building, and/or advance warning of the arrival of a particular person. Furthermore, such security records can be used to archive the history of access to particular areas during certain periods of time. The records may be maintained on a remote central server 170 , or locally within the access system 1500 itself.
The user may also optionally perform other functions such as lighting and environmental control from the elevator car 180 using the access sub-system 1500 . Specifically, in one embodiment, the authenticated user is provided a display 1700 with several predetermined function keys 1702 , 1704 disposed thereon, as shown in FIG. 17 . The functions associated with the keys include, for example, initiation or termination of lighting or HVAC in various areas of the destination floor. The display may comprise a set of function keys 1702 , 1704 on a keypad 116 as described above, or alternatively comprise a graphic display on the touch screen 113 . Many other display formats and techniques, such as “soft” function keys on the keypad 116 , which allow multiple functions per key depending on operating mode, are possible. Using the access sub-system 1500 , the user may selectively start remote equipment such as lighting and/or HVAC on the authenticated floor in advance of their arrival, and all from a single convenient location. Additionally, the RFID tag 1502 for a given user may be encoded with information indicating the location of the user's individual office or work area. Hence, when the user is authenticated and selects either the HVAC or lighting initiation functions, these services are only activated in a limited portion or certain zones of the floor, thereby saving on energy costs. If the user desires, he/she may initiate the foregoing services for their entire suite or floor (subject to authorization) by depressing the “Global” function keys 1714 on the keypad before selecting the service.
Lastly, the user may also use their RFID tag 1502 to permit the information and control system 100 of the present invention to pre-configure the PED download function described above upon receipt of an authenticated RFID signal. Specifically, the access sub-system 1500 “remembers” each individual user's selected download configuration by storing a data file at an address on the storage device 108 , 110 or server 170 referenced within the aforementioned security access database 1510 . As described above, each time the tag 1502 authenticates the reader 1504 and the tag emits it's RFID signal (which is subsequently decrypted by the reader 1504 ), the access control sub-system 1500 attempts to match the user's ID to one located within the access database 1510 . Upon a successful match, the access sub-system 1500 also retrieves the download configuration file from the address referenced in the database 1510 associated with that user ID, and stores it in local memory or storage 110 , 108 . Upon user authentication with the appropriate password via the input device 102 , the information and control system 100 transfers the download configuration file from memory 110 , 108 , whereby the user may receive the pre-configured download simply by inserting their PED 704 into the data terminal 702 associated with the authenticating input device 102 . Note that when multiple users with distinct RFID tags 1502 are present in the elevator car, the sub-system 1500 only transfers the download configuration file to the control system 100 for those users completing password authentication, and then only to the data download terminal 702 associated with the authenticating input device 102 . Hence, multiple people within the elevator car 180 may authenticate and download data simultaneously, if desired (assuming that the elevator car is equipped with multiple data download terminal/input device pairs).
Adaptive Advertising Sub-System
Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 18 a - d , the adaptive advertising sub-system of the information and control system 100 is described. Using this advertising sub-system, the aforementioned elevator display devices 113 and information and control system 100 may be programmed to provide adaptive advertising or information. As shown in FIG. 1 , the advertising sub-system 1800 is comprised of components resident within the information and control system 100 , as well as data files and an adaptive algorithm (not shown) running on the processor 106 . Specifically, the speech recognition module 104 , DSP 125 , processor 106 , and other related components previously described recognize speech and convert this speech into a digital representation. These digital representations are analyzed by the adaptive algorithm in one of two adaptive modes: 1) prompt mode, and 2) statistical mode, as described below.
In prompt mode, the speech of one or more passengers on the elevator car 180 is sampled and analyzed in real time to determine the general topic of conversation between the passengers. FIG. 18 a illustrates the logical flow of the prompt mode process. Specifically, the processor 106 ( FIG. 1 ) accesses a stored data file or library of sub-files of keywords stored on the remote server 170 or local storage device 108 which relate to certain topics of interest. The library 1840 ( FIG. 18 b ) ideally does not contain common words such as conjunctions, prepositions, or the like, but rather unique and preferably multi-syllabic words which are not generic to many different topics. For example, the words “deposition” or “litigation” may be used as keywords indicating the presence of a member of the legal profession. The predefined library 1840 of keywords arranged into sub-files 1842 is present on the server 170 or storage device 108 ; this library 1840 may be based on knowledge of the building's tenants, on some demographic factor common to people who most often use the elevator, or other factors. As illustration, the foregoing library sub-file 1842 consisting of, inter alia, the terms “deposition” and “litigation” would be appropriate for an application which is frequented by attorneys or paralegals. When the speech recognition module 104 compares and matches these library terms with the actual speech of the occupants of the car, a binary value indicative of the matched library sub-file 1842 is generated. Note that these sub-files 1842 are not physically separate files in the present embodiment, but rather “virtual” files that relate to their organizational commonality. Specifically, each library word 1843 or entry includes several consecutive bits (such as an 8-bit data word 1844 in the present embodiment) appended on the beginning or end of the digital file data 1846 which indicate the sub-file(s) with which the word is associated. When a digital representation of a word within the library 1840 is matched, the data word 1844 appended thereto is used as an address for advertising image data (and/or CELP audio data) held in the storage device 108 or server 170 . As a simple example, when the advertising sub-system matches the digitized form of the spoken word “litigation” to an entry within the library file, the 8-bit word appended to that entry of the library file is used to address the image and/or audio data file(s) relating to legal topics stored on the local storage device 108 (or server 170 ). This “legal” image data may contain, for example, a representation of an advertisement for legal document services, or a talking advertisement for a law firm. The image data file is then retrieved and displayed on the display screen 113 using any number of well known graphic display techniques. The CELP or other format audio file is decompressed and converted to an analog representation using the speech synthesis module 112 ( FIG. 1 ) and amplified over the speakers 111 in the elevator car 180 if desired.
The system is further configured such that if multiple image data files are requested by the processor 106 , such as may occur when two different sets of people within the elevator car 180 are discussing two unrelated topics, each different image data file is allocated to a different available display 113 within the elevator car. For audio, only one data file is converted and played at any given time to avoid confusion. Furthermore, the sampling rate of the system may be set at a low frequency, such as once every 60 seconds, or only when the given elevator car 180 is in operation, so that a given image is maintained for an appropriate period of time on the displays 113 .
In the event that a word is recognized by the advertising sub-system which includes two or more sub-file address references (such as for the word “trademark”, which may have connotations relating to both intellectual property law and business), the sub-system allocates each of the ambiguous references to a separate display (up to the existing number of unused displays 113 at that time), and then attempts to resolve the ambiguity by waiting for the next word which is matched within one of the sub-files 1842 ( FIG. 18 b ) whose designation is appended on the library entry 1843 for the first word. If that next matched word does not resolve the ambiguity, the process is repeated until the ambiguity is resolved. During ambiguity resolution, the existing file displayed on each display screen 113 is maintained for the duration of the process, thereby providing an apparently seamless display to the occupants of the car.
In an alternate embodiment of the “prompt” mode ( FIG. 18 c ), the system accesses the building directory file discussed previously with respect to FIGS. 1-4 using the floors selected by the user to obtain pertinent advertising information. Specifically, when a passenger riding on the car 180 selects a floor via the floor selection panel (not shown), or alternatively calls the elevator from a given floor, the system accesses the building directory file to obtain information regarding the tenants on that floor. The building directory file for each tenant includes an appended data word which uniquely identifies the business area or other descriptive information about the tenant. For example, an intellectual property law firm residing on the fourteenth floor of a building would have an appropriate code, as represented by a multi-bit data word, indicating that they were engaged in the in (i) legal practice, and (ii) intellectual property as a sub-specialization. Whenever the fourteenth floor was selected within the elevator car 180 , or alternatively whenever an elevator call was made from the fourteenth floor and answered, the system would display advertising images, video, or text messages relating to the field of intellectual property law within the calling/answering car until or beginning when the fourteenth floor was reached, respectively. If multiple floors were selected within the car, as is commonly the case, the sub-system would prioritize the messages displayed based on the direction of travel of the car and it's proximity to a given floor. The system also optionally estimates the remaining time until the floor is reached as part of its analysis.
As an example of the alternative embodiment of FIG. 18 c , if four people enter the same elevator car at the lobby level, and each depress a different floor number (say the third, seventh, eighth, and eleventh floors), the sub-system 1800 would prioritize the first floor to be encountered (i.e., the third floor) in its direction of travel and display advertising pertinent to the tenant on that floor. Since the travel time between the lobby (first floor) and third floor would be only perhaps 10 seconds, the sub-system 1800 would choose advertising appropriate to that time slot, such as a fixed image. Once the car reached the third floor and the doors opened, the sub-system 1800 then prioritizes the next floor to be encountered (here, the seventh floor). Accessing the building directory file for the seventh floor, the sub-system 1800 would then choose advertising appropriate that floor and the remaining time available (perhaps 15 seconds). After the seventh floor was reached, the sub-system 1800 would then prioritize the eighth floor. If the time interval to the next floor was too short as determined by a predetermined parameter, such as a minimum time interval in seconds, the sub-system would prioritize the next floor whose time interval exceeded the minimum (in this case, the eleventh floor). When all passengers were unloaded, the car 180 would remain at the last selected floor (eleventh) until another call was initiated. When this new call was received, the sub-system 1800 would retrieve advertising relevant to the floor from which the new call was initiated, and display that information once the floor was reached by the car 180 (as determined by a position sensor, the opening of the doors, or any other well known means). It is apparent that under very crowded conditions where many often closely situated floors are selected by the occupants of the car, the sub-system 1800 may encounter few instances where the estimated time of travel of the car exceeds the aforementioned minimum parameter value. In such cases, the sub-system 1800 may be made to revert to “prompt” mode audio sampling as described above ( FIG. 18 a ), or some other alternative scheme for selecting pertinent advertising. Many different variations of the basic approach described herein are possible, all of which are considered to be within the scope of the invention.
In the case of multiple tenants residing on one floor, the sub-system 1800 can be programmed to display images pertinent to each tenant on the floor based on a selection routine. In one embodiment, if multiple unrelated tenants occupy a given floor, and that floor is selected by a person entering the elevator at the lobby, the sub-system 1800 will pick image data relating to the different tenants on a rotating basis such that each subsequent time that same floor is selected, an image appropriate to a different tenant will be retrieved and displayed. Alternatively, the selection may be made random, or even be coupled to the speech recognition module 104 to weight one choice over the other(s). Many other arrangements are possible, all of which are considered to be within the scope of the invention disclosed herein.
Referring now to FIG. 18 d , the so-called “statistical” mode of the adaptive advertising sub-system 1800 is now described. During operation in statistical mode, the sub-system 1800 gathers statistics on the speech patterns of its occupants over a predetermined (or open ended) period of time, in order to derive statistics on the most frequently encountered words within its library. Using prior examples, if a given building has a substantial population of law firms, the speech recognition system 104 may encounter legally-related words or sub-files present in its library 1840 (such as “deposition” or “litigation”) most often. The system of the present invention effectively builds histograms for each of the words in its library 1840 over the sampling period, and structures its advertising accordingly. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 18 d , the statistical mode algorithm running on the processor 106 of FIG. 1 increments a statistical data file on the storage device 108 , 110 , server 170 , or other location. The sub-system 1800 samples this data file at a predetermined periodicity (such as every hour, every 24 hours, or every update cycle of the advertising display) to determine the distribution of occurrences of each word. This distribution is then compared to a historical data file which represents the number of instances advertising associated with each sub-file has been displayed. Advertising data files are then selected and displayed by the processor 106 and algorithm such that the desired proportionality between the sampled statistic and the display sequence is maintained. Returning again to the foregoing example, if words relating to the “legal” sub-file constituted 20% of the matches in the sampled data over a given period, then legally-related advertising would be displayed by the advertising sub-system approximately 20% of the time.
It is noted that the aforementioned speech-related adaptive advertising modes ( FIGS. 18 a , 18 c , and 18 d ) may be automatically disabled when the speech recognition module 104 is in use or required by another function within the information and control system 100 . For example, when the previously described “Building Directory” function key 122 is depressed, the prompt and statistical advertising modes are interrupted or frozen by the processor 106 until the selected function is terminated either manually by the user or via the expiration of a system clock (i.e., the function “times out”). This interrupt allows the building directory function to operate unimpeded without having to share resources within the information and control system 100 with the adaptive advertising sub-system 1800 . It will be recognized, however, that the information and control system 100 may so configured to allow such parallel operation if desired.
Alternatively, the aforementioned network interface 300 of FIG. 3 may be used as an input to the adaptive advertising sub-system 1800 . As is commonly used with prior art Internet browsers, adaptive “banners” display advertising related to a user's query on a search engine. In the present invention, the advertising graphics presented on the display 113 may either be anecdotally or statistically adaptive to the user's information queries. Specifically, in one embodiment of the anecdotal system ( FIG. 19 ), user inputs received via the input devices 102 or touch screens 113 are provided to an adaptive algorithm which identifies each query type as falling within one or more predetermined categories. As the user selects a given function key 114 , a code unique to that function key is also generated. The advertising data files, each having a “tag” (such as a code or data bits embedded or appended to the address in memory) are then searched by the algorithm to match those files having the same category tag. These files are then retrieved from the storage device 108 , 110 , or server 170 in a predetermined order (such as sequence based on ascending address locations, or some other parameter), and displayed on the display device 113 . The display of these files may be in sequential fashion, each for a predetermined interval, or alternatively one file may be displayed until another function key 114 is selected. Many other display schemes are possible, consistent with the invention.
As an example of anecdotal adaptation, consider the case where the user selects the “Weather” function key on the keypad 116 (or touch screen 113 ). The sub-system 1800 retrieves and displays the desired weather information on the display device, while also retrieving and displaying advertising graphics relating to weather (such as for a local television station's weather reports) on an advertising placard or banner on the same or another display. If the user then selects another function key 114 , the sub-system 1800 retrieves another advertising graphic file relating to the newly chosen function.
In a statistical adaptation, the choice of function keys 114 by each successive user adds to a data file which is generated by a statistical algorithm running on the processor 106 . The algorithm calculates and stores a running total of the number of times each function key 114 (or each functional category) is selected over a predetermined period. Advertising graphics are displayed on the display unit(s) 113 in proportion to this statistic. For example, if the “Weather” function key were actuated five times as often as the “Stock Quotes” key over a given interval, the sub-system 1800 could be programmed to retrieve and display weather-related advertising on average five times as often as financial advertising
Note that the foregoing anecdotal and statistical adaptation embodiments may also be used together. For example, the sub-system 1800 could be programmed to display advertising on a statistical basis during periods of non-use, while displaying advertising anecdotally during use. Many other variants are also possible.
It is noted that while various aspects of the invention disclosed herein are described in terms of specific embodiments (and logic diagrams) of methods and processes, other embodiments of these methods and processes are possible consistent with the invention. For example, certain steps in the disclosed methods may be deleted, and/or additional steps added. Furthermore, the order of performance of steps may in many cases be permuted, or multiple steps disclosed as being performed in series may be performed in parallel, and vice versa. The embodiments disclosed herein are therefore considered merely illustrative of the broader methods claimed herein.
While the above detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.
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Computerized apparatus useful for obtaining and displaying information. In one embodiment, the computerized apparatus includes a network interface, display device, and speech recognition apparatus configured to receive user speech input and enable performance of various tasks, such as obtaining desired information relating to indoor entities, maps or directions, or any number of other topics. The downloaded data may also, in one variant, be displayed with contextually related advertising or other content.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to the art of fluid controls and, more particularly, to fuel controls for combustion engines such as gas turbine engines that provide primary or secondary power to a vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cost and size of engine components are of constant concern in vehicular engine applications. This is particularly true for small turbojet engines that are designed for use in missiles and other short-life/disposable applications.
It is known to use a pulse width modulated valve (PWM valve) on the high pressure side of a fuel pump to meter the fuel flow to a gas turbine engine by cycling the PWM valve between an on and off position. Fuel flow is determined by the time period that the valve is open during each cycle and by the cycle frequency. Typically, such systems utilize a regulator valve to control the inlet pressure to the PWM valve by bypassing fuel flow from the high pressure side of the fuel pump back to the fuel tank. Examples of such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,568,495 to Fehler et al.; 3,936,551 to Linebrink et al.; and 4,015,326 to Hobo et al.
Two disadvantages associated with these systems are the size and cost of the PWM valve components which must be designed to withstand the output pressure of the fuel pump, which commonly is in the range of 100-200 psig to provide adequate fuel injection pressure to the combustor.
Another disadvantage associated with these systems is the wasted power input into the pressurized fuel flow that is bypassed by the regulator valve from the high pressure side of the fuel pump back to the fuel tank. The wasted power is particularly critical in missiles and other vehicles having a limited fuel capacity and a mission profile that may be determined by the time required to deplete the stored fuel.
Yet another disadvantage associated with these systems is the pulsating flow generated by the PWM valve as it cycles between its open and closed positions. Such pulsating flow can result in combustor flameout and/or deleteriously affect the combustor stability. Accordingly, depending on the engine and combustor parameters, these systems typically require some form of accumulator/damper in the high pressure fuel line connecting the PWM valve to the combustor to dampen the pulses in the fuel flow to the combustor. The accumulator/damper is an additional component that adds cost, complexity and weight to the system and introduces a potential failure point in the system.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a need for a small, low-cost, and efficient fuel control system for gas turbine engines and, in particular, for small turbojet engines.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the principal object of the invention to provide a new and improved fluid flow control system.
More specifically, it is an object to provide a small, low cost fluid flow control, and particularly a small, low-cost fuel control system for a gas turbine engine and, in particular, for small turbojet engines.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a fluid flow control system that utilizes a PWM valve to meter the fluid flow without requiring any additional components dedicated to damping pulses in the fluid flow generated by the PWM valve.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a fuel control system that reduces or eliminates the energy wasted in bypassing pressurized fuel flow from a pump outlet back to a fuel tank.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained in a fluid flow control in the form of a fuel control system that utilizes a PWM valve to meter a fuel flow to the inlet of a fuel pump that pumps the metered fuel flow to an engine. By virtue of this construction, the PWM valve is not subjected to the output pressure of the fuel pump. This allows the fuel control system to utilize a small, low-cost PWM valve, such as is commonly used in connection with automotive fuel injectors. Further, because the fuel is metered prior to entering the fuel pump, the fuel pump only pumps the precise amount of fuel required for the engine and no energy is wasted in pumping a fuel flow that must be bypassed back to a fuel tank. Additionally, because the PWM valve is on the inlet side of the fuel pump, the fuel pump can be utilized to dampen the PWM valve generated pulses in the fuel flow by operating with a vapor core wherein fuel is vaporized at the pump inlet and reformed back to liquid at the pump outlet, thereby damping the pulses.
According to one aspect of the invention, a method for controlling a fluid flow rate from a pump is provided and includes the steps of providing a pump having a pump inlet and a pump outlet, and a fluid flow path to the pump inlet. The fluid flow path is cyclically restricted to achieve a fuel flow to the pump inlet that cycles between a first flow rate for a time period T 1 and a second flow rate for a time period T 2 , with the second flow rate T 2 being greater than the first flow rate. The fluid flow to the pump inlet is pumped by the pump from the pump inlet to the pump outlet.
According to another aspect of the invention, the method further includes the steps of vaporizing at least a portion of the fluid flow at the pump inlet for at least a portion of the time period T 1 and reforming the vaporized fluid flow back to liquid at the pump outlet.
According to another aspect of the invention, an improvement is provided in a method for controlling the fluid flow rate from a pump including the steps of providing a pump having a pump inlet and a pump outlet, providing a substantially liquid fluid flow to the pump inlet, pumping the fluid flow with the pump from the pump inlet to the pump outlet while creating a pressure at the pump outlet that is above the vapor pressure of the fluid flow at the outlet. The improvement includes repetitively reducing the pressure at the pump inlet to a value below the vapor pressure of the fluid flowing into the pump inlet to provide a vapor core within the pump sufficient to dampen pulses in the fluid flow.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following drawing and detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The FIGURE is a diagrammatic illustration of a fluid flow control unit in the form of a fuel control system embodying the present invention in combination with a gas turbine engine.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
With reference to the FIGURE, an exemplary embodiment of a fluid flow control system made according to the invention is described and illustrated in connection with a fuel control system for a gas turbine engine, shown generally at 12 . However, it should be understood that the invention may find utility in other applications, and that no limitations to use as a fuel control system for a gas turbine engine is intended except insofar as expressly stated in the appended claims.
The fuel control system includes a pressurized fuel storage device or fuel tank 14 ; a fuel pump 16 ; a fuel flow path 18 from the fuel storage device 14 to the fuel pump 16 ; a restricting means, shown in the form of a PWM valve 20 , for cyclically restricting the fluid flow path 18 to achieve a fuel flow to the pump inlet that cycles between a first flow rate for a time period T 1 and a second flow rate for a time period T 2 , with the second flow rate being greater than the first flow rate; and means, shown in the form of a regulator valve 22 , for regulating pressure in the storage device 14 to achieve a desired average pressure differential in the fuel flow across the PWM valve 20 .
The gas turbine engine 12 may be of any known construction and includes a compressor section 24 , a turbine section 26 , and a combustor assembly 28 . As is known, the compressor section 24 supplies a pressurized airflow to the combustor assembly 28 where the airflow is mixed with fuel and combusted to produce a hot gas flow that is expanded through the turbine section 26 to produce shaft power and/or thrust from the gas turbine engine 12 . It is anticipated that the fuel control system will be particularly useful with gas turbine engines 12 in the form of small turbojets, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,207,042, issued May 4, 1993 to Rogers et al. and 4,794,742, issued Jan. 3, 1989 to Shekleton et al., the entire disclosures of which are herein incorporated by reference.
The pressurized fuel storage device 14 may be of any known construction and is shown in the form of a pressure tank or chamber 30 and a fuel bladder 32 contained within the pressure chamber 30 . The pressure chamber 30 includes a pressure port 34 for receiving a regulating air pressure flow from the compressor section 24 . The pressure chamber 30 further includes a fuel outlet port 36 for supplying fuel from the fuel bladder 32 to the fuel flow path 18 .
The PWM valve 20 includes a valve inlet 40 , a valve outlet 42 , and an electromagnetically actuated spool assembly 44 including a solenoid 46 and a metering spool 48 . It should be appreciated that any known type of PWM valve 20 may be utilized in the fuel control system and that the valve 20 selected will depend upon the environment and installation requirements, the fuel flow requirements and the operating parameters of the particular engine 12 selected for use with the system.
The fuel pump 16 may be of any known type and is shown in the form of a centrifugal pump including a pump inlet 50 , a pump outlet 52 , and a centrifugal impeller 54 that is driven by a shaft 56 powered by the gas turbine engine 12 . The pump outlet 52 is connected to the combustor assembly 26 by a high pressure fuel conduit 58 .
The fuel flow path 18 is shown in the form of a first conduit 60 that directs flow from the fuel outlet port 36 to the valve inlet 40 , and a second conduit 62 that directs flow from the valve outlet 42 to the pump inlet 50 .
The regulator valve 22 is basically conventional and is to provide a regulated, constant pressure differential across the PWM valve 20 . The regulator valve 22 includes an air inlet 64 , an air outlet 66 , and a regulating spool 68 for metering the airflow from the air inlet 64 to the air outlet 66 . The valve 22 further includes pressure chambers 70 and 72 separated by a piston or diaphragm 73 . The regulating spool 68 is controlled by the pressure differential between pressure chambers 70 and 72 acting upon the diaphragm 73 and by a biasing spring 74 . The pressure chamber 70 is connected by a pressure tap 75 to the conduit 62 between the valve outlet 42 and the pump inlet 50 . The pressure chamber 72 is connected by a pressure tap 76 to an airflow conduit 78 between the air outlet 66 and the pressure port 34 . The air inlet 64 is connected to the compressor section 24 by an airflow conduit 80 .
A controller 90 in the form of a digital electronic controller provides control signals 92 to the PWM valve 20 based on engine speed and power command signals 94 and engine parameter signals 96 , as is known. The controller 90 preferably utilizes conventional digital techniques for providing the control signal 92 to the PWM valve 20 , as is known. Accordingly, further description of the constructional details of the controller 90 are not required, it being sufficient to note, that to increase the fuel flow rate from the valve outlet 42 to the pump inlet 50 , the controller 90 adjusts the control signal 92 to cause an increase in the time period T 2 for the second flow rate and a decrease in the time period T 1 for the first flow rate. Conversely, to decrease the fuel flow rate from the valve outlet 42 to the pump inlet 50 , the controller 90 adjusts the control signal 92 to cause a decrease in the time period T 2 for the second flow rate and an increase in the time period T 1 for the first flow rate.
An alternative gas pressurization supply 100 is provided for engine starting. A check valve 101 in the airflow conduit prevents reverse flow of the gas from the supply 100 into the compressor section 24 . Preferably, the supply 100 is in the form of compressed air tank or a start squib. During engine starting, the pressure port 34 receives a pressure flow from the supply 100 for pressurizing the storage device 14 .
In operation, fuel flow is supplied to the valve inlet 40 at a pressure P u via the fuel bladder 32 and the conduit 60 . Fuel flow is supplied to the pump inlet 50 at a pressure P 1 via the PWM valve 20 and the conduit 62 . The fuel flow through the PWM valve 20 is controlled by a signal 92 from the controller 90 which causes the spool assembly 44 to cycle between a first position that allows a first flow rate for a time period T 1 and a second position that allows a second flow rate for a time period T 2 . Typically, the first flow rate will be equal to zero or substantially equal to zero, and the second flow rate will be equal to or greater than the maximum fuel flow rate required for the gas turbine engine 12 . Preferably, the spool assembly 44 is cycled at a fixed frequency and the fuel flow rate from the valve outlet 42 to the pump inlet 50 is controlled by adjusting one or both of the time periods T 1 , T 2 , as is known.
In order to insure that the flow through the PWM valve 20 has a relatively predictable relationship to the control signal 92 , it is important to maintain a relatively constant pressure drop ΔP (ΔP=P u− P i ) across the PWM valve 20 . This function is performed by the regulator valve 22 which senses the pressures P u and P i and controls the pressure P u to maintain a relatively constant ΔP. More specifically, the pressure chamber 70 is pressurized to P i by the pressure tap 74 and the pressure chamber 72 is pressurized to the pressure P u by the pressure tap 76 . The position of the metering spool 68 is controlled by the pressure differential, ΔP=P u− P i , in the pressure chambers 70 , 72 to regulate a bleed airflow from the compressor section 24 to the pressurized fuel storage device 14 . It should be noted that the above explanation assumes that the pressure P u at the valve inlet 40 is equal to the pressure in the airflow conduit 78 and the pressurized fuel storage device 14 . It is believed that this assumption is essentially correct for most pressurized fuel storage devices utilizing a fuel bladder. However, the regulator valve 22 will still perform satisfactorily in any system where the pressure P u at the valve inlet 40 is dependent upon the pressure inside the storage device 14 . Preferably, the regulator valve 22 has sufficient damping to accommodate any pressure pulses generated by the PWM valve 20 in the conduit 62 while maintaining a relatively constant ΔP across the PWM valve 20 .
The fuel pump 16 pumps the fuel from the pump inlet 50 to the combustor assembly 28 via the conduit 58 at a pressure P b. The fuel pump should be designed to attain the maximum pressure required by the combustor assembly 28 . For a small turbojet engine, P b will typically vary from 25-160 psia during operation.
To prevent combustor flame-out or deleterious effects on combustor stability, it is preferred that the pulsating fuel flow output from the PWM valve 20 be damped to closely approximate steady state flow. In the preferred embodiment, this damping is primarily provided by a pulsating vapor core in the fuel pump 16 . More specifically, the damping is provided by vaporizing a portion of the fuel flow at the pump inlet 50 for at least a portion of the time period T 1 and re-forming the vaporized fuel back to liquid at the pump outlet 52 throughout the time periods T 1 and T 2 . Fuel is vaporized at the pump inlet 50 during the time period T 1 because the PWM valve 20 is essentially closed at this time while the pump 16 continues to operate. This causes the pressure at the pump inlet 50 to drop, resulting in such vaporization which forms the vapor core within the pump 16 . When the PWM valve 20 again opens, fuel at about the pressure at the pressure port 34 is available at the inlet 50 . This pressure is sufficiently close or above the vapor pressure of the fuel with the result that vaporization is reduced or ceases altogether, causing pulsating of the vapor core within the pump 16 .
At the same time, the geometry of the pump 16 is such that pressure at its outlet 52 is always above the vapor pressure of the fuel. Consequently, only liquid fuel flows from the outlet 52 . This flow is at a relatively constant pressure because the changing length of the vapor core within the pump as the vapor core forms and collapses in pulsating fashion acts as a damper for the pulsating liquid fuel flow through the PWM valve 20 . The ability of centrifugal pumps to reform slugs of vaporized fuel back into liquid form is known and is dependent upon the flow characteristics of the pump and the pump inlet and outlet pressures. Accordingly, it is preferred that the pump 16 be a centrifugal pump and that the components 14 , 16 , 18 , 20 , and 22 of the fuel system be designed to provide a pressure Pi at the pump inlet 50 that allows for sufficient amount of vapor damping in the fuel pump 16 .
While the exact amount of damping in the fuel flow required will be highly dependent upon the particular engine 12 selected for use with the system, it has been determined that for some systems and engines 12 the damping should be sufficient to reduce the pulse amplitude of P b to approximately 10% of the mean value of P b based on an operating frequency of 50 hertz for the PWM valve 20 .
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that, by placing the PWM valve 20 on the low pressure side of the fuel pump 16 , the fuel control system may utilize a relatively small and low-cost PWM valve, such as is commonly used in connection with automotive fuel injectors.
It should further be appreciated that, by metering the fuel flow to the inlet 50 of the fuel pump, rather than from the outlet 52 of the fuel pump, the energy required to pressurize the fuel flow to the combustor is minimized because excess flow at high pressure does not exist and therefore need not be returned to the tank as in prior art systems.
It should also be appreciated that the placement of the PWM valve 20 on the inlet side of the fuel pump 16 provides the beneficial advantage of utilizing the fuel pump 16 to provide damping via a pulsating vapor core thereby to minimize the effects of the pulsated fuel flow from the PWM valve 20 .
While a PWM valve 20 is preferred, any electromechanical or solenoid valve 20 capable of metering fuel flow by cyclically restricting the fuel flow path 18 to achieve a fuel flow to the pump inlet 50 that cycles between a first flow rate for a time period T 1 and a second flow rate for a time period T 2 may be utilized. Further, while pulse width modulated control is preferred, any form of control, including cycle frequency control, capable of causing a valve 20 to provide the desired cyclical restriction of the flow path 18 may be utilized. By way of further example, it is anticipated that some systems may utilize a fuel storage device 14 that is not pressurized and, further, may not require a relatively constant pressure differential ΔP across the valve 20 .
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Mechanical complexity and high cost in a fluid flow control system are avoided through the use of a pulse width modulated (PWM) valve ( 20 ) to meter a fluid flow to an inlet ( 50 ) of a pump ( 16 ) that pumps the metered flow to an outlet ( 56 ) of the fuel pump ( 12 ). The system utilizes a pulsating vapor core in the pump ( 16 ) to dampen the pulses in the fluid flow generated by the PWM valve ( 20 ). A regulator valve ( 22 ) is provided to maintain a relatively constant pressure drop across the PWM valve ( 20 ). The control system is ideally suited for controlling the flow of fuel to a gas turbine engine.
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This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 560,213, filed Jul. 25, 1990, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 352,362, filed May 16, 1989, now both abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a focus detecting device, and in particular to a device suitable for incorporation into a camera.
2. Related Background Art
As one type of focus detecting device of a camera, there is known a device in which the exit pupil of a photo-taking lens is divided into two pupil areas by a focus detecting optical system, two object images formed by light fluxes passed through the pupil areas are received by a photoelectric element array (for example, a CCD sensor array), the focusing state of the photo-taking lens is detected from the output of the photoelectric element array, and the photo-taking lens is driven on the basis of the result of the detection.
Referring to FIG. 9 of the accompanying drawings, a field lens FLD is disposed with its optic axis common to that of a photo-taking lens LNS to be focus-detected. Two secondary imaging lenses FCLA and FCLB are disposed rearwardly of the field lens at positions symmetrical with respect to the optic axis. Sensor arrays SAA and SAB are disposed rearwardly of the secondary imaging lenses. Diaphragms DIA and DIB are provided near the secondary imaging lenses FCLA and FCLB, respectively. The field lens FLD substantially images the exit pupil of the photo-taking lens LNS on the exit pupil surfaces of the two imaging lenses FCLA and FCLB. As a result, light fluxes incident on the secondary imaging lenses FCLA and FCLB, respectively, become ones which have emerged from areas of equal dimensions on the exit pupil surface of the photo-taking lens LNS which correspond to the secondary imaging lenses FCLA and FCLB, respectively, and do not overlap each other. When aerial images formed near the field lens FLD are re-imaged on the surfaces of the sensor arrays SAA and SAB by the secondary imaging lenses FCLA and FCLB, the two images on the sensor arrays SAA and SAB change their positions on the basis of the displacement of the positions of the aerial images in the direction of the optic axis. Accordingly, if the displacement (the amount of deviation) of the relative position of the two images on the sensor arrays is detected, the focus-adjusted state of the photo-taking lens LNS can be known.
FIG. 10 of the accompanying drawings shows an example of the photoelectrically converted outputs of the two images formed on the sensor arrays SAA and SAB. The output of the sensor array SAA is A(i), and the output of the sensor array SAB is B(i). The number of the required picture elements of each sensor is at least five, and desirably several tens or more.
The signal processing method of detecting the amount of image deviation PR from the image signals A(i) and B(i) is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 58-142306, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 59-107313, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 60-101513 or Japanese Patent Application No. 61-160824.
The focus adjustment of the photo-taking lens is effected on the basis of the amount of image deviation obtained by the method disclosed in these applications, whereby the photo-taking lens can be brought into an in-focus state.
The method disclosed in one of the above-mentioned applications is, for example, to calculate, for the two image signals A(i) and B(i) (i=1, 2, 3, . . . , N), ##EQU1## with respect to an integer value m. The range of i in which the sum is taken is determined from the condition that the suffixes i, i+k-m, i+k and i-m must be within a closed section [1,N]. k is an integer constant and usually, k=1. Also, the range of m is concerned with the purpose of detecting the degree of image deviation and is not unconditionally determined, but usually m is varied within the range of ##EQU2##
The correlation amount defined by the equation (1) is an example, and for any known correlation amount other than this, the following discussion can be equally applied. Besides the equation (1), the following correlation amounts are available: ##EQU3## The typical result of the equation (1) being calculated with respect to each m is as shown in FIG. 11 of the accompanying drawings, and the point of m at which V(m) is inverted in sign is the amount of image deviation expressed in units of picture element pitch. Usually this value does not assume an integer.
Assuming that there has been inversion of the sign between V(m 0 ) NS V(m 0 +1), the amount of image deviation M 0 including a fraction can be calculated by
M.sub.0 =m.sub.0 +|V(m.sub.0)/{V(m.sub.0 +1)-V(m.sub.0)}|.
A camera provided with a focus detecting device of this type usually effects automatic focus adjustment to a distance measuring area placed like a spot in the central portion of the photographing picture plane. In a single-lens reflex camera using a 35 mm film, the distance measuring field length in the surface equivalent to the film is usually of the order of 3-4 millimeters or more.
However, when photographing by means of a camera provided with an automatic focus adjusting device as described above, if the main object is not at the distance measuring point at the center of the finder, accurate focus adjustment cannot be accomplished. That is, in a case where the main object is out of the distance measuring area at the center of the finder due to framing or the like, focus adjustment is effected by placing the main object into the distance measuring area at the center of the finder and locking the focus. Then framing is effected while the then focusing state is maintained by the use of the focus lock function or the like, whereafter photographing is effected. Such a photographing method is suitable for a case where the main object is stationary, but in a case where the main object is moving, it is always necessary to effect further focus adjustment and, it is then impossible to effect proper framing.
Also, in the case of a collective photograph or the like in which a plurality of persons or things are to be photographed, if the distance measuring area comes between main objects, focus adjustment is effected to the background. This results in a photograph which is out of focus to the main objects and is contrary to the photographer's intention.
In order to cope with these difficulties, devices have been proposed in which a plurality of focus detecting optical systems are provided and a plurality of distance measuring areas are set in the photographing picture plane, and these distance measuring areas can be selected arbitrarily, as shown in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 62-47612 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 62-189415.
However, in an imaging optical system such as a photo-taking lens, there is generally the phenomenon of vignetting.
If the optic axis of the photo-taking lens and the photographer's line of vision are coincident with each other when the photo-taking lens is seen from the emergence side of the light flux, the exit pupil looks circular as shown by P in FIG. 12 of the accompanying drawings. In contrast, when the photo-taking lens is seen from an oblique direction, the exit pupil is eclipsed and looks like a partly cut-away circle as shown by P' in FIG. 13 of the accompanying drawings. This is called vignetting.
Vignetting becomes greater and the area of the exit pupil becomes smaller as the objective lens is seen more obliquely, that is, as the objective lens is seen from a position more distant from the position of its optic axis.
Accordingly, where a plurality of distance measuring areas is set and there is a distance measuring area near to the position of the optic axis of the objective lens and a distance measuring area far from the position of the optic axis, when the objective lens is seen from a distance measuring point corresponding to the distance measuring area far from the position of the optic axis, great vignetting occurs. If, as described in connection with FIG. 9, the stop opening is projected onto the exit pupil of the objective lens, Q's in FIGS. 12 and 13 correspond to those areas, and if vignetting becomes greater, there will arise the possibility of these areas being eclipsed.
To cope with the problem noted above, it would be an effective method to predetermine the sizes of these areas in conformity with the situation in which the greatest vignetting occurs, but this method is inconvenient because the ability of the system for effecting detection at the center of the picture plane is limited by the other systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has as its object to take the above-noted problem of vignetting into consideration and enhance the focus detecting ability near the center of the picture plane which is used most frequently, to thereby improve the overall ability of the present system which is capable of executing distance measurement at a plurality of positions.
The present invention proposes a device which has means for forming object light patterns whose relative positions change in conformity with the focus-adjusted state of an objective lens, from light fluxes including a light flux created at the same position of the object and passed through different areas of the exit pupil of the objective lens and means are provided for receiving and photoelectrically converting the light patterns and for detecting the focus-adjusted state of the objective lens on the basis of the photoelectrically converted signal. A plurality of sets of means are provided for forming light patterns, and means for photoelectrically converting the light patterns are provided at different distances from the position of the optic axis of the objective lens. The state of the areas of the exit pupil through which pass the light fluxes forming the light patterns, for example, the shapes or the intervals between the centers of gravity of such areas, or both are made to differ between the vicinity of the position of the optic axis of the objective lens and a position distant therefrom.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an optical perspective view showing a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a constituent member of the FIG. 1 embodiment.
FIG. 3 is another optical perspective view of the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is an optical perspective view of a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a constituent member of the FIG. 4 embodiment.
FIG. 6 is another optical perspective view of the second embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a constituent member of a third embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8A is an optical cross-sectional view for illustrating another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8B is a perspective view thereof.
FIG. 9 is an optical cross-sectional view showing a well-known focus detecting system.
FIG. 10 shows output signals.
FIG. 11 shows the result of a correlation calculation.
FIGS. 12 and 13 show the shapes of the exit pupil.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 show a first embodiment of the present invention. LNS designates an objective lens, and the reference numeral 10 denotes the exit pupil thereof. The reference numeral 12 designates a field mask formed with a plurality of, e.g. five rectangular openings 13a-13e including an opening 13c positioned on the optic axis x of the objective lens. These openings correspond to distance measuring areas, respectively. The reference numeral 14 denotes a field .lens assembly provided with field lenses 14a-14e for the respective openings. The field mask 12 and the field lens assembly 14 are disposed in proximity to each other and near the predetermined focal plane of the objective lens LNS. The reference numeral 15 designates a secondary imaging lens assembly provided with pairs of upper and lower secondary imaging lenses 15a-15e corresponding to the openings 13a-13e in the field mask 12. The reference numeral 16 denotes a photoelectric converting device provided with pairs of upper and lower photoelectric element arrays 16a-16e corresponding to the pairs of imaging lenses 15a-15e. Each pair of photoelectric element arrays can be replaced by a photoelectric element array electrically divided into two.
A member 17 disposed in proximity to the secondary imaging lens assembly 15 is a two-opening stop plate provided with pairs of apricot-stone-shaped openings 17a-17e, as shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is depicted exaggeratively. The interval D between the centers of gravity of each pair of openings, i.e., the base line length, is constant, but the areas of the openings differ between the position near to the optic axis x of the objective lens and the position far from the optic axis x. The positions of the centers of gravity coincide with position of the optic axes of the secondary imaging lenses. It is preferable that the power of each field lens 15a-15e be modified near the center thereof relative to the marginal portion thereof with the areas of the openings taken into account.
In the case of the openings 17c disposed at the position of the optic axis x of the objective lens, vignetting does not occur to the exit pupil at this position and therefore, there is a margin in the exit pupil and it is possible to adopt great dimensions for the openings. The reference numeral 11 in FIG. 1 designates areas in which the pair of openings 17c are reversely projected onto the exit pupil, and a light flux passed through one of these areas passes through one of the openings 17c, and a light flux passed through the other area passes through the other opening 17c.
On the other hand, at the position of the pair of openings farthest from the position of the optic axis x of the objective lens, for example, the pair of openings 17a, the vignetting of the exit pupil becomes great and therefore, the dimensions of such openings are made small. FIG. 3 depicts the manner in which the pair of openings 17a are reversely projected onto the exit pupil 10 by the power of the field lens 14a, and the area 11' is the image of the pair of openings. The exit pupil of FIG. 3, as compared with the exit pupil of FIG. 1, is small due to vignetting, and the size of the area 11' is also reduced. However, as mentioned above, the base line length is the same and therefore, although it is difficult to improve the detection accuracy itself thereby, the focus detecting ability of the central area of the picture plane for an object of low luminance can be improved greatly.
That is, the light fluxes coming from the object field are once imaged near the field mask 12 and the field lens assembly 14 by the objective lens LNS, and of those light fluxes, the light flux passed through the opening 13c passes through the pair of openings 17c in the two-opening stop plate 17, and forms light patterns of the object on the pair of photoelectric element arrays 16c by the action of the pairs of secondary imaging lenses 15c. The relative positional relation of these light patterns varies in conformity with the focus-adjusted state of the objective lens, as already described with reference to FIG. 9, and a value indicative of the focus-adjusted state is calculated by a calculation processing circuit, not shown, by the use of an electrical signal output from the photoelectric converting device 16.
Light fluxes passed through the other openings 13a, 13b, 13d and 13e in the field mask 12 also form light patterns on the pairs of photoelectric element arrays by an action similar to what has been described above, and these light patterns are used for the calculation of values indicative of the focus-adjusted states of the objective lens for objects caught by the respective distance measuring areas. At that time, the quantity of light of the light pattern formed on the photoelectric element array by the light flux passed through the opening 13c in the field mask 12 increases correspondingly to the increase in the size of the openings in the two-opening stop plate, and can readily improve the low luminance limit for focus detection.
A second embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 4, 5 and 6. In these figures, members similar to those shown in FIG. 1 are given similar reference characters. In the present embodiment, a two-opening stop plate 18 has the size of its openings 18a-18e made constant, but has the intervals between the centers of gravity of its openings changed, as shown in FIG. 5. That is, the interval d 3 between the centers of gravity of the pair of openings 18c near to the position of the optic axis of the objective lens is made great as compared with the interval d 1 between the centers of gravity of the pair of openings 18a far from the position of the optic axis. However, the sizes of the openings are equal.
As a result, as will be seen from the comparison between the area on the exit pupil 10 of FIG. 4 and the area on the exit pupil 10' of FIG. 6, the sizes of the two areas are equal, but the intervals between the centers of gravity differ from one another, and in the focus detecting system on the optic axis of the objective lens, the interval between the centers of gravity of the areas is great as compared with that of the other areas and therefore, the detection accuracy at the center of the picture plane can be readily enhanced. Here, the image formed at a position far from the center of the picture plane becomes greater in F-number due to the vignetting of the objective lens than at the center of the picture plane. That is, at a location far from the center of the the picture plane, the depth of image plane becomes deeper and further, a reduction in the imaging performance due to the aberrations of the lens occurs. Therefore, between the images formed at the center of the picture plane and a location far from the center of the picture plane, there is a difference in focus detection accuracy, and it a very efficient means both in terms of design and performance to enhance the detection accuracy of the focus detecting system which measures distance at the center of the picture plane, as in the present embodiment. Also, if the detection accuracy is reduced a little and photoelectric elements of the same sensitivity are used, there will be obtained a system capable of detecting a wider range of defocus amounts (wider in the prediction range).
FIG. 7 shows a two-opening stop plate for another embodiment. In this stop plate 19, the areas of a pair of openings 19c located at the position of the optic axis of the objective lens and the interval d 5 between the centers of gravity thereof are increased as compared with those of the other pairs of openings. This two-opening stop plate is disposed near the secondary imaging lens assembly. Thereby, the detecting system positioned on the optic axis of the objective lens is improved both in detection accuracy and low luminance detecting ability.
FIGS. 8A and 8B relate to another embodiment. This system itself is already proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 62-279835, and the present invention may utilize this system.
The distance measuring points are regulated by a field mask 42 near the primary imaging plane, and there are openings 42a-42g corresponding in number to the distance measuring points. Light fluxes passed through these openings 42a-42g are re-imaged on photoelectric element arrays on a photoelectric converting device by a dividing field lens 50 and secondary imaging lenses 51 and 53. The secondary imaging lens 53 comprises two juxtaposed convex lenses. At this time, these light fluxes are separated by a stop 52 into two light fluxes passing through exit pupils 81a and 81b, and are imaged on different photoelectric element arrays on the photoelectric converting device. The reference numeral 54 designates an image flattening lens. Focus detection for the distance measuring field image can be accomplished by the relative position of these two images.
The reference numeral 52 denotes a two-opening stop plate provided with openings opposed to the convex lenses of the secondary imaging lens 53. When the openings in the two-opening stop plate are seen from the openings 42a-42g, the sizes of the openings vary from the position of the optic axis of the objective lens toward the marginal portion. That is, the areas of the openings near the optic axis are large and the areas of the openings farther from the optic axis are smaller. Accordingly, if the refractive powers of the field lenses 50a-50e of the dividing field lens 50 are selected to promote this tendency and the areas through which the light fluxes entering the marginal photoelectric element arrays pass are made small even if vignetting occurs to the objective lens, the light fluxes will not be eclipsed. Conversely, the areas of the openings in the two-opening stop plate can be made correspondingly larger and therefore, in the focus detecting system at the position of the optic axis of the objective lens, detection becomes possible by the light flux passed through the large area of the exit pupil.
While in the embodiments hitherto described, a description has been given of the areas of the exit pupils and the interval therebetween (the base line length), it is apparent that the present invention is effective even in a focus detecting device wherein the low luminance limit and distance measurement accuracy of each focus detecting system are optimized, that is, the shapes of the exit pupils are changed so that the areas of and the interval between the exit pupils satisfy the required specification.
The following effects are provided by changing the shape of the exit pupil of each focus detecting system of the focus detecting device for effecting the distance measurements of a plurality of points, as described above:
1) It becomes possible to enhance the detection accuracy of the focus detecting system which distance-measures the distance measuring point near to the center of the optic axis of the objective lens.
2) It becomes possible to make higher the low luminance limit of the focus detecting system which distance-measures the distance measuring point near to the center of the optic axis of the objective lens.
3) It is possible to form a detecting system which is high in focus detection accuracy and a detecting system in which detection accuracy is reduced a little and the prediction range is widened by the use of the same photoelectric element array, whereby during a great amount of defocus, focus adjustment is effected by the latter detecting system, whereafter focus adjustment of high accuracy becomes possible by the former detecting system and as a result, it becomes possible to form a system which can quickly accomplish focus adjustment of high accuracy.
4) It becomes possible to provide, in a camera requiring systematic interchangeability, such as a single-lens reflex camera, a focus detecting device which has a detecting system having the same focus detecting ability as that of the conventional camera provided with only a central focus detecting device and further is capable of accomplishing focus detection at a plurality of distance measuring points.
5) The image formed at a position far from the center of the picture plane becomes great in F-number due to said vignetting as compared with the image at the center of the picture plane, and as a result, the depth thereof becomes deeper and therefore, there is no problem even if the focus detection accuracy required is reduced. Also, the imaging performance of the off-axis image is reduced by the off-axis aberration of the photo-taking lens and therefore, focus adjustment of high accuracy is not very meaningful. So, a detecting system suitable for each distance measuring point can be designed and thus, a focus detecting device which is totally well balanced can be provided.
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A focusing detecting device is disclosed having apparatus for forming object light patterns whose relative position changes in conformity with a focus state of an objective lens. Light flux passes through different areas of an exit pupil of the objective lens, and circuitry receives and photoelectrically converts the light patterns, and detects the focus state of the objective lens on the basis of the photoelectrically converted signal. The focusing apparatus accroding to the present invention a plurality of sets of structures for forming light patterns and means for photoelectrically converting the light patterns which are provided at different distances from the position of the optic axis of the objective lens. Also disclosed are means for making (a) the shapes of the areas of the exit pupil through which the light flux is passed to form the light patterns, or (b) intervals between the centers of gravity of said areas, or (c) both, different between a position in the vicinity of the optic axis of the objective lens, and a position distant therefrom.
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BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Our U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,835 shows a packaged hydraulically operated gang mower assembly for mounting on an industrial or farm type tractor to provide a highly efficient lawn mowing apparatus having hydraulically driven reel mowers which operated at high speeds and yet is highly maneuverable. This assembly has been very successful and although it is relatively easily attached to and removed from an industrial or farm type tractor, the installation and removal of this apparatus does take time and thus prevents immediate use of the tractor for non-grass mowing purposes. Because of the time involved, installation and removal from an industrial or farm type tractor is not practical for short periods of use of the tractor for other than grass mowing purposes.
Thus, an object of this invention is a packaged hydraulically operated gang mower assembly mounted on a trailer which can be attached to and operated by an industrial or farm type tractor.
Another object of this invention is a trailer having a hydraulic system for raising and lowering gang mowers which hydraulic system can be easily connected to and disconnected from a source of hydraulic fluid under pressure supplied by the tractor.
Another object of this invention is a stacked spool valve control for the hydraulic cylinders which raise and lower the gang mowers which spool valve control can be moved from the tractor to a storage position on the trailer without disconnecting all of the hydraulic fluid lines which extend between the spool valve control and the hydraulic cylinders.
Another object of the invention is an adjustable connection between the trailer and the tractor which permits connection of the trailer and the tractor in spite of vertical misalignment of the two.
Another object of the invention is a trailer carrying hydraulic driven reel mowers which are designed to apply minimum weight to the tractor towing attachment.
Another object of the invention is a connection between the trailer and the tractor which permits the tractor to turn 90° relative to the trailer.
Other objects may be found in the following specification, claims and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the hydraulically operated gang mower trailer of this invention connected to a tractor having a source of pressurized hydraulic fluid with parts broken away, other parts omitted for clarity and parts of the reel mowers shown in phantom line;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective partial view of the adjustable tow bar assembly of this invention; and
FIG. 3 is a partial exploded perspective view of the hydraulic control system for raising and lowering the hydraulic driven mowers with some parts broken away, some parts omitted and others shown in phantom lines.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a seven gang mower unit carried on a trailer 11 pulled by an industrial or farm type tractor 13. A hydraulic pump and reservoir unit 15 is mounted on a frame 17 which is attached to the three point hitch 18 of the tractor. The trailer 11 is intended for supporting reel mowers 19 which are hydraulically driven and are of the type having front caster wheels 21 and a rear roller 23. Each reel mower is driven by an independent hydraulic motor 25.
The trailer 11 includes a U-shaped frame 31 with its open end extending in the forward direction of the trailer. The frame has longitudinally extending side members 33 joined by an end cross member 35 at its rear. Rearwardly and outwardly diagonally extending beams 37 are connected intermediate their ends to the forward ends of the longitudinally extending side members 33. Front cantilever beams 39 extend upwardly and laterally outwardly from the longitudinal side members 33 and are fastened to the rearward ends of the diagonal members 37. Rear cantilevered beams 41 extend upwardly and laterally outwardly from the longitudinally extending side members 33 in alignment with the end cross member 35. A wheel support beam 43 is mounted on plates 45 which are supported on the longitudinally extending side members 33 of the frame. The beam extends beyond the side members 33 and spindles 47 which are attached to opposite ends of the wheel support beam have wheels 49 rotatably mounted thereon.
Three of the mowers 19 are fastened to the frame 31 generally inside the dimensions of the frame with each attached by an arm 53 which is pivotally mounted to the frame for up and down movement. Each arm is connected to a mower by a ball connector 55. The two mowers 19 which are carried behind the trailer are each connected to a mower arm 57 by a ball joint 59. Each mower arm 57 is pivotally connected at its inner end to an arm 61 extending at right angles thereto which arm in turn is pivotally mounted to the frame 31 for rotation about a horizontal axis at 63.
The side mowers 19 are connected to the outer ends of irregularly shaped side mower arms 67 which arms are fastened to tubes 69 mounted in sleeves 71. Sleeves 71 are supported at the ends of the front and rear cantilever beams 39 and 41, respectively. The mowers are connected to the side mower arms 67 by ball connectors 73. The ball connectors 73 generally align with the wheel support beam 43 and the wheel spindles 47 to provide stability for the trailer during lifting and lowering of the mowers mounted on the arms 67. The positioning of the mowers relative to the frame 31 applies most of the weight to the support beam 43 and thus to the wheels 49 and not to the trailer 13.
The hydraulic system for raising and lowering the mowers 19 is shown in detail in FIG. 3 and will be described hereinafter. For clarity of illustration, many of the details of the mower lifting system have been omitted from these drawings but the system is similar to that shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,835 assigned to the same assignee as this specification.
The trailer 11 may be connected to the frame 17 of the hydraulic pump and reservoir unit 15 which is mounted on the tractor 13 by a tow bar assembly 77 shown in enlarged detail in FIG. 2 of the drawings. The tow bar assembly includes a pair of upstanding plates 79 which are located at opposite ends of a cross plate 81. Two rows of openings 83 are formed in each of the plates 79. The openings are sized to receive bolts (not shown) which also fit in openings (not shown) in angles 85 attached to the forward ends of the diagonal members 37 of the frame 31. The rows of openings permit vertical adjustable attachment of the tow bar assembly relative to the trailer 11.
A tube 87 extends in a forwardly direction from the cross plate 81 and is fastened thereto. The eye 89 of a spring loaded bolt extends out of the tube 87 and is fastened by a pivot pin 91 to a bracket 93 which is in turn fastened by a pivot pin 95 to the frame 17. The spring loaded bolt which moves in and out of the tube 87 permits the tractor to make a turn of 90° relative to the trailer without permitting the tractor to strike the trailer.
A hose support 97 is pivotally mounted in an upstanding position on the tube 87. The hose support includes a rectangularly shaped opening 99 for receiving the hydraulic mower hoses (not shown) and a stirrup portion 101 for supporting the hydraulic cylinder hoses shown in FIG. 3. A trailer parking wheel 103 which can be raised and lowered is mounted on one of the rearwardly extending diagonal members 37 of the trailer frame.
FIG. 3 of the drawings shows the hydraulic system for operating the hydraulic cylinders which raise and lower the hydraulic driven mowers 19 carried on the trailer 11. The pressurized hydraulic fluid for operating the hydraulic cylinders is provided from the hydraulic system of the tractor 13 by means of hydraulic hoses 107 having quick connect and disconnect fittings 109. The hoses 107 connect to lever operated ganged spool valves 111 which are mounted in a housing 113. The housing is supported on a tubular post 115. The tubular post 115 telescopes inside a tubular socket 117 which is supported on a frame 119. The frame 119 is mounted on the hydraulic pump and reservoir unit 15. A removable locking pin (not shown) extends through alignable openings in the tubular post 115 and tubular sockets 117 to secure the spool valve housing 113 in proper position.
Hydraulic hoses 121 extend from the spool valves 111 to a support block 123 mounted on a cross beam 125 of the trailer frame 31. Hydraulic hoses 127 lead from the support block 123 to the individual hydraulic cylinders 129 which are pivotally mounted on the longitudinally extending side members 33 and end cross member 35 of the trailer frame 31. Since there are five hydraulic cylinders 129, there are five lever operated spool valves 111 and ten sets of hydraulic hoses 121 and 127 with a set of hoses leading to each hydraulic cylinder.
When the trailer 11 is to be disconnected from the tractor 13, it is only necessary to disconnect the two hydraulic lines 107 leading from the tractor hydraulic power supply to the housing 113 containing the handle lever operated spool valves 111. Since the hydraulic fluid lines 107 from the tractor have quick disconnect fittings 109, this is easily accomplished. The pin holding the tubular post 115 in place in the tubular socket 117 is removed and the housing 113 is lifted from the socket 117 carrying its hydraulic hoses 121 along with it. A tubular socket 131 identical to the tubular socket 117 is provided on the frame 31 of the trailer 11 to receive the tubular post 115 and thereby support the housing 131, spool valves 111 and hoses 121 on the trailer 11. Thus, the hydraulics applied to the hydraulic cylinders 129 can be disconnected and connected simply by disconnecting or connecting two hoses 107 rather than the ten hydraulic hoses 121 which normally would have to be manipulated.
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A hydraulically operated gang mower trailer which is connectable to a tractor having a source of pressurized hydraulic fluid for actuating cylinders to raise and lower the mowers. The trailer has a tow bar assembly which permits connection to tractors at varying vertical heights. The trailer has a frame and reel mounting which minimizes the weight carried by the tractor. A stacked set of lever operated hydraulic spool valves which control the flow of pressurized hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic cylinders for lifting and lowering the mowers can be easily moved from tractor to the trailer by disconnecting a minimum number of hydraulic hoses.
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CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] The present application claims priority from Japanese patent application JP 2007-20357 filed on Jan. 31, 2007, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to a radio communication system in which a terminal communicates by using a plurality of radio systems, and in particular a high-speed switching technology between a plurality of radio communication systems and a cognitive communication technology for improving the time use efficiency of frequency.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] The band of 6 GHz or less convenient for mobile communication systems (VHF, UHF, low micro band) is now used densely for communication by the third generation mobile phone, wireless LAN and the like and the tight condition of frequency is getting increasingly serious. Under such a situation, in order to use effectively and efficiently radio wave whose availability is getting increasingly stringent and to obtain allocation of frequency band necessary for mobile communication for which the needs are high, a technology for realizing a high-level common use of radio wave among systems using a plurality of radio waves such as mobile communication is sought after.
[0004] On the policy level, the “e—Japan priority plan—2004” (June, 2004) established by the IT Strategy Headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication of Japan sought a technology for realizing “the putting to practical use by 2011 a radio communication system for establishing an optimum communication environment by determining precisely the requirements of the radio wave environment and the applications used, and flexibly selecting frequency band, modulation method, multiplexing method and the like.
[0005] In order to realize these requirements, the idea of “cognitive radio” for recognizing the state of the radio and controlling the resources of radio systems depending on the state thereof was published in 1999 (Mitora, “Cognitive radio for flexible multimedia communications”, 1999 IEEE Int Workshop on Mobile Multimedia Communications Digest (November 1999), and Mitora, “Cognitive Radio: Making Software Radios More Personal”, 19999 IEEE Personal Communication, vol. 6, No. 4 (1999)). However, there are a variety of approaches for realizing cognitive radio, and the parties concerned are studying the problem at present.
[0006] For communications using a multimode radio system, a technology in which the base station side decides the radio system and the base station side designates the radio system to the terminal side has been proposed (JP 2003-169379 A, JP 2005-20477 A).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] In a system having a plurality of radio systems in which the network side decides the radio system and allocates the same to the terminal side, in an environment in which a large number of terminals move frequently and the radio wave condition changes, even if the base station sides designates the communication system for the subsequent communication and transmits the same to terminals, actually the radio system may not be used by changes in the radio wave condition.
[0008] JP 2003-169379 A and JP 2005-20477 A discloses that the base station side designates only a radio system for the subsequent communication and communicates the same to the terminal side. And the radio system is decided only by the base station side and the information on the terminal side is not taken into consideration. Therefore, the radio wave condition changes due to frequent displacement of terminals or changes in the number of terminals, the radio system decided only by the base station may not be usable.
[0009] A representative aspect of this invention is as follows. That is, there is provided a radio communication system comprising: a base station for providing a plurality of radio systems, and terminals for communicating with the base station through the plurality of radio systems. The base station decides a priority of the radio system on which the each terminal will communicate thereafter and transmits paging signals of one of the plurality of radio systems which includes information on the decided priority to the each terminal.
[0010] According to the aspect of the present invention, it is possible to prevent the hung-up of communications due to changes in the radio wave condition resulting from frequent displacement of terminals and changes in the number of terminals, and to realize switching of radio systems adapting to the radio condition.
[0011] The problems that the present invention tries to solve, the features of the present invention and the operation of the present invention shall be clarified by the embodiments described below with reference to drawings below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] The present invention can be appreciated by the description which follows in conjunction with the following figures, wherein:
[0013] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a mobile terminal apparatus used in a multimode radio system in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 2 is an diagram showing a configuration of the multimode radio system in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0015] FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the mobile terminal in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0016] FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the mobile terminal in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0017] FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of the mobile terminal in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0018] FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of the terminal in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a network of the multimode radio system in accordance with the conventional technologies;
[0021] FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a network of the multimode radio system in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;
[0022] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a information obtaining function of the terminal in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;
[0023] FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention; and
[0024] FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an operation of the terminal in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0025] We will describe below the embodiments of the present invention with reference to drawings.
First Embodiment
[0026] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mobile terminal apparatus used in the multimode radio system of the first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, we will describe the operation of the mobile terminal apparatus having a plurality of radio systems as shown in FIG. 1 .
[0027] The paging signal 30 according to the radio system 1 transmitted from the base station side is accompanied by the ID information on which the priority of the radio system to be used hereafter (for example, the following radio system to be used) is added. This paging signal 30 is received by the receiver 32 of the radio system 1 on the terminal side. The controller 38 of the radio system 1 controls the data in the physical layer and the MAC layer. The controller 38 of the radio system 1 decides the radio system for the following communication based on the ID information which includes the priority of this radio system, information on the radio systems available for the terminal side, and information on the radio system that the terminals request to use.
[0028] The information on the radio system that terminals request to use is stored in the processing unit 40 . The information on the radio system that the terminal side can use is arranged in order by the controller 38 based on the information obtained from the receiver 32 of the radio system 1 , the receiver 34 of the radio system 2 and the receiver 36 of the radio system 3 . Specifically, the controller 38 converts the information obtained from radio systems having different timing of obtaining information (for example, the speed of obtaining data) into comparable forms (for example, compensation and/or normalization).
[0029] The controller 38 of the radio system 1 notifies the power controller 39 of the ID information of the radio system for the following communication. The power controller 39 transmits wake up message to the receivers ( 32 , 34 or 36 ) of the radio system which includes the ID information and set the receiver in an active state (the state in which the receiver is fully supplied with power). It transmits sleep message to other receivers that are not charged to communicate, and set them in a sleep state (operating state with the minimum power necessary).
[0030] The priority ID information is not necessary transmitted by the paging signals of the radio system 1 , and the paging signals of the radio system 2 or the paging signals of the radio system 3 may be used. For example, ordinarily priority information may be transmitted by the paging signals of the radio system 1 having a wide communication area. However, the paging signals of the radio system 2 or the paging signals of the radio system 3 may be used for transmitting priority information when the paging signals of the radio system 1 cannot be used.
[0031] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the multimode radio system including the base station for transmitting paging signals of the radio system 1 described with reference to FIG. 1 .
[0032] According to the example shown in FIG. 2 , a total of three systems in all constituted by cdma 1× EVDO (1× Evolution Data Only) as the central system, WiMAX as an outdoor broadband system in urban areas, and wireless LAN (Local Area Network) as short-distance and indoor broadband system are connected and integrated. Any other systems having the equivalent function can be applied to the radio system of the present invention.
[0033] The communication system according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes a cognitive terminal 701 , a cdma 2000 EV-DO radio base station 102 , a wireless LAN base station 103 , a WiMAX radio base station ( 104 ), a gateway device of the EV-DO radio system (PDSN: Packet Data Serving Node) 105 , a gateway device of the wireless LAN system (PDIF: Packet Data Interworking Function) 106 , and a gateway device for WiMAX system (AS—GW: Access Serving Network Gateway) 107 , a HA (Home Agent) 108 , certificate common stations (AAA) 703 , monitoring node 704 and network 112 . The cognitive base station 702 , includes cdma 2000 EV-DO radio base stations 102 , wireless LAN base stations 103 , WiMAX radio base stations 104 , PCF/PDSN 105 , PDIF 106 , and ASN—GW 107 and HA 108 .
[0034] The cognitive base station 702 includes monitoring nodes (CMT: Cognitive Monitoring Tool) 704 for identifying the respective radio environment of different radio systems and obtains information on the radio systems (for example, information relating to the state of each system) from the access point of each system by the monitoring nodes 704 . The monitoring node 704 obtains the information on the radio system from the access point of each system (cdma 2000 EV-DO radio station 102 in the case of EVDO, wireless LAN base station 103 in the case of wireless LAN, WiMAX radio base station 104 in the case of WiMAX).
[0035] And a control node 705 is implemented between the gateway of each radio system (PDSN 105 in the case of EVDO, PDIF 106 in the case of wireless LAN, and ASN-GW 107 in the case of WiMAX) and the network 112 . The control node 705 decides the priority of radio system for the following communication according to the instructions from the monitoring node 704 .
[0036] The information on the radio system includes the received power, RSSI, throughput of each user, transmission rate, packet loss, number of terminals connected with an access point, processing load at an access point and the like. In the case of EVDO, the information on the radio may include DRC value and RRI value, the value of various parameters used for scheduling in the radio section. The information on the radio system is statistically processed in the monitoring node 704 . Moreover, in addition to the information on the radio statistically processed, the priority of radio systems are set for the following communication by taking into account the space information such as the position or direction of moving of terminals 701 .
[0037] If EVDO is selected for the radio system 1 in such a multimode system, the monitoring node 704 , the control node 705 , PDSN 105 and the base station 102 constituting the EVDO system are linked up for paging. As shown in FIG. 1 , this paging signal 30 includes the ID information in which the priority of the radio system for the following communication set by the control node 705 is set.
[0038] Now, we will describe below the procedure of deciding the radio system used in the following communication by the terminal side with reference to FIG. 1 .
[0039] The terminal side receives the paging signal 30 including the ID information in which the priority of the radio system used in the following communication is set from the base station. On the base station side, the receiver 32 of the radio system 1 receives this paging signal 30 .
[0040] And the terminal 701 stores the information on the radio system that the user requests to use in the processing unit 40 . And the information is transmitted to the controller 38 of the radio system 1 . And the receivers 32 , 34 and 36 of radio systems receive signals corresponding to the beacon of each radio system. The information included in the signal corresponding to this beacon is transmitted to the controller 38 of the radio system 1 . The controller 38 receives which radio system the terminal can use by the information included in the signals corresponding to this beacon.
[0041] The controller 38 of the radio system 1 decides the radio system to be used in the following communication based on the information on the radio system that the user requests to use on the terminal side, the information which radio system the terminal can use, and the paging signal 30 in which the priority information of the radio system in which the following communication is to be made transmitted from the base station. The power controller 39 set the receiver of the radio system used in actual communication in an active state and the receiver of other radio systems in the sleep state.
[0042] Now, we will describe the operation of the terminal side after having decided the radio system in which the following communication is to be made in the controller 38 of the radio system 1 of the terminal side.
[0043] The controller 38 of the radio system 1 decides that the radio system to be used for the following communication will be the radio system 1 based on the paging signal 30 described above and the information from the terminal. Then, the power controller 39 sets the receiver 34 of the radio system 2 , the transmitter 35 of the radio system 2 , the receiver 36 of the radio system 3 and the transmitter 37 of the radio system 3 in the sleep state.
[0044] Now, we will describe the operation on the terminal side after the controller 38 of the radio system 1 on the terminal side has decided the radio system to be used in the following communication with reference to FIG. 4 . FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation of mobile terminal device when the radio system to be used in the following communication is the radio system 2 .
[0045] the controller 38 of the radio system 1 decides that the radio system to be used in the following communication shall be the radio system 2 based on the paging signal 30 described above and the information received from terminals. Then, the power controller 39 sets the receiver 34 and the transmitter 35 of the radio system 2 in an active state, and sets the transmitter 33 of the radio system 1 , the receiver 36 of the radio system 3 and the transmitter 37 of the radio system 3 in a sleep state.
[0046] Now, we will describe below the operation on the terminal side with reference to FIG. 5 after the controller 38 of the radio system 1 on the terminal side has decided the radio system to be used in the following communication.
[0047] Based on the paging signal 30 described above and the information received from terminals, the controller 38 of the radio system 1 decides that the radio system to be used in the following communication shall be the radio system 3 . Then, the power controller 39 sets the receiver 36 and the transmitter 37 of the radio system 3 in an active state, and sets the transmitter 33 of the radio system 1 , the receiver 34 of the radio system 2 and the transmitter 35 of the radio system 2 in the sleep state.
[0048] We will describe the communication procedure according to the first embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. 6 . FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0049] The system 850 of the radio system 1 of the base station transmits signals 500 corresponding to the beacon to the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminals. The system 851 of the radio system 2 of the base station transmits signals 502 corresponding to the beacon to the system 951 of the radio system 2 of the terminals. The system 852 of the radio system 3 of the base station transmits signals 504 corresponding to the beacon to the system 952 of the radio system 3 of the terminals. The terminal is set in an active state upon reception of the beacon ( 501 , 503 , 505 ).
[0050] The paging signal 506 which includes the priority of the radio system to be used in the following communication is transmitted from the system 850 of the radio system 1 on the side of the base station to the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal. the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal decides the radio system to be used in the following communication based on the information on the radio system 520 desired by the terminal side and the information 507 , 508 and 509 transmitted by the system of each radio system ( 510 )
[0051] the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal transmits a wake up message to the system 952 of the radio system 3 upon a decision to use the radio system 3 for the following communication ( 511 ), setting the system 952 of the radio system 3 in an active state ( 512 ). And it transmits a sleep message to the system 951 of the radio system 2 ( 513 ) to set the system 951 of the radio system 2 in the sleep state ( 514 ).
[0052] The system 952 of the radio system 3 of the terminal transmits a response message to the system 852 of the radio system 3 of the base station ( 515 ), and the system 952 of the radio system 3 of the base station transmits a response message to the CN (correspond node) 800 , its partner in communication ( 516 ). CN 800 transmits a response message to the system 852 of the radio system 3 of the base station ( 517 ). The system 852 of the radio system 3 of the terminal transmits a response message to the system 952 of the radio system 3 of the terminal ( 518 ).
[0053] Now, we will describe the operation of the terminal side with reference to FIG. 7 . FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the terminal side according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
[0054] The terminal is in a sleep state after the elapse of a predetermined length of time (X seconds) from the moment when the last communication was made ( 200 ). Then, it awaits the paging signal in which the priority of radio system which includes the following communication is to be made and transmitted from the base station ( 201 ). As a result, the terminal returns to the sleep state again if no paging signal is detected ( 200 ). While the terminal will process paging if any paging signals are detected ( 202 ).
[0055] Then, the terminal obtains the information on the radio system of the terminal side ( 203 ). The information on the radio system may includes the information on the radio system that the terminal side can actually use and the information on the radio system that the terminal side requests to use. The terminal analyses the radio system ID and decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made on the terminal side based on the priority information of radio systems included in the paging signal received from the base station and the obtained information on the radio system of the terminal side ( 204 ).
[0056] Then, the terminal side determines whether the information on the decided radio system designates the radio system 1 or not ( 205 ). If the ID information of the radio system 1 is designated, the terminal side sets the radio system 1 in an active state ( 206 ) to start communication ( 207 ). On the other hand, if the radio system 1 is not designated, the terminal side determines whether the ID information of the radio system 2 is designated or not ( 208 ). If the radio system 2 is designated, the terminal side sets the radio system 2 in an active state ( 209 ) to start communication ( 210 ). On the other hand, if the radio system 2 is not designated, the terminal side sets the radio system 3 in an active state ( 211 ) to start communication ( 212 ).
[0057] Incidentally, although the receiver that bas been in the sleep state does not pass to an active state even if paging signals are detected, the receiver may be programmed to receive periodically paging signals. In this case, the time interval of receiving paging signals may be changed according to the radio system that is in an active state.
[0058] We will describe the operation of the radio system according to the first embodiment with reference to FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 .
[0059] According to the traditional method shown in FIG. 8 , if for example, WiMAX is designated as the radio system by the paging signal 721 from the base station 720 , if the terminal 724 that has been in the WiMAX communication area 722 has moved and has gone out of the WiMAX communication area 722 and if the terminal 725 has moved to an area 723 where only EVDO can communicate, the terminal 725 will be unable to communicate. However, as shown in FIG. 9 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the paging signal 720 from the base station designates the priority information of the radio system to be used by the terminal (for example, 1 WiMAX, 2 EVDO). And if the terminal side is waiting for the information 726 that actually EVDO is available, it will be possible to communicate even if the terminal 724 has moved from the WiMAX communication area 722 to the EVDO communication area 723 .
[0060] Next, We will describe the function of collecting information on the terminal side of the first embodiment with reference to FIG. 10 .
[0061] The terminal receives signals 901 - 903 corresponding to the beacon in each radio system in addition to the paging signal 900 of the radio system 1 . Each terminal will be able to identify which radio system is available by this signal corresponding to the beacon. The information on the available radio system and the information on the radio system that includes user requests to use in the processing unit 909 . The processing unit 909 transmits the information on the radio system on the terminal side to the controller 907 . The paging signal with priority designated by the terminal side is transmitted to the controller 907 . The controller 907 decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made based on the information received from the base station and the information on the radio system on the terminal side. Then, the power controller 909 transmits a wake up message to the transmitter and receiver of the radio system in which actual communications will be made, and transmits a sleep message to the transmitter and the receiver in which actual communication will not be made.
[0062] As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the base station side sets the priority of the radio system in which the following communication will be made and transmits the information to the terminal side by the paging of the radio system 1 . The terminal side obtains the information on the radio system that the terminal side requests to use and the information on the actually available radio system, and based on the information from the base station side and the information from the terminal side, decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made. By this measure, it will be possible to prevent the disruption of communication due to changes in the radio wave condition and to realize switching of radio systems adapted to the radio condition.
Second Embodiment
[0063] According to the first embodiment described above, the base station side decides the priority of the radio system in which the following communication will be made, transmits the information to the terminal by the paging signal 30 of the radio system 1 , and the terminal side decided the radio system in which the following communication will be made. However, in the second embodiment which we will describe below, the base station side decides the priority of the radio system in which the following communication will be made, receives the information on the radio system that the terminal side requests to use and the information on the radio system that the terminal side actually can use, and decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made. In this case, the ID information of the radio system in which the following communication will be made decided by the base station side will be transmitted to the terminal side by the paging information 30 .
[0064] We will describe the communication procedure according the second embodiment of the present invention with reference to FIG. 11 . FIG. 11 is a graphic of sequence according to the second embodiment of this invention.
[0065] The system 850 of the radio system 1 of the base station transmits signal 500 corresponding to the beacon to the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal. The system 851 of the radio system 2 of the base station transmits signal 502 corresponding to the beacon to the system 951 of the radio system 2 of the terminal. The system 852 of the radio system 3 of the base station transmits signal 504 corresponding to the beacon to the system 952 of the radio system 3 of the terminal. The terminal turns into an active state upon reception of the beacon ( 501 , 503 , 505 ).
[0066] The system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal transmits the information on the radio system that the terminal side requests to receive and the information transmitted from the system of each radio system 507 , 508 and 509 ( 550 ). Based on the information 570 with the priority of the radio system in which the following communication will be made set and the information 550 transmitted from the terminal, the system 850 of the radio system 1 of the base station decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made ( 551 ). The information on the decided radio system will be transmitted to the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal ( 552 ).
[0067] If a decision has been made that the communication will be made by the radio system 3 , the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal transmits a wake up message to the system of the radio system 3 of the terminal ( 553 ), and set the system of the radio system 3 of the terminal in an active state ( 554 ). And the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal transmits a sleep message to the system 951 of the radio system 2 ( 555 ) to set the system 951 of the radio system 2 in a sleep state ( 556 ). And the system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal may transmit a sleep message to the system 950 (itself) of the radio system 1 ( 557 ) to set the system 950 of the radio system 1 in a sleep state ( 558 ).
[0068] The system 952 of the radio system 3 of the terminal transmits a response message to the system 852 of the radio system 3 of base station ( 559 ), and the system 852 of the radio system 3 of the base station transmits a response message to a CN (Correspond Node) 800 ( 560 ). The CN 800 transmits a response message 995 to the system of the radio system 3 of the base station ( 861 ). The system 852 of the radio system 3 of the terminal transmits a response message to the system 952 of the radio system 3 of the terminal.
[0069] Then, we will describe the operation of the base station side with reference to FIG. 12 . FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the operation on the terminal side according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
[0070] The terminal obtains information on the radio system on the terminal side ( 220 ). The information on the radio on the terminal side may includes the information on the radio system that the terminal side can actually use and the information on the radio system that the terminal side requests to use. Then, the terminal transmits the obtained information on the radio to the base station ( 221 ). The base station side decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made based on the priority information of radio system and the information on the radio received from the terminal side, and transmits the information on the decided radio system by paging signals to the system 950 of the radio system 1 .
[0071] The system 950 of the radio system 1 of the terminal awaits for paging signals transmitted by the base station ( 222 ). As a result, if no paging signals can be detected, the system 950 of the radio system 1 obtains again information on the radio system of the terminal ( 220 ). Upon detection of a paging signal, it proceeds to the receiving operation of the paging signal ( 223 ), analyzes the ID of radio system contained in the paging signal and decides the radio system in which the following communication will be made by the terminal side.
[0072] Then, it determines whether the information on the decided radio system designates the radio communication 1 or not ( 225 ). If the ID information of the radio system 1 is designated, it sets the radio system 1 in an active state ( 226 ) and starts communication ( 227 ). On the other hand, if the radio system 1 is not designated, it will determine whether the ID information of the radio system 2 is designated or not ( 228 ). If the radio system 2 is designated, it sets the radio system 2 in an active state ( 229 ) and starts a communication ( 230 ). On the other hand, if the radio system 2 is not designated, it sets the radio system 3 in an active state ( 231 ), and starts a communication.
[0073] As described above, in the second embodiment of the present invention, the terminal side obtains the information on the radio system that it requests to use and the information on the radio system actually available and transmits them to the base station side. The base station side sets the priority of the radio system in which the following communication will be made and based on the information supplied by the base station side and the information supplied by the terminal side, it will decide the radio system in which the following communication will be made. The base station side transmits the information on the radio system that has been decided in which the following communication will be made to the terminal side by the paging of the radio system 1 . Based on the information received from the base station, the terminal side switches the radio systems. This will enable to prevent communications from being disrupted by changes in the radio wave condition and realize switching of radio systems according to the radio condition.
[0074] While the present invention has been described in detail and pictorially in the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to such detail but covers various obvious modifications and equivalent arrangements, which fall within the purview of the appended claims.
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To prevent a hung-up of communications due to changes in a radio wave condition resulting from frequent displacement of the terminals and changes in a number of the terminals, and to realize switching of the radio systems adapting to the radio condition. A radio communication system comprising: a base station for providing a plurality of radio systems, and terminals for communicating with the base station through the plurality of radio systems. The base station decides a priority of the radio system on which the each terminal will communicate thereafter and transmits paging signals of one of the plurality of radio systems which includes information on the decided priority to the each terminal.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coupling assembly and, more particularly, to a coupling device for interconnecting a dialyzer reprocessing system to a dialyzer blood port.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is significant concern about possible cross-contamination of dialyzers that are being reprocessed if the blood port connector on the reprocessing machine is not adequately disinfected between uses. Many conventional dialyzer reprocessing systems use a luer/tubing connector to connect the blood line thereof to the dialyzer blood port. This connector is generally not removed from the reprocessor tubing and, therefore, disinfection is typically limited to wiping the connector with disinfectant. In addition, the tubing must be twisted in order to thread the connector onto the luer connection of the dialyzer blood port.
Some reprocessing systems provide a quick connect/disconnect coupling on the blood line thereof. Conventional quick connect/disconnect couplings are adapted to interconnect tube segments and thus use conventional tubing connectors. See in that regard, U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,725, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference. Therefore, a conventional quick disconnect can only be used to interconnect a quick connect/disconnect equipped reprocessor to the luer fitting on the dialyzer if additional tubing is used to connect the quick disconnect to a luer/tubing connector that is in turn connected to the luer connector of the dialyzer. This additional tubing means that there are additional parts that must be disinfected and the tubing must still be twisted to thread the luer connector onto the dialyzer port. In addition, the cost of multiple sets of the removable portion, i.e. the tubing with connectors on both ends, makes disinfecting by removal and soaking impractical. Therefore, providing a quick disconnect coupling on the blood line does not solve the problem of improving disinfection and simplifying attachment to the luer connector of the dialyzer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a coupling device that reduces the risk of cross-contamination of dialyzers during reprocessing by providing a reusable, easily disinfected connector for coupling a dialyzer to, e.g., the blood line of a dialyzer reprocessing system.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a coupling device that allows a dialyzer to be coupled to a dialyzer reprocessing system without rotating or twisting associated tubing.
The foregoing objects are realized in accordance with the invention by providing a coupling device that is a simple, one-piece adapter for being screwed to the luer connector of the dialyzer at a luer connector end thereof and then axially attached to a blood line of a dialyzer reprocessing device via a quick connect/disconnect coupling end thereof. The adapter is reusable and easily disinfected by simply soaking it in liquid disinfectant. Since there is no tubing incorporated in the adapter, costs are minimized and handling is facilitated. Moreover, the thicker side wall realized by the elimination of a tubing nipple extends the connector life and makes it more reliable. In accordance with a presently preferred embodiment, the adapter also includes grip wings or a grippable outer surface to facilitate threading of the luer connector end thereof to the dialyzer blood port.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These, as well as other objects and advantages of this invention, will be more completely understood and appreciated by careful study of the following more detailed description of presently preferred exemplary embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a coupling device provided in accordance with the invention disposed for connecting a dialyzer reprocessing system and a dialyzer;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a coupling device provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, taken from the luer connector end thereof;
FIG. 3 is an end view of the coupling device, taken from the luer connector end thereof;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a coupling device provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, taken from the quick disconnect end thereof;
FIG. 5 is an end view of the coupling device, taken from the quick disconnect end thereof;
FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the coupling device provided in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 7 is a view taken from above in FIG. 6; and
FIG. 8 is a view taken along lines 8 — 8 of FIG. 7 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The coupling device 10 provided in accordance with the present invention is formed as a single, molded piece, that is constructed and arranged to act as an adapter between the coupling 12 provided at a blood port of a dialyzer 14 and a coupling structure 16 provided on a blood line 18 of a dialyzer reprocessing system 20 .
The dialyzer 14 with which the coupling device 10 of the invention is adapted to be used has blood ports (only one of which is schematically shown in FIG. 1) with luer-type connectors 12 , for example, a luer tip 22 surrounded by a shroud 24 having internal threads. To securely engage the luer connector of the dialyser blood port, one end of the adapter 10 is formed as an externally threaded luer-type connector structure 26 so that the connector can be screwed to the dialyzer blood port connector 12 . The luer connector structure 26 may be a luer-type thread 28 that extends part circumferentially, in a spiral of about 180° in the illustrated embodiment, or may be more truncated luer tabs or ears.
To facilitate gripping and rotating of the adapter during connection to the dialyzer blood port, the main body 30 of the coupling device preferably has a friction enhanced, grippable surface defined thereon. While the grippable surface may be a knurled surface or a surface having a series of, for example, longitudinally extending ribs, in accordance with the present preferred embodiment, at least two grip wings 32 are formed to extend from diametrically opposite sides of the adapter main body 30 . In the illustrated embodiment, the grip wings each extend radially outwardly from and along a portion of the length (longitudinally) of the main body to define digit engaging surfaces 34 which facilitate gripping and rotation of the adapter, particularly during the luer attachment process. More specifically, each of the grip wings 32 is defined by a longitudinally extending and radially projecting spine 36 and a plurality of radial and part circumferential flanges or ribs 38 . The part circumferential ribs have gaps 40 therebetween so as to define discontinuous digit engaging surfaces 34 which facilitate gripping and are advantageous in the molding process. In the illustrated embodiment, furthermore, the ribs 38 define finger engaging surfaces 34 that are inclined to the plane of the grip wing spine 36 . It is to be understood that as an alternative to the grip wing structure shown, generally planar grip tabs may be provided and thus the illustrated embodiment is merely exemplary of a grip wing configuration that may be provided, showing the presently preferred embodiment of the invention in this regard. As shown for example in FIG. 7, the interior bore 42 of the adapter is tapered as at 44 from a maximum internal diameter adjacent the inlet to the screw threaded, luer end 26 and tapers to a minimum dimension at substantially a midpoint 46 of the adapter structure.
The second end of the adapter provided in accordance with the present invention is defined as a quick disconnect coupling structure 48 so that the adapter, once threaded to the dialyzer blood port, may be connected to a complimentary female quick disconnect coupling 16 provided at a free end of the blood line 18 extending from the dialyzer reprocessing system 20 . The configuration of the quick connect/disconnect end 48 generally corresponds to conventional quick connect couplings of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,725. Thus, the quick connect/disconnect end is adapted to be coupled to a female connector of the type illustrated in the 725 patent provided at the free end of the reprocessing tubing. More specifically, the quick connect/disconnect male coupling defines a first sealing recess 50 adjacent the free end 52 thereof for receiving an O-ring (not shown) about the exterior surface thereof, thereby to provide a fluid tight seal between the exterior surface of the male coupling member 48 and the interior surface of the conventional female quick disconnect coupling member 16 when in the connected state. The quick disconnect connector end includes a further, locking recess 54 for receiving a conventional component, such as a spring urged clip member 56 , mounted to the female coupling 16 so that when the male coupling is inserted into the female coupling, the clip is initially engaged by and displaced by the rounded tip 52 of the male connector and then upon alignment with the second groove or locking recess 54 , the clip 56 is resiliently displaced into the groove to lock the male connector within the female connector, in a conventional manner. As shown, for example, in FIG. 7, the bore in the quick connect coupling end of the adapter provided in accordance with the invention is tapered as at 58 . The bore is tapered from a maximum diameter adjacent the free end 52 of the quick connect coupling 48 end to a minimum diameter substantially at the mid point 46 of the adapter. As can be seen, for example, in FIGS. 2 and 3, in particular, a stop flange 60 is also defined peripherally of the adapter to limit insertion of the quick connect coupling structure 48 into the female coupling 16 , to ensure proper registry of the clip 56 of the female coupling 16 with the locking groove of the quick connector 48 .
In an exemplary embodiment, the adapter provided in accordance with the invention is molded from a semi-rigid PVC material.
As described above, the coupling device 10 of the invention is adapted to couple a dialyzer 14 having a blood port that comprises a luer type coupling, shown generally at 12 , to a dialyzer reprocessor 20 having a blood line tube 18 terminating at its free end in a female quick connect/disconnect coupling structure 16 of the type disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,725. An exemplary dialyzer reprocessor is the Renatron®, which is an embodiment of the reprocessor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,081, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference. To couple the dialyzer 14 to the dialyzer reprocessor 20 , the coupling device 10 is first coupled to the dialyzer 14 by rotating the coupling device 10 to engage the luer type connector 26 provided on the coupling device/adapter 10 to the luer type connector structure 12 provided on the dialyzer 14 . In the disclosed embodiment, the luer type connector provided on the adapter defines a tapered interior bore 44 for receiving the tapered luer tip 22 of the luer connector 12 on the dialyzer and a screw thread 28 , or luer tabs or ears, defined on the exterior surface of adapter 10 for engaging screw threads (not shown) defined on the interior of the shroud 24 encircling the luer tip 22 of the blood port connector 12 . Once the coupling device 10 has been coupled to the dialyzer 14 , the male quick connect coupling end 48 of the adapter 10 can be axially inserted into the complimentary female quick connect/disconnect connector 16 provided on the free end of the blood line tube 18 . In a known manner, a radial locking structure, such as a spring biased clip 56 , engages the locking groove 54 of the adapter 10 to axially lock the adapter relative to the blood line tube.
As is apparent from the foregoing, the adapter provided in accordance with the invention simplifies the connection process and allows the operator to perform a more significant disinfection process, e.g., by soaking the coupling device. Indeed, the connector provided in accordance with the invention allows the user to remove it after each use and soak it in a disinfecting agent while using another already disinfected connector for the next cycle. A better, easier disinfectant capability is thus provided in accordance with the invention that provides for a longer dwell time in the disinfecting agent. In addition, the one piece molded connector provided in accordance with the invention defines a thicker side wall which will extend the connector life and make it more reliable. Moreover, because the adapter has no tubing associated with it and can be first threaded to the dialyzer, tube twisting is eliminated, thus simplifying the connection process and minimizing the risk of damage to or disconnection of the reprocessor blood line during the dialyzer connection process. It is therefore anticipated that the adapter of the invention will have a long life, be more reliable, and be universally easier to connect than conventional connectors, in particular for dialyzer reprocessing.
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thus, while the invention has been described with reference in particular to dialyzer reprocessing, it is to be understood that the coupling of the invention is not to be limited to that implementation except as so specified in the claims presented hereinbelow.
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A coupling device that reduces the risk of cross-contamination of dialyzers during reprocessing by providing a reusable, easily disinfected connector for coupling a dialyzer to, e.g., the blood line of a dialyzer reprocessing system. The coupling device is in the form of a one-piece adapter for being screwed to the luer connector of a dialyzer and then axially attached to a blood line of a dialyzer reprocessing device via a quick connect/disconnect coupling. The adapter is reusable and easily disinfected by soaking it in liquid disinfectant.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heater comprising a combustion chamber in which a burner and a heat exchanger for fluid to be heated are arranged, the burner comprising a mixing chamber connected to a fuel feed and a feed for forced air, the outlet side of the mixing chamber being provided with a burner plate comprising evenly divided ports.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A heater of this kind in which the burner operates with a 100% primary air supply and the mixing of the fuel with air takes place in the mixing chamber of the burner, is known from British Patent Application No. 80,27467 Pat. No. 2,063,451 filed on Aug. 22, 1980 in the name of Applicant's Assignee: NEFIT N.V. The burner of this known heater has the drawback that it is not possible to achieve a good mixture of the fuel with air as well as a uniform velocity distribution of the produced mixture along the entire burner plate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a heater in which the above drawback is obviated and in which the structure of the burner is as compact as possible.
The objects are attained according to the invention in that the mixing chamber of the burner consists of a converging inlet part merging into a diverging outlet part through a narrow passage (throat), the inlet part being connected to a device for feeding air and fuel.
The fuel and air are therefore fed into the mixing chamber through the feeding device. In this manner an intensive mixture may be obtained in the converging inlet part, whereupon the velocity of the mixture decreases in the outlet part, the mixture subsequently leaving the mixing chamber with a uniform velocity through the ports of the burner plate.
In a preferred embodiment of the heater according to the invention the feeding device consists of a housing comprising two separate chambers, one being connected to the air-feed and the other to the fuelfeed, each chamber being in communication with the inlet part of the burner through a set of calibrated openings in a restriction plate. In this way fuel and air will both flow into the mixing chamber through their own set of openings, so that a number of jets are formed and the total energy of these jets can be used for the mixing operation.
According to the invention the inlet part of the mixing chamber comprises deflecting means positioned within the jets of incoming air and/or fuel.
These deflecting means preferably consist of cavities applied in the wall of the inlet part of the mixing chamber. The direction of air and/or fuel jets entering the mixing chamber is thus deviated via said cavities, so causing an intensive mixing in the inlet of the mixing chamber. In an advantageous embodiment of the invention the cavities together form a whirling space which extends to the feeding device.
In a very advantageous embodiment according to the invention the burner is provided with a pressure difference control switch which on the one hand is connected to the mixing chamber and on the other hand to the air supply chamber of the feeding device. With the aid of the pressure difference control switch it can be determined if air is entering into the mixing chamber. In the case that the openings might be blocked, which would cause a dangerous situation, the pressure difference control switch will react and subsequently automatically cut off the gasfeed.
Preferably the pressure difference control switch in the mixing chamber is arranged in the whirling space near the wall of the feeding device comprising the calibrated openings. Thus the pressure difference control switch is connected in the mixing chamber at a point where the static pressure is lower than the pressure of the ambient atmosphere. In this manner it is achieved that also by disconnecting the pressure difference control switch with the mixing chamber, the pressure difference will decrease, so causing the gas supply to the mixing chamber to be cut off.
In accordance with the present invention the mixing chamber of the burner is provided with a separate compartment which extends from the feeding device to the burner plate, the feeding device comprising a separate chamber only being connected with the compartment, the chamber further being connected to a separate fuelfeed. The part of the burner plate corresponding with the compartment can be ignited so that an ignition flame is obtained which is entirely integrated within the burner.
The invention is also embodied in a method of controlling the combustion in a heater such that the temperature of the burner plate is measured and in that the air-fuel ratio in the burner is controlled dependent upon the measured value.
It has been found that at a certain load of the heater the temperature of the burner plate is a base for the percentage of CO 2 in the flue gases. With the aid of the CO 2 percentage it can be determined whether the combustion takes place with the correct air-fuel ratio. If the CO 2 percentage is high the danger exists of CO being produced while a too low CO 2 percentage decreases the efficiency of the combustion. Due to the control of the air-fuel ratio, dependent upon the temperature of the burner plate, a constant optimum mixing ratio may be maintained.
The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims.
Other claims and many of the attendant advantages will be more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description and considered in connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference symbols designate like parts throughout the figures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical section through a combustion chamber of a heater according to the invention;
FIG. 2 is a cross section on an enlarged scale through the burner and the feeding device;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the feeding device with a separated restriction plate;
FIG. 4 is a view of the inlet part of the burner, and
FIG. 5 is a longitudinal section through the burner according to line V--V in FIG. 4.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to FIG. 1 the combustion chamber of the heater according to the invention consists of a casing generally referenced 1. The casing 1 has an outer casing 2 and comprises in spaced relationship therefrom, an inner wall 3. The bottom of the combustion chamber consists of a single plate 4 provided with an outlet 5 for condensate. The upper side of the combustion chamber comprises a flue outlet 6.
A burner 7 provided in a side wall of the combustion chamber comprises a mixing chamber 8 which is on the one hand in communication with a device 9 for feeding air and fuel and which on the other hand at its outlet side, is provided with a burner plate 10 having evenly divided ports formed therein. The burner has an oblong shape and extends perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, almost along the entire width of the combustion chamber. The cross-section of the mixing chamber stays constant along the entire length of the burner.
Inside the combustion chamber a heat exchanger is arranged which consists of a number of pipes 11 provided with lamelli(strips), the pipes being interconnected outside the combustion chamber by means of pipe connections, illustrated in the figure with broken lines. Fluid to be heated flows through the pipes 11. The heat exchanger consists of two sections, one section being arranged in an arc around the burner plate 10, the second section being arranged near the bottom plate 4. Both sections are surrounded by guiding plates 12, 13 and 14 which serve for guiding the flue gases and the produced condensate.
Referring now to FIG. 2, it can clearly be seen that the mixing chamber 8 of the burner 7 consists of a converging inlet part 15 which merges into a widening outlet part 17 through a throat 16. The housing of the feeding device 9 has two chambers 18, 19 which are separated from each other by means of a partition wall 20. The chamber 18 is connected to a fan 22 via an air duct 21, whilst a chamber 19 comprises a fuelfeed 23. Between the housing of the feeding device 9 and the burner 7 a restriction plate 24 is mounted which plate comprises two rows of openings 25, 26 (FIG. 3), the rows extending across the entire length of the mixing chamber. Each row of openings 25, 26 connects one of the chambers 18, 19 of the feeding device 9 to the inlet part 16 of the mixing chamber 8, thus allowing air and fuel to enter said mixing chamber in two separate sets of jets.
Chamber 19 of the feeding device 9 comprises a partition wall 27 which forms a separate small chamber 19', the chamber being provided with its own gasfeed 28 (see FIG. 3).
Referring now to FIG. 5 it appears, in a longitudinal section through burner 7, that the mixing chamber 8 comprises a partition wall 29 which, in a mounted position of the burner and feeding device, is in alignment with wall 27 of the feeding device 9, which wall forms a separate mixing compartment 8' (FIG. 3). This mixing compartment also consists of a converging inlet part 15', a throat 16' and a widening outlet part 17' and comprises its own gasfeed and airfeed. The portion of the burner plate 10 adjoining the discharge part 17' can therefore only be ignited by means of said compartment 8', said portion so functioning as an ignition flame for said burner. Said ignition flame is thus entirely integral with the burner.
Reverting now to FIG. 2 part 30 of the upper wall of the inlet part 15, adjacent the restriction plate 24 of the feeding device 9, and asymmetrical with respect to the lower wall of inlet part 15, has a greater angle of inclination than the lower wall, thereby converging more rapdily toward the throat portion 16, thus causing inlet part 15 to be locally widened by a whirling space 31. Openings 25 of chamber 18 connected to airfeed 21 and fan 22 are facing the whirling space such, that the incoming air jets come into contact with the more inclined wall 30 and will be deflected by said wall so that these jets are divided along the inlet part 15. On the other hand openings 26 of chamber 19 connected with the fuel feed, are positioned above the center line 7a of the burner near the partition wall 20. It can be seen that the entering fuel jets will come into contact with the air jets deflected by wall 30 so that an appropriate mixture will be obtained (see also FIG. 4).
The burner according to the present invention also comprises a pressure difference control switch (not shown) which on the one hand measures the pressure in the mixing chamber and on the other hand the pressure in chamber 18 connected to the airfeed. The flow of mixture through the burner can be sensed by means of the pressure difference control switch. The sure difference control switch determines any risks of danger which might e.g. occur by a blockage of the openings and automatically cuts off the gasfeed. The pressure difference control switch 40 is appropriately connected in the whirling space at point A and in chamber 18 at point B (FIG. 2). At point A the pressure is lower than the ambient atmosphere, because of air jets entering the whirling space. This has the advantage that the pressure difference control switch will also react when getting disconnected from the whirling space so that in that case too the gasfeed is cut off.
In order to obtain a uniform combustion along the entire burner plate 10, it is important that the fuel jets enter the inlet part 15 in a direction perpendicular to the restriction plate 24 i.e., horizontally. However, the fuel flows from fuel feed 23 sideways through chamber 19, so that the fuel jets entering from ports 26 have a sidewise component of velocity (in FIG. 2 perpendicular to the plane of the drawing). The result of the latter is that the fuel is not uniformly divided along the entire length of the mixing chamber. In order to obviate the above difficulty, the present invention proposes to provide chamber 19 with guiding partitions 19a arranged perpendicular to the restriction plate 24, between each of the openings 26.
Since an intensive mixture takes place in the mixing chamber of the burner, the burner may be relatively small which contributes to a compact construction of the entire heater according to the present invention. The small outlet speed of the mixture and the mixing of the fuel with the total amount of air results in a small flame height of approximately 15 mm during the combustion. Pipes 11 of the heat exchanger may therefore be disposed from burner plate 10 at a distance of approximately 20 mm.
The first section of the heat exchanger being arranged in an arc around the burner plate 10, is surrounded by guiding plates 12 and 13 comprising openings through which the flue gases flow toward the second section of the heat exchanger situated near the bottom plate 4, according to arrows 32 (FIG. 1). The flue gases are cooled in the second section to below their condensation temperature. The lower side of the second section is provided with a guiding plate 14 comprising openings 33 (FIG. 1). Through the openings 33 the formed condensate will fall upon the bottom plate 4 and be discharged through outlet 5. Subsequently cooled flue gases will flow upwardly through the channel formed by the inner wall 3 and guiding plate 12, and will thereupon be discharged from the combustion chamber through outlet 6 (arrows 34 in FIG. 1).
An electronic ignitor 35 is disposed near the ignition flame portion of burner plate 10 while a sensor 36 is located near the remaining part of burner plate 10 in order to determine if the combustion is taking place (FIG. 1). The side wall of the combustion chamber is provided with a glass plate 37 for a visual inspection of the burner. The entire burner with the feeding device is arranged in such a manner that it can easily be removed for cleaning purposes.
It has been found in practice that the quantity of CO 2 in the flue gases, at a certain load of the heater, depends upon the temperature of the burner plate. The CO 2 percentage is an indication whether the burner operates with the correct air-fuel ratio. In case the airfeed is too low the CO 2 percentage increases thus causing CO to be produced, whilst a too large airfeed decreases the CO 2 percentage, thus decreasing the efficiency of the combustion. In order to achieve an efficiency of the heater which is as optimum as possible, the CO 2 percentage has to be maintained within given limits. The optimum CO 2 percentage of normal natural gas is 11,7%, the percentage being slightly lower in practice so that in general CO 2 percentage is approximately 9 to 10%. It has been found in practice that a deviation of 1% in the CO 2 percentage corresponds to a difference in temperature of the burner plate 10 of approximately 50° C. Due to this relative high temperature difference a very accurate control of the combustion in the heater according to the invention can be obtained. The temperature of the burner plate may be measured and the air-fuel ratio in the burner may be controlled, depending upon the measured temperature value, with combustion controller 50.
The heater according to the invention will in this manner have a very compact structure and an extremely high efficiency exceeding the required 90%.
As the air and fuel are fed separately into the mixing chamber via the restriction plate 24, the capacity of the burner can easily be changed by replacing the restriction plate. The fan in the airfeed causes a forced draught in the combustion chamber but also supplies the energy required for the mixing procedure.
Although the present invention has been shown and described in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many variations and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspects. It is therefore intended to have the appended claims cover all such variations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
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A heater having a combustion chamber in which a burner and a heat exchanger for fluid to be heated are arranged. The burner is oblong and includes a mixing chamber with a venturishaped cross-section. A converging inlet part of the mixing chamber is connected to a feeding device for supplying air and fuel to the burner. The air and fuel are each supplied through a restriction plate of the feeding device. The restriction plate has two rows of calibrated openings so that a row of incoming air jets and a row of incoming fuel jets are formed. The row of air jets is directed against a deflecting surface incorporated in the upper wall of the inlet part for producing a whirling effect for obtaining an appropriate mixing of air and fuel. A diverging outlet part of the mixing chamber is closed by a burner plate with evenly divided ports.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to methods for producing glucosides. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for producing glucosides by reacting glucose or a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit with a hydroxyl-containing compound in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] A method for producing glucosides from glucose using an acid catalyst or enzyme is known. However, there is a problem that the method using an acid catalyst requires the steps of addition and removal thereof (Patent Literatures 1 and 2) while the method using an enzyme requires a post treatment thereof (Patent Literatures 3 and 4).
[0003] Cellulose decomposition technology is one of the known techniques using a supercritical fluid, and examples of such techniques include:
[0004] (a) decomposition of cellulose with a super(sub)critical fluid (Patent Literature 5);
[0005] (b) decomposition of cellulose with a supercritical methanol (Non-Patent Literature 1);
[0006] (c) decomposition of cellulose with a supercritical carbon dioxide and water (Patent Literature 6, Non-Patent Literature 2); and
[0007] (d) decomposition of cellulosic biomass with an aqueous solution of a super(sub)critical aliphatic alcohol (Patent Literature 7).
[0008] The above (a) discloses a method wherein cellulose is decomposed through glucose and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural to various carboxylic acids. The above (b) through (d) also each discloses a method for producing glucose by decomposing cellulose, which cannot avoid the formation of oligosaccharide by decomposition of cellulose, the formation of products such as levoglucosan, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, furfural and levulinic acid by isomerizing glucose and the formation of compounds through thermal decomposition of cellulose.
[0009] Furthermore, a technology of decomposing a polymer material through methanolysis with a supercritical carbon dioxide and methanol to monomers is known to be applied to a polyurea with a specific structure (Non-Patent Literature 3), but there is no disclosure about methanolysis of a polysaccharide possibly involving oligosaccharide formation or isomerization.
CITATION LIST
Patent Literatures
[0000]
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2-275892
Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 9-31089
Patent Literature 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-17395
Patent Literature 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-17396
Patent Literature 5: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 5-31000
Patent Literature 6: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-263527
Patent Literature 7: Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-296906
Non-Patent Literatures
[0000]
Non-Patent Literature 1: “Cellulose”, 8, 189 (2001) by Y. Ishikawa and S. Saka
Non-Patent Literature 2: “Polymer Preprints, Japan”, 58 (2), 5387 (2009), by Hiroshi Ichiyanagi, Mutsuhisa Furukawa, Ken Kojio, Suguru Motokucho
Non-Patent Literature 3: “Polymer Preprints, Japan”, 56 (1), 2359 (2007) by Suguru Motokucho, Shingo Mukai, Ken Kojio, Mutsuhisa Furukawa
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
Technical Problem
[0020] The present invention provides a method for producing glucosides from glucose or a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit, which does not require addition or removal of an acid catalyst or an enzyme.
Solution to Problems
[0021] As the result of extensive study and research conducted by the inventors, the present invention has been accomplished on the basis of the finding that reaction of glucose or a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit with a compound containing a hydroxyl group represented by R—OH in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide results in the production of glucosides in a high selectivity and a high purity.
[0022] That is, the present invention is as follows:
[0023] [1] a method for producing glucosides comprising reacting glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit with a hydroxyl-containing compound represented by formula (1) below in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide to produce glucosides represented by formula (2) below:
[0000]
[0000] (in formula (1), R is any substituent, provided that the hydroxyl group in formula (1) bonds to a carbon atom of R and R is excluded from the substituents making the compound of formula (1) sugar, and in formula (2), the wavy line indicates an α-configuration or a β-configuration, and R is as defined with respect to R in formula (1));
[0024] [2] a method for producing glucosides comprising dissolving or suspending glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit in an organic solvent containing a hydroxyl-containing compound represent by formula (1) below and reacting the glucose or polysaccharide with the hydroxyl-containing compound represented by formula (1) in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide to produce glucosides represented by formula (2) below:
[0000]
[0000] (in formula (1), R is any substituent, provided that the hydroxyl group in formula (1) bonds to a carbon atom of R and R is excluded from the substituents making the compound of formula (1) sugar, and in formula (2), the wavy line indicates an α-configuration or a β-configuration, and R is as defined with respect to R in formula (1));
[0025] [3] a method according to [1] or [2] above wherein the polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit comprises any one selected from amylose, amylopectin and cellulose;
[0026] [4] a method according to any one of [1] to [3] above wherein the polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit comprises starch;
[0027] [5] a method according to any one of [1] to [4] above wherein the hydroxyl-containing compound represented by formula (1) is an alkylalcohol; and
[0028] [6] a method according to any one of [1] to [5] above wherein the hydroxyl-containing compound represented by formula (1) is methanol.
Advantageous Effects of Invention
[0029] The method of the present invention can produce glucosides from glucose or a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit without adding and removing an acid catalyst or an enzyme. Furthermore, since a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit as it is can be used as a raw material, the method of the present invention can produce glucosides directly therefrom without using glucose, which is expensive.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0030] FIG. 1 shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of cellulose and residues after being reacted for 3 days and 5 days.
[0031] FIG. 2 shows the 13 C-NMR spectrums of α-methylcellulose and a methanol soluble matter after being reacted for 5 days.
[0032] FIG. 3 shows the enlarged 13 C-NMR spectrums in the vicinities of δ=100 ppm of α-methylcellulose and a methanol soluble matter after being reacted for 5 days.
[0033] FIG. 4 shows the HPLC analysis result of an oligosaccharide standard solution.
[0034] FIG. 5 shows the HPLC analysis result of a methanol soluble matter after being reacted for 3 days.
[0035] FIG. 6 shows the HPLC analysis result of a methanol soluble matter after being reacted for 3 days.
[0036] FIG. 7 shows the HPLC analysis result of an ethanol soluble matter produced from starch.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0037] The present invention will be described in more detail below.
[0038] Glucose used in the present invention may be α-glucose, β-glucose or a mixture thereof.
[0039] The term “polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit” used herein refers to a group of compounds where sugars comprising glucose connects to each other via glycoside bonds.
[0040] No particular limitation is imposed on the polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit if it comprises glucose as a structural unit. The polysaccharide may be any of those occurring in nature or those produced by synthesis. Furthermore, no particular limitation is imposed on its polymerization degree or bonding form such as 1,4-bond, 1,6-bond, α-bond and β-bond. The polysaccharide may be cyclodextrin.
[0041] Among them, preferred are cellulose and amylose, which have a linear chain structure based on 1,4 bonds and amylopectin, which consists of mainly 1,4 bonds and branchings taking place with 1,6 bonds because they contain a large amount of glucose, are easily available due to their existence in large amount in nature, and easily decomposable due to their simple structures. Since intermolecular interaction is preferably small to be easily decomposable, particularly preferred are amylose and amylopectin due to their low crystallinity.
[0042] These may be used alone or in combination. Alternatively, biomass containing cellulose, chemically treated products (for example pulp) or milled products thereof may be used as it is. Further alternatively, starch containing amylose or amylopectin may be used as it is. The format is preferably powder, which has a large surface area to effect decomposition efficiently.
[0043] The glucosides produced by the present invention are o-glucosides that are compounds derived by substituting the hemiacetal hydroxyl group (also referred to as “glucoside hydroxyl group”) of sugar with a substituent derived by removing hydrogen from aglycon, which is a non-sugar component, among which compounds the atom bonding to an anomeric carbon is oxygen.
[0044] According to a first aspect of the present invention, glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit is reacted with R—OH of formula (1) in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide to produce glucosides represented by formula (2) above.
[0045] “Supercritical carbon dioxide” refers to carbon dioxide at a pressure of 7.4 MPa or greater and a temperature of 31° C. or higher while “subcritical carbon dioxide” refers to carbon dioxide not meeting these requirements but around the pressure and temperature.
[0046] The inventors of the present invention assume that a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide has the following functions.
[0047] At first, it is assumed that a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide penetrates through a polysaccharide and weakens the intermolecular interaction therein and thus that due to this effect, the field for the glucoside-formation reaction concerning the method of the present invention is ensured. The second is a function that a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide interacts with the compound represented by R—OH in formula (1) to form “H + ” and “R—O − ” as shown in formula (3) below. In formula (3), scCO 2 indicates a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide.
[0000] sc CO 2 +R—OH sc CO 2 ..R—O − +H + (3)
[0048] Carbon dioxide is known to be a compound, that is poor in reactivity, but a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide is empirically known to have reactivity or interactivity with other compounds. The inventors assume that “H + ” formed in formula (3) initiates and proceeds with the decomposition of a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit and that the polysaccharide decomposes to an oligosaccharide and then a monosaccharide while “R—O − ” is incorporated in the form of aglicone into glucose or the polysaccharide including glucose to produce glucosides represented by formula (2). It is also assumed that in the presence of a solvent, the polysaccharide is dissolved in the solvent at the stage of being decomposed to an oligosaccharide and then decomposed to a monosaccharide in the solvent to produce glucosides represented by formula (2).
[0049] The reaction is preferably carried out at a temperature or below at which a polysaccharide is thermally decomposed. This condition can suppress a polysaccharide from decomposing causing the formation of an oligosaccharide and can produce glucosides at a high selectivity.
[0050] The reaction is preferably carried out at a temperature lower than and/or pressure lower than the supercritical conditions for R—OH of formula (1) and particularly preferably at both a temperature and pressure which are lower than the supercritical conditions. The reaction under these conditions does not form a various ions such as “H + ” in large amounts derived from R—OH itself or intermolecular interaction thereof in the supercritical or subcritical state and thus proceeds under mild conditions where generation of “H + ” resulting from formula (3) mainly occurs thereby suppressing both decomposition of a polysaccharide causing the formation of an oligosaccharide and isomerization of the resulting oligosaccharide, glucose and glucoside. As the result, glucosides can be produced at a high selectivity.
[0051] No particular limitation is imposed on the reaction time, which may be at least sufficient to produce glucosides represented by formula (2) according to the present invention. For example, the time is usually 1 hour or longer, preferably 10 hours or longer, more preferably 20 hours or longer, more preferably 30 hours or longer. For the upper limit, the reaction may be carried out until glucose or a polysaccharide including glucose as a structural unit, i.e., the raw material is completely decomposed. In general, the upper limit is preferably 10 days or shorter in view of economy.
[0052] The ratio of R—OH to be used is preferably excess with respect to the glucose or the glucose in the polysaccharide and is at least stoichiometry, preferably 5 molar equivalents or more, more preferably 10 molar equivalents or more.
[0053] According to a second aspect of the present invention, glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit is dissolved or suspended in an organic solvent containing R—OH of formula (1) in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide and then reacted with R—OH of formula (1) in the presence of the supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide to produce glucosides represented by formula (2).
[0054] That is, the glucose and glucosides formed by the present invention has a possibility of being isomerized due to “H + ” formed as shown in formula (3), but the isomerization can be suppressed by solvation thereof with the organic solvent, i.e., giving cage effect so as to stabilize the glucose and glucosides. As the result, glucosides can be produced at a high selectivity.
[0055] No particular limitation is imposed on the organic solvent solvating glucose or glucosides. Particularly preferably in view of the reaction efficiency, a solvent containing R—OH in an excess molar amount in respect of the glucose in a polysaccharide is used as a solvent or suspension medium of the polysaccharide or a solvent of glucosides so that the solvent solvates glucose or glucosides.
[0056] If “H + ” generated from the excess R—OH causes isomerization, the R—OH is preferably diluted with another solvent, particularly a non-protonic organic solvent to effect stabilization by solvating glucose or glucosides with these plurality of solvents.
[0057] When the R—OH is solid, it is preferably dissolved or suspended in an organic solvent, particularly a polar non-protonic organic solvent to effect stabilization by solvating glucose or glucosides with the dilution solvent.
[0058] Examples of the polar non-protonic organic solvent include ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, ethylene glycol methyl lethyl ether, diethylene glycol dimethyl ether, diethylene glycol methyl ethyl ether, triethylene glycol dimethyl ether, tetraethylene glycol dimethyl ether, ethylene glycol diethyl ether, diethylene glycol diethyl ether, 1,3-dimethoxypropane, 1,2-dimethoxypropane, propylene glycol dimethyl ether, dipropylene glycol dimethyl ether, dioxane, dimethyl carbonate, ethyl methyl carbonate, diethyl carbonate, ethylene carbonate, propylene carbonate, 2,3-dimethyethylene carbonate, butylne carbonate, acetonitrile, methoxy acetonitrile, propionitrile, butyrolactone, valerolactone, dimethoxyethane, sulforane, methylsulforane, sulfolene, dimethyl sulfone, ethylmethyl sulfone, and isopropyl methyl sulfone. A mixture of any two or more of these compounds may be used.
[0059] The conditions for the reaction of glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit with R—OH dissolved or suspended in an organic solvent in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide are the same as those described with respect to the above first aspect of the present invention.
[0060] The reactions in the present invention are preferably carried out under conditions where a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide is sealed but may be carried out, circulating a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide.
[0061] In R—OH that is formula (1) used in the present invention, R is any substituent. No particular limitation is imposed on the substituent if in formula (1), the hydroxyl group bonds to a carbon atom of R and R—OH itself is not sugar. However, compounds of the formula R—OH are preferably compounds that are small in steric hindrance or compounds that are large in dissociation constant pKa.
[0062] Examples of R in formula (1) include alkyl, aralkyl, aryl, and alkylaryl groups, having 1 to 30, preferably 1 to 20, more preferably 1 to 12 carbon atoms.
[0063] Examples of compounds represented by R—OH, i.e., formula (1) include aliphatic alcohols, benzyl alcoholic compounds as well as phenols wherein the hydroxyl group bonds to an aromatic hydrocarbon atom.
[0064] Examples of aliphatic alcohols include methanol, ethanol, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, pentaethylene glycol, propanol, isopropanol, allyl alcohol, propargyl alcohol, propylene glycol, trimethylene glycol, n-butyl alcohol, sec-butyl alcohol, ter-butyl alcohol, crotyl alcohol, methallyl alcohol, pentyl alcohol, dimethylallyl alcohol, isopentenyl alcohol, neopentyl glycol, trimethylolethane, pentaerythritol, dipentaerythritol, tripentaerythritol, hexanol, pinacolyl alcohol, pinacol, hexylene glycol, trimethylolpropane, heptanol and alcohols having 7 to 20 carbon atoms. Among these alcohols, methanol is particularly preferable.
[0065] Examples of benzyl alcoholic compounds include benzyl alcohol, salicyl alcohol, anisyl alcohol, anisic alcohol, gentisyl alcohol, protocatechuyl alcohol, vanillyl alcohol, veratryl alcohol, cuminyl alcohol, phenethyl alcohol, homovanillyl alcohol, homoveratryl alcohol, hydrocinnamyl alcohol, α-cumyl alcohol, cinnamyl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol, sinapyl alcohol, benzhydryl alcohol, trityl alcohol, hydrobenzoin, benzopinacol, phthalyl alcohol, isophthalyl alcohol, and terephthalyl alcohol.
[0066] Examples of compounds of formula (1) wherein the hydroxyl group bonds to an aromatic hydrocarbon atom include phenol, cresol, xylenol, florol, pseudocumenol, mesitol, prehnitenol, isodurenol, durenol, chavicol, anol, thymol, carvacrol, pyrocatechol, resorcinol, hydroquinone, pyrogallol, phloroglucinol, orcinol, toluhydroquinone, o-xylohydroquinone, m-xylohydroquinone, p-xylohydroquinone, pseudocumohydroquinone, thymohydroquinone, durohydroquinone, olivetol, bisphenol-A, and diethylstilbestrol.
[0067] Examples other than the above-described R—OH include natural products such as monoterpene alcohols (for example, linalool), terpennoids (for example, retinol), and alcohols having a lactone structure (for example, ascorbic acid).
[0068] Glucosides produced by the method of the present invention can be used for various applications such as detergent intermediates (methylglucoside), food additives (ethylglucoside), non-ionic surfactants (n-octylglucoside, n-decylglucoside), skin-lightening agents (arbutin), pain relievers (salicin), dyes (indican), and supplements (ascorbyl glucoside) depending on the chemical structure of the substituent R.
[0069] In the present invention, a sugar wherein aglicone is introduced to the anomer carbon is not limited to glucose but may be xylose and galactose.
EXAMPLES
[0070] The present invention will be described with reference to the following examples in more detail but is not limited thereto.
Example 1
Reaction
[0071] Into a glass container were added 5 g of cellulose (“Avicel”) and 20 ml of methanol, and then the container was placed in a 200 mL stainless-steel pressure resistant reactor equipped with a pressure gauge and a rupture type relief valve (TVS-N2-200 portable reactor, manufactured by Taiatsu Techno) so that the mixture was stirred with a stirrer and allowed to suspend.
[0072] After the pressure resistant reactor was sealed, a liquefied CO 2 was introduced thereinto, followed by heating with a heater so that the temperature and pressure inside the reactor were 180° C. and 8 MPa thereby allowing the carbon dioxide to be in the supercritical state.
[0073] This state was kept for 3 days (72 hours) and 5 days (120 hours).
[0074] The supercritical temperature and pressure of methanol are 240° C. and 8 MPa.
[0075] (Residue Analysis)
[0076] After the predetermined periods of time passed, the glass container was taken out and the content therein was filtered to measure the weight of the residue and carry out a wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) measurement. The cellulose decomposition rate was calculated using the following formula.
[0000] Cellulose decomposition rate(%)=[(weight of charged cellulose−residue weight)/(weight of charged cellulose)]×100
[0077] As the result, the decomposition rates of the cellulose after 3 day and 5 day reactions were found to be 13.2% and 20.3 percent, respectively.
[0078] The comparison of characteristics of the residue and charged cellulose (“Avicel”) were carried out by comparing their wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) patterns. The measurement was carried out using RINT-2200 X-ray diffraction device (manufactured by Rigaku Corporation) under conditions where the diffraction angle 2θ=5 to 30°, the X-ray tube voltage was 40 kV, the X-ray tube current was 40 mA, the sampling time was 4 seconds, and the step width was 0.04°.
[0079] FIG. 1 shows the X-ray diffraction patterns of the cellulose and the residue after the 3 day reaction and 5 day reaction.
[0080] As apparent from FIG. 1 , two diffractions at 15.7° and 22.5° assigned to the crystal of the cellulose and the halo patterns of the amorphia overlap those of the residues, and no significant difference in the whole comparison of the patterns was found. Therefore, it is confirmed that in the present invention, a methanol soluble component was produced without giving the cellulose significant change.
[0081] (Soluble Matter Analysis 1: NMR Spectrum Analysis)
[0082] The methanol was distilled out from the 5 day reaction filtrate with a rotary evaporator and then dried under vacuum with a vacuum pump for 15 hours to give a methanol soluble matter.
[0083] Part of the methanol soluble matter was dissolved in deuterated water to carry out the carbon nuclear magnetic resonance ( 13 C-NMR) measurement. The measurement was carried out with a superconducting multinuclear magnetic resonator “JNM-GC400” (manufactured by JEOL Ltd.,) at 100 MHz and cumulated number of 2048 times. FIG. 2 shows 13 C-NMR spectra.
[0084] The vicinity of δ=100 ppm which corresponds to the anomeric carbon was enlarged ( FIG. 3 ).
[0085] As a comparative sample, the same measurement was carried out for a commercially available α-methyl glucoside.
[0086] From the comparison of the both shown in FIG. 2 , the methanol soluble matter was found to include substantially only methyl glucoside.
[0087] From the comparison of the enlarged views of the vicinity of δ=100 ppm of the both shown in FIG. 3 , the methanol soluble matter was found to be a mixture including substantially α-methyl glucoside and β-methyl glucoside.
[0088] (Soluble Matter Analysis 2: HPLC Analysis)
[0089] As an oligosaccharide standard, D-(+)-glucose, cellobiose, cellotriose, cellotetraose, and cellopentaose were each weighed and then dissolved in purified water to prepare oligosaccharide aqueous solutions each containing the respective component at a concentration of 10 mg/mL. Cellohexaose was weighed and dissolved in purified water to prepare an oligosaccharide aqueous solution containing cellohexanose at a concentration of 5 mg/ml. By mixing 20 μL of each of the 10 mg/mL oligosaccharide aqueous solutions, 40 μL of the 5 mg/mL oligosaccharide aqueous solution and 60 μL of acetonitrile was prepared an oligosaccharide standard solution (containing each oligosaccharide standard at a concentration of 1 mg/mL).
[0090] The filtrates after 3 day reaction and 5 day reaction were sampled out each in an amount of 500 μL, followed by removal of methanol with a centrifugal evaporator and then were dissolved in 100 μL of purified water to prepare methanol soluble matter aqueous solutions. The aqueous solutions were filtered with a 0.45 μm filter and 30 μL of acetonitrile was mixed with 50 μL of each of the filtrates thereby preparing methanol soluble matter analysis samples.
[0091] An analysis test was carried out under the following conditions.
[0092] Device: LC-10 Avp system, manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation
[0093] Column: COSMOSIL Sugar-D 4.6 mm (I.D)×2, 5 cm, manufactured by Nacalai Tesque
[0094] Column temperature: 30° C.
[0095] Mobile phase: acetonitrile/water=70 vol %/30 vol %
[0096] Mobile phase flow rate: 1 mL/min
[0097] Detector: RI detector RI2000, manufactured by LSL Lab System
[0098] Charge: 10 μL
[0099] (Result)
[0100] FIG. 4 shows the result of the HPLC analysis of the oligosaccharide standard solution.
[0101] FIG. 5 shows the result of the HPLC analysis of the methanol soluble matter after the 3 day reaction.
[0102] FIG. 6 shows the result of the HPLC analysis of the methanol soluble matter after the 5 day reaction.
[0103] The 3 day reaction methanol soluble matter or the 5 day reaction methanol soluble matter contains no glucose or oligosaccharides and was found to be a mixture including substantially only α-methyl glucoside and β-methyl glucoside.
Example 2
Reaction
[0104] Into a glass container were added 5 g of starch (derived from potato, manufactured by Wako Pure Chemical Industries, Ltd.) heated to 50° C. and vacuum-dried with a vacuum pump for 24 hours and 20 ml of distilled methanol, and then the container was placed in a 200 ml stainless-steel pressure tight reactor equipped with a pressure gauge and a resistant reactor equipped with a pressure gauge and a rupture type relief valve (TVS-N2-200 portable reactor, manufactured by Taiatsu Techno) so that the mixture was stirred with a stirrer and allowed to suspend.
[0105] After the pressure resistant reactor was sealed, a liquefied CO 2 was introduced thereinto, followed by heating with a heater so that the temperature and pressure inside the reactor were 180° C. and 8 MPa thereby allowing the carbon dioxide to be in the supercritical state. This state was kept for 21 hours.
[0106] (Residue Analysis)
[0107] After the predetermined period of time passed, the glass container was taken out and the content therein was filtered to calculate the starch decomposition rate using the following formula.
[0000] Starch decomposition rate(%)=[(weight of charged starch−residue weight)/(weight of charged starch)]×100
[0108] As the result, the decomposition rate of the starch after the 21 hour reaction was 90%.
[0109] (Soluble Matter Analysis: HPLC Analysis)
[0110] (Result)
[0111] The same HPLC analysis of the methanol soluble matter as the above was carried out.
[0112] The methanol soluble matter was found to be a mixture including substantially only α-methyl glucoside and β-methyl glucoside.
Example 3
Reaction
[0113] The methanol used in Example 2 was replaced with ethanol, and the same experiment was carried out. The supercritical temperature and pressure of ethanol are 242° C. and 6 MPa, respectively.
[0114] (Residue Analysis)
[0115] After the predetermined period of time passed, the glass container was taken out and the content therein was filtered to calculate the starch decomposition rate using the following formula.
[0000] Starch decomposition rate(%)=[(weight of charged starch−residue weight)/(amount of charged starch)]×100
[0116] As the result, the decomposition rate of the starch after the 21 hour reaction was 88%.
[0117] (Soluble Matter Analysis: HPLC Analysis)
[0118] (Result)
[0119] FIG. 7 shows the result of HPLC analysis of the ethanol soluble matter. The analysis conditions are the same as those described above.
[0120] The ethanol soluble matter was found to be a mixture containing mainly α-methyl glucoside and β-methyl glucoside and substantially no ethyl glucosides from saccharide dimer to pentamer.
APPLICABILITY IN THE INDUSTRY
[0121] The present invention can easily produce glucosides having various applications by a simple method and thus has a high industrial utility value.
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The present invention relates to methods for producing glucosides directly from glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit. The present invention provides a method comprising reacting glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit with a compound represented by R—OH in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide to produce glucosides and a method comprising dissolving or suspending glucose or a polysaccharide comprising glucose as a structural unit in an organic solvent containing a compound represent by R—OH and reacting the glucose or polysaccharide with the compound represented by R—OH in the presence of a supercritical or subcritical carbon dioxide to produce glucosides.
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[0001] This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0029135 filed on Apr. 3, 2009 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to a washing machine and, more particularly, to a washing machine having a structure in which a lower portion of a side wall of an outer tub is thicker than a lower portion of the side wall of the outer tub, having a large capacity, and having an improved stability with respect to vibrations.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] A washing machine generally refers to various devices for processing the laundry by applying a physical and chemical action to the laundry, such as a laundry machine for detaching a contaminant from the clothes, bedclothes, and the like, (referred to as the ‘laundry’, hereinafter) by using a chemical decomposition operation between water and a detergent and a physical operation such as friction between water and the laundry, a dryer for spin-drying the wet laundry; and a refresher for injecting (or spraying) heated stem to the laundry to prevent an allergy due to the laundry, and simply washing the laundry.
[0006] However, the related art washing machine has a problem in that an increase in size of an outer tub leads to an excessive increase in weight, so it is not easy to allow the outer tub to have a large capacity. Also, the increase in the weight of the outer tub causes an inner tub and the outer tub to collide because rigidity is degraded when the inner tub rotates at a high speed. Thus, the rotational speed of the inner tub must be necessarily reduced in order to avoid collision of the inner tub and the outer tub, which, however, disadvantageously leads to degradation of a washing performance.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] Thus, an object of the present invention is to provide a washing machine having a structure in which the thickness of a lower portion of an outer tub is thicker than that of an upper portion of the outer tub to minimize an increase in the weight of the outer tub as the outer tub has a large capacity to thus secure a sufficient rigidity, and to form the center of gravity of the outer tub at a relatively lower side to thus obtain stability with respect to vibrations.
[0008] According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a washing machine including: a cabinet forming an external appearance; an outer tub hanging within the cabinet and having an open upper portion allowing the clothes to enter therethrough, and allowing washing water to be put therein; and an inner tub disposed within the outer tub and rotating based on a vertical shaft, wherein the outer tub includes: a base part through which a driving shaft rotating the inner tub; and a side wall part extending upward from the base to form a side wall of the outer tub and having a lower portion thicker than an upper portion thereof.
[0009] According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a washing machine including: a cabinet forming an external appearance; an outer tub hanging within the cabinet and having an open upper portion allowing the clothes to enter therethrough, and allowing washing water to be put therein; and an inner tub disposed within the outer tub and rotating based on a vertical shaft, wherein the outer tub has a side wall part extending vertically, a lower portion of the side wall part is thicker than an upper portion of the side wall part.
[0010] According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a washing machine including: a cabinet forming an external appearance; an outer tub hanging within the cabinet and having an open upper portion allowing the clothes to enter therethrough, and allowing washing water to be put therein; and an inner tub disposed within the outer tub and rotating based on a vertical shaft, wherein the outer tub includes a side wall part configured such that the thickness of a lower portion of the side wall part is larger than that of an upper portion of the side wall part, so that the center or gravity is formed at a relatively lower side while having the same weight compared with a case where the side wall part is formed to have a uniform thickness.
[0011] According to a washing machine of the present invention, one or more effects as follows may be achieved.
[0012] First, because the center of gravity of the outer tub is formed at a relatively lower side, stability with respect to vibrations can be obtained.
[0013] Second, when the inner tub rotates at a high speed, the inner tub is prevented from colliding with the outer tub.
[0014] Third, an increase in the weight as the outer tub has a large capacity can be minimized.
[0015] The effects of the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned effects, and other effects not mentioned above can be clearly understood from the definitions in the claims by one skilled in the art.
[0016] The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention.
[0018] In the drawings:
[0019] FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a washing machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
[0020] FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion ‘A’ in FIG. 1 ;
[0021] FIG. 3 is a front view of an outer tub illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
[0022] FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the portion ‘B’ in FIG. 3 ;
[0023] FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a portion ‘C’ in FIG. 3 ;
[0024] FIG. 6 is a front view of an outer tub according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
[0025] FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a portion ‘D in FIG. 6 ;
[0026] FIG. 8 is a front view of an outer tub according to still another exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and
[0027] FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a portion ‘E’ in FIG. 8 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0028] The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, the shapes and dimensions may be exaggerated for clarity, and the same reference numerals will be used throughout to designate the same or like components.
[0029] FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a washing machine according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a portion ‘A’ in FIG. 1 . FIG. 3 is a front view of an outer tub illustrated in FIG. 1 . FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the portion ‘B’ in FIG. 3 . FIG. 5 is an enlarged view of a portion ‘C’ in FIG. 3 .
[0030] A washing machine 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a cabinet 111 forming an external appearance and having an open upper portion, a cabinet cover 112 covering the open upper portion of the cabinet 111 and having a clothes entry opening allowing the clothes to enter therethrough, a control panel 119 mounted on the cabinet 111 and receiving an operation instruction from a user, a door 113 for opening and closing the clothes entry opening; an outer tub 120 hanging in the interior of the cabinet 111 by a support member 117 and buffered by a damper 118 , and an inner tub 115 disposed at an inner side of the outer tub 120 , rotating based on a vertical shaft, and accommodating the clothes. Here, a plurality of water holes (not shown) are formed on the inner tub 115 to allow washing water to circulate between the outer tub 120 and the inner tub 115 , and an outer tub cover 114 is formed on an upper portion of the outer tub 120 and has a clothes entry hole (h) formed to be open. A pulsator 116 is provided on the bottom of the inner tub 115 in order to form a rotatory water current, and a motor 130 is disposed at a lower side of the outer tub 120 to generate rotatory power to rotate the inner tub 115 and/or the pulsator 116 . Also, a drain hose 142 and a drain pump 144 may be provided to drain washing water out of the outer tub 120 .
[0031] The outer tub 120 includes a base part 121 forming a bottom surface of the outer tub 120 and a side wall part 122 extending substantially vertically from the base part 121 . A driving shaft 132 rotated by the motor 130 penetrates the base part 121 , and the base part 121 includes a bearing housing 121 a for accommodating a driving shaft bearing 134 supporting the driving shaft 132 . Meanwhile, the side wall part 122 may not be necessarily the entire side wall of the outer tub 120 , and may be defined as a portion or the entirety of the side wall.
[0032] In general, when the side wall of the outer tub 120 is formed with a uniform thickness (hereinafter, the outer tub having an outer wall with a uniform thickness will be referred to as a ‘comparison body’), the thickness of the side wall of the comparison body is determined in consideration of the weight of washing machine and the rigidity corresponding to the characteristics of vibrations generated when the inner tub 115 rotates. In this case, the thickness is determined in consideration of the overall load in a state that the clothes and washing water are present in the comparison body. The side wall of the comparison body must be formed to tolerate the overall load in any portion thereof. Thus, if a lower portion of the side wall to which the load is concentrated needs to be formed to have a thickness of 2.4 mm, the side wall of the comparison body is to be formed with a uniform thickness of 2.4 mm or larger overall.
[0033] Under the same conditions, in order to maintain a sufficient rigidity, the thickness of the lower portion of the side wall part 122 of the outer tub 120 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention must be 2.4 mm or larger. With reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 , the side wall part 122 is formed such that the thickness of its upper portion is 1.5 mm and that of the lower portion is 3.5 mm Namely, because the lower portion of the side wall part 122 has the thickness of 3.5 mm, larger than 2.4 mm, a sufficient rigidity can be secured, and in this case, although the upper portion of the side wall part 122 , to which the load is less concentrated, has the thickness of 1.5 mm, smaller than 2.4 mm, it can obtain a sufficient rigidity. That is, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the thickness of the upper portion of the side wall part 122 is reduced because the upper portion can secure a sufficient rigidity even with that small thickness, while the thickness of the lower portion, to which the load is concentrated, is increased to obtain a sufficient rigidity. Namely, by differentiating the thicknesses of the upper portion and the lower portion of the side wall part 122 , the overall weight can be equal to or smaller than the comparison body. Thus, when the outer tub 120 is fabricated with the same amount of material, the outer tub 120 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention can advantageously secure better rigidity compared with the comparison body.
[0034] In particular, in consideration of the increase in the weight in line with the trend that outer tubs increasingly have a large capacity, the outer tub 120 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is formed with a proper difference in the thicknesses of the side wall part 122 , thus lowering the increase in the weight over the increase in the capacity, compared with the comparison body. Namely, in case of the comparison body, because the thickness of the side wall is uniform, the weight inevitably increases proportionally at a certain ratio according to an increase in the capacity, but comparatively, in case of the outer tub 120 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the increase in the weight according to the increase in the capacity can be relatively reduced by properly adjusting the thicknesses of the upper and lower portions of the side wall part 122 , so it is advantageous for the increase in the capacity.
[0035] Also, because the lower portion of the side wall part 122 is heavier than the upper portion of the side wall part 122 , the center of gravity is formed at the lower portion compared with the case where the side wall part 122 is formed with a uniform thickness, and accordingly, stability can be maintained over vibrations generated when the inner tub 115 rotates. Also, because the rotation speed of the inner tub 115 can be increased owing to the improved stability, resulting in an enhancement of the washing performance. In particular, because the inner tub 115 can be rotated at a higher speed, the spin-drying performance can be improved. Meanwhile, a rib 124 may be formed on the outer tub 120 in order to secure stronger rigidity. The rib 124 may be formed to be lengthy vertically in order to effectively prevent degradation of rigidity due to the difference in thicknesses of the upper and lower portions.
[0036] The side wall part according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention may be formed to have a thickness gradually increasing toward the lower portion of the outer tub 120 from the upper portion of the outer tub 120 . Hereinafter, two examples in which the thickness increases gradually toward the lower portion of the outer tub from the upper portion of the outer tub will be proposed.
[0037] FIG. 6 is a front view of an outer tub according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a portion ‘D’ in FIG. 6 .
[0038] With reference to FIGS. 6 and 7 , a side wall part 222 of the outer tub 220 according to another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is formed with a slope such that the thickness increases continuously toward a lower portion from an upper portion. The upper portion of the side wall part 222 has a thickness d 1 and the lower portion of the side wall part 222 has a thickness d 2 (d 1 <d 2 ). Namely, the side wall part 222 is formed such that the thickness continuously increases toward the lower portion from the upper portion (namely, from d 1 to d 2 ). In this case, the change in the thickness from d 1 to d 2 may not be necessarily linear, and the side wall part 222 of the outer tub 220 may be formed with various slopes in the continuous increases in its thickness.
[0039] Because the section of the side wall part 222 is formed to have the continuously increasing thickness, the load applied to the side wall part 222 can be distributed, so the generation of an abnormal vibration or a crack potentially generated as the load is concentrated into a particular point can be prevented. Also, when the outer tub 220 is molded, it can be easily separated from the mold.
[0040] With reference to FIG. 7 , when the side wall part 222 is formed to have a uniform thickness, the center of gravity (M 0 )of the side wall part 222 will be positioned at the substantially same distance 11 from the upper and lower portions. In comparison, however, in the present exemplary embodiment of the present invention, because the thickness of the side wall part 222 increases with a slope gradually toward the lower portion from the upper portion, the center of gravity (M) is positioned at a lower side, accomplishing stability.
[0041] FIG. 8 is a front view of an outer tub according to still another exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a portion ‘E’ in FIG. 8 . A description of the same or similar configuration as those of the above-described exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be omitted.
[0042] The outer tub 320 according to still another exemplary embodiment of the present invention is different from the above-described exemplary embodiments in that the thickness of an outer wall part 322 of the outer tub 320 increases discontinuously toward a lower portion from an upper portion.
[0043] Namely, as shown in FIG. 9 , the side wall part 322 has a step-like section having a thickness increasing discontinuously toward the lower portion from the upper portion. Specifically, upper portion has a thickness w 1 and the lower portion has a thickness w 2 larger than w 1 (w 1 <w 2 ), and the step-like section is formed such that certain intervals each having a thickness value between the thickness w 1 and the thickness w 2 are present between the upper and lower portions. Also, in this case, the center of gravity (N) is formed at a lower side than the center of gravity (N 0 ) of the case where the side wall part 322 has a uniform thickness, thus improving the stability likewise as in the foregoing exemplary embodiments.
[0044] Although the preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims
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A washing machine includes: a cabinet forming an external appearance; an outer tub hanging within the cabinet and having an open upper portion allowing the clothes to enter therethrough, and allowing washing water to be put therein; and an inner tub disposed within the outer tub and rotating based on a vertical shaft, wherein the outer tub includes: a base through which a driving shaft rotating the inner tub; and a side wall part extending upward from the base to form a side wall of the outer tub and having a lower portion thicker than an upper portion thereof. The increase in weight according to an increase in capacity can be reduced and a loss of rigidity can be to minimized. Also, because the center of gravity is removed to a lower side, stability with respect to vibrations can be obtained.
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This application is a divisional of co-pending application Ser. No. 07/249,880, filed on Sept. 27, 1988, now abandoned, which is a continuation of co-pending application Ser. No. 905,553, filed on Sept. 9, 1986, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of co-pending application Ser. No. 784,875, filed on Oct. 4, 1985, now abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part application of co-pending application Ser. No. 683,153, filed on Dec. 17, 1984, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for alternating the air pressure of a low air loss patient support system. More particularly, it relates to a bed having a frame with two sets of air bags mounted thereto, a gas source which is mounted in the frame of the bed to supply a flow of gas to the two sets of air bags without the necessity for a separate unit having a blower and controls to supply the air bags, means on each of the air bags for moving a patient supported thereon toward one side of the frame and then back toward the other side of the frame when gas is supplied to the first set of air bags and then to the second set of air bags, and means on the air bags for retaining the patient on the air bags when the patient is moved toward the respective sides of the frames.
Such a bed can be used to advantage for the prevention of bed sores and the collection of fluid in the lungs of bedridden patients. Other devices are known which are directed to the same object, but these devices suffer from several problems In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,425 discloses an air mattress consisting of a number of cells or bags, each having a surface which supports the patient formed from a material which is gas permeable but is non-permeable to liquids and solids. It also discloses an air supply for inflating the cells to the required pressure and outlets or exhaust ports to allow the escape of air. The stated purpose of the outlets is to remove condensed vapor for the cells or bags. The outlets on that mattress may be fitted with valves to regulate the air pressure in the cells as opposed to regulating the air pressure in the cells by controlling the amount of air flowing into the cells. However, the air bed which is described in that patent and which is currently being marketed under that patent is believed to have certain disadvantages and limitations.
For example, that bed has a single air intake coupler, located directly and centrally underneath the air mattress, for connection of the source of air. Access to this connection is difficult since one must be on their back to reach it. The location of the connection underneath the mattress creates a limitation in the frame construction because the air hose must pass between the bed frame members. The source of air to which the air hose is connected is a blower or air pump mounted in a remote cabinet which, because it must be portable, is mounted on casters. There are many times in actual use when the cabinet must be moved in order to wheel other equipment, such as I.V. stands, around it or for access to the patient. However, relocation of this blower unit by any significant distance requires disconnection of the air hose from the frame (inconvenient because of the location up underneath the frame) or the pendent control in order to avoid wrapping the air hose around the bed frame members. Of course, disconnection of the air hose results in the loss of air pressure in the air mattress, which is even less desirable.
Another disadvantage with that type of bed relates to the monitoring of patient body weight. When charting fluid retention and other parameters, the patient's body weight is monitored continuously. When a patient is bedridden, the only way to monitor body weight is to weigh both bed and patient, then subtract the weight of the bed. But when a portion of the bed hangs off of the bed, as the air hose does, and when the changes in weight being monitored are measured in ounces, it is very difficult to accurately chart the changes in body weight when the patient is on such a bed.
Further, the bed disclosed by that patent is limited in that only a finite amount of air can be forced or pumped into the air mattress. By eliminating the outlets described in that patent entirely, the air pressure in the bags can at least be maintained at that point which represents the maximum output of the source of gas. In the case of the bed described in that patent, if it is necessary to further increase the pressure in the air bags while the outlets are being used for their stated purpose, the only way to do so is to install a larger capacity blower in the cabinet. High air pressures may be necessary, for instance, to support obese patients. A larger capacity blower generally requires more power consumption and a higher capacity circuit which may not be readily available. Also, the larger the blower, the more noise it creates which is not desirable.
The limitations and disadvantages which characterize other previous attempts to solve the problem of preventing bed sores in bedridden patients are well characterized in English Patent No. 1,474,018 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,676.
The prior art also discloses a number of devices which function to rock a patient back and forth by the use of air pressure. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,477,071, 3,485,240, and 3,775,781 disclose hospital beds with an inflatable device for shifting or turning a patient lying on the bed by alternately inflating and deflating one or more inflatable cushions. U.K. Patent Application No. 2,026,315 discloses a pad, cushion, or mattress of similar construction. German Patent DE 28 16 642 discloses an air mattress for a bedridden person or hospital patient consisting of three longitudinal inflatable cells attached to a base sheet, the amount of air forced into each cell being varied so as to alternately rock the patient from one side of the mattress to the other. However, none of those mattresses or devices are designed for use in a low air loss patient support system. Further, the U.K. and German patents, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,477,071 and 3,775,781, disclose devices consisting of parallel air compartments which extend longitudinally along the bed and which are alternately inflated and deflated Such a construction does not allow the use of the device on a bed having hinged sections corresponding to the parts of the patient's body lying on the bed so that the inclination and angle of the various portions of the bed can be adjusted for the patient's comfort.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,678,520 discloses an air cell for use in a pressure pad which is provided within a plurality of tubes which project from a header pipe such that the air cell assumes a comb-like conformation when inflated and viewed from above. Two such air cells are enclosed within the pressure pad with the projecting tubes interdigitating, and air is alternately provided and exhausted from one cell and then the other. That device is not suitable for use on a bed having hinged sections corresponding to the parts of the patient's body lying on the bed so that the angle of inclination of the various portions of the bed can be adjusted for the patient's comfort, nor is it capable of functioning in the manner described if constructed in the low air loss conformation.
A number of patents, both U.S. and foreign, disclose air mattresses or cushions comprised of sets of cells which are alternately inflated and deflated to support a patient first on one group of air cells and then the other group. Those patents include the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,772,310, 2,245,909, 2,998,817, 3,390,674, 3,467,081, 3,587,568, 3,653,083, 4,068,334, 4,175,297, 4,193,149, 4,197,837, 4,225,989, 4,347,633, 4,391,009, and 4,472,847, and the following foreign patents' G.B. 959,103, Australia 401,767, and German 24 46 935, 29 19 438 and 28 07 038. None of the devices disclosed in those patents rocks or alternately moves the patient supported thereon to further distribute the patient's body weight over additional air cushions or cells or to alternately relieve the pressure under portions of the patient's body.
There are also a number of patents which disclose an inflatable device other than an air mattress or cushion but which also involves alternately supplying air to a set of cells and then to another set of cells. Those patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,147,560, 3,595,223, and 3,867,732, and G.B. Patent No. 1,405,333. Of those patents, only the British patent discloses the movement of the body with changes in air pressure in the cells of the device. None of those references disclose an apparatus which is adaptable for use in a low air loss patient support system.
British Patent No. 946,831 discloses an air mattress having inflatable elongated bags which are placed side-by-side and which are in fluid communication with each other. A valve is provided in the conduit connecting the insides of the two bags. Air is supplied to both bags in an amount sufficient to support the patient, thereby raising the patient off the bed or other surface on which the air mattress rests Any imbalance of the weight distribution of the patient causes the air to be driven from one bag to the other, allowing the patient to turn toward the direction of the now deflated bag. An automatic changeover valve, the details of which are not shown, is said to then inflate the deflated bag while deflating the bag which was originally inflated, thereby rocking the patient in the other direction. That device is limited in its ability to prevent bed sores because when the patient rocks onto the deflated bag, there is insufficient air to support the patient up off the bed or other surface on which the air mattress rests, resulting in pressure being exerted against the patient's skin which is essentially the same as the pressure that would have been exerted by the board or other surface without the air mattress. Even if there were enough air left in the deflated bag to support the patient, if the air mattress were constructed in a low air loss configuration, the air remaining in the bag would be slowly lost from the bag until the patient rested directly on the bed or other surface with the same result. Finally, that device is not adaptable for use on a bed having hinged sections corresponding to the parts of the patient's body lying on the bed so that the angle of inclination of the various portions of the bed can be adjusted for the patient's comfort.
The present invention represents an improved apparatus over the prior art. It is characterized by a number of advantages which increase its utility over the prior art devices, including its flexibility of use, its ability to maintain air pressure, the ability to quickly and easily replace one or more of the air bags while the apparatus is in operation, and the ease of adjustment of the air pressure in the air bags.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a low air loss bed comprising a frame, a first set of substantially rectangular gas permeable air bags for supporting a patient thereon mounted transversely on the frame, a second set of substantially rectangular gas permeable air bags for supporting a patient thereon mounted transversely on the frame, means for connecting each of the air bags to a gas source, means integral with each of the air bags of the first set of air bags for moving the patient supported thereon toward a first side of the frame when each of the air bags in the first portion is inflated, means integral with each of the air bags of the second set of air bags for moving the patient supported thereon toward a second side of the frame when the air bags in the first set of air bags are deflated and the air bags of the second set of air bags are inflated, and integral means on each of the air bags for retaining the patient alternately supported on the first or second set of air bags when the patient is moved toward the first or second sides of the frame.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an air bed, the air pressure of which can be quickly and conveniently set to support a patient of known body weight by simply setting the valves regulating the amount of air flowing from the air source.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a means for selectively routing an additional flow of gas from the gas source directly to the gas manifold supplying the set of air bags supporting the heavier portions of the patient without routing the flow through the gas flow controlling means.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss bed which is self-contained in that it requires no out board gas source and is, therefore, more compact and convenient to use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss bed upon which a patient may be maintained and which allows accurate monitoring of patient body weight.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss bed having an integral gas source which can be raised, lowered or tipped, and which allows the raising or lowering of a portion of the bed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss gas permeable air bag which is comprised of a substantially rectangular enclosure constructed of a gas permeable material means for connecting the inside of the enclosure with a source of gas for inflating said enclosure, means for releasably securing the enclosure to a low air loss bed, integral means for moving a patient resting on the top surface of the rectangular enclosure towards the end thereof when the enclosure is inflated, and integral means at the end of the rectangular enclosure toward which the patient is moved for retaining the patient on the top surface of the enclosure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an air bag with a single opening which can be quickly and easily detached from an air bed to allow the easy replacement of the air bag, even while the bed is in operation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss bed capable of rolling a patient back and forth on the bed while safely retaining the patient thereon.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss bed capable of alternately moving a patient in one direction and then in a second direction which is divided into at least three sections approximately corresponding to the portions of the body of the patient lying thereon which are hinged to each other and provided with means for raising and lowering the sections corresponding to the body of the patient to provide increased comfort and therapeutic value to the patient while the patient is being alternately moved in the first and second directions on the bed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low air loss bed capable of alternately rolling a portion of a patient in one direction and then in a second direction while retaining another portion of the patient in a relatively fixed position.
Other objects and advantages will be apparent to those of skill in the art from the following disclosure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These objects and advantages are accomplished in the present invention by providing a frame with a source of gas mounted thereon. A plurality of sets of gas permeable air bags are mounted on the frame, each set of air bags corresponding to a portion of a patient to be supported in prone position on the bed. Each of a plurality of separate gas manifolds communicates with the gas source and one set of the sets of air bags. Also provided is a means for separately changing the amount of gas delivered by the gas source to each of the gas manifolds, thereby varying the amount of support provided for each portion of the patient.
Also provided is an air bag for use on a low air loss bed having a plurality of transversely mounted air bags mounted thereon comprising an enclosure for supporting a patient and distributing pressure over the body of the patient to prevent pressure points and means for connecting the inside of the enclosure with a source of gas for inflating the enclosure with gas. The enclosure is provided with means for securing the enclosure to a low air loss bed and means for moving a patient supported thereon toward one end of the enclosure when the air bag is inflated. The air bag is also provided with integral means for retaining the patient supported on the top surface of the enclosure when the patient is moved toward the end of the enclosure.
Also provided is a low air loss bed comprising a bed frame having a source of gas and a plurality of sets of gas permeable air bags mounted thereto. Separate gas manifolds communicate with the interior of the air bags on one set of the sets of air bags and the gas source. An air control box is mounted to the bed frame and interposed in the flow of air from the gas source to the gas manifolds, and is provided with individually adjustable valves for changing the amount of gas delivered to each of the gas manifolds. The air control box is also provided with means operable to selectively open all of the valves to the atmosphere, allowing the gas to escape from each of the sets of air bags, to collapse the air bags with the result that the patient is supported by the frame of the air bed rather than the air bags.
Also provided with a low air loss bed having a bed frame and a plurality of sets of air bags mounted thereto with a plurality of gas manifolds communicating separately with the gas source and the interior of the air bags. An air control box is mounted to the bed frame in fluid connection with the gas source and the gas manifolds, and is provided with valves which are individually adjustable to change the amount of the flow from the gas source through the air control box to each of the gas manifolds. The air control box is also provided with means operable to simultaneously fully open the valves to cause the air bags to fully inflate.
Also provided is a low air loss bed having a frame and a plurality of sets of air bags mounted thereto with a plurality of gas manifolds communicating separately with the gas source and the interior of the air bags. An air control box is also mounted on the frame, the interior of the air control box communicating with the gas manifolds and the gas source and having means therein for separately changing the amount of gas delivered by the gas source to each of the gas manifolds. The air control box is also provided with means operable to heat the gas flowing through the air control box and with means operable to switch the heating means on and off in response to the temperature in the air control box Also provided is means having a sensor in one of the gas manifolds which is operable to selectively control the heating means, the means operable to switch the heating means on and off in response to the temperature in the air control box being operable at a predetermined temperature
Also provided is a low air loss bed comprising a frame, a first set of air bags for supporting a patient thereon mounted transversely on the frame, a second set of air bags for supporting a patient thereon mounted transversely on the frame, means for connecting each of the air bags to a gas source, each of the air bags of said first set of air bags having means integral therewith for moving the patient supported thereon toward a first side of the frame when the air bags in the first set of air bags is inflated, each of the second set of air bags having means integral therewith for moving the patient supported thereon toward the second side of the frame when the air bags in the second set of air bags is inflated and the air bags in the first set of air bags is deflated, and means on the air bags for retaining the patient supported thereon when the patient is moved toward the respective first and second sides of the frame.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a presently preferred embodiment of the low air loss bed of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the bed of FIG. 1, showing an air bag with a second air bag therebehind taken along the lines 2--2 in FIG. 1, the second air bag being shown in shadow
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of the air plumbing of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the air control box of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 5A is a perspective view of one of the baseboards of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 5B is an enlarged, exploded perspective view of the underside of the baseboard of FIG. 5A, showing the baseboard partially cut away to show the details of attachment of a low air loss air bag thereto.
FIG. 6 is an end view of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1 with the head portion raised to show the construction of the frame and the components mounted thereto
FIG. 7 is an end view of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1 with the foot portion raised to show the construction of the frame and the components mounted thereto
FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the air box of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1 taken along the lines 8--8 in FIG. 9A.
FIGS. 9A and 9B are cross-sectional views taken along the lines 9A--9A and 9B--9B, respectively, through the manifold assembly of the air box as shown in FIG. 8.
FIGS. 10A--10D are an end view of a patient supported upon the top surface of the air bags of the low air loss bed of the present invention as that patient (10D), is rocked toward one side of the frame of the low air loss bed (10A), then toward the other side (10C) or supported on the air bags when all air bags are fully inflated (FIG. 10B).
FIG. 11 is a composite, longitudinal sectional view of a portion of the foot baseboard of a low air loss bed constructed according to the teachings of the present invention taken along the lines 11--11 in FIG. 1 showing several alternate methods of attaching the air bags to the bed frame.
FIG. 12 is a schematic electrical diagram of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 13A and 13B are top and plan views, respectively of the heater for heating the air in the air box of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 14 is schematic diagram of the electrical cables and controls which open and close the valves to route air to the air bags of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 15 is a flow chart of a presently preferred embodiment of the program for controlling the operations of the low air loss bed in FIG. 1 from the control panel shown in FIG. 12.
FIG. 16 is a flow chart of the general timer subroutine for controlling the operation of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 17 is a flow chart of the switch processing subroutine for controlling the operation of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 18 is a flow chart of the rotation subroutine for controlling the operation of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 19 is a flow chart of the valve motor subroutine for controlling the operation of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 20 is a flow chart of the power fail interrupt subroutine for controlling the operation of the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 21 is an end view of an alternative embodiment of an air bag for use on the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 22 is an end view of one of the air bags for use on the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
FIG. 23 is an end view of another one of the air bags for use on the low air loss bed of FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a bed 10 including a frame 12. The frame 12 is comprised of a plurality of sections 14', 14", 14'" and 14"", hinged at the points 44', 44" and 44'", and end members 16. Cross-members 18 (FIGS. 6 and 7) and braces 19 (FIG. 7) are provided for additional rigidity. The frame 12 is provided with headboard 20 at one end and a foot board 21 at the other end. The respective head 20 and foot 21 boards are actually constructed of two boards, 20' and 20", and 21' and 21", respectively, which are stacked one on top of the other by the vertical slats 25 on which the boards 20', 20", 21' and 21" are mounted.
A separate sub-frame, indicated generally at reference numeral 27 in FIGS. 6 and 7, is mounted on a base 22 comprised of longitudinal beams 24, cross-beams 26 and cross-member 28 by means of a vertical height adjustment mechanism as will be described. The base 22 is mounted on casters 30 at the corners of the base 22. A foot pedal 42 is provided for braking and steering the casters 30.
Sub-frame 27 is comprised of cross beams 29, hoop brace 35, and longitudinal beams 31 (see FIGS. 6 and 7). Sub-frame 27 is provided at the corners with uprights 33, having tabs 33' thereon, for mounting of IV bottles and other equipment. Means is provided for raising and lowering the sub-frame 27 relative to the base 22 in the form of a conventional vertical height adjustment mechanism, not all of the details of which are shown. Height is adjusted by rotation of axle 36 under influence of a power screw, hidden from view in FIG. 7 by drive tunnel beam 37, which is powered by a motor which is also hidden from view. Axle 36 is journaled in the ears 38 which are mounted to the longitudinal beams 31 of sub-frame 27. Power is transferred from the power screw to axle 36 by means of eccentric levers 39, the axle 40 of which is journaled in drive tunnel beam 37. Sub-frame 27 rises on levers which are pivotally mounted to the cross-beams of base 22. The levers and the members on which they are mounted are hidden from view in FIGS. 6 and 7 by cross beam 29.
The section 14" of frame 12 is mounted to the longitudinal beams 31 of sub-frame 27 by support members 41 (see FIG. 6). The section 14' of frame 12, with the head baseboard 52 thereon, and the section 14"" of frame 12, with foot baseboard 46 thereon, pivot upwardly from the horizontal at the hinges 44' and 44"", respectively. The purpose of that pivoting is to provide for the adjustment of the angle of inclination of the various parts of the body of the patient, and the details of that pivoting are known in the art and are not shown for purposes of clarity, although the motors are located within the boxes shown at 45 and are controlled from control panel 346, and the circuitry for those functions is contained within box 43 (FIG. 7) and is explained in more detail below. Supports 17 are provided on the cross member 18 under head baseboard 52 which rest on the longitudinal beams 31 of sub-frame 27 when head baseboard 52 is horizontal. When foot baseboard 46 is raised (FIG. 7), cross-bar 47 rises therewith by means of the pivoting connection created by cross-bar 47 and the notches 49 in brace 19 (cross-bar 47 is shown detached from braces 19 in FIG. 7 for purposes of clarity). The sets of notches 49 provide means for adjusting the height to which cross-bar 47 can be raised, foot baseboard 46 pivoting upwardly on brackets 51 which are pivotally mounted to the longitudinal beams 31 of sub-frame 27. The tips 53 of cross-bar 47 rest on longitudinal beam 31 when foot baseboard 46 is lowered to the horizontal.
Side rails 81 are mounted to brackets 83 (see FIG. 6) which are pivotally mounted to the mounting brackets 85 mounted on the underside of head baseboard 52. Side rails 87 are mounted to brackets 89 (see FIG. 7), and brackets 89 are pivotally mounted to the mounting brackets 91. Mounting brackets 91 are affixed to the braces 19 on the underside of foot baseboard 46.
The frame 12 is provided with a feet baseboard 46, a leg baseboard 48, a seat baseboard 50 and a head baseboard 52 (shown in shadow lines in FIG. 3), each being mounted to the corresponding section 14', 14", 14'" and 14"" of the frame 12 by means of rivets 54 (see FIG. 11). Means is provided for releasably securing the air bags 58 to the low air loss bed 10. Referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, there is shown a presently preferred embodiment of that releasable securing means. In FIGS. 5A and 5B, there is shown a portion of the feet baseboard 46, which is provided with holes 64 therethrough which are alternating and opposite each other along the length of the feet baseboard 46, as well as leg baseboard 48, seat baseboard 50 and head baseboard 52. Every other hole 64 is provided with a key slot 11 for receiving the post 32, having retainer 34 mounted thereon, which projects through the bottom surface 79 of air bag 58, the flange 71 of which is retained between patch 69, which is stitched to the bottom surface 79 of air bag 58, and the bottom surface 72. Air bag 58 is shown cutaway and in shadow lines in FIG. 5B for purposes of clarity. Air bag 58 is also provided with a nipple 23 of resilient polymeric plastic material having an extension tab 15 integral therewith. To releasably secure the air bag 58 to feet baseboard 46, or any of the other baseboards 48, 50, or 52, post 32 is inserted through hole 64 until retainer 34 has emerged from the bottom thereof. Post 32 is then slid into engagement with key slot 11 and retainer 34 engages the bottom side of feet baseboard 46 around the margin of hole 64 to retain air bag 58 in place on feet baseboard 46. Nipple 23 is then inserted into the hole 64 opposite the hole 64 having key slot 11 therein and rotated until extension tab 15 engages the bottom of the head of flat head screw 13 to help secure nipple 23 in place.
In an alternative embodiment, the baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52 are provided with means for releasably securing the air bags 58 to the low air loss bed 10 in the form of male snaps 56 (FIG. 11) along their edges. The air bags 58 are provided with flaps 60, each of which is supplied with female snaps 62 which mate with male snaps 56. Flaps 60 are alternatively provided with a strip of VELCRO tape 55, and the edges of baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52 are provided with a complementary strip of VELCRO hooks 57, to secure each air bag 58 in place. Alternatively, flap 60 and baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52 are provided with both VELCRO and snap fastening means.
The air bags 58 are substantially rectangular in shape, and are constructed of a coated fabric or similar material through which gas, including water vapor, can move, but which water and other liquids will not penetrate. The fabric sold under the trademark "GORE-TEX" is one such suitable material. The air bags 58 can include one or more outlets for the escape of the air with which they are inflated or they can be constructed in a "low air loss" conformation. The low air loss air bag shown at reference numeral 59 in FIG. 11 is a composite of a gas impermeable fabric, which makes up the bottom 72 and the walls 61 of the air bag 58, and the gas permeable fabric described above, which makes up the top 63 of the air bag. The top 63 and walls 61 are stitched or otherwise joined at shadow lines 63'. The gas impermeable fabric is, for instance, a polymer-coated nylon. The low air loss air bag 59 allows the pressurization of the air bag 59 with a smaller flow of gas than is required to inflate air bags 58, which results in the possibility of maintaining sufficient pressure with just one blower 108 operating while using low air loss air bags 59 or a combination of air bags 58, 321, 322, 325 or 328, as will be described, with low air loss air bags 59.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, air bags are shown of different conformation according to their location on the frame 12 of bed 10. For instance, the air bags mounted to the leg baseboard 48 and seat baseboard 50 are designated at reference numeral 322. Air bags 321, 322, 325 and 328 are constructed in the form of a substantially rectangular enclosure, at least the top surface 323 of which is constructed of gas permeable material such as described above. Air bags 321, 322, 325 or 328 are provided with means for connecting the inside of that enclosure to a source of gas, such as the blower 108, to inflate the enclosure with gas in the form of the nipple 23 (see FIG. 2) which extends through the baseboard 50 into the seat gas manifold 80 mounted thereto. Air bag 321, 322 325 or 328 is also provided with means for releasably securing the enclosure to the low air loss bed 10 in the form of the post 32 and retainer 34 described above. Means is provided for moving a patient 348 supported on air bags 322, 325 or 328 toward one side of frame 12 when air bags 322, 325 or 328 are inflated and for retaining the patient 348 on the top surface 323 of air bags 322, 325 or 328 when patient 348 is rolled or rocked towards one side of frame 12 or the other. The means for moving patient 348 supported on air bags 322, 325 or 328 toward one side of frame 12 when the air bags 322, 325 or 328 are inflated comprises a cutout 324 in the top 323 of the substantially rectangular shape of each of the air bags 322, 325 or 328.
Each air bag 322, 325 or 328 is also provided with means for retaining a patient 348 on the top surface 323 of the air bag 322, 325 or 328 when patient 348 is rolled toward the side of frame 12 by the inflation of air bags 322, 325 or 328 in the form of a pillar 326 which is integral with each air bag 322, 325 or 328 and which, when inflated, projects upwardly to form the end and corner of the substantially rectangular enclosure of air bag 322, 325 or 328. The means for retaining patient 348 on the top 323 of air bags 322, 325 or 328 can also take the form of a large foam cushion (not shown) mounted to side rails 81 and 87 on both sides of bed frame 12. That cushion can be detachably mounted to side rails 81 and 87, or can be split so that a portion mounts to said rail 81 and a portion mounts to side rail 87. The air pressure in air bags 322, 325 or 328 is then adjusted, as will be explained, until patient 348 is rocked gently against that foam cushion on one side of bed frame 12 and then back toward the other side of bed frame 12.
As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 and/or 328 is mounted transversely on the frame 12 of bed 10. The air bags 322, 325 or 328 are divided into a first set in which the pillar 326 and cutout 324 are closer to one side of bed frame 12 than the other and a second set of air bags 322, 325 or 328 in which the pillar 326 and cutout 324 are closer to the second side of the bed frame 12. The air bags 322, 325 or 328 of the first set and the air bags 322, 325 or 328 of the second set alternate with each other along the length of baseboards 46, 48, 50, and 52. As will be explained, the first set of air bags 322, 325 or 328 is inflated with air from blower 108, thereby causing the patient 348 supported on the air bags 322 to be rolled toward the first side of bed frame 12 and then deflated while the second set of air bags 322, 325 or 328 is inflated, thereby moving the patient 348 supported thereon toward the other side of bed frame 12 (see FIG. 10).
The air bags 58, 59 or 321 which are mounted on head baseboard 52 are provided with a flat top surface 323 so that the head of patient 348 is retained in a relatively constant position while the body of patient 348 is alternately rolled first toward one side of the bed frame 12 and then back toward the other side of bed frame 12. Referring to FIG. 23, an air bag 321 is shown for use under the head of patient 348 Air bag 321 is substantially rectangular in shape, but is provided with a slanted top surface 323 in the area 331 adjacent corners 448. The height of air bag 321 is less than the height of air bags 58, 59, 322, 325 and 328 because when patient 348 lies upon air bags 58, 59, 322, 325 and/or 328, the heavier portions, i.e., the portions of the body other than the head, sink into those air bags 58, 59, 322, 325 and/or 328 as shown in FIG. 10D. When the patient 348 sinks into air bags 58, 59, 322, 325 and/or 328, the head rests evenly on air bags 321 because the head does not sink into air bags 321 as far as the other portions of the body.
The air bags 328 mounted on the foot baseboard 46 and the air bags 328 mounted on a portion of leg baseboard 48 are also provided with a cutout 324 and pillar 326 as described for the air bags 322. Additionally, air bags 328 are provided with a hump 330 so that the legs of patient 348 are relatively restrained from movement during the alternate back and forth movement of patient 348, thereby helping to retain the patient 348 on the top surface 323 of air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 and 328 as well as helping to distribute the pressure exerted against the skin of patient 348 over an increased area.
Referring to FIG. 22, there is shown an end view of an air bag 328 having hump 330 formed in the top surface 323 thereof. As can be seen, when air bag 328 is inflated, hump 330 and pillar 326 project upwardly to help prevent the rolling of patient 348 too far to one side of bed frame 12 or the other. An alternative construction of air bag 322 is shown at reference numeral 325 in FIG. 21. Air bag 325 is provided with cutout 324 of approximately the same depth as the cutout 324 of air bags 322 and 328, but the slope of the top surface 323 in the area 327 is less than the slope of the top surface 323 in the area 329 of air bags 322 and 328. Air bag 325, in conjunction with the adjustment of the air pressure in the air bags 58, 59, 321, 322 and/or 328, can be used under different portions of the body of patient 348 to increase or decrease the extent and speed with which patient 348 is rolled from one side of bed frame 12 to the other. For instance, air bag 325 is particularly well-suited for use under the shoulders of a patient 348.
As noted above, all of the air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 and 328 are substantially rectangular in shape with dimensions of approximately 18×39 inches. Each is provided with a baffle 460 attached to side walls 61 which holds the side walls 61 against bowing when the air bag 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 or 328 is inflated. Each of the corners 448 has a radius of curvature of approximately three inches, and the depth of cutout 324 is approximately ten inches. The dimension of pillar 326 of air bags 325 and 328 in the direction shown by line 450 is approximately seven inches, as is the dimension of cutout 324 in the direction shown by line 452. The dimension of pillar 326 of air bag 322 in the direction shown by line 451 is approximately twelve inches The dimension of the top surface 323 of air bag 325 along line 453 is approximately twenty inches, and that top surface 323 drops off into cutout 324 in a curve 455 of approximately a six inch radius. Referring to FIG. 2, the dimension of the top surface 323 along line 458 is approximately nineteen inches. The dimension of hump 330 on air bag 328 in the direction shown by line 454 is approximately five inches, and in the direction shown by line 456, the dimension is approximately two inches. The dimension of surface 333, as shown by line 458 is approximately fourteen inches.
In an alternative construction for attaching the air bags 58, 322 and 328 to the bed 10, each air bag 58 (it should be understood throughout the specification that, when reference is made to an air bag 58, the air bag could also be an air bag 59 constructed in the low air loss conformation or an air bag 321, 322, 325 or 328) is provided with a flanged nipple 70, the flange 71 of which is retained between the bottom 72 of the air bag 58 between a patch 74 and the bottom 72 of the air bag. As described below, each air bag 58 is mounted separately on the baseboards 46, 48, 50, and 52 by snapping the female snaps 62 in the flaps 60 of each of the air bags 58 over the male snaps 56 on the edges of the baseboards 46, 48, 50, and 52 or with the VELCRO tape 55 and hooks 57, or both. When so positioned, the flanged nipple 70 on the bottom inside 72 of the air bag 58 projects through the holes 64 and 64' in the baseboards 46, 48, 50, or 52 over which the air bags 58 are positioned. An O-ring 68 is provided in a groove (not numbered) around each of the flanged nipples 70 to insure a relatively gas-tight fit between the flanged nipple 70 and the corresponding baseboard 46, 48, 50, or 52 through which the flanged nipples 70 project.
The use of individual air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 or 328 rather than a single air cushion allows the replacement of individual bags should one develop a leak, need cleaning or otherwise need attention When it is desired to remove an individual air bag 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 or 328 from its respective baseboard 46, 48, 50, or 52, post 32 is slid out of key slot 11 and retainer 34 and post 32 are removed from hole 64. Nipple 23 is then rotated until extension tab 15 rotates out of engagement with screw 13 and is pulled firmly to remove it from hole 64. In the case of air bag 58, female snaps 62 at each end of the air bag 58 are disengaged from the male snaps 56 (or the VELCRO strips peeled away from each other) on the edges of baseboards 46, 48, 50 or 52, and the air bag 58 is removed by twisting flanged nipple 70 up and out of the hole 64 in the baseboard 46, 48, 50, or 52. Removal can even be accomplished while the patient is lying on the inflated air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 or 328.
For additional security in holding air bags 58 onto baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52, and to help insure a gas-tight fit between flanged nipple 70 and the respective baseboards 46, 48, 50 or 52 through which it projects, spring clip 73 (see FIG. 11) is inserted through nipple 70 of air bag 58. To insert the nipple 70 into hole 64, the hoop portion 75 of spring clip 73 is squeezed (through the fabric of air bag 58), causing the flanges 77 on the ends of the shank portion 101 of spring clip 73 to move toward each other so that they can enter the hole 64. Once inserted through the hole 64, flanges 77 spring apart, and will not permit the removal of nipple 70 from hole 64 without again squeezing the hoop portion 75 of spring clip 73.
Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown an end view of a bed constructed according to the present invention. Brace 102 is secured to the cross beam 29 of sub-frame 27 by means of bolts 104. Blowers 108 are mounted to the brace 102 by means of bolts 110 through the mounting plates 112 which are integral with the blower housing 116. A gasket, piece of plywood or particle board (not shown), or other sound and vibration dampening material is interposed between mounting plates 112 and brace 102. A strip of such material (not shown) can also be inserted between brace 102 and cross beam 29. The blowers 108 include integral permanent split capacitor electric motors 114. When motors 114 are activated, blowers 108 move air out of the blower housings 116, through the blower funnels 118 and up the blower hoses 120 to the air box funnels 122 and on into the air box 124 (see FIGS. 3 and 6).
Blowers 108 receive air from filter box 96 through hoses 98 (see FIG. 3). Filter box 96 is retained within a frame 100 (see FIG. 6) for ease in removal. Frame 100 is mounted to frame 27 and is, for the most part, blocked from view by cross-beam 26 of base 22 and cross beam 29 of frame 27 in FIG. 6. The second blower 108 is provided to increase the volume which is delivered to the air bags 58, thereby increasing the air pressure within air bags 58. A cover (not shown) lined with sound absorbing material can also be provided to enclose blowers 108 and thereby reduce noise.
The air control box 124 is an airtight box mounted on the underside of head baseboard 52 by brackets 125, and is shown in more detail in FIG. 4. Air box 124 is provided with a manifold assembly 126 held to the front of air box 124 by screws 119. Manifold assembly 126 is provided with a manifold plate 145 having holes (not numbered) therein for connection to a means for changing the amount of air supplied to the air bags 58 mounted to baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52 in the region of the feet, legs, seat, back, and head, respectively. Gasket 115 prevents the escape of air from between air box 124 and manifold plate 145. In a presently preferred embodiment, the means for changing the amount of air supplied to the air bags 58 takes the form of a plurality of valves, indicated generally at reference numerals 128, 130, 132, 134, and 136. Each of the valves 128, 130, 132, 134, and 136 is provided with a motor 138 having a nylon threaded shaft 139 (see FIGS. 4, 8, 9A and 9B) mounted on the drive shaft (not numbered) of each motor 138 and held in place by set screw 149 in collar 148. Plug 140 moves rotatably in and out along the threaded shaft 139 when limit pin 141 of plug 140 engages one or the other of the supports 142 which are immediately adjacent that particular plug 140 and which hold the motor mounting bracket 143 to the back of the full inflate plate 144.
Full inflate plate 144, having openings 202 therein forming part of valves 128, 130, 132, 134, and 136, is mounted to the back of the manifold plate 145 by hinges 146 (see also FIGS. 9A and 9B). A gasket 147 is provided to prevent the escape of air from between the full inflate plate 144 and manifold plate 145. The motors 138 are not provided with limit switches, the movement of plug 140 back and forth along the threaded shaft 139 of each motor 138 being limited by engagement of plug 140 with the opening 202 as plug 140 moves forward and by the engagement of the back side of plug 140 with collar 148 as plug 140 moves back on threaded shaft 139. An O-ring 204 is provided on plug 140 which is compressed between plug 140 and opening 202 as plug 140 moves forward into opening 202. Compression continues until the load on motor 138 is sufficient to cause it to bind and stop. The O-ring 206 which is provided on collar 148 operates in similar fashion when engaged by the back side of plug 140.
The binding of motors 138 by the loading of O-rings 204 and 206 facilitates the reversal of the motors 138 and direction of travel of plug 140 along threaded shaft 139 because threaded shaft 139 is not bound. Threaded shaft 139 is free to reverse direction and turn such that the load created by the compression of O-rings 204 or 206 is released by the turning of threaded shaft 139, and plug 140 will rotate with threaded shaft 139 until limit pin 141 contacts support 142, stopping the rotation of plug 140 and causing it to move along shaft 139 as it continues to turn.
A dump plate 150 is mounted on the outside of manifold plate 145 by means of hinges 151 (see also FIGS. 9A and 9B). A gasket 106 is provided to prevent the escape of air from between the manifold plate 145 and the dump plate 150. The dump plate 150 is provided with couplers 153, the interiors of which are continuous with the holes in manifold plate 145 when dump plate 150 is in the position shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, for connection of the appropriate bed frame gas supply hoses 174, 176, 178, 180 and 182, as will be explained.
Block 154 is attached to dump plate 150 by means of screws 155, and serves as a point at which the cable 156 can be anchored, by means of nut 157, so that a line 158 can slide back and forth within cable 156 to allow the dump plate 150 to be selectively pivoted away from manifold plate 145 on hinge 151. The line 158 is secured to the manifold plate 145 by the threaded cable end and locknut 159. Line 158 is secured at its other end to the bracket 183 mounted on tube 190 (see FIG. 7). Bed frame 12 is provided with quick dump levers 165 on both sides thereof, the quick dump levers 165 being connected by tube 190 so that both levers 165 provide a remote control for operation of dump plate 150 by causing the movement of line 158 through cable 156. When either of quick dump levers 165 is moved from the position shown in FIG. 7, eccentric lever arm 181 pulls on line 158, cable 156 being anchored on bracket 183, so that line 158 moves through cable 156. The details of the anchoring of cable 156 and movement of line 158 therethrough under the influence of lever arm 181 are the same as those for the anchoring of cable 160 and movement of line 162 therethrough under the influence of lever arm 185 (see below). Movement of line 158 causes dump plate 150 to pivot away from manifold plate 145, allowing the air in air bags 58 to escape through manifolds 76, 78, 80, 82 and 84 and bed frame gas supply hoses 174, 176, 178, 180 and 182 to the atmosphere from the opening thus created between manifold plate 145 and dump plate 150 so that air bags 58 will rapidly deflate. A coil spring 201' encloses line 158 within bores (not numbered) in dump plate 150 and manifold plate 145 to bias dump plate 150 and manifold plate 145 apart.
As is best shown on FIGS. 8 and 9B, a separate cable 160 passes through manifold plate 145 in threaded fitting 161 so that line 162 can slide back and forth therein. The line 162 is anchored in the full inflate plate 144 by means of nut 163, which allows the full inflate plate 144 to pivot away from the manifold plate 145 on hinge 146. Pivoting of full inflate plate 144 away from manifold plate 145 in this manner removes full inflate plate 144, motor mounting bracket 143, and all other parts mounted to those parts, from the flow of air to allow the unrestricted entry of the air in air box 124 into the couplers 153 of valves 128, 130, 132, 134 and 136 and on into bed frame gas supply hoses 174, 176, 178, 180 and 182, resulting in the rapid and full inflation of air bags 58 to raise the patient 348 to the position shown in FIG. 10B to facilitate patient transfer or other needs. A coil spring 201 encloses line 162 in a bore (not numbered) in manifold plate 145 and full inflate plate 144 to bias manifold plate 145 apart from full inflate plate 144.
Line 162 is anchored at its other end on lever arm 185 (FIG. 7) which is attached to the bar 195 upon which full inflate knob 193 is mounted. Bed frame 12 is provided with full inflate knobs 193 on both sides thereof, the full inflate knobs 193 being connected by bar 195 so that both control the movement of line 162 through cable 160. Cable 160 is affixed to bracket 187 by threaded cable and 199, which is mounted on the DELRIN bearing 209 which is integral with support member 210 and which receives bar 195 so that rotation of full inflate knobs 193 causes line 162 to slide therein, pivoting full inflate plate 144 on hinge 146. The weight of motors 138, supports 142 and motor mounting bracket 143 bias full inflate plate 144 toward the position in which full inflate plate 144, motor mounting bracket 143, and the parts mounted thereto, are removed from the flow of gas into the couplers 153 of valves 128, 130, 132, 134 and 136. This bias allows knobs 193 to act as a release such that either of knobs 193 need only be turned enough to move the connection between line 162 and lever arm 185 out of its over center position, at which point gravity causes the plate 144 to open. Referring to FIG. 10B, patient 348 is shown lying on air bags 322 (and/or 58, 59, 321, 325 or 328) after full inflate plate 144 is opened. When knobs 193 are returned to their initial position, lever arm 185 turns to the point at which the connection between line 162 and lever arm 185 is rotated past 180° from the point at which line 162 approaches bar 195, i.e., over center. As noted below, microprocessor 240 includes an alarm buzzer (not shown), and switches (not shown) can be provided for activating that alarm when either of knobs 193 or levers 165 are used to inflate or deflate air bags 58, 59, 321, 325 and/or 328 respectively.
Air enters the air box 124 through air box funnels 122 in back plate 121 (FIG. 4). Air box funnel 122 is provided with a one-way flapper valve 117 so that air will not escape from the air box 124 when only one blower 108 is being operated. Back plate 121 is held in place on air box 124 by screws 123, and gasket 127 is provided to prevent the loss of air from between air box 124 and back plate 121.
The air box 124 is provided with a heating element indicated generally at 129 and shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B. Screws 131 secure heating element 129 in place on the bottom of air box 124, effectively partitioning air box 124 into two compartments. Because air enters the air box 124 in one compartment (i.e., behind heating element 129) and leaves the air box 124 from the other compartment, a flow of air must pass through the space 135 between bulkhead 133 and the mounting bracket 137 of heating element 129, being mixed and heated as it does.
Wires 167 i and 167 o provide power to heating element 129 from power distribution board 219 as will be explained, the wire 167 i connecting thermostats 169 and 171 and heater strip 172 in series (see FIG. 12). Heater strip 172 is suspended in space 135 by insulated posts 173 which are secured in the flanges 175 and 177 of bulkhead 133 and mounting bracket 137, respectively. Thermostat 169 switches off at 140° F., thermostat 171 switches off at 180° F., and heater strip 172 must cool to 120° F. for thermostat 169 to come back on. Thermostat 171 is merely redundant and included for safety purposes. Both thermostats 169 and 171 reset automatically, the thermostat 171 coming back on at 140° F. Also provided is thermostat 194, which includes a sensor (not shown), located in seat manifold 80, and when the circuit containing thermostat 194 is closed due to the temperature of the air in seat manifold 80, the pilot light 196 (see FIG. 7) comes on indicating that the circuit has been completed and that heater 172 is heating the air therein. Heater 172 cannot come on unless switch 191 has been selected and one or more of the blowers 108 is operating. Thermostats 194 also includes a control 152 for adjustment of the temperature of the gas in seat manifold 80, and a thermometer gauge 168 for continuous monitoring of that temperature.
Referring to FIG. 3, the electric motors 114 of blowers 108 are switched on, forcing or pumping air (or other gases) received from filter box 96 through hoses 98 up the blower hoses 120, through one-way valves 117, and into air box 124. A valve 109 is provided to provide increased control of the air pressure in air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 and 328 and to seal off one of the blowers 108 so that the bed 10 can be operated on one blower or on the blower 432 (see FIG. 7). Valve 109 is also used to restrict the flow of air one of the blowers 109 when both blowers are operating, thereby providing additional adjustability in air pressure. The air escapes from the air box 124 through valves 128, 130, 131, 134 and 136 into the respective bed frame gas supply hoses, 174, 176, 178, 180 and 182 (see FIG. 3). Bed frame gas supply hoses 174, 176, 178, 180 and 182 route the air to the manifolds 76, 78, 80, 82 and 84 and 76', 78', 80', 82' and 84'. Bed frame gas supply hose 174 is connected to leg gas manifold 78, which is connected by hose 332 to feet gas manifold 76. Bed frame gas supply hose 176 routes air to back gas manifold 82, which is connected to seat gas manifold 80 by hose 334. Bed frame gas supply hose 178 routes air to head gas manifold 84. Bed frame gas supply hose 180 routes air to back gas manifold 82', which is connected to seat gas manifold 80' by hose 336. Bed frame gas supply hose 182 routes air from air box 124 to leg gas manifold 78', which is connected to feet gas manifold 76' by hose 338. Valves 340 are provided in hoses 332 and 338 for a purpose to be explained below. Each of the gas manifolds 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' and 84 is mounted to the underside of the baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52, feet baseboard 46 having gas manifolds 76 and 76' mounted thereto, leg baseboard 48 having gas manifolds 78 and 78' mounted thereto, and seat baseboard 50 having gas manifolds 80 and 80' mounted thereto. The head baseboard 52, and its corresponding section 14"" of frame 12, is provided with two back gas manifolds 82 and 82' and head gas manifold 84.
Because the feet baseboard 46 extends beyond the end member 16 of the frame 12 at the foot of the bed, T-intersects 86 and 86' are provided from the feet gas manifolds 76 and 76', respectively, to route feet extension hoses 88 and 88' to the holes 64 and 64' at the extreme ends of the feet baseboard 46 (see FIGS. 3, 7 and 11). Clamps 65 and 65' are provided to hold the feet extension hoses 88 and 88' in place on the nipples 23 in holes 64 and 64' and on T-intersects 86 and 86'. The head baseboard 52 likewise extends beyond the end member 16 of frame 12 at the head end of the bed (FIGS. 3 and 6), and T-intersect 92 is provided from the head gas manifold 84 to provide air to the hole 64 at the extreme end of the head baseboard 52 by means of the head extension hose 94. A clamp 65 is provided to retain head extension hose 94 on T-intersect 92 and on the receptacle 66 in hole 64.
Air enters the gas manifolds 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82', and 84 from each respective bed frame gas supply hose 174, 176, 178, 180 or 182 and hose 332, 334, 336, or 338, and then passes down the length of each gas manifold 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' or 84. Air escapes from the gas manifolds 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' or 84 into the air bags 58 through the holes 64 and 64' in the baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52, thereby inflating the air bags 58.
The holes 64 and 64' through base boards 46, 48, 50 and 52 into the respective air bags 58, 322 and 328 are staggered down the length of the frame 12 of bed 10. In other words, every other hole 64, or 64' is provided with a key slot 11 (see FIG. 5A). Air bags 322, 325 and 328 are provided with a single nipple 70 or 23, respectively and a post 32 with retainer 34 thereon for engagement of key slot 11 in hole 64 or 64' at the other end thereof. The air bags 322, 325 and 328 alternate in their orientation on baseboards 46, 48, 50 and 52, resulting in about half the air bags 58, 322 and 328 being oriented with nipple 70 or 23 closer to one side of bed frame 12 then the nipple 70 or 23 of the other half of the air bags 58, 322 or 328 mounted thereon.
Because each of the bed frame gas supply hoses 174, 176, 178, 180 and 182 is continuous with a corresponding gas manifold 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' or 84, the amount of air supplied to each gas manifold 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' or 84 can be varied using the valves 128, 130, 132, 134 or 136 on the air box 124. Since each of the valves 128, 130, 132, 134 and 136 controls the amount of air supplied to one of the manifolds 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' or 84, each valve 128, 130, 132, 134 or 136 controls the amount of air supplied to the set of air bags 58, 322 or 328 located directly above an individual gas manifold 76, 76', 78, 78', 80, 80', 82, 82' or 84.
As a general rule, the legs of a patient 348 are not as heavy as the other portions of the body, consequently there is less air pressure needed to inflate the air bags 328 under the legs, i.e., those air bags 328 mounted to foot baseboard 46 and supplied with air through feet gas manifolds 76 and 76', than is needed to inflate the other air bags 58, 59, 321, 322 or 325. Valves 340 in hoses 332 and 338 are provided for decreasing the amount of air entering feet gas manifolds 76 and 76' for that reason. Further, decreasing the amount of air delivered to manifolds 76 and 76' causes the air pressure in those air bags 328 supplied with air through manifold 76 to drop more quickly than the air pressure in the air bags 58, 59, 321, 322 or 325 supplied with air by manifolds 78, 80 and 82 as valve 130 is closed during rotation of the patient 348. Likewise, valve 340 is used to cause the pressure to drop in the air bags 328 supplied with air by manifold 76' sooner than the pressure in the air bags 58, 59, 321, 322 or 325 supplied with air by manifolds 78', 80' and 82' as valve 134 is closed during rotation of patient 348. That earlier decrease in pressure in the air bags 328 under the legs of patient 348 causes the pressure changes in the air bags 58, 59, 321, 322 or 325 under the other portions of the body of patient 348.
Also shown in FIG. 3 is the portable power unit, indicated generally at 426. Portable power unit 426 is comprised of case 428 (see FIG. 7), which encloses batteries 430, blower 432 and battery charger 434, and hose 436. Hose 436 is provided with a releasable coupler 438 which mates with the coupler 440 of the hose 442 which is mounted on sub-frame 27 and which connects to air box 124 through funnel 444. Brackets 446 are mounted to subframe 27 for releasably engaging the case 428 of portable power unit 426. Portable power unit 426 provides air pressure to support a patient when an electrical outlet is unavailable, for instance, during patient transport.
As shown in FIG. 4, the opening 342 in manifold plate 145, which is aligned with the opening 202 in full inflate plate 144 (opening 202 in full inflate plate 144 (see FIG. 9B) allows the passage of air through full inflate plate 144 into the valves 128, 130, 132, 134 and 136), is continuous in the area between valves 128 and 130. Opening 342 is a space defined by the margin of opening 342 in manifold plate 145, the surface of dump plate 150 (shown cut away in FIG. 4), which abuts manifold plate 145 when dump plate 150 is closed, and the surface of full inflate plate 144, which abuts manifold plate 145 when full inflate plate 144 is closed. Similarly, manifold plate 145 is provided with an opening 343 between valves 134 and 136. By connecting valve 128 with valve 130 with opening 342, the air bags 322 and 328 connected to the back, seat, leg and feet gas manifolds 76, 78, 80 and 82 are inflated simultaneously whenever the plug 140 on either of the motors 138 in valves 128 or 130 is not snugged up against full inflate plate 144 by action of motors 138. Similarly, by connecting valve 134 with valve 136 with opening 343, the air bags 322 and 328 connected to the back, seat, leg and feet gas manifolds 76', 78', 80' and 82' are inflated simultaneously. The air bags 58 are inflated by air passing through valve 132 to head gas manifold 84.
As will be explained, means is provided for alternately inflating first the air bags 322 and 328 connected to back, seat, leg and feet gas manifolds 76, 78, 80 and 82, respectively, and then deflating those air bags while inflating the air bags 322 and 328 connected to back, seat, leg and feet gas manifolds 76', 78', 80' and 82'. The alternating inflation and deflation of the first set of air bags 322 and 328 and the second set of air bags 322 and 328 causes a patient 348 supported thereon to be alternately rocked in one direction and then the other (see FIGS. 10A-10D) because of the alternating arrangement of the cutouts 324 on air bags 322 and 328.
With some patients, the air pressure in the air bags 322, 325 and 328 connected to the gas manifolds 76, 78, 80 and 82 is not sufficient to adequately support the patient when the air bags 322, 325 and 328 connected to manifolds 76', 78', 80', and 82' are deflated. That lack of support is a result of the fact that the entire weight of the patient is supported by the air bags 322, 325 and 328 inflated by air received from gas manifolds 76, 78, 80 and 82, in other words, by only about half the air bags 322, 325 and 328. Openings 342 and 343, allow the maintenance of a baseline air pressure in the respective sets of air bags 322, 325 and 328 when that set of air bags 322, 325 and 328 is deflated, thereby helping to support patient 348 when patient 348 is rocked in the direction of the pillar 326 of the other set of air bags 322, 325 and 328.
For instance, to maintain a baseline pressure in the set of air bags connected to the gas manifolds 76, 78, 80, and 82, the plug 140 in valve 128 is set so as to allow a selected amount of air to pass through the valve 128 and on into the valve 130, through opening 342 depending upon the weight of patient 348. The plug 140 of valve 130 is then connected to a means for periodically causing the motor 138 to move the plug 140 into and out of engagement with full inflate plate 144, thereby varying the amount of air allowed to pass through the valve 130 as well as on into the valve 128 and to the air bags connected to gas manifolds 76, 78, 80 and 82. That arrangement always allows a selected amount of air to pass through the valves 128 and 130, even when the plug 140 is against the full inflate plate 144 to completely close valve 130 as it would be when the plug 140 of valve 134 is open to the widest extent selected by the operator. After a selected period of time, the motor 138 of valve 130 reverses, and plug 140 of valve 130 begins to move away from full inflate plate 144 to open valve 130 while the plug 140 of valve 134 begins to move toward the full inflate plate 144 to close valve 134. In the same manner that a baseline pressure is maintained in the air bags connected to gas manifold 76, 78, 80, and 82, a baseline pressure is maintained in the air bags 322 and 328 connected to the back, seat, leg and feet gas manifolds 76', 78', 80' and 82', respectively, by setting the plug 140 of valve 136 to allow a selected amount of air to pass therethrough and on into valve 134 through opening 343 even when valve 134 is completely closed by plug 140.
In this manner, a patient 348 (see FIGS. 10A-10D) supported on the top 323 air bags 322 and 328 can be alternately rocked from one side of the bed frame 12 to the other. To accomplish that rocking, air bags 322 and 328 are inflated to a desired pressure by activation of the switches 349, 350 and 351 on control panel 346 (see FIGS. 1 and 14). When switches 349, 350 and 351 are activated, the valves 128, 132, and 136 are opened by movement of the plugs 140 along the shafts 139 of motors 138. Switch 352 functions in similar fashion and opens valves 130 and 134, the switches 349, 350 and 351 being used, along with switches 353, 354 and 355, to adjust the air pressure in the air bags under the head, back and seat, and leg and feet portions of the body of patient 348. Deflate switch 356, like inflate switch 352, closes valves 130 and 134, reducing the air pressure in air bags 322 and 328 simultaneously. Once the desired pressure is reached, the patient 348 rests in the position shown in FIG. 10D. The rotate switch 357 is then activated, causing patient 348 to roll toward one side of bed frame 12 as microprocessor 240 (see FIGS. 12, 13 and 15-20) directs the closing of the valve 130. When patient 348 reaches the desired point, shown in FIG. 10A, the operator has the option of activating pause switch 358 and adjusting the air pressure in the air bags which receive air from valves 128 and 130 by operation of switches 350 and 354 to open or close valve 128. Rotate switch 357 is then activated to cause patient 348 to roll back toward the other side of bed frame 12 as valve 130 opens and valve 134 closes under direction of microprocessor 240. When patient 348 reaches the position shown in FIG. 10C, the operator has the option of activating pause switch 358 and adjusting the air pressure in the air bags which receive air from valves 134 and 136 by operation of switches 351 and 355 to open or close valve 136. Rotate switch 357 is then activated and patient 348 will continue rocking until rotation is once again interrupted. Patient 348 is rocked from the position shown in FIG. 10D to the position shown in FIG. 10C (or 10A) in approximately one minute. Pause switch 358 can be activated at any time during rotation of patient 348, and activation of any of the switches 352, 356 or 357 de-activates switch 358.
The hump 330 in air bags 328 provides a longitudinal barrier along the top surface of the air bags 328 such that one of the legs of patient 348 is retained on either side of the longitudinal barrier created by the humps 330 even during the alternating inflation and deflation of the bags 328. In this manner, the hump 330 prevents patient 348 from rolling too far to one side of the bed frame 12 or the other. Further, the legs of patient 348 do not slide and/or rub together while patient 348 is being alternately rolled from one side of the bed frame 12 to the other. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the air bags 328 having the humps 330 therein can be replaced by air bags 322 or air bags 58 depending upon the type of therapy and the extent of motion desired for a particular patient.
Referring now to FIGS. 15-20, the programming of microprocessor 240 will be discussed. As shown in FIG. 15, the initialization of the program is at 242. Variable memory is cleared at step 244. Before internal or external interrupts are enabled, data are initialized at step 246. Data and direction registers for the four eight bit ports of microprocessor 240 are then initialized at step 248.
The control software then idles in loop 250 until it receives a 50 millisecond interrupt from the hardware interrupt timer internal to microprocessor 240. Microprocessor 240 then sequentially executes the subroutines 252, 254, 292 and 316, diagrammed in FIGS. 16-19. General timer subroutine 252 (see FIG. 16) decrements most of the software driven timers contained in the ROM, including the bed motor "ON" run time limit timer, the electrically alterable ROM power on delay before erase timer, the cardiopulmonary switched "OFF" to the audible alarm "ON" delay timer, the audible alarm silence timer, and the front panel status pilot light blink timer. General timer subroutine 252 is entered from FIG. 15 at connector 253, and each of the timers is assigned a number at step 255 and processed using a repeated algorithm in which, if the time value is zero at 258, no action is taken. If the timer value is not zero, the timer is decremented at step 260 and again checked for a value of zero at 262. If zeroed, the specific timer function is executed at 264, otherwise the subroutine advances to the next timer for similar processing by comparing the timer number to a limit number at step 266 and incrementing the timer number at step 268 if the timer number does not correspond to the limit number. The general timer subroutine 252 is then exited when the last timer has been processed, and connects back into the control software at 270 (see FIG. 15).
The switch processing subroutine 254 is diagrammed in FIG. 17, and monitors the status of the switches on control panel 348 the switches 226 and 228 in air box 124, the contacts of thermostat 194 (see below), the status of the switches (not shown) of head control 361 (see FIG. 14), and pressure sensor pad switch 231. Switch processing subroutine 254 is entered from FIG. 15 at connector 272, assigns a number to each input at step 274, and processes each numbered input in loop fashion. Each input is tested for status at 50 millisecond intervals at step 276 although it will be understood by those skilled in the art who have the benefit of this disclosure that other time intervals may likewise be appropriate for testing the status of the inputs. Switch status is tested by comparing the current switch status with the status of the switch from the last test at step 278. If a change is detected, a switch bounce condition is assumed and the switch number is incremented at step 280 for processing the next switch input. If a change from the prior switch status is not detected, a switch position change test is made at step 282 and the appropriate action is taken at step 284 if a switch change is detected. If the switch status is consistent through three successive tests, no switch position change is indicated and the switch number is incremented at step 280 as described above. Switch number is compared to a limit number at step 286, and if less then that limit number, the above processing is repeated in loop 288 for the incremented switch number. Switch processing subroutine 254 is exited when the last switch number has been processed and connects back into the control software at 290.
The rotation subroutine 292, diagrammed in FIG. 18, converts bed rotation commands from control switches 352, 356 and 357 (see FIGS. 1 and 14) into air valve motor function request commands. Rotation subroutine 292 is entered from FIG. 15 at connector 294. There are five paths which can be followed by rotation subroutine 292 depending upon the status of the rotation valve sequence selected by the operator, which is tested at step 296. If no rotation command has been selected, or if pause switch 358 was activated, subroutine 292 is exited through connector 298 back into the control software (FIG. 15). If switch 352 is activated, the motors 138 of valves 130 and 134 are requested to open the valves fully and the status of the timer of the valve motors 138 is tested to determine whether the requisite period of time has passed to accomplish the result at step 300. If the requisite period of time has passed, the motors 138 of valves 130 and 134 are turned off at step 302 and subroutine 292 is exited. If the requisite period of time has not passed, the rotation timer is decremented at 304 and subroutine 292 is exited. If deflate switch 356 is activated, the motors 138 of valves 130 and 134 are requested to close the valves fully and the status of the timer of the valve motors 138 is tested to determine whether the requisite period of time has passed to accomplish that result at step 306. If the requisite period of time has passed, the motors 138 of valves 130 and 134 are turned off at step 308 and subroutine 292 is exited. If the requisite period of time has not passed, the rotation timer is decremented at 304 and subroutine 292 is exited. If rotate switch 357 is activated, valves 130 and 134 are requested to alternately open and close under timer control and the rotation mode timer status is tested at step 310 to determine whether the time has expired, in which case the timer is incremented to the next timer mode at step 312 and the mode timer is initialized at 314 before exiting subroutine 292. If the requisite period of time has not expired, the rotation timer is decremented at 304 and subroutine 292 is exited.
The valve motor subroutine 316, diagrammed in FIG. 19, converts valve motor movement commands generated by the switch processing and rotation subroutines 254 and 292, respectively, in the valve motor operations, i.e., starting, braking, coasting, and reversing each of the motors 138 used to open and/or close valves 128, 130, 132, 134, and 136. Valve motor subroutine 316 is entered at connector 318. Each motor 138 is assigned a number at step 320 and is tested for its requested status, i.e., run or stop, and direction as compared to its current status at step 370. Whenever a running motor is requested to stop, the status of that motor is tested at step 372, and if stopped or stopping, the brake timer is tested at step 374 to determine whether the brake timer is zeroed. If the brake timer is not zeroed, the brake timer is decremented at step 376 and tested again at step 378 to determine whether the brake timer is zeroed. If so, the brake is released at step 380 and the number assigned to that motor 138 is compared to the limit number at step 382 to determine whether that motor 138 is the last motor. If the status of the motor 138 is running at step 372, the motor 138 is turned off and the brake brake set at step 388, and timer is then initialized at step 390. If the motor 138 is not the last motor, the motor counter is incremented at step 386 and the above processing repeated.
Referring again to step 370, if the requested status of the motor 138 tested is that the motor 138 is to run, the current motor status is tested at 392. If the status of the motor 138 being tested is that the motor 138 is stopped or stopping, the requested status and the current status of the motor are compared to determine whether they are the same at step 394. If the requested status and the current status are not the same, the brake timer is tested to determine whether the brake timer is at zero at step 396. If the brake timer is not zeroed, the brake timer is decremented at step 398 and the number assigned that motor 138 is tested at step 382 to determine whether that motor 138 is the last motor. If motor 138 is not the last motor, the motor timer is decremented at step 386 and the above processing repeated. If the brake timer is zeroed at step 396, the direction of rotation of motor 138 is reversed at step 400, motor 138 is turned on at step 402, the motor run timer is initialized at step 404, and the number assigned to that motor 138 is tested at step 382 to determine whether that motor 138 is the last motor. If motor 138 is not the last motor, the motor timer is decremented at step 386 and the above processing repeated. If the requested status and the current status are the same at step 394, motor 138 is turned on at step 402, the motor run timer is initialized at step 404, and the number assigned to that motor 138 is tested to determine whether that motor 138 is the last motor. If motor 138 is not the last motor, the motor timer is decremented at step 386 and the above processing repeated.
Returning to step 392, if the current status of motor 138 is that the motor 138 is running, the requested status and the current status are compared at step 406 to determine whether they are the same. If requested and current status are not the same, motor 138 is switched off and the brake is set at 388, the brake timer is .initialized at step 390, and processing continues as described above. If the requested and current status of motor 138 are the same, the motor run timer is tested at step 408 to determine whether the run timer is zeroed. If the run timer is not zeroed, the motor run timer is decremented at step 410 and tested again at step 412 to determine whether the run timer is zeroed. If so, motor 138 is turned off at step 414, the number assigned to motor 138 is compared to the limit number at step 382 to determine whether motor 138 is compared to the limit number at step 382 to determine whether motor 138 is the last motor, and processing continues as described above. If the run timer is zeroed at step 408 or 412, the number assigned to motor 138 is compared to the limit number at step 382 to determine whether motor 138 is the last motor and processing continues as described above.
A power fail interrupt subroutine 416, diagrammed in FIG. 20, writes certain controller configuration parameters such as blower and rotation mode status in the electrically alterable ROM in the event of a power failure or when low air loss bed 10 is unplugged. Power fail interrupt subroutine 416 is entered upon receipt of an interrupt from an external hardware interrupt (not shown). If the electrically alterable ROM power on delay before erase timer (EEROM timer) tested at step 418 is zeroed, low air loss bed 10 has been powered on for more than a few seconds such that the electrically alterable ROM is available for writing, and the aforementioned parameters are stored to memory at step 420 and the EEROM timer is initiated at step 422 before returning to the codes before the interrupt at step 424. If the EEROM timer is not zeroed at step 418, low air loss bed 10 has probably just been powered on and the memory is not available for writing. Should the control software (see FIG. 15) receive a power the memory write but does not actually interrupt power to the control software, power fail interrupt subroutine 416 initializes the EEROM timer and will be available to rewrite the memory after the EEROM timer has once again timed out.
As noted above, the frame 12 is hinged at 44', 44" and 44'", allowing the baseboards 46 and 52 to be raised from the horizontal, changing the angle of inclination for the comfort of 348 patient or for therapeutic purposes. However, especially when head baseboard 52 is raised, the deviation from the horizontal places a disproportionate amount of the weight of patient 348 on the air bags 322 over the legs 48 and seat 50 baseboards. In a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, there are only three air bags 322 mounted on each of the baseboards 48 and 50, such that a great proportion of the patient's weight, which is spread out over more than 20 of the air bags 58, 322 and 328 when the sections 14', 14", 14'" and 14"" are all in the same horizontal plane, is concentrated onto as few as six of the air bags 322. A pressure sensor pad switches 231 are placed flat on legs baseboard 48 and seat baseboard 50 so that, in the event a portion of the patient's body contacts either one of those switches 231, action can be taken to boost the air pressure in the air bags 322 mounted to seat baseboard 50. For instance, in a presently preferred embodiment, the above-described buzzer is activated by contact with either of the pressure sensor pad switches 231, the alarm buzzer is silenced by activating switch 347, and the air pressure in air bags 322 mounted to seat baseboard 50 is raised by activation of switches 350 and 351. Those operations can also be programmed directly into microprocessor 240 such that the alarm buzzer is unnecessary because correction of the air pressure in those air bags 322 is automatic when, for instance, a patient's head and upper body is raised by activating switch 233 (see below).
Referring to FIGS. 1, 4, 6, and 9B, air chucks 212 are provided in the dump plate 150 which communicate, in airtight sealing relationship, to the opening in each of the couplers 153 of valves 128-136. Using these air chucks 212 as a take off point for air pressure lines 213 and corresponding air pressure gauges 241 (see FIG. 1), the pressure in each sealed bed frame supply hose 174 182, and hence, in each set of air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 and/or 328 can be checked and the appropriate valves 128-136 adjusted to give a desired air pressure in an individual set of air bags 58, 59, 321, 322, 325 and/or 328. Gauges 241 are enclosed within case 243 which can be releasably mounted to head or footboards 20 or 21, respectively by J-brackets 245.
Referring to FIG. 12, there is shown a schematic electrical diagram of a low air loss bed constructed according to the teachings of the present invention. Alternating current enters the circuitry in electric cord 218, which is connected to power distribution board 219. Power distribution board 219 includes a power supply module 220 to supply power to microprocessor 240 through cable 222 and solid state relays to control each of the blowers 108 and heater strip 172. Power distribution board 219 provides power to the motors within boxes 45 for raising, lowering and positioning the frame 12 of low air loss bed 10 by means of lead 223 which connects to junction box 224. Power distribution board 219 also powers the electric motors 114 of blowers 108. Each of the blowers 108 is provided with a capacitor 236, and a pilot light 221 is provided on control panel 348 (see FIG. 13). Switches 192 are provided on control panel 346 for activation of each blower 108.
Referring to FIG. 13, the sensor (not shown) of thermostat 194 is located in seat manifold 80, and when the circuit containing thermostat 194 is closed due to the temperature of the air in seat manifold 80, heating strip 172 is switched on by microprocessor 240. Thermostat 194 also includes a control 189 for adjustment of the temperature of the gas in seat gas manifold 80, and switch 191 on control panel 346 can be used to activate or deactivate the heating function.
Limit switches 226 and 228 are provided in manifold plate 145 and on full inflate plate 144, respectively (see FIGS. 4, 8, 9A and 13). Limit switch 226 is closed when push button 230 is engaged by dump plate. When push button 230 is disengaged by the movement of dump plate 150 away from manifold plate 145 under the influence of levers 165, the circuit is opened and blowers 108 are shut off. Limit switch 228 is affixed to full inflate plate 144 by screws 232, and the circuit is open when lever arm 234 engages manifold plate 145. When full inflate plate 144 is opened under the influence of full inflate knobs 193, limit switch 228 is closed, activating the buzzer which is incorporated into microprocessor 240. A switch 347 is provided on control panel 346 to silence that buzzer.
Control panel 346 is connected to controller 198 by ribbon connectors 200. Controller 198 includes microprocessor 240 and the other necessary circuitry. Controller 198 is provided with plug-type receptors 205 for receiving the plugs 207 of cables 108, 211, 225, 227 and 229.
Cable 208 connects controller 198 to thermostat 194 and the pressure sensor pad switches 231. Cable 211 connects directly to power distribution board 219 and feeds power to controller 198 while conducting control signals to power distribution board 219 to control the functions of blowers 108 and heating element 72. Cable 170 is provided with separate wires 189 i and 186 o for each motor 138 and plug 225 at other end from plug 207 which engages the connector 166 in the wall of air box 124, thereby conducting low voltage D.C. current to each of the motors 138 by wires 189 i and 189 o . Cable 170 is also provided with separate wires 226 i and 226 o and 228 i and 228 o connecting separately to limit switches 226 and 228 i respectively.
Cable 227 is provided with plugs 359 and the other end from plug 207 for engaging a complementary plug 360 on a separate hand control 361 which duplicates the function of switches 349-358 on control panel 346. Hand controls 361 are shown schematically in FIG. 14 because they are similar in construction and circuitry to that portion of controller 198 and keyboard 346 which functions are duplicated. Plugs 359 are provided on both sides of bed frame 12 (not shown in FIG. 14 to facilitate easy access to the board for adjustment by hospital personnel.
Cable 229 is provided with plugs 362 and 363 at the other end from plug 207 for engaging complementary plugs 364 and 366, respectively. Plug 364 is located in the circuitry of the board frame 12 in circuit box 43 (see FIG. 7), shown schematically at box 367. Plug 366 is located on a hand control, shown schematically at 368, which duplicates the function of switches 233 and 235-239 on control panel 346 When hand control 368 is used to adjust the angle of inclination of head and foot baseboards 54 and 46, respectively, signals generated by activation of the switches (not shown) on hand control 368 are transmitted directly to the circuitry 367 of bed frame 12.
Although the present invention has been described in terms of the foregoing preferred embodiments, this description has been provided by way of explanation only and is not to be construed as a limitation of the invention, the scope of which is limited only by the following claims.
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Method and apparatus for preventing bed sores in a bedridden patient. A low air loss bed is provided including a frame, a first set of substantially rectangular air bags for supporting a patient thereon mounted transversely on the frame, and a second set of substantially rectangular air bags for supporting a patient thereon mounted transversely on the frame, and all of the air bags are connected to a gas source. The conformation of the air bags is such that, when the first set of air bags is inflated, the patient supported thereon is moved toward the first side of the frame of the low air loss bed and, when the second set of air bags is inflated while the first set of air bags is deflated, the patient is moved toward the second side of the low air loss bed. The conformation of the air bags also retains the patient on the top surface of the air bags when the patient is rolled in one direction or the other.
The first and second sets of air bags are mounted on a frame which is itself divided into sets of transversely mounted air bags so that the frame can be contoured to the patient's comfort. Also provided is means for additionally inflating the air bags under those portions of the patient which are heaviest when the frame of the bed is inclined for patient comfort.
The method of the present invention comprises inflating a plurality of air bags to a selected pressure for supporting a patient thereon, inflating a first set of air bags to a pressure higher than the selected pressure to cause the patient support thereon to be rolled in a first direction on the air bags, and thereafter deflating the first set of air bags while inflating a second set of air bags to a higher pressure than the selected pressure to cause the patient to be rolled in a second direction on the air bags. A third set of air bags can be provided in which the selected pressure is maintained, thereby substantially immobilizing a portion of the patient'body.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] n/a
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[0002] No federal government funds were used in researching or developing this invention.
NAMES OF PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT
[0003] n/a
REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING
[0004] n/a.
BACKGROUND
[0005] 1. Field of the Invention
[0006] This invention relates to bioprosthetic transcatheter valve and implant material, processes for preparing bioprosthetic transcatheter valve and implant material from animal tissue, and methods of use thereof. Specifically, the invention relates to the preparation of animal tissue, in which the tissue is cleaned, chemically cross-linked using both vaporized and liquid cross-linking agents, and compressed, resulting in an improved bioprosthetic or implantable material that is substantially non-antigenic, non-thrombogenic, resistant to calcification, durable, and thin enough to be used in applications requiring extremely small valves or implants.
[0007] 2. Background of the Invention
[0008] The use of prepared heterogenous graft material for human surgical implantation is well known. More specifically, the use of treated animal tissue as human tissue grafts, replacement valves, and similar implantation surgical procedures is well known. However, problems of immunogenicity, thrombogenicity, calcification, material strength, and size have not been adequately addressed in the prior art.
[0009] Prior to the present invention, animal tissue specimens for surgical use were prepared by first harvesting the selected tissue from beef cattle or other meat supplying animals at the slaughter house. The harvested tissues were then transported to a laboratory where the material was cleaned by mechanically stripping away fat tissue and other undesired components from the harvested specimen material. Next, the cleaned tissue specimen was subjected to a “wet” cross-linking operation in which it is soaked for a predetermined time in a glutaraldehyde solution and finally was dehydrated in an alcohol solution. Subsequently, the sample was thoroughly rinsed to remove traces of the ethyl alcohol and glutaraldehyde and then was packaged in a vial containing a one percent propylene oxide solution as a sterilant.
[0010] While the use of cattle or other meat supplying animals ensures an adequate supply of tissue for processing, a combination of (i) the lower natural collagen levels and higher non-collagenous protein levels in the tissue of older animals, (ii) the lack of a processing step to effectively remove non-collagenous proteins, and (iii) the limitations of “wet” cross-linking, when used alone, to bond glutaraldehyde with collagen molecules, results in a product that still exhibits traits of antigenicity, thrombogenicity and calcification that can result in post-surgical complications, as well as limited endothelialization properties.
[0011] More specifically, the use of glutaraldehyde alone in chemical cross-linking of tissue results in a tissue sample wherein the release of glutaraldehyde after implantation of the sample results in an increased risk of inflammation in and around the implanted tissue.
[0012] For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,468,313 to Bio-Vascular, Inc. discloses an implant material in the form of a natural animal tissue cross-linked into a pre-formed shape, the tissue being adapted to substantially retain its shape when implanted into a body.
[0013] In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,810 to Osteotech, Inc. discloses fibrous connective tissue for surgical implantation is made substantially antigen-free by contact with one or more extraction agents.
[0014] In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,588 to Ketharanathan discloses material for use in a biological environment is produced by subjecting a sheet of parietal pleura to glutaraldehyde tanning
[0015] In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,123 to Oliver discloses a fibrous tissue preparation suitable for homo or heterotransplantation obtained by treating mammalian fibrous tissue with a proteolytic enzyme followed, if desired, by further treatment with a carbohydrate splitting enzyme.
[0016] However, known procedures for treating animal tissue typically result in tissue thickness too large for surgical use in applications requiring a smaller valve or implant. Tissue samples of this thickness can limit the use of smaller gauge catheters in delivering the tissue sample to the area of the human body in which surgery is to be performed, or limit the types of patients that may be treated to large patients only.
[0017] For example, bovine pericardial tissue used in the products Duraguard®, Peri-Guard®, and Vascu-Guard®, all products currently used in surgical procedures, are marketed as being harvested generally from cattle less than 30 months old. However, pericardial tissue from older animals is thicker than younger animals, and thus limits the thinness that can be achieved. Other patents and publications that are directed to the surgical use of harvested, biocompatible animal tissues may disclose thin tissues, however, these tissues are used only as biocompatible “jackets” or sleeves for implantable stents. Accordingly, these tissues do not have the biomechanical, e.g. strength and durability, necessary for the construction of bioprosthetic transcatheter valves, or implants. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,185 to Block discloses an inflatable prosthetic cardiovascular valve which is constructed so as to be initially deployable in a deflated “collapsed” configuration wherein the valve may be passed through the lumen of a cardiovascular catheter and subsequently inflated to an “operative” configuration so as to perform its intended valving function at its intended site of implantation within the cardiovascular system. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,717 to Design & Performance-Cyprus Limited discloses a covered stent assembly comprising a tubular, expandable stent having a metallic framework covered with a cylinder of biocompatible, non-thrombogenic expandable material, such as heterologous tissue. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,164 to Scimed Life Systems, Inc. discloses a prosthetic valve for implantation within a fluid conducting lumen within a body includes an elongate generally cylindrical radially collapsible valve body scaffold defining a fluid passageway therethrough for retentive positioning within the lumen. However, these patents describe necessarily elastic materials that are used for covering expandable wire-mesh stents.
[0018] Methods do currently exist for production of synthetic bioprosthetic materials in the form of an acellular collagen-based tissue matrix. However, the product suffers from a strength deficiency, is subject to tearing and is not ideal for suture retention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,616 to LifeCell Corporation discloses a method for processing and preserving an acellular collagen-based tissue matrix for transplantation. However, to date, the molecular reasons why naturally matured collagen is superior to synthetic have not been fully elucidated.
[0019] Accordingly, procedures and devices which address these and other concerns are needed in the field.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0020] In a preferred embodiment, there is provided a process of preparing a bioprosthetic or implant tissue material for use in surgical procedures on humans comprising the steps of: (a) vapor cross-linking a pre-digested compressed tissue specimen by exposing the tissue specimen to a vapor of a cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of aldehydes, epoxides, isocyanates, carbodiimides, isothiocyanates, glycidalethers, and acyl azides; and (b) chemically cross-linking the vapor-cross-linked tissue specimen by exposing the vapor-crosslinked tissue specimen to an aqueous crosslinking bath for a predetermined time, such crosslinking bath containing a liquid phase of a crosslinking agent selected from the group consisting of aldehydes, epoxides, isocyanates, carbodiimides, isothiocyanates, glycidalethers, and acyl azides.
[0021] In a preferred embodiment, there is also provided a tissue material prepared according to the process herein. In another preferred embodiment, the tissue specimen is harvested from a porcine, ovine or bovine animal. Alternatively, the predetermined tissue specimen is taken from a bovine animal 30 days old or less. In one preferred embodiment, the tissue specimen is taken from an animal that is not more than about 10 days old, and in a preferred embodiment about 5 days old.
[0022] In another preferred embodiment the harvested tissue specimen comprises a collagen-based tissue selected from the group consisting of pericardium, dura mater, heart valves, blood vessels, fascia, ligaments, tendons, and pleura tissue.
[0023] In preferred processes, the tissue specimen is subjected to chemical dehydration/compression and mechanical compression before cross-linking, and/or the pre-digested tissue specimen is provided by digesting a harvested, cleaned pericardial tissue in a solution containing a surfactant. In a preferred embodiment, the surfactant is 1% sodium laurel sulfate.
[0024] Preferably, the chemical dehydration/compression comprises subjecting the tissue specimen to hyperosmotic salt solution.
[0025] The mechanical compression may preferably comprise subjecting the tissue specimen to a roller apparatus capable of compressing the tissue specimen to a thickness ranging from about 0.003° (0.0762 mm) to about 0.010″ (0.254 mm).
[0026] In another preferred embodiment, there is provided a process of preparing animal-derived collagen tissue material for use in surgical procedures on humans comprising the steps of: (a) vapor cross-linking a pre-digested collagen tissue specimen by exposing the tissue specimen to a formaldehyde vapor phase; and (b) subjecting the vapor-crosslinked collagen tissue specimen to an aqueous glutaraldehyde bath for a predetermined time.
[0027] Also contemplated is a tissue for bioprosthetic or implant use in the human body prepared according to the process herein.
[0028] In another preferred embodiment, there is provided a process of preparing a bioprosthetic transcatheter valve material for use in surgical procedures on humans comprising the steps of: (a) vapor cross-linking a pre-digested compressed bovine pericardium tissue specimen by exposing the tissue specimen to a formaldehyde vapor phase; and (b) subjecting the vapor-crosslinked tissue specimen to an aqueous glutaraldehyde bath for a predetermined time.
[0029] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to include a step of sterilizing the cross-linked tissue specimen.
[0030] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to further comprise wherein the compression of the tissue specimen is subjecting to chemical dehydration/compression and mechanical compression.
[0031] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to further comprise wherein the pre-digested tissue specimen is provided by digesting a harvested, cleaned bovine pericardial tissue in a solution containing a surfactant. Preferably, the surfactant is 1% sodium laurel sulfate.
[0032] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to further comprise wherein the chemical dehydration/compression comprises subjecting the tissue specimen to hyperosmotic salt solution and wherein the mechanical compression comprises subjecting the tissue specimen to a roller apparatus capable of compressing the tissue specimen to a thickness ranging from about 0.003° (0.0762 mm) to about 0.010″ (0.254 mm).
[0033] In another preferred embodiment, there is provided a bioprosthetic transcatheter valve material for use in the human body prepared according to the processes herein.
[0034] In yet another preferred embodiment, there is provided a process of preparing heterogenous or homogenous tissue material for use in surgical procedures on humans wherein an animal collagen tissue specimen is chemically cross-linked first by exposing the tissue to formaldehyde vapor for approximately 10 minutes, and second by immersing the tissue in a glutaraldehyde solution for two consecutive sessions of approximately 24 hours each.
[0035] In another preferred embodiment, there is provided a process of converting pericardial tissue specimen taken from a bovine animal not more than 30 days old to a non-antigenic, non-thrombogenic, calcification-resistant implantable material for use in surgical procedures on humans wherein the pericardial tissue specimen is cleaned, digested by surfactant, compressed to approximately 0.003″ in thickness, vapor cross-linked by exposing the tissue to a vapor-phase cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of aldehydes, epoxides, isocyanates, carbodiimides, isothiocyanates, glycidalethers, and acyl azides, and liquid-phase cross-linked by immersing the tissue in a liquid cross-linking agent selected from the group consisting of aldehydes, epoxides, isocyanates, carbodiimides, isothiocyanates, glycidalethers, and acyl azides.
[0036] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to provide an implantable tissue material prepared according to the processes herein.
[0037] In another preferred embodiment, there is provided a process of converting pericardial tissue specimen taken from a bovine animal not more than 30 days old to a non-antigenic, non-thrombogenic, calcification-resistant implantable material for use in surgical procedures on humans wherein the pericardial tissue specimen is cleaned, digested by surfactant, compressed to approximately 0.003″ in thickness, vapor cross-linked by exposing the tissue to formaldehyde vapor for approximately 10 minutes, and further cross-linked by immersing in a glutaraldehyde solution for at least 24 hours.
[0038] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to provide a bioprosthetic or implantable material prepared according to the process herein.
[0039] Also contemplated is a tissue material as claimed herein, in dehydrated state for dry packaging.
[0040] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to provide a tissue material as claimed for use wherein such material is trimmed and/or configured to an appropriate shape as replacement tissue for any of the following surgical purposes: stented or stentless pericardial valve replacement, stented or stentless pulmonic valve replacement, transcatheter valvulare prosthesis, aortic bioprosthesis/valve replacement or repair, annuloplasty rings, bariatric surgery, dural patching, enucleation wraps, gastric banding, herniation repair, lung surgery e.g. lung volume reduction, peripheral arterial or venous valve replacement, pericardial patching, rotator cuff repair, uretheral slings, valve repair, vascular patching, valve conduit insertion, or arterial conduit insertion.
[0041] Preferably, the tissue material as claimed in any of claims comprises a very thin, durable material that ranges from about 0.002″ (0.0508 mm) to about 0.020″ (0.508 mm) as the average cross-sectional thickness. At the lower end of this range, the focus is on being able to create materials, tissues, and devices that can access applications where a very thin, very durable material is needed. At the upper range of the present invention, the focus may not necessarily be on the thinness of the material compared to the 0.002″ (0.0508 mm) materials; however, the durability, and the ability to form materials, tissues and devices from a wider range of starting materials and sources. In another preferred embodiment, the present invention ranges from about 0.002″ (0.0508 mm) and about 0.010″ (0.254 mm) in thickness. In another preferred embodiment, the present invention ranges from about 0.002″ (0.0508 mm) and about 0.005″ (0.127 mm) in thickness. In one preferred embodiment, the present invention averages approximately 0.003″ (0.0762 mm) in thickness.
[0042] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to provide a tissue material as claimed wherein the tissue material is provided in sterile form and is adapted to be implanted into a body and attached in place. For example, the material may be configured in a spherical form to wrap an orbital implant, or configured to form leaflets in a prosthetic transcatheter valve.
[0043] In another preferred embodiment, it is contemplated to provide a stent assembly for maintaining the patency of a body lumen comprising an expandable stent with or without a biocompatible jacket, and a prosthetic transcatheter valve made from the inventive tissue material disposed therein to function as a valve replacement.
[0044] It is also contemplated to manufacture a prosthetic transcatheter valve made from the tissue material configured for delivery within an intravenous catheter measuring 18 or less in french gauge, or even within a gauge 14 or less french gauge.
[0045] In a preferred embodiment, a process of preparing animal tissue for use in surgical procedures on humans comprising the steps of:
[0046] harvesting a predetermined tissue specimen from a bovine animal at the time of slaughter of such animal;
[0047] cleaning the tissue specimen a first time to remove unwanted components;
[0048] digesting the tissue to denucleate and to remove non-collagenous proteins;
[0049] cleaning the tissue specimen a second time to remove unwanted components;
[0050] chemically compressing the tissue specimen, including with a hyperosmotic solution;
[0051] mechanically compressing the tissue specimen;
[0052] chemically cross-linking the compressed tissue specimen by exposing the tissue to a vapor selected from the group consisting of aldehydes, epoxides, isocyanates, carbodiimides, isothiocyanates, glycidalethers, and acyl azides, but especially formaldehyde;
[0053] chemically cross-linking the compressed tissue specimen by exposing the tissue to an aqueous bath for a predetermined time, such bath containing a solute selected from the group consisting of aldehydes, epoxides, isocyanates, carbodiimides, isothiocyanates, glycidalethers, and acyl azides, but especially glutaraldehyde;
[0054] sterilizing the tissue specimen, for example, by exposing the tissue to an ethanol soak for a predetermined time; and optionally placing the sterilized tissue specimen in a sterilized package.
[0055] Preferred embodiments include, wherein the harvested tissue specimen comprises a collagen-based tissue selected from the group consisting of pericardium, dura mater, heart valves, blood vessels, fascia, ligaments, tendons, and pleura tissue.
[0056] Methods of use include using the tissue configured to an appropriate shape as replacement tissue for any of the following surgical purposes: stented or stentless pericardial valve replacement, stented or stentless pulmonic valve replacement, transcatheter valvulare prosthesis, aortic bioprosthesis/valve replacement or repair, annuloplasty rings, bariatric surgery, dural patching, enucleation wraps, gastric banding, herniation repair, lung surgery e.g. lung volume reduction, peripheral arterial or venous valve replacement, pericardial patching, rotator cuff repair, uretheral slings, valve repair, vascular patching, valve conduit insertion, or arterial conduit insertion.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0057] FIG. 1 is a flow chart evidencing the steps of the process claimed herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Definitions
[0058] The following definitions are provided as an aid to understanding the detailed description of the present invention.
[0059] “Bobby calf” as used herein means a male or a female calf of a dairy cow that is slaughtered before weaning, usually not more than 30 days from birth.
[0060] “Collagen” is the most abundant protein in all animal tissue, and is the primary component of connective tissue. Collagen consists of a protein with three polypeptide chains, each containing approximately 1000 amino acids and having at least one strand of repeating amino acide sequence Gly-X-Y, where X and Y can be any amino acid but usually are proline and hydroxyproline, respectively. Collagen assembles into different supramolecular structures and has exceptional functional diversity.
[0061] Natural collagen sources contemplated as within the scope of the present invention include porcine, ovine, or bovine animals 30 days old or less. In one preferred embodiment, the tissue specimen is taken from an porcine, ovine, or bovine animal that is not more than about 10 days old, and in a preferred embodiment about 5 days old. Preferred embodiments include specific tissues, wherein the harvested tissue specimen comprises a collagen-based tissue selected from the group consisting of pericardium, dura mater, heart valves, blood vessels, fascia, ligaments, tendons, and pleura tissue.
[0062] “Cross-links” are bonds that link one polymer chain to another. They can be covalent bonds or ionic bonds. “Polymer chains” can refer to synthetic polymers or natural polymers, including proteins such as collagen. Examples of some common crosslinkers are the dimethyl suberimidate, formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde. Each of these crosslinkers induces nucleophilic attack of the amino group of lysine and subsequent covalent bonding via the crosslinker.
[0063] “Pyridyl” encompasses a set of functional groups in the pyridine derivative chemical class with the common structure C 5 N 1 . A pyridyl group will bond an aldehyde compound to a collagen protein through the cross-linking process.
[0064] “Surfactants” are wetting agents that lower the surface tension of a liquid, allowing easier spreading, and lower the interfacial tension between two liquids. The term surfactant is a blend of “surface active agent”. Surfactants are usuallyorganic compounds that are amphiphilic, meaning they contain both hydrophobic groups (their “tails”) and hydrophilic groups (their “heads”). Therefore, they are soluble in both organic solvents and water. Surfactants are also often classified into four primary groups: anionic, cationic, non-ionic, and zwitterionic (dual charge). A non-limiting preferred surfactant contemplated herein is sodium laurel sulfate, although various other surfactants known to a person of ordinary skill in the art are also contemplated as within the scope of the invention.
[0065] The use of Bobby calf (BC) pericardial tissue for prostheses provides a number of benefits over alternative tissue sources. BC animals are primarily used for the production of veal, meaning that a large and steady supply of tissue from such animals is available. BC pericardial tissue is known to be extremely thin, typically in the range of 0.005″ to 0.007″ (0.1270 mm to 0.1778 mm). Pericardial tissue from such animals also has a very high natural collagen content, providing the tissue both high strength and a variety of biocompatibility benefits, including low antigenicity, thrombogenicity and calcification potential; high endothelialization; high suture retention; and high bursting strengths. As the animal ages, the natural collagen content of its tissue decreases, and these biocompatibility benefits also decrease.
[0066] Increasing the collagen content of a given specimen of animal tissue, and simultaneously decreasing the presence of non-collagenous proteins in such tissue results in a heightened biocompatibility of treated tissue samples. The high natural collagen content of BC pericardial tissue makes it an excellent source of tissue for collagen-enhancing treatment.
[0067] Treatment of BC pericardial tissue for use in surgical transplantation should begin with an isotonic saline wash at room temperature, whereupon the sample should be split to form a flat sheet and then returned to the saline solution to await further processing. Formation of a flat sheet of tissue allows for later trimming and manipulation to form shapes specifically tailored to individual surgeries.
[0068] Washing a tissue sample with a surfactant/water solution for a period of up to 24 hours can result in a 99:1 post-treatment ratio of collagen to non-collagenous proteins in the tissue. Such a high ratio greatly enhances the effectiveness of later collagen cross-linking to further improve biocompatibility of the sample.
[0069] Thinness of tissue used for surgical implants and grafts provides many benefits in surgery. The thickness of such material directly affects the size of any product or device made with such a material, for example a heart valve, arterial valve, or venous valve. Further, the smaller size impacts the ease with which the material may be introduced into the human body, through catheterization or otherwise, as well as the ease of manipulation of the material after placement. A thinner sample means a lower gauge catheter, and easier intravenous or percutaneous insertion, and thus the ability to treat a higher percentage of the patient population requiring such an intervention.
[0070] BC pericardial tissue that has been surfactant treated and attained a very high collagen content becomes ideally suited to compression to further thin the tissue sample. BC pericardial tissue of the present invention may be about at least 95% to about at least 99% collagen. In a non-limiting preferred embodiment, the collagen content is about 99%. Suspension in a hyperosmotic solution for a period of 30 minutes will substantially thin the tissue through partial dehydration.
[0071] Collagen-enhanced and partially dehydrated BC pericardial tissue may be further thinned by means of mechanical compression, and the high bursting strength of such tissue will prevent tearing or weakening of the tissue in the process. A preferred method of mechanically compressing a tissue sample is to place it between two sheets of polyethylene film, each larger in surface area than the tissue sample, and covering the entire upper and lower surfaces of the tissue sample, and placing the sample and film into one of (i) a wringer apparatus comprising upper and lower electrically or manually driven rollers, with the gap between such rollers set at approximately 0.002″ to 0.020″ using a feeler gauge, wherein the tissue sample and film are fed through the apparatus, or (ii) a press apparatus comprising upper and lower plates, wherein the plates are compressed via manual or electrically driven turning mechanism until reaching a gap set at approximately 0.002″ to 0.020″ using a feeler gauge, wherein the tissue sample and film are fed through the apparatus. Additional preferred methods of mechanical compression of a tissue sample include subjecting the sample to a vacuum compression, or applying weighted or compressive force to the sample.
[0072] BC pericardial tissue subjected to dehydration compression and mechanical compression as detailed herein is known to attain a tissue thickness of approximately 0.003″ (0.0762 mm), making BC tissue at least 40% thinner than bovine tissue currently in use on the surgical market, without compromising the strength of the tissue, and therefore is highly desirable as a material for surgical implants and grafts. It is contemplated as within the scope of the invention that tissue thicknesses of about 0.002″ (0.0508 mm) to about 0.007″ (0.1778 mm), without limitation, may be manufactured according to the inventive process.
[0073] Once subjected to compression treatment, the BC pericardial tissue is ready for collagen cross-linking Cross-linking is a process well known in the art for improving the biocompatibility of collagen in a piece of tissue prior to surgical implantation. Processes for collagen cross-linking currently known in the art have been limited to the “tanning”, or submersion of a tissue sample in a wet bath containing a cross-linking agent, such as an aldehyde, as a solute.
[0074] An ideal primary method for cross-linking collagen in tissue comprises placing such tissue onto a pin frame such that the edges are held firmly in place. The frame and tissue sample are then placed into a chamber equipped with each of an inlet and outlet port for submission to a “vapor cross-linking” process. The inlet port is attached to a stoppered flask comprising each of an inlet and outlet port and containing a bolus of polyoxymethylene, which flask is gently heated as air flow is simultaneously initiated from the flask into the chamber containing the tissue sample, thereby producing formaldehyde vapors which flood the chamber for a period of 10 minutes, after which time such vapors are evacuated from the chamber and the pin frame and tissue sample are removed intact therefrom.
[0075] The use of heated polyoxymethylene to create formaldehyde vapor is superior to the known method of heating liquid glutaraldehyde, as the latter decreases the efficiency of the vapor delivery mechanism by releasing water vapor. Water vapor will swell the tissue material, whereas the use of a formaldehyde vapor results in a relatively anhydrous cross-linking process. By not allowing excess water during this phase of the process, the tissue material maintains its thin profile. However, gas cross-linking with formaldehyde is limited by the structural size of formaldehyde and the available of a single aldehyde group.
[0076] After completion of the vapor cross-linking, the tissue material is subjected to a liquid glutaraldehyde bath. Glutaraldehyde provides a further cross-linking that results in additional cross-links that formaldehyde cannot achieve. The presence of two aldehyde groups for cross-linking and the ability to be cross link over a distance since glutaraldehyde has a three-carbon chain connecting the two carbonyl moieties further strengthens the tissue material. In one non-limiting preferred embodiment, the pin frame and tissue sample are then transferred into an aqueous bath containing 1% 0.01M phosphate buffered glutaraldehyde and 10% isopropyl alcohol at a temperature of approximately 40 degrees C., and gently stirred for a period of not less than 24 hours, although variations of glutaraldehyde cross-linking are well known in the art and are considered within the scope of this step of the present invention.
[0077] Although the combination of vapor formaldehyde cross-linking with wet glutaraldehyde cross-linking results in improved stability of the cross-links when compared to a sample subjected to the latter process alone, the combination of formaldehyde vapor and glutaraldehyde liquid appears to provide an additional benefit to the material that results from the inventive process. The bioprosthetic or implant material of the present invention does not exhibit the immunogenic problems known in the art that accompanies glutaraldehyde cross-linked materials. Prior research has shown that glutaraldehyde can trigger a strong inflammatory reaction within a mammalian body, even including anaphylactic reactions. However, the material produced by the present inventive process is non-antigenic.
[0078] It is believed that the use of glutaraldehyde alone in chemical cross-linking of tissue is known to create cross-linking that is susceptible to opening and releasing glutaraldehyde after implantation of the sample. The result of such degradation of the cross-links is an increased risk of inflammation in and around the implanted tissue. In contrast, when pre-treating the sample with vapor formaldehyde via the method described herein, the formaldehyde acts as a reducing agent, creating cyclic pyridine molecules. The process of creating stable, non-reactive aromatics on the exposed surface of the collagen is believed to progress by nucleophilic attack by formaldehyde on the carbonyl of the glutaraldehyde-linked amine of the lysine, histidine, and/or arginine, improving the stability of the molecular structure of the sample and reducing the antigenicity of the sample compared to a sample treated with glutaraldehyde alone. A redcued inflammatory response and lower degree of capsule formation provides a distinct advantage.
[0079] After the completion of wet cross-linking, the tissue sample, still attached to the pin frame, is sterilized by transferring it to an aqueous bath consisting essentially of a 2% buffered glutaraldehyde solution containing 10% isopropyl alcohol, and is soaked therein at 42 degrees C. for a period of no less than 24 hours. Upon completion of sterilization, the tissue sample is removed from the pin frame.
[0080] Finally, the tissue sample is packaged for transport in a container together with a sterilizing 0.65%, 0.01M phosphate buffered glutaraldehyde solution, in which solution the tissue sample may either float freely or be held stationary by attachment to a mylar film.
[0081] Upon removal from packaging, the tissue sample may be trimmed, sutured or otherwise manipulated to form the size and shape necessary for any implantation surgery for which such tissue would be appropriate.
[0082] For example, in one preferred embodiment, the tissue would be trimmed to fit for any necessary vascular or pericardial patching. In another preferred embodiment, the tissue would be sutured to form a cylinder to cover a mesh stent. In another embodiment, the tissue would be cut into a leaflet shape for prosthetic transplantation into a mitral valve. In yet another preferred embodiment, a strip of tissue would be cut and sutured into an annular shape for transplantation into a mitral valve.
[0083] Methods of use include using the tissue configured to an appropriate shape as replacement tissue for any of the following surgical purposes: stented or stentless pericardial valve replacement, stented or stentless pulmonic valve replacement, transcatheter valvulare prosthesis, aortic bioprosthesis/valve replacement or repair, annuloplasty rings, bariatric surgery, dural patching, enucleation wraps, gastric banding, herniation repair, lung surgery e.g. lung volume reduction, peripheral arterial or venous valve replacement, pericardial patching, rotator cuff repair, uretheral slings, valve repair, vascular patching, valve conduit insertion, or arterial conduit insertion.
[0084] Referring now to the FIGURES:
[0085] FIG. 1 shows a flow chart evidencing the steps and materials used in the BC pericardial tissue treatment process.
Example 1
[0086] In this example, the pericardial sac from a bobby calf is washed with isotonic saline at room temperature, held in saline for processing, then inspected for acceptability and split into a flat sheet approximately 7×9 cm in dimension. The washed sample is then subjected to “digestion”, in which a detergent extraction to de-nucleate the tissue and remove non-collagenous proteins, preferably using a 1% sodium lauryl sulfate solution (SDS). The sample is held in this solution and gently stirred for up to 24 hours. Histological review of the tissue will indicate that the tissue has been de-nucleated and that non-collagenous proteins have been almost entirely removed. Gross observation of the tissue will indicate a color change from the original tan/white color to pure white. Digestion has the side effect of swelling the tissue.
[0087] Following digestion, the swollen tissue is washed again in isotonic saline until the SDS is removed. This process also reverses some of the swelling from digestion. Next, the tissue is further “chemically compressed” by dehydration by placing it in a hyperosmotic NaCl solution for a period of 30 minutes, during which time the sample is gently stirred. Upon removal, the sample is placed between two sheets of polyethylene film and subjected to mechanical compression, either using mechanical rollers, a press, or similar mechanism, resulting in a flattened sample approximately 0.003″ in thickness. The polymer films are then removed and the sample is momentarily held on a dry surface.
[0088] Next, the compressed tissue is subjected to an initial cross-linking phase, in which the tissue is first placed onto a pin frame with all edges of the tissue held in place. The tissue/frame is then placed into a box or similar chamber with an outlet port, and an inlet port. The inlet port is attached via a tube to an outlet port emanating from an Erlenmeyer flask, which flask is also equipped with a stopper and an inlet port, and contains a bolus of polyoxymethylene. The flask is gently heated, drawing air from the inlet port, releasing the cross-linking agent formaldehyde vapor, and pushing the vapor out the outlet port and into the chamber containing the tissue sample. The chamber is flooded with vapor for approximately 10 minutes, after which the chamber is evacuated of vapor and the tissue/frame is removed.
[0089] The tissue/frame is then transferred to an aqueous bath containing 1%, 0.01M phosphate buffered glutaraldehyde and 10% isopropyl alcohol for a second phase of cross-linking The glutaraldehyde solution will have been prepared according to the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 7,303,757. The bath will be maintained at approximately 40 degrees C., and the submerged tissue will be gently stirred therein for no less than 24 hours. At such time, the bath solution will be discarded and replaced, and gentle stirring will resume for a second period of no less than 24 hours.
[0090] Upon completion of the second cross-linking phase, the tissue is removed from the pin frame and sterilized by immersion for a minimum of 24 hours in a 2% buffered glutaraldehyde solution containing 10% isopropyl alcohol, maintained at approximately 42 degrees C. Upon removal from this solution, the sterile tissue is packed for shipment into a 0.65%, 0.01M phosphate buffered glutaraldehyde solution, in which the sample may either float freely, or be attached to a mylar film and held stationary within the container.
Example 2
[0091] In this example, pericardial tissue, valve tissue or tendon tissue from one of a bovine, porcine or ovine animal is washed with isotonic saline at room temperature, held in saline for processing, then inspected for acceptability and split into a flat sheet. The washed sample is then subjected to “digestion”, in which a detergent extraction to de-nucleate the tissue and remove non-collagenous proteins, preferably using a solution in which the solute is sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS) or another surfactant. The sample is held in this solution and gently stirred for more than 24 hours. Gross observation of the tissue will indicate a color change from the original tan/white color to pure white, at which time the digestion process will be discontinued. Histological review of the tissue will indicate that the tissue has been de-nucleated and that non-collagenous proteins have been largely removed. Digestion has the side effect of swelling the tissue.
[0092] Following digestion, the swollen tissue is washed again in isotonic saline until the surfactant is removed. This process also reverses some of the swelling from digestion. Next, the tissue is further “chemically compressed” by dehydration by placing it in a hyperosmotic solution for a period of 30 minutes, during which time the sample is gently stirred. Upon removal, the sample is placed between two sheets of polyethylene film and subjected to mechanical compression, either using rollers, weights, a press, a vacuum or or similar mechanism, resulting in a flattened sample between about 0.003″ (0.0762 mm) and about 0.007″ (0.1778 mm) in thickness. The polymer films are then removed and the sample is momentarily held on a dry surface.
[0093] Next, the compressed tissue is subjected to an initial cross-linking phase, in which the tissue is first placed onto a pin frame with all edges of the tissue held in place. The tissue/frame is then placed into a box or similar chamber with an outlet port, and an inlet port. The inlet port is attached via a tube to an outlet port emanating from an Erlenmeyer flask, which flask is also equipped with a stopper and an inlet port, and contains a bolus of polyoxymethylene. The flask is gently heated, drawing air from the inlet port, releasing the cross-linking agent formaldehyde vapor, and pushing the vapor out the outlet port and into the chamber containing the tissue sample. The chamber is flooded with vapor for approximately 10 minutes, after which the chamber is evacuated of vapor and the tissue/frame is removed.
[0094] The tissue/frame is then transferred to an aqueous bath containing between 0.1%-5.0%, 0.01M phosphate buffered glutaraldehyde and 10% isopropyl alcohol for a second phase of cross-linking. The glutaraldehyde solution will have been prepared according to the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 7,303,757, or any functionally similar method known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. The bath will be maintained at approximately 40 degrees C., and the submerged tissue will be gently stirred therein for no less than 24 hours. At such time, the bath solution will be discarded and replaced, and gentle stirring will resume for a second period of no less than 24 hours.
[0095] Upon completion of the second cross-linking phase, the tissue is removed from the pin frame and sterilized by immersion for a minimum of 24 hours in a solution containing between 1%-5% buffered glutaraldehyde and 10% isopropyl alcohol, maintained at approximately 42 degrees C. Upon removal from this solution, the sterile tissue is packed for shipment into a 0.65%, 0.01M phosphate buffered glutaraldehyde solution, in which the sample may either float freely, or be attached to a mylar film and held stationary within the container.
[0096] The references recited herein are incorporated herein in their entirety, particularly as they relate to teaching the level of ordinary skill in this art and for any disclosure necessary for the commoner understanding of the subject matter of the claimed invention. It will be clear to a person of ordinary skill in the art that the above embodiments may be altered or that insubstantial changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is determined by the scope of the following claims and their equitable Equivalents.
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This invention relates to processes of preparing heterogeneous graft material from animal tissue. Specifically, the invention relates to the preparation of animal tissue, in which the tissue is cleaned and chemically cross-linked using both vaporized and liquid cross-linking agents, resulting in improved physical properties such as thin tissue and lowered antigenicity, thereby increasing the ease of delivering the tissue during surgery and decreasing the risk of post-surgical complication, respectively.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to an electrical connecting apparatus for use in an electrical test of a flat-plate-shaped device under test such as a semiconductor integrated circuit.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] A flat-plate-shaped device under test such as a semiconductor integrated circuit undergoes an electrical test to determine whether or not it is manufactured in accordance with the specification. The electrical test of this kind is performed by using an electrical connecting apparatus, such as a probe card, an IC socket, a probe block, a probe unit, or the like, having a plurality of probes or contactors to be thrust to respective electrodes of the device under test. The electrical connecting apparatus of this kind is used to electrically connect the electrodes of the device under test to a tester.
[0003] As one of the IC probe cards of this kind, there is one in which multiple plate-shaped probes or contactors are mounted on mounting portions of a base plate or board such as a wiring board, a probe board, etc. in a cantilevered manner to supply power to multiple non-cutting integrated circuits in a semiconductor wafer form simultaneously or in several batches, as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2.
[0004] [Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Appln. Public Disclosure No. 2005-203606
[0006] [Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Appln. Public Disclosure No. 2005-201844
[0008] Each of these conventional techniques comprises at least one contactor group in which a plurality of plate-shaped contactors are arranged in a line and attaches each contactor to a mounting portion such as a wire, a connection land, etc. of a board such as a wiring board, a probe board, etc. by conductive adhesive such as solder. Mounting the contactor to the mounting portion is performed per contactor since the arrangement pitch of the contactors is narrow, which makes it difficult to mount a plurality of contactors simultaneously.
[0009] Also, to prevent an adjacent contactor that has been mounted from being damaged at the time of mounting a contactor to a mounting portion and to prevent contactors adjacent to one another from electrically interfering with one another in a state where they are incorporated in an IC socket, the mounting positions to the mounting portions are displaced in a direction intersecting with the arrangement direction of the contactors, that is, are arranged in zigzags.
[0010] Meanwhile, in recent years, the number of integrated circuits to be integrated in one semiconductor wafer increases, and thus the arrangement pitch of the electrodes is further reduced. Such a trend tends to proceed further in the future.
[0011] However, in each of the conventional apparatuses, the contactors in one contactor group are just divided into two sub groups whose mounting positions differ in a direction intersecting with the arrangement direction of the contactors. Thus, when each of the conventional apparatuses is to be applied to an electrical test of an integrated circuit in which the electrodes are arranged in a fine pitch as described above, the adjacent contactors will contact, and indeed the electrical test cannot be performed.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Technical Problem
[0012] It is an object of the present invention to prevent damage of adjacent mounting portions caused by heat at the time of mounting of contactors and further reduce the arrangement pitch of the contactors.
Solution to Problem
[0013] An electrical connecting apparatus according to the present invention comprises a board having first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups each including a plurality of mounting portions spaced from one another in a front-back direction and arranged on a lower surface of the board such that the mounting portions in each of the mounting portion group are displaced in a left-right direction from the mounting portions in the other of the mounting portion groups; and first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups each including a plurality of plate-shaped contactors in which the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups respectively correspond to the mounting portions in the first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups and are mounted to corresponding mounting portions in a cantilevered manner in a state of extending from said corresponding mounting portions in the same direction, and in which the mounting positions to said board are displaced in said left-right direction.
[0014] Each contactor has a seat portion mounted on the corresponding mounting portion at the upper end portion, an arm portion extending in the left-right direction from the lower end of the seat portion, and a probe tip portion extending downward from the tip end portion of the arm portion and having a probe tip at the lower end.
[0015] The contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are identical in terms of the height positions of the probe tips but are different from one another in terms of the shapes of the seat portions.
[0016] The height positions of the arm portions of the contactors in the first contactor group are different from the height positions of the arm portions of the contactors in at least the third and fourth contactor groups.
[0017] Each seat portion of each contactor in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups may have an inclined portion inclined in the left-right direction to one side or to the other side of the board.
[0018] Each seat portion of each contactor in the first contactor group may be inclined on one side in the left-right direction, and the inclined portion of each seat portion of each contactor in the second, third, and fourth contactor groups may be inclined on the other side in the left-right direction.
[0019] The seat portions of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups may be mounted on the mounting portions in a state where the mounting positions to the board are gradually distanced in the left-right direction from the positions of the probe tips further in the order of the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups.
[0020] The contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups may be placed alternately in the front-back direction in the order of the contactors in the first, third, second, and fourth contactor groups or in the order of the contactors in the first, fourth, second, and third contactor groups.
[0021] The contactors adjacent to one another in the front-back direction may overlap one another at parts of the arm portions, seen from the upper side.
[0022] The probe tips of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups may be aligned on a common virtual line extending in the front-back direction.
[0023] The board may further have the board further has fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups each including a plurality of mounting portions at positions distanced from the mounting portions in the first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups at the same side in the left-right direction further than the positions of the probe tips of said respective contactors in said first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups and arranged on the lower surface such that the mounting portions in each of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups are displaced in said front-back direction from one another, for each group, and that the mounting portions in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups are placed alternately in said front-back direction. In such a case. the electrical connecting apparatus may further comprise fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups each including plural plate-shaped contactors in which the contactors in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups respectively correspond to said mounting portions in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups and are mounted on corresponding mounting portions in a cantilevered manner in a state of extending from the corresponding mounting portions to a side of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups, and in which the mounting positions are displaced to the board in the left-right direction.
[0024] Each of said contactors in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups may have a seat portion mounted on the corresponding mounting portion at the upper end portion, an arm portion extending in said left-right direction from the lower end of the seat portion, and a probe tip portion extending downward from the tip end portion of the arm portion and having a probe tip at the lower end.
[0025] The contactors in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups may be identical in terms of the height positions of the probe tips but may be different from one another in terms of the shapes of the seat portions. Also, the height positions of the arm portions of the contactors in the fifth contactor group may be different from the height positions of the arm portions of the contactors in at least the seventh and eighth contactor groups.
[0026] The probe tips of said contactors in said first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups may be aligned on a common virtual line, and the probe tips of said contactors in said fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups may be aligned on another common virtual line extending in said front-back direction distanced opposite a side of said contactors in said first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups from said virtual line on which said probe tips of said contactors in said first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are aligned.
[0027] The probe tips of the contactors in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups may be aligned on a second common virtual line extending in the front-back direction distanced opposite a side of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups from the virtual line on which the probe tips of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are aligned.
[0028] Advantageous Effects of Invention
[0029] As the mounting positions to the board of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are displaced in the left-right direction, the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are identical in terms of the height positions of the probe tips but are different from one another in terms of the shapes of the seat portions, and the height positions of the arm portions of the contactors in the first contactor group are different from the height positions of the arm portions of the contactors in at least the third and fourth contactor groups, not only the center-to-center dimension in the left-right direction of the mounting positions to the board of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups adjacent to one another in the front-back direction but also the center-to-center dimension in the front-back direction of the mounting positions to the board of the contactors in the respective contactor groups adjacent to one another in the front-back direction increase.
[0030] As a result of the above, even when the arrangement pitch of the contactors is reduced, it is prevented that heat at the time of mounting of the contactors to the board influences the contactors and the mounting portions adjacent in the front-back direction, which prevents the adjacent mounted contactors and the adjacent mounting portions from being damaged, and the arrangement pitch of the contactors can be further reduced.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0031] FIG. 1 is a bottom view showing one embodiment of an electrical connecting apparatus according to the present invention.
[0032] FIG. 2 is a front view of the electrical connecting apparatus shown in FIG. 1 .
[0033] FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view obtained along the 3 - 3 line in FIG. 2 .
[0034] FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged bottom view of the electrical connecting apparatus shown in FIG. 1 .
[0035] FIG. 5 is a view obtained along the 5 - 5 line in FIG. 4 .
[0036] FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing inversely upside-down direction of the electrical connecting apparatus shown in FIG. 1 .
[0037] FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view obtained along the 7 - 7 line in FIG. 4 .
[0038] FIG. 8 shows relationship between electrodes of a device under test and mounting portions of a probe board in the electrical connecting apparatus shown in FIG. 1 .
[0039] FIG. 9 is an arrangement view showing an arrangement example of the mounting portions.
[0040] FIG. 10 explains shapes of various kinds of contactors.
[0041] FIG. 11 explains a method for assembling a probe board in the electrical connecting apparatus shown in FIG. 1 .
[0042] FIG. 12 is an enlarged upside-down perspective view of another arrangement example of the contactors.
[0043] FIG. 13 is a view similar to FIG. 9 showing another arrangement example shown in FIG. 12 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0044] Regarding Terms
[0045] In the present invention, in FIG. 3 , the left-right direction is referred to as a left-right direction or an X direction (extending direction of contactors), the direction perpendicular to the drawing sheet is referred to as a front-back direction or a Y direction (arrangement direction of the contactors in each contactor group), the up-down direction is referred to as an up-down direction or a Z direction, and the plane including the X direction and the Y direction is referred to as a horizontal plane. However, these directions and plane differ depending on the posture in which a device under test is arranged in a testing apparatus.
[0046] Accordingly, as for the above directions and plane, the plane including the X direction and the Y direction may be determined to be within any one plane of a horizontal plane vertical to the vertical line, an inclined plane inclined to the horizontal plane, and a vertical plane vertical to the horizontal plane or may be determined to be a combination of these planes in accordance with an actual testing apparatus.
[0047] Also, in the present invention, the probe tip side of the contactor is referred to as a tip end side or a front side, and the opposite side is referred to as a back end side or a back side.
Embodiment
[0048] Referring to FIGS. 1 to 10 , an electrical connecting apparatus 10 is adapted to test, as a flat-plate-shaped device under test 12 , a semiconductor wafer having multiple non-cutting integrated circuit regions (regions under test) in a matrix form and is constituted so as to enable an electrical test of the multiple integrated circuit regions or regions under test simultaneously at a time or in several batches.
[0049] Each region under test has a plurality of pad electrodes 14 (refer to FIG. 7 ) in two lines spaced from each other in the left-right direction, that is, in the form of two electrode arrays. The plurality of pad electrodes 14 in the electrode array located on one side in the left-right direction constitute a first electrode group, and the plurality of pad electrodes 14 in the electrode array located on the other side in the left-right direction constitute a second electrode group.
[0050] The electrodes 14 in each electrode group are aligned in a line, being spaced from one another in the front-back direction. The positions in the left-right direction of the electrodes 14 in the respective electrode groups of the regions under test adjacent to one another in the front-back direction are corresponded to one another.
[0051] The electrical connecting apparatus 10 includes a circular wiring board 20 , a rectangular probe board 22 arranged on the lower surface of the wiring board 20 , and a plurality of contactors 24 arranged on the lower surface of the probe board 22 .
[0052] The wiring board 20 has at the edge portion on the upper surface of the wiring board 20 a plurality of tester lands 26 to be connected to electrical circuits of a tester and has on the lower surface and inside a plurality of wires electrically connected to the tester lands 26 in one-to-one relationship although not shown in figures.
[0053] The probe board 22 has a plurality of mounting portions 28 each having conductivity on the lower surface of an electrical insulating plate 30 and has a plurality of internal wires (not shown) electrically connected to the mounting portions 28 in one-to-one relationship in the electrical insulating plate 30 .
[0054] Although, in the example shown in the figures, the mounting portion 28 is an independent probe land electrically connected to the internal wire of the probe board 22 , it may be a part of the internal wire exposed on the lower surface of the probe board 22 .
[0055] Each wire of the probe board 22 is electrically connected to the aforementioned not shown wire of the wiring board 20 . Thus, each mounting portion 28 is electrically connected to the wire of the wiring board 20 in one-to-one relationship. The multiple contactors 24 and the multiple mounting portions 28 are respectively allocated per regions under test that are to be tested simultaneously. The contactors 24 and the mounting portions 28 correspond to one another and to the electrodes 14 in one-to-one relationship.
[0056] The wiring board 20 and the probe board 22 are relatively positioned by a plurality of positioning pins (not shown) extending through them in the thickness direction and are mutually coupled by a plurality of screw members (not shown).
[0057] The multiple mounting portions 28 allocated to the regions under test are divided into first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups each including plural mounting portions 28 spaced from one another in the front-back direction and located on one side (left side in FIGS. 3 and 4 in the example shown in the figures) in the left-right direction in relation to a first virtual line VL 1 extending in the front-back direction located at the center of the electrodes 14 in the left-right direction and fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups each including plural mounting portions 28 spaced from one another in the front-back direction and located on the other side (right side in FIGS. 3 and 4 in the example shown in the figures) in the left-right direction in relation to the first virtual line VL 1 .
[0058] In the example shown in the figures, the mounting portions in the first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups are shown by adding alphabets a, b, c, and d to their numerals 28 , and the mounting portions in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups are shown by adding alphabets a, b, c, and d to their numerals 28 .
[0059] As shown in FIGS. 3 , 4 , and 9 , the mounting portions 28 a , 28 b , 28 c , and 28 d in the first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups are formed on the board 22 such that they are mutually distanced in the left-right direction, and such that their positions in the left-right direction are distanced from the first virtual line VL 1 further in the order of the mounting portions in the first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups.
[0060] In the same manner as above, the mounting portions 28 a , 28 b , 28 c , and 28 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups are also formed on the board 22 so that they are mutually distanced in the left-right direction, and so that their positions in the left-right direction are distanced from the first virtual line VL 1 further in the order of the mounting portions in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups.
[0061] Each of the mounting portions 28 a , 28 b , 28 c , and 28 d in each mounting portion group of the first, second, third, and fourth mounting portion groups is displaced, for each group, in the front-back direction from the mounting portions in the other mounting portion groups and is placed such that these mounting portions are repeatedly arranged in the front-back direction in the order of the mounting portions 28 a , 28 d , 28 b , 28 c , 28 a . . . .
[0062] In the same manner as above, each of the mounting portions 28 a , 28 b , 28 c , and 28 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth mounting portion groups is also displaced for each group, in the front-back direction from the mounting portions in the other mounting portion groups and is placed such that these mounting portions are repeatedly arranged in the front-back direction in the order of the mounting portions 28 a , 28 d , 28 b , 28 c , 28 a . . . .
[0063] As shown in FIG. 10 , each contactor 24 is a plate-shaped blade-type probe comprising a plate-shaped seat portion 32 mounted on the corresponding mounting portion 28 at the upper end portion, a plate-shaped arm portion 34 extending in the left-right direction from the lower end of the seat portion 32 , and a plate-shaped probe tip portion 36 extending downward from the tip end portion of the arm portion 34 . The probe tip portion 36 has a probe tip 38 at its lower end.
[0064] The seat portion 32 and the arm portion 34 have holes passing through them in the thickness direction. The hole of the arm portion 34 is an elongated hole elongated in the left-right direction. Accordingly, the arm portion 34 is elastically deformed easily when overdrive acts on the contactor 24 .
[0065] Each contactor 24 is mounted to the corresponding mounting portion 28 of the probe board 22 in a cantilevered manner at the seat portion 32 with its thickness direction being the front-back direction and in a state where the probe tip 38 accords with a second or third virtual line VL 2 or VL 3 corresponding to the positions of the electrodes 14 of one or the other of the aforementioned electrode arrays.
[0066] The multiple contactors 24 allocated to each of the regions under test are divided into first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups each including plural contactors 24 displaced from one another in the front-back direction and located on one side in the left-right direction in relation to the first virtual line VL 1 and fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups each including plural contactors 24 displaced from one another in the front-back direction and located on the other side in the left-right direction in relation to the first virtual line VL 1 .
[0067] In the example shown in the figures, the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are shown by adding alphabets a, b, c, and d to their numerals 24 , and the contactors in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are shown by adding alphabets a, b, c, and d to their numerals 24 .
[0068] As shown in FIGS. 3 to 7 , the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups are attached to the probe board 22 such that they are mutually distanced in the left-right direction, and such that their mounting positions to the probe board 22 in the left-right direction are distanced from the second virtual line VL 2 further in the order of the contactors in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups.
[0069] In the same manner as above, the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , 24 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are also attached to the probe board 22 such that they are mutually distanced in the left-right direction, and such that their mounting positions to the probe board 22 in the left-right direction are distanced from the third virtual line VL 3 further in the order of the contactors in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups.
[0070] Each of the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups is displaced in the front-back direction from the contactors in the other contactor groups and is placed such that these contactors are repeatedly arranged in the front-back direction in the order of the contactors 24 a , 24 d , 24 b , 24 c , 24 a . . . .
[0071] In the same manner as above, each of the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups is also displaced in the front-back direction from the contactors in the other contactor groups and is placed such that these contactors are repeatedly arranged in the front-back direction in the order of the contactors 24 a , 24 d , 24 b , 24 c , 24 a . . . .
[0072] Since the distance dimension from the electrode group to each mounting portion 28 differs depending on the mounting portion group, the respective locations of the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d differ from one another. This will be explained below with reference to FIG. 10 .
[0073] The height positions of the probe tips of the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the respective contactor groups from the corresponding mounting portions 28 a , 28 d , 28 b , 28 c (height dimensions of the contactors 24 from the corresponding mounting portions 28 to the probe tips 38 ) are identical.
[0074] The dimensions of the arm portions 34 in the up-down direction (width dimensions), the dimensions of the seat portions 32 and the arm portions 34 in the front-back direction (thickness dimensions), and the dimensions of the arm portions 34 in the left-right direction (length dimensions) are also identical to one another, respectively.
[0075] The height dimensions from the mounting portions 28 of the seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 a , 24 b in the first, second, fifth, and sixth contactor groups (height dimensions of the contactors 24 from the corresponding mounting portions 28 to the probe tips 38 ) are identical.
[0076] The height dimensions from the mounting portions 28 of the seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 c , 24 d in the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are mutually identical, but are greater than the height dimensions from the mounting portions 28 of the seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 a , 24 b in the first, second, fifth, and sixth contactor groups as much as the added amount of several micrometers to several tens of micrometers or so to the width dimensions of the arm portions 34 .
[0077] From the foregoing explanation, the height dimensions from the mounting portions 28 of the arm portions 34 of the contactors 24 c , 24 d in the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are greater than the height dimensions from the mounting portions 28 of the arm portions 34 of the contactors 24 a , 24 b in the first, second, fifth, and sixth contactor groups.
[0078] The dimensions in the front-back direction of the probe tip portions 36 and the probe tips 38 of the contactors 24 a , 24 , 24 c , and 24 d in the respective contactor groups (thickness dimensions) are mutually identical, but are smaller than the thickness dimensions of the seat portions 32 and the arm portions 34 .
[0079] The dimensions in the up-down direction of the probe tip portions 36 of the contactors 24 a , 24 b in the first, second, fifth, and sixth contactor groups (length dimensions) are identical. However, the dimensions in the up-down direction of the probe tip portions 36 of the contactors 24 c , 24 d in the third, fourth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups (length dimensions) are mutually identical, but are smaller than those of the probe tip portions 36 of the contactors 24 a , 24 b in the first, second, fifth, and sixth contactor groups as much as the difference between the height dimensions of the seat portions 32 .
[0080] The length dimensions in the left-right direction of the seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , 24 d in the first to eighth contactor groups (dimensions from the back ends of the mounting parts of the seat portions 32 to the corresponding mounting portions 28 to the arm portions 34 ) gradually increase in the order of the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , 24 d.
[0081] The seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 a in the first and fifth contactor groups have inclined surfaces 40 a directing obliquely downward on a side opposite the electrode group side. The seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 b in the second and sixth contactor groups have inclined surfaces 40 b directing obliquely downward on the opposite side to the electrode group side.
[0082] The seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 c in the third and seventh contactor groups have inclined surfaces 40 c directing obliquely upward on the electrode group side. The seat portions 32 of the contactors 24 d in the fourth and eighth contactor groups have inclined surfaces 40 d directing obliquely upward on the electrode group side.
[0083] Each contactor 24 is attached to a predetermined mounting portion 28 with use of a heat source such as laser and conductive adhesive such as solder.
[0084] The probe board 22 having the above contactors 24 can be assembled in the following procedures.
[0085] First, as shown in FIG. 11(A) , the probe board 22 having the multiple mounting portions is prepared. In parallel with this, the aforementioned multiple contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d are prepared.
[0086] Next, as shown in FIG. 11(B) , the contactors 24 a in the first contactor group are attached to the predetermined mounting portions 28 a . Next, as shown in FIG. 11(C) , the contactors 24 b in the second contactor group are attached to the predetermined mounting portions 28 b . Next, as shown in FIG. 11(D) , the contactors 24 c in the third contactor group are attached to the predetermined mounting portions 28 c . Next, as shown in FIG. 11(E) , the contactors 24 d in the fourth contactor group are attached to the predetermined mounting portions 28 d.
[0087] As a result of the above operations, as shown in FIG. 11(E) , the probe board 22 having the respective contactors 24 in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups is assembled.
[0088] The contactors 24 in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are attached to the predetermined mounting portions in the same manner as above.
[0089] The electrical connecting apparatus 10 is attached to the tester in a state where the wiring board 20 is on the upper side, and where the contactors 24 are on the lower side. In a state of being attached to the tester, the electrical connecting apparatus 10 is thrust to the pad electrodes 14 of the device under test 12 at the probe tips 38 of the respective contactors 24 .
[0090] By doing so, overdrive acts on each contactor 24 , and each contactor 24 is elastically deformed at the arm portion 34 . In this state, power is supplied from the tester to a predetermined contactor 24 via the tester land 26 , the wire of the wiring board 20 , and the wire of the probe board 22 , and an electrical signal is outputted from the predetermined contactor 24 to the tester.
[0091] In the electrical connecting apparatus 10 , the center-to-center dimension in the left-right direction of the mounting positions to the board 22 of the contactors 24 adjacent to one another in the front-back direction and the center-to-center dimension in the front-back direction of the mounting positions of the contactors 24 adjacent to one another in the front-back direction respectively increase.
[0092] As a result of the above, even when the arrangement pitch of the contactors 24 is reduced, it is prevented that heat at the time of mounting of the contactors 24 influences the adjacent mounting portions 28 , which prevents the adjacent mounting portions 28 from being damaged. Also, since the seat portions 34 and the arm portions 36 of the adjacent contactors 24 are not opposed to each other, electrical interference between the adjacent contactors 24 is prevented or reduced.
[0093] Also, since the contactors 24 in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups and the contactors 24 in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are arranged to be symmetrical centering on the first virtual line VL 1 , the electrical connecting apparatus 10 can be applied to an electrical test of a device under test having more electrodes 14 on each region under test.
[0094] In the above embodiments, the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups and the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups are placed such that these contactors are repeatedly arranged in the front-back direction in the order of the contactors 24 a , 24 d , 24 b , 24 c , 24 a . . . .
[0095] However, as shown in FIG. 12 , the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups and the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups may be placed such that these contactors are repeatedly arranged in the front-back direction in the order of the contactors 24 a , 24 c , 24 b , 24 d , 24 a . . . .
[0096] In the above case, the probe board 22 in which the mounting portions 28 a , 28 b , 28 c , and 28 d are arranged as shown in FIG. 13 is used.
[0097] The present invention do not need to comprise either the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the first, second, third, and fourth contactor groups or the contactors 24 a , 24 b , 24 c , and 24 d in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth contactor groups.
[0098] Also, the present invention can be applied not only to an electrical connecting apparatus for a device under test having a plurality of electrodes in two arrays on the region under test but also to an electrical connecting apparatus for a device under test having a plurality of electrodes in one array or three or more arrays on the region under test.
[0099] Further, the present invention can be applied to an electrical connecting apparatus in which contactors are attached directly to a wiring board.
[0100] The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments but may be altered in various ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
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The present invention prevents damage of adjacent mounting portions caused by heat at the time of mounting of contactors and further reduces the arrangement pitch of the contactors. An electrical connecting apparatus uses at least four types of contactors different in terms of at least the shapes of seat portions and the height positions of arm portions. Each of such contactors has a seat portion mounted on a mounting portion of a board, an arm portion extending in the left-right direction from the lower end of the seat portion, and a probe tip portion extending downward from the tip end portion of the arm portion and having a probe tip at the lower end. These contactors are mounted in parallel in a cantilevered manner alternately in the front-back direction with the mounting positions to the board displaced in the left-right direction.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk drive which records data on and reproduces data from an optical disk, such as a magneto-optical disk. Particularly, the present invention relates to a focus offset, a tracking offset, and control of a laser output value.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has hitherto been known an optical disk drive which records data on and reproduces data from an optical disk, such as a magneto-optical disk, and an optical disk drive of play-only type. Such an optical disk drive effects focus and tracking control operations. During the focus and tracking control operations, offset adjustment is performed for compensating for individual characteristics of an optical disk drive or for making the optical disk drive compliant with conditions of use. More specifically, a focus offset and a tracking offset are adjusted.
Offset adjustment is performed only once at startup of an optical disk drive; that is, when an optical disk is loaded into the optical disk drive. In relation to a focus offset, at the time of startup of the optical disk drive, an offset value is set to a value at which an RF signal is maximized. In relation to a tracking offset, at the time of startup of the optical disk drive, an offset value is set to a value at which a tracking error signal obtained in an on-track state comes to the center of a tracking error signal obtained in an off-track state. Focus and tracking control operations are performed while the thus-set offset values are taken as references until the optical disk is unloaded from the disk drive.
Further, an output value of laser emitted from a pickup is set also at the time of startup of the optical disk drive. More specifically, the laser output value is set such that a data error rate is minimized.
The related-art optical disk drive sets a focus offset, a tracking offset, and a laser output value only at startup. Hence, if changes have arisen in the internal temperature of an optical disk drive because of changes in the ambient temperature of the optical disk drive or those in the temperature of a board provided in the optical disk drive or the like, changes will arise in an offset characteristic of a circuit or in an optical property of a pickup. As a result, the set offset values and the laser output value will deviate from optimal values. Particularly in the case of a portable optical disk drive, set offset values and laser output values may greatly deviate from optimal values when the optical disk drive is transported from indoors to outdoors.
For example, in relation to a focus offset, a relationship between a focus offset value and an error rate at 25° is different from that at 65°, as shown in FIG. 6 . Further, in relation to a tracking offset, a relationship between a tracking offset value and an error rate at 25° is different from that at 65°, as shown in FIG. 7 . Optimal offset values change in accordance with temperatures. If offset values deviate from appropriate values, recording and reproducing operations may fail to be performed properly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is aimed at providing an optical disk drive capable of appropriately effecting recording and reproducing operations without being affected by offset values and a laser output value, which are set at startup of the disk drive, even when changes have arisen in the internal temperature of the disk drive in response to changes in ambient temperature.
The present invention provides an optical disk drive comprising:
temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive; and
resetting means which resets offset values and/or a laser output value in accordance with changes in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means.
In the optical disk drive, the temperature measurement means measures the internal temperature of the optical disk drive. The resetting means resets offset values and/or a laser output value in accordance with changes in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, offset values and laser output value which are optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
Preferably, the offset values include a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value. Hence, even when great changes have arisen in temperature, a focal offset value and a laser output value can be made optimal.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive;
determination means for determining whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level; and
offset value resetting means which resets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value when the determination means determines that the level of change in temperature has exceeded a predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature measurement means measures the internal temperature of the optical disk drive. The determination means determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level. The offset value resetting means resets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value when the determination means determines that the level of change in temperature has exceeded a predetermined level. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, offset values optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive;
determination means for determining whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level;
offset value resetting means which resets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value when the determination means determines that the level of change in temperature has exceeded a predetermined level; and
laser output resetting means which resets a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, when the determination means determines that the level of temperature change has exceeded a predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature measurement means measures an internal temperature of the optical disk drive. The determination means determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level. The offset value resetting means resets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset-value when the determination means determines that the level of change in temperature has exceeded a predetermined level. The laser output resetting means resets a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, when the determination means determines that the level of temperature change has exceeded a predetermined level. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, a laser output value optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention provides an optical disk drive comprising:
temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive;
determination means for determining whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level; and
laser output resetting means which resets a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, when the determination means determines that the level of temperature change has exceeded a predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature measurement means measures an internal temperature of the optical disk drive. The determination means determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level. The laser output resetting means resets a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, when the determination means determines that the level of temperature change has exceeded a predetermined level. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, the laser output value optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention provides an optical disk drive comprising:
setting means for setting a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value at startup of the optical disk drive;
first temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive at startup of the optical disk drive;
second temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature the optical disk drive after startup of the optical disk drive;
determination means for determining whether or not a difference between the temperature measured by the second temperature measurement means and the temperature measured by the first temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level; and
resetting means for resetting the focus offset value and/or the tracking offset value set by the setting means when the determination means determines that the difference has exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the setting means sets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value at startup of the optical disk drive. The first temperature measurement means measures an internal temperature of the optical disk drive at startup of the optical disk drive. The second temperature measurement means measures an internal temperature the optical disk drive after startup of the optical disk drive. The determination means determines whether or not a difference between the temperature measured by the second temperature measurement means and the temperature measured by the first temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level. The resetting means resets the focus offset value and/or the tracking offset value set by the setting means when the determination means determines that the difference has exceeded the predetermined level. Hence, when temperature change has become greater than that at startup of the optical disk, offset values optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
Preferably, the second temperature measurement means measures a temperature at predetermined times;
the determination means determines whether or not a difference between a temperature most recently measured by the second temperature measurement means and an immediately preceding temperature measured by the second temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level; and
resetting means resets a set focusing offset value and/or a set tracking offset value when the determination means determines that the difference has exceeded the predetermined level.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
setting means for setting a value laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, at startup of the optical disk drive;
first temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive at startup thereof;
second temperature measurement means for measuring an internal temperature of the optical disk drive after startup thereof;
determination means for determining whether or not a difference between the temperature measured by the second temperature measurement means and the temperature measured by the first temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level; and
resetting means for resetting the laser output value set by the setting means when the determination means determines that the difference has exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the setting means sets a value of laser output from a light-emitting section for emitting laser for use in recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk at startup of the optical disk drive. The first temperature measurement means measures an internal temperature of the optical disk drive at startup thereof. Subsequently, the second temperature measurement means measures an internal temperature of the optical disk drive after startup thereof. The determination means determines whether or not a difference between the temperature measured by the second temperature measurement means and the temperature measured by the first temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level. The resetting means resets the laser output value set by the setting means when the determination means determines that the difference has exceeded the predetermined level. Hence, when temperature change has become greater than that at startup of the optical disk, the laser output value optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
Preferably, the second temperature measurement means measures a temperature at a predetermined time;
the determination means determines whether or not a difference between a temperature most recently measured by the second temperature measurement means and an immediately preceding temperature measured by the second temperature measurement means has exceeded a predetermined level; and
the resetting means resets a set laser output value when the determination means determines that the difference has exceeded the predetermined level.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
a temperature sensor for sensing an internal temperature of the optical disk drive; and
a controller for resetting offset values and/or a laser output value in accordance with changes in the temperature detected by the temperature sensor.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature sensor senses an internal temperature of the optical disk drive. The controller resets offset values and/or a laser output value in accordance with changes in the temperature detected by the temperature sensor. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, offset values and the laser output value which are optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
Particularly preferably, the offset values include a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value which are optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
a temperature sensor for sensing an internal temperature of the optical disk drive; and
a controller for resetting off set values and/or a laser output value in accordance with changes in the temperature detected by the temperature sensor, wherein
the controller determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature sensor has exceeded a predetermined level and resets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value when the level of temperature change is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature sensor senses an internal temperature of the optical disk drive. Further, the controller determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature sensor has exceeded a predetermined level and resets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value when the level of temperature change is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, offset values optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention provides an optical disk drive comprising:
a temperature sensor for sensing an internal temperature of the optical disk drive, and
a controller for setting a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value and setting a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, wherein
the controller determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature sensor has exceeded a predetermined level and resets the focus offset value and/or the tracking offset value and the laser output value when the level of temperature change is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature sensor senses an internal temperature of the optical disk drive. Further, the controller determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature sensor has exceeded a predetermined level, and resets the focus offset value and/or the tracking offset value and the laser output value when the level of temperature change is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, offset values optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
a temperature sensor for sensing an internal temperature of the optical disk drive; and
a controller for setting a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, wherein
the controller determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature sensor has exceeded a predetermined level and resets the laser output value when the level of temperature change is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the temperature sensor senses an internal temperature of the optical disk drive. Further, the controller determines whether or not the level of change in the temperature measured by the temperature sensor has exceeded a predetermined level and resets the laser output value when the level of temperature change is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level. Hence, when great changes have arisen in temperature, the laser output value optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive comprising:
a temperature sensor for sensing an internal temperature of the optical disk drive; and
a controller for setting a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value, wherein
the controller sets a focus offset value and/or tracking offset value at startup of the optical disk drive, determines whether or not a difference between a temperature measured by the temperature sensor at startup of the optical disk drive and a temperature measured by the temperature sensor after startup of the optical disk drive has exceeded a predetermined level, and resets the focus offset value and/or the tracking offset value when the difference is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the controller sets a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value at startup of the optical disk drive. The temperature sensor senses an internal temperature of the optical disk drive, and the controller determines whether or not a difference between a temperature measured by the temperature sensor at startup of the optical disk drive and a temperature measured by the temperature sensor after startup of the optical disk drive has exceeded a predetermined level. When the difference is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level through determination, the temperature sensor resets the focus offset value and/or the tracking offset value. Hence, when temperature change has become greater than that at startup of the optical disk, offset values optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
Preferably, the controller measures the temperature detected by the temperature sensor at given times, determines whether or not a difference between a most-recently measured temperature and a measured temperature preceding the most-recently measured temperature has exceeded a predetermined level, and resets set a set focusing offset value and/or a set tracking offset value when the difference is determined to have exceeded a predetermined value. Hence, when temperature change has become greater during operation of the optical disk drive after startup, offset values optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
The present invention also provides an optical disk drive, comprising:
a temperature sensor for sensing an internal temperature of the optical disk drive; and
a controller for setting a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, wherein
the controller sets the laser output value at startup of the optical disk drive, determines whether or not a difference between a temperature measured by the temperature sensor at startup of the optical disk drive and a temperature measured by the temperature sensor after startup of the optical disk drive has exceeded a predetermined level, and resets the laser output value when the difference is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level.
In this optical disk drive, the controller sets a laser output value at startup of the optical disk drive. The temperature sensor senses the internal temperature of the optical disk drive and determines whether or not a difference between a temperature measured by the temperature sensor at startup of the optical disk drive and a temperature measured by the temperature sensor after startup of the optical disk drive has exceeded a predetermined level. When the difference is determined to have exceeded the predetermined level through determination, the temperature sensor resets the laser output value. Hence, when temperature change has become greater than that at startup of the optical disk, a laser output value optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
Particularly preferably, the controller measures the temperature detected by the temperature sensor at given times, determines whether or not a difference between a most-recently measured temperature and a measured temperature preceding the most-recently measured temperature has exceeded a predetermined level, and resets a set laser output value when the difference is determined to have exceeded a predetermined value. Hence, when temperature change has become greater during operation of the optical disk drive after startup, a laser output value optimal for the thus-changed temperature can be set, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproducing operation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an optical disk drive according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a pickup provided in the optical disk drive;
FIG. 3 is a descriptive view for describing the configuration of memory;
FIG. 4 is a descriptive view for describing a temperature table;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing operation of the optical disk drive according to the present embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a descriptive view showing a relationship between a focus offset value and an error rate at different temperatures; and
FIG. 7 is a descriptive view showing a relationship between a focus offset value and an error rate at different temperatures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described hereinbelow by reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1 , an optical disk drive A according to the present invention comprises a pickup 10 ; a temperature sensor 12 ; a servo signal generation section 14 ; an RF signal generation section 16 ; an analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion section 18 ; a digital signal processor (DSP) 20 ; a digital-to-analog (D/A) conversion section 22 ; an actuator/thread motor drive control section 24 ; a laser drive control section 26 ; a motor drive control section 28 ; a motor 30 ; a magnetic head 32 ; a magnetic head drive control section 34 ; a thread motor 36 ; and memory 40 .
The pickup device 10 has the function of radiating laser onto a recording surface of a magneto-optical disk (hereinafter simply called a “disk”) 5 and of receiving the laser reflected from the disk. As shown in FIG. 2 , the pickup device 10 has a light-emitting section 10 a, an objective lens 10 b , an actuator 10 c , and a light-receiving section 10 d . Here, the light-emitting section 10 a is a light-emitting element for radiating laser, and the objective lens 10 b collects the laser originating from the light-emitting section 10 a . The actuator 10 c actuates the objective lens 10 b in the radial and vertical directions on a disk; that is, X and Z directions (see FIGS. 1 and 2 ). During focus control operation, the actuator 10 c is driven. The light-receiving section 10 d is a light-receiving element for receiving the laser reflected from a recording surface of the disk 5 . The pickup 10 acts as an optical head.
The temperature sensor 12 has the function of sensing a temperature and is mounted on an exterior side surface of the pickup 10 .
The servo signal generation section 14 produces a servo signal from a reproduction signal output from the light-receiving section 10 d of the pickup 10 . The servo signal includes a focus error signal and a tracking error signal. The RF signal generation section 16 produces an RF signal from a reproduction signal output from the light-receiving section 10 d of the pickup 10 .
The DSP 20 is a controller for effecting various types of control operations; particularly, a temperature measurement operation (also called as a “temperature determination operation”), an offset adjustment, laser control operation, error detection operation, error correction operation, and gain control. Further, the DSP 20 also serves as an equalizer.
For example, the DSP 20 performs temperature measurement operation in accordance with information output from the temperature sensor 12 . More specifically, the temperature sensor 12 and the DSP 20 act as the temperature measurement means. The DSP 20 performs offset control on the basis of a servo signal output from the servo signal generation section 14 and an RF signal output from the RF signal generation section 16 . The DSP 20 controls a laser output value particularly on the basis of an RF signal output from the RF signal generation section 16 . The DSP 20 performs offset adjustment and laser control operation in accordance with a flowchart shown in FIG. 5 . Particularly when temperature variations have exceeded a predetermined value, the DSP 20 operates so as to again perform offset adjustment and adjustment of a laser output value. Detailed explanations thereof will be provided later. Further, the DSP 20 acts also as the controller.
Under control of the DSP 20 , the actuator/thread motor drive control section 24 controls drive of the actuator 10 c and that of the thread motor 36 . Under control of the DSP 20 , the laser drive control section 26 controls the value output from the light-emitting section 10 a . Under control of the DSP 20 , the motor drive control section 28 controls operation of the motor 30 . The motor 30 is for rotating the disk 5 .
The magnetic head 32 is used for magnetizing a recording surface of the disk 5 ; particularly, at the time of recording data on the disk 5 . Under control of the DSP 20 , the magnetic head drive control section 34 controls operation of the magnetic head 32 .
The pickup 10 and the magnetic head 32 are integrated together, thus constituting the head 38 .
The thread motor 36 is for actuating the head 38 from an inner radius to an outer radius of the disk in the radial direction of the disk 5 (i.e., an X direction shown in FIG. 1 ). The thread motor 36 is driven during seek and tracking control operations.
The memory 40 is for retaining various types of data sets. Particularly, as shown in FIG. 3 , a temperature table storage section 40 a and a temperature information storage section 40 b are provided in the memory 40 . Data pertaining to a temperature table (see FIG. 4 ) for controlling a laser output value are stored in the temperature table storage section 40 a . As shown in FIG. 4 , the temperature table shows a relationship between a temperature and a laser output value appearing at the time of recording operation and that appearing at the time of reproduction. The temperature table is used for re-adjustment of a laser output value, which will he described later. The temperature information storage section 40 b is for storing information about measured temperatures. The memory 40 is also used for storing various types of offset-related data sets, such as set offset values.
Operation of the optical disk drive A having the foregoing configuration will now be described. First, the optical disk drive A is started up (S 10 ). Startup of the optical disk drive A is effected by means of loading the disk 5 into the disk drive A.
When the optical disk drive A has been started up, various types of adjustment operations, such as offset adjustment operations, as well as temperature measurement, are performed (S 11 ). In relation to offset adjustment, a focus offset and a tracking offset are adjusted. In relation to a focus offset, predetermined information is recorded and reproduced while a focus position is shifted by means of changing an offset value, thus searching an output level of an RF signal. An offset value at which the RF signal is maximized is set. In the case of a focus offset, there may also be a case where there is set an offset value at which a data error rate is minimized. In relation to a tracking offset, an offset value is set such that a tracking error signal obtained in an on-track state comes to the center of a tracking error signal obtained in an off-track state. In the case of a tracking offset, there may also be a case where predetermined information is recorded and reproduced while a focus position is shifted by means of changing an offset value, thus setting an offset value at which a data error rate is minimized. Setting of the offset values is performed by the DSP 20 . In this case, the DSP 20 also acts as setting means for setting a focus offset value and/or a tracking offset value at startup of the optical disk drive. It can also be said that setting of a focus offset value and setting of a tracking offset value, both being performed in step S 11 , are performed at startup of the optical disk drive A. Information about the thus-set offset values is stored in the memory 40 . In accordance with the thus-set offset values, the actuator/thread motor drive control section 24 performs position setting operations.
In addition to offset adjustment, setting of a laser output value (may also be called as “laser output” or “laser power value”) is performed in step S 11 . In this case, recording and reproduction of predetermined information are performed while a laser output value is being changed, thus searching an error rate. The error rate is detected on the basis of an RF signal output from the RF signal generation section 16 . There is set a laser output value at which an error rate is minimized. Setting of a laser output value is also performed by the DSP 20 . In this case, the DSP 20 acts as the setting means for setting a laser output value of a light-emitting section, the laser being output from the light-emitting section for recording and/or reproducing data on and/or from an optical disk, at startup of the optical disk. It can be said that setting of a laser output value performed in step S 11 is effected at startup of the optical disk drive A. Information about the thus-set laser output value is stored in the memory 40 . Further, in accordance with the thus-set laser output value, the laser drive control section 26 sets a value of laser output from the light-emitting section 10 a.
Further, temperature measurement is effected in step S 11 . Here, the DSP 20 performs the temperature measurement in accordance with the information output from the temperature sensor 12 and stores information about measured temperatures into the memory 40 ; more specifically, the temperature information storage section 40 b . In this case, the temperature sensor 12 and the DSP 20 acts as the first temperature measurement means.
A determination is made as to whether or not stop processing has been performed within a predetermined period of time (S 12 ). If so (when YES is selected in S 12 ), processing is terminated. In contrast, if not (when NO is selected in S 12 ), processing proceeds to step S 13 . The stop processing means releasing the optical disk drive A from a startup state in step S 10 . More specifically, when there has been performed an operation for unloading the disk 5 from the optical disk drive A, stop processing is deemed as having been performed. Here, determination operation to be performed in step S 12 is performed by the DSP 20 .
Temperature measurement is performed in step S 13 . On the basis of the information output from the temperature measurement operation. The temperature measuremenet operation to be performed in step S 13 is cyclically performed at all times. Information about the thus-measured temperature is temporarily stored in the DSP 20 . In this case, the temperature sensor 12 and the DSP 20 act as the second temperature measurement means.
The level of temperature variations is computed (S 14 ). The level is computed by means of calculating a difference between a most-recently measured temperature and the immediately preceding temperature. Here, information about a temperature measured immediately before is stored in the DSP 20 , and information about the temerature measured one measurement operation before the preceding temperature is stored in the memory 40 . The DSP 20 reads temperature information from the memory 40 and compares the thus-read information with the temperature information retained in the DSP 20 , thus determining a temperature difference. More specifically, provided that a most-recently measured temperature is taken as T 1 and that the immediately preceding temperature is taken as T i−1 , there is computed an absolute value of a difference T i −T i−1 . For instance, the temperature measured in step S 13 is taken as T 2 . When the temperature measured immediately before T 2 is the temperature T 1 measured in step S 11 , a value of T 2 −T 1 is computed.
A determination is made whether or not the thus-computed temperature difference exceeds a predetermined temperature difference (predetermined value) (S 15 ). More specifically, when a predetermined temperature difference is taken as T α , the absolute value of a difference between T i −T i−1 is compared with T α . The DSP 20 performs the comparison operation. Here, the DSP 20 acts as determination means. The temperature difference Ta is set to a value at which an optimal offset value or laser output value is changed as a result of changes in temperature, thus interfering with reproduction. For example, a value of about 20° C. is considered as a value. If the computed temperature difference has exceeded the predetermined value (when YES is selected in S 15 ), processing proceeds to step S 16 . In contrast, when the computed temperature difference has not exceeded the predetermined value, processing returns to step S 13 , where temperature measurement is again effected. If determination processing pertaining to step S 15 has been completed, the DSP 20 stores the most recent temperature information stored in the DSP 20 into the temperature information storage section 40 b of the memory 40 . At this time, the temperature information that has already been stored in the temperature information storage section 40 b is not necessary, and hence the most recent temperature information is written over the information.
In step S 16 , a determination is made as to whether or not stop processing has been performed, as in the case of processing pertaining to step S 12 . If stop processing has been performed (when YES is selected in step S 16 ), processing is terminated. In contrast, when stop processing has not been performed (when NO is selected in step S 16 ), processing proceeds to step S 17 . Here, the stop processing means releases the optical disk drive A from a startup state in step S 10 . More specifically, when there has been performed an operation for unloading the disk 5 from the optical disk drive A, stop processing is determined as having been performed. In step S 16 , the DSP 20 renders a determination.
In step S 17 , re-adjustment of an offset and re-adjustment of a laser output value are performed. A focus offset value and a tracking offset value are reset according to the same method as that employed in step S 11 . More specifically, an offset value at which the RF signal is maximized is set as a focus offset value while an output level of the RF signal is searched. Further, an offset value-at which a tracking error signal obtained in an on-track state comes to the center of a tracking error signal obtained in an off-track state-is taken as a tracking offset value. Optimum offset values are reset in accordance with a temperature determined through measurement. Here, the DSP 20 resets the offset values. The DSP 20 acts as the resetting means; that is, the offset value resetting means. Information about a newly-set offset value is stored in the memory 40 . Further, in accordance with a set offset value, the actuator/thread motor drive control section 24 controls the actuator 10 c and the thread motor 36 , and the position of the objective lens 10 b is set by the actuator 10 c and the position of the head 38 is set by the thread motor.
During re-adjustment of the laser output value, an optimal laser output value is determined from the temperature table, and the thus-determined laser output value is set. As information about the most-recently measured temperature in step S 13 is stored in the memory 40 , the DSP 20 detects the laser output value corresponding to the temperature in accordance with the temperature table at the time of reproduction as well as at the time of recording, and the thus-detected laser output values are set. An optimal laser output value is reset by use of the measured temperature. More specifically, the DSP 20 acts as the reset means; that is, laser output value reset means. Information about a newly-set laser output value is stored in the memory 40 . In accordance with the set laser output value, the laser drive control section 26 controls the light-emitting section 10 a of the pickup 10 . As a result, laser is output in accordance with a reset laser output value at the time of recording and reproduction operations.
When recording or reproduction operation is being performed when an attempt is made to effect processing pertaining to step S 17 , the recording or reproduction operation is prioritized. After completion of the recording or reproduction processing, processing pertaining to step S 17 is performed. After completion of processing pertaining to step S 17 processing returns to step S 13 , where temperature measurement is again effected.
As in the previous case, there is computed a difference between the currently-measured temperature and the immediately-preceding temperature (S 14 ). When the temperature difference is greater than a predetermined value, the offset values and the laser output values are again adjusted (S 15 through S 17 ). When great temperature changes are determined through periodic temperature measurement, there is iterated an operation for resetting the offset values and the laser output value.
As mentioned above, the optical disk drive A according to the present embodiment resets offset values and the laser output value in accordance with changes in the internal temperature of the optical disk drive A. When great temperature changes are present, the focus offset value and the tracking offset value are reset. Further, the laser output value employed at the time of reproduction and that employed at the time of recording are reset. Hence, the offset values and the laser output value can be made optimal for a temperature that has changed, thereby enabling appropriate recording and reproduction operation.
The above description has mentioned that a difference between the most-recently measured temperature and the immediately preceding temperature is computed as computation of temperature changes to be effected in step S 14 . However, the present invention is not limited to this example. For example, there is computed a difference between the maximum temperature and the minimum temperature among a plurality of temperatures measured within a predetermined period of time (or when a predetermined number of temperature measurements have been performed). If the thus-computed temperature difference has exceeded a predetermined value, offset values and the laser output value may be readjusted as the level of temperature change has exceeded a predetermined level. More specifically, from among “n” (n is an integer of 3 or more) measured temperatures including the most-recently measured temperature, a difference between the maximum temperature and the minimum temperature is taken as a temperature change in step S 14 . In step S 15 , the temperature difference is compared with a predetermined value. If the temperature difference has exceeded the predetermined level, the offsets and the like are re-adjusted as the level of temperature change has exceeded a predetermined level.
As an alternative, the average value of temperature difference may be taken as a temperature change in step S 14 . In other words, a difference between a temperature measured in a certain measurement time and the temperature measured in a preceding measurement time is averaged, thereby computing a mean value of temperature difference. The thus-computed means value is taken as a temperature change in step S 14 . The mean value is compared with a predetermined value in step S 15 . If the mean value has exceeded the predetermined value, offset values and the laser output value may be re-adjusted as the level of temperature range has exceeded a predetermined level. More specifically, a difference between the most-recently measured temperature and the immediately-preceding temperature is computed (here the thus-computed difference is taken as a first temperature difference). Then, a difference between the immediately-preceding temperature and the temperature measured before the immediately-preceding temperature is computed (the thus-computed temperature difference is taken as a second temperature difference). A value which has been determined by means of averaging the first and second temperature differences is taken as temperature change in step S 14 .
The previous description has been made by means of taking an optical disk using a magneto-optic disk as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to such an example; there may also be employed an optical disk drive using another optical disk. More specifically, an optical disk drive of phase change type which is another example of a rewritable optical disk and an optical disk drive using a play-only disk may be employed. When the level of temperature change is greater than a predetermined level, the focus offset and tracking offset values are reset. Further, if the level of temperature change is greater than a predetermined level, the laser output value is reset.
Although it has been described that a temperature table is used for resetting the laser output value in step S 17 , the laser output value may be reset in the same manner as in step S 11 .
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There is provided an optical disk drive capable of appropriately effecting recording and reproducing operations without being affected by offset values and a laser output value, which are set at startup of the disk drive, even when changes have arisen in the internal temperature of the disk drive because of changes in ambient temperature. In an optical disk drive, a temperature sensor provided on a pickup measures a temperature. When changes in temperature are greater than a predetermined level, a focus offset value, a tracking offset value, and a value of laser output from the pickup are reset.
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PRIORITY CLAIM
This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. §120 as a Continuation of Ser. No. 14/448,487, filed Jul. 31, 2014, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §120 as a Continuation of Ser. No. 14/078,301, filed Nov. 12, 2013, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of Provisional Appln. 61/887,375, filed Oct. 6, 2013, and Provisional Appln. 61/887,594, filed Oct. 7, 2013. The entire contents of each of the above listed applications are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein. The applicant hereby rescinds any disclaimer of claim scope in the parent applications or the prosecution history thereof and advises the USPTO that the claims in this application may be broader than any claim in the parent applications.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE
The present disclosure generally relates to statistical analysis of large data sets and, more specifically, to generating, storing, and performing set operations on statistical representations of large data sets.
BACKGROUND
Methods and systems designed for analyzing smaller data sets begin to break or become non-functional as the size increases. The analysis of larger amounts of data (colloquially called “big data”) using conventional methods can require extensive computing resources, including processors and memory. Conventional methods may require data to be loaded into locally accessible memory, such as system memory or memory cache, where it can be processed to obtain results. However, as the amount of data increases, this can become impossible. In such situations, there is a need for generating results for complete analysis of the big data that do not require as much computational cost and latency. To achieve such an outcome, the accuracy of the results may be traded for less computational resources, such as memory.
Big data analysis also frequently involves processing of data along multiple dimensions. Such dimensions could be time or data type. For example, big data may contain a log of user IDs and timestamps for users who have requested a particular web application. The big data may also contain user IDs of blacklisted users for each month. The data analysis may require a monthly count report of all unique non-blacklisted users that have visited the web application. To achieve such a result, not only does the large log of user IDs need to be extracted from the big data and processed but also set operations of difference need to be performed on the log data with the blacklisted user data. Such requirements for set operations further complicate the data analysis for big data performed with limited computational resources.
Big data analysis presents a significant problem, in particular, for large website operators, such as Yahoo! Inc. A large website operator may generate terabytes of data per day describing the traffic to its website, or the content and advertisements displayed. While this vast pipeline of data can be mined for insights into the characteristics and behavior of its users, those insights are simply not available unless the pipeline of data can be analyzed, thereby permitting questions to be asked and answered within a relatively short period of time. For example, if the answer to a question about how many users visited a given website today takes until tomorrow to answer, then the answer may be of little use. Providing faster and more accurate answers to questions such as the unique number of visitors to a given website, or the number of clicks on a given item of content or advertisement, are technical problems of the utmost importance to website operators.
More specifically, many big data analysis scenarios, such as user segment analysis, require set operations (e.g., intersection, union and difference) on sets of unique identifiers. When the data is larger than can be normally handled in memory, the unique counting as well as the set operations can be very expensive to compute exactly. If approximate answers are acceptable, then sketching technology can significantly reduce both the computational cost and the latency of obtaining results.
A sketch can be more than just a mechanism to approximate unique counts. It can be thought of as a data structure that approximates a larger set of values. A sketch, in fact, may be a substantially uniform and random reservoir sample of all the unique values presented to it. It is then reasonable to ask: given two sketches can one determine, approximately, the number of unique values that form the intersection of the two large data sets represented by the sketches? Or, perhaps, could sketches represent other set operations such as difference the number of unique values that are present in only one of two large data sets?
For systems that generate millions of sketches or where query latency is critical, to be able to perform set operations on the same sketches that do the unique counting is a huge benefit and eliminates the need for separate processes. Example applications where set operations are intrinsic include segment overlap analysis (intersection), segment rollup analysis (union), retention analysis (intersection), and blacklist removal (set difference). Examples of segments for a website operator might be users (defined by login), impressions on items of content, clicks on advertisements, or other large-scale sets of data relating to website traffic.
Getting faster and more accurate answers to questions about website traffic is an important technical problem facing many website operators.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
SUMMARY
By introduction of a defined threshold theta to the computation of sketches, as disclosed below, a system and method is provided that achieve improvements in the speed and efficiency with which set operations may be performed (and questions thereby answered) on big data. More specifically, advantages over prior art techniques are achieved for computing and performing set operations with sketches, including one or more of the following:
The same sketch used for unique counting can also be used for set operations with very good accuracy. This enables significant reduction in process complexity that would otherwise require separate processes for these computations.
The result of a set operation is another sketch, not just a number. This enables asynchronous or out-of-order computations that are very frequent in batch pipeline operations.
The size-controlling role of K (which refers to a pre-defined maximum sketch sample set size) can be disabled when performing union operations. Such disabling allows the union of two sets to be larger than either of two initial sketches with improved accuracy. This feature may be critical for data query operations where the query engine constructs a set expression with multiple terms. Disabling K also enables set expression evaluation order independence.
Sketches with different values of K (which implies different configured accuracy or size) can now be targets of any of the set operations.
These and other advantages are provided by the method and system further disclosed below. These systems and methods are operable to provide, among other things, faster and more accurate unique counts of visitors to a given website, faster and more accurate answers to questions about particular demographic segments that are represented in visits, impressions, click-through rates, or other data signals collected by website operators.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In the drawings of certain embodiments in which like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts throughout the figures:
FIG. 1 is a system diagram that depicts program logic for generating a result for big data using a sketch data structure, in an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram that depicts a sketch sample set within memory.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram that depicts a fixed-size sketch with K maximum sample set size, in an embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram that depicts a threshold sketch with Theta, an upper threshold, and a target sample set size, in an embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for generating a fixed-size sketch with K maximum size sample set, in an embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for generating a theta sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for generating a theta sketch with an asynchronous cleanup of data, in an embodiment.
FIG. 8A is a flow diagram that depicts a process for converting a fixed-size sketch into a theta sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 8B is a flow diagram that depicts a process for converting a theta sketch into a fixed-size sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram that depicts a SketchMart database with a SketchMart comprising of aggregation of sketches along a dimension, in an embodiment.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram that depicts the generation and usage of sketches in a SketchMart, in an embodiment.
FIG. 11 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a union operation on two fixed-size sketches to yield a union fixed-size sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 12 is a flow diagram that depicts an alternative process for performing a union operation on two fixed-size sketches to yield a union fixed-size sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram that depicts resulting theta sketches from set operations on theta sketches, in an embodiment.
FIG. 14 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a set operation on theta sketches, in an embodiment.
FIG. 15 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing an intersection operation on two theta sketches to yield an intersection threshold sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 16 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a union operation on two theta sketches to yield a union threshold sketch, in an embodiment.
FIG. 17 is a system diagram that illustrates a sketch system, in an embodiment.
FIG. 18 is a block diagram that depicts various infrastructure components through which a sketch system may be implemented, in an embodiment.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram that illustrates a computer system upon which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention.
General Overview
Analyzing big data can be an extremely computationally intensive task with results obtained with significant latency. Sketching techniques can significantly reduce both the computational cost and the latency in obtaining results for the big data. Sketching techniques involve transforming big data into a mini data set, or sample set, that is representative of big data's particular aspects (or attributes) and are used, in various embodiments, to obtain a particular data analysis result estimation, such as unique entry counts, within big data. These mini sample sets, and in some embodiments associated metadata, are generally known as “sketches” or sketch data structures.
Sketches are useful, for example, for counting unique values (i.e. for estimating cardinality) for big data. This is because sketches can be order insensitive, duplicate insensitive, and have well-defined and configurable bounds of size and error distribution. The order insensitive property means that the input data stream from big data can be processed as is; no ordering of the incoming data is required. The duplicate insensitive property means that all duplicates in the input stream will be ignored, which is important in estimating cardinality. The importance of having a bounded size is that one can plan for a maximum memory or disk storage capacity independent of how large the input data stream from the big data becomes. With a bounded, well defined and queryable error distribution, it is possible to report to the user not only any estimated result but the upper and lower bounds of that estimate, based on a confidence interval, as well.
Overview of Generating and Using a Sketch
FIG. 1 is a system diagram that depicts program logic for generating a sketch and estimating cardinality of a large data set that the sketch represents, in an embodiment. A data stream is generated from Big Data 100 and fed into transformer 110 . Transformer 110 transforms the data stream into a representative set of values in such a way where only a portion of the transformed set needs to be analyzed to yield a desired estimation of a result. For example, to estimate cardinality within the data stream, transformer 110 may be a hash function that produces the same hash for the same data value from the data stream. In some instances, a hash function may generate the same hash value based on two or more unique input data values. But taking into consideration the kind of data in the data stream, the choice of hash algorithm may be made to reduce or avoid such collisions.
Transformer 110 also produces close to a uniform, random distribution of transformed values. Due to this property, only a particular subset of the transformed values needs to be examined to yield an estimation for cardinality for the whole set. Thus, only this subset of transformed values needs to be stored in memory 120 , as part of sketch data structure (or simply “sketch”) 130 . Similarly for other transformations, only a subset of transformed data values is collected in sketch 130 in memory 120 . The selected subset of transformed values and, thus, the size of sketch 130 may be limited by the available memory 120 . Estimator 140 processes sketch 130 and its subset of values to estimate result 150 . For example, in some embodiments, when cardinality is requested as result 150 , estimator 140 would use the size of sketch 130 (i.e., the number of elements) and/or values within sketch 130 to estimate the cardinality of the large data set that sketch 130 represents and output the estimated cardinality as a result for Result 150 .
Each of transformer 110 and estimator 140 are part of computer system and may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, one or more of transformer 110 and estimator 140 may be implemented using stored program logic, in a non-transitory medium such as the memory of a general-purpose computer or in hardware logic.
Generally, a sketch is generated to estimate a single result. Such a sketch may represent only a particular attribute of big data relevant to the result. For example, a sketch may be generated to estimate a number of unique user IDs for users who have used a web application for a particular month. However, estimations for other months may also be requested for latter comparisons and, thus, a separate sketch would need to be generated for each month requested. These generated sketches then can be stored in a persistent storage, as “SketchMart,” along with the dimension for which the sketches were generated. A “SketchMart” is a set of sketches, where each sketch is related to at least one other sketch in the set and where combining two related sketches in the SketchMart yields a meaningful result. In this example, the dimension is a time dimension of months. Once stored in a SketchMart, the sketches may be queried based on the time dimension and used for an estimation of a result, but even more importantly, for set operations to yield new sketches.
In much of data analysis for big data, multiple large data sets from big data need to be processed to yield a particular result. For example, the big data may contain a log of user IDs and timestamps for users who have visited a particular web application. The big data may also contain user IDs of blacklisted users for each month. The data analysis may require a monthly count report of all unique non-blacklisted users that have visited the web application.
An estimate of such results could be achieved by proper set operations on sketches. Set operations may be performed on sketches to produce another sketch. The produced sketch can then be used for an estimation of a result that would be an estimation of the result that would have been produced by an actual intersection of large data sets from big data. Thus, sketches that are stored in a SketchMart may be queried for performing various set operations to obtain a desired result estimation.
Sketch Data Structure
A sketch data structure (or “sketch”) includes a sample set of transformed values and metadata associated with the sketch. In an embodiment, a sketch does not contain metadata, such as metadata that indicates the size of (or the number of transformed values in) the sample set. Instead, such metadata may be derived from the sample set itself. A sketch contains values resulting from transformation of big data. The sketch contains only a subset of all transformed values generated from big data, where the size of the sketch may be based on available computational resources, such as memory.
FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of sketch 130 residing within memory 120 . In an embodiment, data values from big data are transformed using a hash function. The distribution of hash function values are illustratively denoted as being all real values from Transformation Range Minimum Value 220 of 0.0 to Transformation Range Maximum Value 210 1.0. As the transformed values are received, only the values within Retained Value Range 230 are retained within sample set 200 . Metadata 240 includes metadata for sketch 130 , such as the maximum size of sample set 200 and Retained Value Range 230 thresholds. In another embodiment, the retained value range may be adjacent to the Transformation Range Maximum Value 210 . In still another embodiment, the retained value range may be between the Transformation Range Minimum Value 220 and the Transformation Range Maximum Value 210 .
Fixed-Size Sketch Data Structure
A fixed-size sketch data structure, also referred to as “fixed-size sketch,” is a type of sketch data structure where the sample set retains values based on a predefined size. If the sample set has reached its predefined size (e.g., maximum allowed entries) and a new transformed value is received, then the new value would either replace an existing value in the sketch sample set, or will be discarded and not stored within the sample set. The predefined size for the sample set may be stored as part of Metadata 240 or for already generated fixed-size sketches, may be computed from the sample set itself. The predefined size is denoted as K, maximum sample set size. FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of Fixed-Size Sketch 300 that has Sample Set 200 and K, Maximum Sample Set Size 310 .
FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment to generate a fixed-size sketch for cardinality computation. As an example of a fixed-size sketch, the following description refers to Fixed-Size Sketch 300 of FIG. 3 . In block 500 , a transformed value is received. If it is determined at block 510 that the transformed value is already within Sample Set 200 of FIG. 3 , then the value is discarded at block 505 and the process proceeds to block 500 . If the received transformed value is not within Sample Set 200 , then Sample Set 200 is evaluated for available space at block 520 .
If it is determined at block 520 that Sample Set 200 has already reached K, Maximum Sample Set Size 310 of FIG. 3 , then, at block 525 , the transformed value is compared with the maximum value in Sample Set 200 . If the transformed value is less than the maximum value, then, at block 530 , the maximum value is discarded from Sample Set 200 to make space for the transformed value. However, if the transformed value is greater than the maximum value in Sample Set 200 , then the value is discarded at block 505 and the process proceeds to block 500 .
At block 540 , the received transformed value is inserted into Sample Set 200 . In an embodiment, Sample Set 200 is an ordered list of values, where the smallest value in Sample Set 200 is the first element and the greatest value is the K-th element in Sample Set 200 . Thus, according to such embodiment, the K-th value in Sample Set 200 would be evaluated at block 525 and would be removed at block 530 .
Threshold (Theta) Sketch Data Structure
A threshold sketch data structure (or “theta sketch”) is a type of sketch where the sample set retains values based on one or more threshold values and a target sample set size. Determination of whether to insert a received transformed value into the sample set is based on whether the received value is greater or less than one or more threshold values for the sketch. The threshold values may be adjusted to accommodate a bound size for the sample set. The bound size for the sample set may be computed based on a target sample set size for the sketch that is stored as part of metadata for the sketch. Any values that are outside of the adjusted threshold values may be discarded from the sketch. In an embodiment, the discarding of sketch data values that are outside of the adjusted threshold values may be performed asynchronously from the receipt of a transformed value. In a related embodiment, the threshold value adjustment itself may be performed asynchronously from the receipt of a transformed value.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram that depicts a theta sketch 400 , in an embodiment. Theta sketch 400 contains sample set 200 with K′, Target Sample Set Size 420 and Theta, Upper Threshold 410 as metadata for the sketch. Theta sketch 400 is generated by receipt of transformed values from big data. Theta sketch 400 has a minimum threshold value equal to the transformation range minimum value, and thus the minimum threshold value need not stored as part of the metadata for Theta Sketch 400 .
FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for generating a theta sketch, in an embodiment. FIG. 6 is described using theta sketch 400 and sample set 200 of FIG. 4 . At block 600 , Theta, Upper Threshold 410 is initialized to Transformation Range Maximum Value 210 of FIG. 2 . At block 605 , a transformed value is received. At block 610 , if the value is greater than or equal to Theta 410 , the transformed value is discarded at block 615 and the process returns to block 605 to process the next transformed value.
At block 620 , it is determined whether the transformed value is unique relative to the other transformed values in the sample set. If not, then the transformed value is discarded at block 615 and the process returns to block 605 . However, if it is determined that the transformed value is unique, then, at block 630 , the received transformed value is inserted into Sample Set 200 .
At block 640 , the current size of Sample Set 200 is compared with K′, Target Sample Set Size 420 . If the size of Sample Set 200 has already reached K′ plus one value, then at block 650 , the maximum value is removed from Sample Set 200 , and, at block 660 , Theta is assigned to the removed maximum value. Otherwise, if the size of Sample Set 200 has not reached K′ plus one value, then Theta 410 stays unchanged, and the process returns to block 605 .
In an embodiment, Sample Set 200 is an ordered list of values, where the smallest value in Sample Set 200 is the first element and the greatest value is the last element in Sample Set 200 . Thus, in such an embodiment, the last value is discarded from Sample Set 200 at block 650 , and Theta 410 is assigned to the last value in Sample Set 200 at block 660 .
While the above example indicates that the range of sample set 200 is from 0 to a value (theta) that represents a value less than 1, embodiments are applicable to the scenario where the range of a sketch's sample set is from a value that represents ‘1’ to a value that represents a value greater than ‘0’. In such an embodiment, a received threshold value would be compared to a lower threshold (not depicted) instead of upper threshold 410 . Cardinality estimations and set operation for such embodiments would change accordingly.
FIG. 7 illustrates another embodiment to generate Theta Sketch 400 with Sample Set 200 of FIG. 4 for cardinality computation. Similar to block 600 , at block 700 , Theta, Upper Threshold 410 is initialized to Transformation Range Maximum Value 210 of FIG. 2 . Similar to block 605 , at block 705 , a transformed value is received. Similar to block 610 , block 710 involves determining whether the transformed value is less than Theta 410 . If not, then the transformed value is discarded and the process proceeds to block 705 to receive the next transformed value, if any. If the transformed value is less than Theta 410 , then the process proceeds to block 720 , where it is determines whether the transformed value is unique relative to other transformed values in Sample Set 200 of FIG. 4 .
If it is determined that the transformed value is not unique (i.e., the transformed value is already within Sample Set 200 ), then the transformed value is discarded. However, unlike block 630 , if the transformed value is not within Sample Set 200 , then the size of Sample Set 200 is not compared with K′, Target Sample Set Size 420 . Rather, Theta 410 is decreased at block 740 , and the transformed value is inserted into Sample Set 200 at block 760 . At block 750 , which may be performed asynchronous from the receipt of transformed values, values in Sample Set 200 that are greater than or equal to Theta 410 are discarded from Sample Set 200 .
According to an embodiment, at block 740 , Theta 410 is decreased based on K′, Target Sample Set Size 420 . Theta 410 may be decreased based on K′ in multiple ways. Embodiments are not limited to any particular technique. For example, Theta (Θ) 410 may be decreased according to the following equation, where K is the actual sample set size:
θ
new
=
θ
K
′
K
.
(
1
)
As another example, Theta (Θ) 410 may be decreased according to the following equation:
θ
new
=
θ
K
′
-
1
K
′
(
2
)
As another example, Theta 410 may be decreased according to the following equation:
θ
new
=
θ
K
′
-
0.5
K
′
+
0.5
.
(
3
)
As yet another example, Theta 410 may be decreased according to the following equation:
θ
new
=
θ
K
′
K
′
+
1
.
(
4
)
Sketch Conversion
In an embodiment, a fixed-size sketch is converted to a theta sketch and/or vice versa. Converting a fixed-size sketch to a theta sketch involves removing minimum and/or maximum values from the fixed-size sketch and storing the values in the sketch metadata as thresholds. Also, if K (i.e., the maximum sample set size) is stored in the metadata of a fixed-size sketch, then K may be removed from the metadata. The resulting sketch would constitute a theta sketch rather than a fixed-size sketch.
Similarly, converting a theta sketch to a fixed-size sketch involves discarding the one or more threshold values from theta sketch metadata, while the size of the current sample set may be stored in the metadata. The resulting sketch would constitute a fixed-size sketch.
FIG. 8A illustrates a conversion of a fixed-size sketch into a theta sketch, using the example of the fixed-size sketch in FIG. 3 , in an embodiment. At block 800 A, the K-th element is selected from the Sample Set 200 of Fixed-Size Sketch 300 . At block 810 A, the K-th element stored in the metadata as the theta upper threshold. At block 820 A, the K-th element is discarded from the Sample Set 200 . At block 830 A, in the metadata, K, Maximum Sample Set Size 310 , is renamed to K′, Target Sample Set Size at block 830 A. The resulting sketch is then considered a theta sketch.
FIG. 8B illustrates a conversion of a theta sketch into a fixed-size sketch, using the example in FIG. 4 , in an embodiment. At block 800 B, Theta, Upper Threshold 410 is discarded from the metadata. At block 810 B, K′, Target Sample Set Size 420 is also discarded from the metadata. At block 820 B, the size of the sample set is stored in metadata as K, maximum sample set size. The resulting sketch is then considered a fixed-size sketch. Although FIGS. 8A and 8B are depicted and described in a particular order, embodiments are not limited to that particular order. For example, block 830 A may be performed before block 800 A and block 810 B may be performed before 800 B.
In an embodiment, sketch conversion is performed on multiple sketches. For example, a set of multiple fixed-size sketches are converted to a set of theta sketches as part of a single operation. Such a single operation may be performed in response to receiving a single command from a user. The single command may specify individual sketches or may specify a physical or logical container that stores the set of sketches that are to be converted. Thus, individual input is not required after one sketch is converted and before another sketch is converted. Instead, multiple sketches may be converted from one type (e.g., fixed) to another type (e.g., theta) in parallel.
Cardinality Estimation
Cardinality for a large data set from big data can be estimated based on a sketch for the large data set. In an embodiment, large data set values are transformed using a hash function. Such transformation uniformly randomizes the large data set values without losing one-to-one correspondence between the large data set values and transformed values. The transformed values are uniformly distributed within a transformation range maximum value and a transformation range minimum value, and a sample set is generated by capturing only a contiguous subset of the transformed values. Thus, the cardinality of the captured sample set is proportional to the cardinality of the transformed value data set and to the cardinality of the large data set. The proportionality can be represented by the following equation, where est (|M i |) is estimated cardinality of the large data set, |S i | is the cardinality of S i , a sketch of F(M i ) max is a transformation range maximum value and F(M i ) min is a transformation range minimum value, x max is the sample set maximum value in the retained value range and x min is the sample set minimum value in the retained value range:
est
(
M
i
)
S
i
-
2
=
F
(
M
i
)
max
-
F
(
M
i
)
min
x
max
-
x
min
.
(
5
)
In an embodiment, the above equation (5) can be further simplified for theta sketches. For a theta sketch, |S i |−2 is the cardinality of the theta sketch, x max is the upper threshold, Θ hi , and x min is the lower threshold, Θ lo . Thus, for theta sketch, the equation (5) can be further simplified to the following:
est
(
M
i
)
=
S
i
*
(
F
(
M
i
)
max
-
F
(
M
i
)
min
)
θ
hi
-
θ
lo
.
(
6
)
According to an embodiment, the transformation value range can be normalized from 0 to 1, where the sketch retained value range has minimum value of 0. Thus, the equation (5) can be further simplified for this embodiment:
est
(
M
i
)
=
S
i
-
1
x
max
.
(
7
)
Based on the above equation (7), the cardinality estimation for both fixed-size sketches and theta sketches can be easily derived. For a fixed-size sketch, |S i | is the cardinality of the fixed-size sketch, and x max is the K-th value of the fixed-size sketch. For a theta sketch, |S i |−1 is the cardinality of the theta sketch, and x max is the upper threshold, Θ. Thus, for theta sketch, the cardinality equation can be further simplified to the following:
est
(
M
i
)
=
S
i
θ
.
(
8
)
In another embodiment, a theta sketch, with K′, Target Sample Set Size, is constructed from a large data set using the process in FIG. 7 , where Θ, Upper Threshold, is decreased at block 740 using equation (4). In such embodiment, the following equation provides est (|M i |), estimated cardinality of the large data set:
est
(
M
i
)
=
K
′
θ
.
(
9
)
Sketchmart
Sketches may be stored in a database for later use. The database may be any queryable persistent storage, such as a relational database or a distributed file system.
Sketches may be aggregated along a particular dimension into a set of sketches, referred herein as a “SketchMart.” Each sketch in a SketchMart is related to at least one other sketch in the set. Also, combining two related sketches in the SketchMart yields a meaningful result, such as the number of unique users who have visited both a financial website and a sports website during a particular month.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram that depicts a SketchMart 910 that is stored in SketchMart Database 900 , in an embodiment. Although only one SketchMart is depicted in FIG. 9 , SketchMart Database 900 may include multiple SketchMarts. Sketch (S′ j ) 912 and Sketch (S′ k ) 914 are part of SketchMart 910 and have been collected and/or generated along dimension 915 . The number and type of dimensions that may be used to group Sketches into SketchMarts are numerous. Example dimensions include time (e.g., day, month, or year), web portal, web application, geographical location of client device submitting requests, type of those client devices (e.g., tablet, desktop, smartphone), type of OS of the client devices (e.g., Windows, Android, iOS).
SketchMart Database 900 may be queried based on a SketchMart identifier and a dimension value to retrieve a particular sketch or set of sketches from the identified SketchMart. For example, a query to retrieve one or more sketches from SketchMart 910 may specify a range of dimension values (e.g., “month=January && February”) and might retrieve Sketches 912 and 914 from SketchMart Database 900 .
In an embodiment, a SketchMart is either a “fixed-size SketchMart” or a “Theta SketchMart.” A fixed-size SketchMart is a SketchMart that comprises fixed-size sketches. Each sketch in a fixed-size SketchMart has the same number of transformed values as each other sketch in the fixed-size SketchMart.
Sketch Set Operations
Sketches may be combined to estimate a result for combination of larger data that the sketches represent. Since a sketch consists of a sample set and metadata, two or more sketches may be combined using a desired set operation on sample set and an adjustment to resulting sketch metadata, if any exists. Set operations include union, intersection, and difference. There are numerous scenarios in which it would be desirable to combine two or more sketches. One example scenario is determining a number of users that visited a certain webpage or website at least once each month of a particular year. Such a scenario is reflected in FIG. 10 .
FIG. 10 is a block diagram that depicts combining multiple sketches to generate another sketch, in an embodiment. Specifically, FIG. 10 depicts a database (M i ) 1050 of user IDs. The user IDs from database 1050 , for each month i, are transformed into Sketch S′(M i ) 1055 , which represents user ID data for each month i. The generated sketches are stored in SketchMart (S′ i ) 1060 along month dimension i. Therefore, Sketch (S′ j ) 912 and Sketch (S′ k ) 914 may represent sketches for the j month and k month, respectively. Thus, query to SketchMart Database 900 for a user ID sketch for the j month would return Sketch (S′ j ) 912 . See further description of FIG. 10 below.
Fixed-Size Sketch Set Operations
Set operations may be performed on fixed-size sketches to yield a resulting fixed-size sketch. The resulting fixed-sized sketch may depend on the number of values produced from the set operation. However, the resulting sample set size may be reduced to the minimum sample set size of the operated sketches to accommodate limited computational resources.
In an embodiment, a fixed-size union sketch is constructed by performing a union set operation on the sample sets of operated sketches. The resulting union sample set size is matched with the size of the smallest operated sketch size sample set by removing the greater value. In other words, if K is the sample set size of the smallest operated fixed-size sketch, then only the first K smallest values in the union sample set are preserved; the rest of the values are discarded. Thus, the fixed-size union sketch would contain the resulting union sample set and have maximum sample set size equal to the smallest K, maximum sample set size, of the operated fixed-size sketches.
For example, Sketch S′ j may contain sample set with values 0.1, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 with K, maximum sample set size set to 6. Sketch S′ k may contain sample set values 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 with K, maximum sample set size set to 3. The union set operation performed on the two sample sets would yield a union sample set of values: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. Since the union sample set size is 7 that is greater than the smallest K, which is 3, the greater values are removed from the union sample set to reduce the size to the smallest K, 3. Thus, the resulting union Sketch S″ u contains sample set values: 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 and has K, maximum sample set size of 3.
In a related embodiment, a fixed-size union sketch is similarly constructed by performing a union set operation on the sample sets of operated sketches. Then, the resulting union sample set is reduced based on the K-th values, the greatest values in each of the operated sample sets. The K-th values of the operated sample sets are compared, and all the values in the union sample set that are greater than the smallest of K-th values are removed from the union sample set. Subsequently, the fixed-size union sketch would contain the resulting union sample set and have maximum sample set size equal to the resulting sample set size.
For example, Sketch S′ j may contain sample set with values 0.1, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 with K, maximum sample set size set to 6. Sketch S′ k may contain sample set with values 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 with K, maximum sample set size set to 3. The union set operation performed on the two sample sets would yield a union sample set of values: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. S′ j has the greatest value, K-th value, of 0.7, and S′ k has the greatest value, K-th value, of 0.6. Thus, the smallest K-th value would be 0.6, and all the values in the union sample set that are larger than 0.6 would be removed. Thus, the resulting union Sketch S″ u would contain sample set values: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 and have K, maximum sample set size of 6.
FIG. 11 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a union set operation on fixed-size sketches, in an embodiment. The fixed-sized sketches are referred to as Sketch S′ j and Sketch S′ k , respectively, the resulting sketch is referred to as Sketch S″ u . At block 1100 , all the values from Sketch S′ k are copied into (initially empty) Sketch S″ u . Then, a value from Sketch S′ j is selected at block 1110 and compared to one or more values in Sketch S′ k at block 1120 . The values that are not found in are then inserted into the Sketch S″ u sample set at block 1130 . Once all the values in the Sketch S′ j sample set have been selected, the process eventually proceeds from block 1120 to block 1150 . At block 1150 , K (i.e., the maximum size of Sketch S″ u ) is set to the minimum of the Ks for Sketch S′ k and Sketch S′ j . At block 1160 , K is compared with the actual sample set size of Sketch S″ u . If the actual sample set size of Sketch S″ u is lower than or equal to K, then, at block 1170 , all the values in the Sketch S″ u sample set size that are larger than K′th value in Sketch S″ u are removed.
FIG. 12 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a union set operation on fixed-size sketches, in an embodiment. Again, the fixed-sized sketches are referred to as Sketch S′ j and Sketch S′ k , respectively, the resulting sketch is referred to as Sketch S″ u . Similar to 1100 block in FIG. 11 , at 1200 block, all the values from Sketch S′ k are copied into Sketch S″ u . Then, a value in Sketch S′ j is selected at block 1210 and compared to the values in Sketch S′ k at block 1220 . The values that are not found in Sketch S′ k are inserted into Sketch S″ u at block 1230 . Once all the values in the Sketch S′ j sample set have been selected (as determined in block 1240 ), the process proceeds to block 1270 . However, unlike block 1170 in FIG. 11 , at block 1270 , only those values in Sketch S″ u are removed that are either larger than the K-th value in Sketch S′ j or larger than the K-th value in Sketch S′ k .
Theta Sketch Set Operations
In an embodiment, set operations are performed on theta sketches to yield a resulting theta sketch. The size of a resulting theta sketch may depend on the respective thresholds of the input theta sketches.
FIG. 13 is a block diagram that depicts theta sketches that result from different set operations on two input theta sketches, in an embodiment. Sketch A consists of a sample set, Sample Set A 1300 , and an upper threshold, Θ A 1305 , where values in Sample Set A 1300 are depicted in descending order: value V 1 is greater than value V 2 , and value V 2 is greater than value V 3 . Sketch B consists of a sample set, Sample Set B 1310 , where values in Sample Set B 1310 are depicted in descending order: value V 3 is greater than value V 4 . Sketch B further consists of an upper threshold, Θ B 1315 , where Θ B 1315 is less than value V i and thus, is further less than Θ A 1305 .
To yield a resulting theta sketch for any sketch operation, Δ, such as union, difference or intersection, a resulting sketch upper threshold value is calculated, in an embodiment. The resulting sketch upper threshold, Θ Δ 1325 , is determined by taking the minimum of the upper thresholds of the operated sketches: Θ A 1305 and Θ B 1315 . In this embodiment, since Θ B 1315 is less than Θ A 1305 , Θ Δ 1325 is equal to Θ B 1315 .
Next, a resulting sketch sample set for an operation on Sketch A and Sketch B is determined. First, the set operation is performed on Sample Set A 1300 and Sample Set B 1310 , and second, any value that is greater than Θ Δ 1325 is removed.
For a union operation on Sketch A and Sketch B, the union operation is performed on Sample Set A 1300 values V 1 , V 2 , V 3 and Sample Set B 1310 values V 3 , V 4 . The union operation yields a super set of the values: V 1 , V 2 , V 3 and V 4 , as depicted in Sample Set A U B 1320 . However, since value V 1 is greater than the resulting upper threshold, Θ Δ 1325 , V 1 is removed from Sample Set A U B 1320 , as depicted by the parenthesis around V 1 in FIG. 13 .
Similarly, a difference operation of Sketch A and Sketch B first yields Sample Set A \ B 1330 . Any value in Sample Set B 1310 that also exists in Sample Set A 1300 is removed from Sample Set A 1300 to produce values V 1 and V 2 for Sample Set A \ B 1330 . However, since V 1 is greater than the resulting upper threshold, Θ Δ 1325 , value V 1 is removed from Sample Set A \ B 1330 , as depicted by the parenthesis around V 1 in FIG. 13 , while value V 2 remains in Sample Set A \ B 1330 .
A difference operation of Sketch B and Sketch A yields Sample Set B \ A 1340 . Any value in Sample Set A 1300 that also exists in Sample Set B 1310 is removed from Sample Set B 1310 to produce value V 4 for Sample Set B \ A 1340 . Since value V 4 is less than Θ Δ 1325 , value V 4 remains in Sample Set B \ A 1340 .
An intersection operation of Sketch A and Sketch B yields Sample Set A ∩B 1350 . Values V 1 , V 2 , V 3 from Sample Set A 1300 are intersected with values V 3 , V 4 from Sample Set B 1310 to yield common value V 3 for Sample Set A ∩B 1350 . Since value V 3 is less than Θ Δ 1325 , value V 3 remains in Sample Set A ∩B 1350 .
FIG. 14 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a set operation using two theta sketches as input. At blocks 1400 and 1410 thresholds for a resulting sketch is set to the minimum and maximum of thresholds of the respective input sketches. Then, at block 1420 , a desired set operation is performed on the sample sets of the operated sketches. The resulting sample set is then stored into the resulting theta sketch at block 1430 . All the values in the resulting theta sketch sample set that are not within the thresholds of the resulting sketch are then removed at block 1440 . The resulting theta sketch is a product of the desired set operation on the operated theta sketches.
In a related embodiment, a similar process is performed to that of FIG. 14 . One difference is that values in the resulting sketch are not removed synchronously to the process. In other words, a separate process may be responsible for removing the values that are to be discarded.
FIG. 15 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing an intersection operation on theta sketches, in an embodiment. The theta sketches are referred to as Sketch S′ j and Sketch S′ k , respectively, and the resulting sketch is referred to as Sketch S″ j,k . At block 1500 , theta for the resulting sketch, S″ j,k , is set to the minimum of the theta's for operated sketches, S′ k and S′ j . At block 1510 , a value in Sketch S′ j is selected and, at block 1520 , compared to the values in Sketch S′ k . If the selected value is found in Sketch S′ k , then the value is inserted into Sketch S″ j,k at block 1530 . Once all the values in Sketch S′ j are selected and compared and there are no more values from Sketch S′ j left to process (as determined in block 1540 ), then the process proceeds to block 1550 .
At block 1550 , all the values in the Sketch S″ j,k sample set that are greater than Theta for Sketch S″ j,k are removed. Thus, Sketch S″ j,k is a result of the intersection operation on Sketch S′ k and Sketch S′ j .
FIG. 16 is a flow diagram that depicts a process for performing a union operation on theta sketches, in an embodiment. The theta sketches are referred to as Sketch S′, and Sketch S′ k , respectively, and the resulting union sketch is referred to as Sketch S″ u . At block 1600 , Theta for the resulting sketch, S″ u , is set to the minimum of Theta's for operated sketches, S′ k and S′ j . At block 1610 , the values from Sketch S′ k are copied into Sketch S″ u . Then, at block 1620 , a value from Sketch S′, is selected and, at block 1640 , compared to the values in Sketch S′ k . If the selected value does not exist in Sketch S′ k , then the value is inserted into Sketch S″ j,k at block 1650 . Once all the values in Sketch S′, have been selected and compared and it is determined (at block 1630 ) that there are no more values from Sketch S′, left to process, the process proceeds to block 1660 . At block 1660 , all the values in Sketch S″ u that are greater than Theta for Sketch S″ u are removed.
Sketch Set Operation Cardinality Estimation
Set operations on sketches allow estimated results for combinations of large data sets to be obtained. For example, a large data set may have a log of users who have used a particular web application or who have visited a particular website. Such data may contain user IDs with timestamps. To determine retention amongst users of the web application for each month, a data set of user IDs for one month needs to be queried from the log and intersected with a data set of user IDs for another month. The unique count of the intersection would yield the retention number of users for the web application for those months. An estimation of this result may be obtained by generating sketches from large data set, performing set operations on those sketches, and estimating results based on the sketches produced by performing the set operations.
FIG. 10 (a portion of which was described previously) illustrates such a scenario. Database (M i ) 1050 represents a log of user IDs with timestamps for each month i. To obtain an estimation of unique users per month, a sketch, S′(M i ) is generated at block 1055 for each month i. A number of S′(M i ) sketches (e.g., 12, corresponding to each month of a particular year) are stored in SketchMart (S′ i ) 1060 . For generating a retention results for users on monthly basis, sketches, Sketch S′ i and Sketch S′ k may be queried from SketchMart S′ i for j and k month respectively. At block 1065 , an intersection operation may be performed on sketches, Sketch and Sketch S′ k to produce Sketch S″ j,k . The intersection operation may be performed according to any of the processes described in the set operation sections. Also, since set operations, like intersection, may be performed on sketches retrieved from SketchMart database, such set operations may be performed completely asynchronous from sketch generation described in block 1055 . The resulting sketch, Sketch S″ j,k , at block 1070 would represent the common user ID data for months j and k. Sketch S″ j,k may be evaluated for cardinality at block 1075 for estimation of cardinality Result j,k . The cardinality, Result j,k , would represent the unique count of common users that have visited the site both in month j and k. Result j,k may be stored in a database at block 1080 . From the data base of results, at block 1080 , a bar chart, 990 , can be generated, where each bar represents a count of retention of users who have visited the web application each month.
Set operation produced sketch cardinality can be estimated by the same equations used for cardinality estimation for data generated sketches. The following equation may be used to estimate cardinality based on intersection operation:
est ( I ) = C U - 1 x u * C I C U . ( 10 )
where |C U | is the cardinality of union sketch of operated sketches, x u is the maximum value in the union sample set, and |C I | is the cardinality of the intersection sketch of the operated sketches.
For set operation resulting in a theta sketch, the equation may be further simplified to:
est
(
I
)
=
C
I
θ
I
.
(
11
)
Thus, for theta sketches, cardinality estimation using a resulting theta sketch for any set operation can be accurately estimated as:
est ( Δ ) = C Δ θ Δ . ( 12 )
where Δ is any set operation, |C Δ | is a cardinality of a resulting sketch sample set from Δ set operation on operated sketches, and Θ Δ is a resulting Theta from A operation on the operated sketches. In an embodiment, Θ Δ may be the minimum of Θ's for the operated sketches.
Sketch System
FIG. 17 is a block diagram that depicts a sketch system 1700 , in an embodiment.
Sketch system 1700 may be used for transforming values of large data sets from big data, generating sketches, storing and retrieving sketches from SketchMart database, performing set operations on sketches and estimating cardinalities of large data sets that sketches represent. In an embodiment, a data stream is generated from Big Data 1710 and fed into sketch system 1700 . Value Transformer 1720 , a component of sketch system 1700 , receives the data stream from Big Data 1710 . Value Transformer 1720 transforms the data stream into a representative set of values based on which sketches can be generated.
Sketch Generator 1730 , a component of sketch system 1700 , receives the transformed data set from Value Transformer 1720 and based on the transformed data set, generates a sketch. Sketch Generator 1730 may feed sketches into Cardinality Estimator 1740 or Sketch Operator 1750 , or store sketches into SketchMart database 1760 for later retrieval. In an embodiment, Sketch Generator 1730 may receive multiple transformed data sets at once, generate sketches in parallel and feed the sketches to other components of sketch system 1700 .
Sketch Operator 1750 , a component of sketch system 1700 , may receive sketches as input from Sketch Generator 1730 or retrieve sketches from SketchMart database 1760 . Sketch Operator 1750 performs set operations on input sketches producing a resulting sketch. Sketch Operator 1750 may store resulting sketches in SketchMart database 1760 or feed sketches to Cardinality Estimator 1740 . In an embodiment, Sketch Operator 1750 may perform multiple set operations in parallel and feed resulting sketches to other components of sketch system 1700 .
Upon receipt of a sketch, Cardinality Estimator 1740 , a component of sketch system 1700 , processes sketch and its subset of values to estimate result. In an embodiment, Cardinality Estimator 1740 may perform multiple estimations in parallel to yield multiple results.
Each of Value Transformer 1720 , Sketch Generator 1730 , Cardinality Estimator 1740 , Sketch Operator 1750 and SketchMart database 1760 are part of computer system and may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, one or more of Value Transformer 1720 , Sketch Generator 1730 , Cardinality Estimator 1740 , Sketch Operator 1750 and SketchMart database 1760 may be implemented using stored program logic.
FIG. 18 is a block diagram that depicts various infrastructure components through which a sketch system may be implemented, in an embodiment. The infrastructure components in aggregation are referred to as an analytical data warehouse (ADW) 1800 . ADW 1800 may be built using the Hadoop File System (HDFS) 1808 for distributed data storage and Hadoop-MR6, which is a MR (map reduced) driven processing system. Multiple Hadoop systems or grids 1808 may be used. Hadoop grid 1808 includes a Hive-7 system 1820 . Optionally, ADW 1800 further includes a Spark/Shark satellite cluster 1830 .
In a related embodiment, SketchMart database 1760 may be implemented as part of HDFS 1808 . Value Transformer 1720 , Sketch Generator 1730 , Cardinality Estimator 1740 , and Sketch Operator 1750 may be implemented using one or more Hive-7 system 1820 clusters or Spark/Shark satellite clusters 1830 .
Hardware Overview
According to one embodiment, the techniques described herein are implemented by one or more special-purpose computing devices. The special-purpose computing devices may be hard-wired to perform the techniques, or may include digital electronic devices such as one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) that are persistently programmed to perform the techniques, or may include one or more general purpose hardware processors programmed to perform the techniques pursuant to program instructions in firmware, memory, other storage, or a combination. Such special-purpose computing devices may also combine custom hard-wired logic, ASICs, or FPGAs with custom programming to accomplish the techniques. The special-purpose computing devices may be desktop computer systems, portable computer systems, handheld devices, networking devices or any other device that incorporates hard-wired and/or program logic to implement the techniques.
For example, FIG. 19 is a block diagram that illustrates a computer system 1900 upon which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented. Computer system 1900 includes a bus 1902 or other communication mechanism for communicating information, and a hardware processor 1904 coupled with bus 1902 for processing information. Hardware processor 1904 may be, for example, a general purpose microprocessor.
Computer system 1900 also includes a main memory 1906 , such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, coupled to bus 1902 for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor 1904 . Main memory 1906 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 1904 . Such instructions, when stored in non-transitory storage media accessible to processor 1904 , render computer system 1900 into a special-purpose machine that is customized to perform the operations specified in the instructions.
Computer system 1900 further includes a read only memory (ROM) 1908 or other static storage device coupled to bus 1902 for storing static information and instructions for processor 1904 . A storage device 1910 , such as a magnetic disk, optical disk, or solid-state drive is provided and coupled to bus 1902 for storing information and instructions.
Computer system 1900 may be coupled via bus 1902 to a display 1912 , such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computer user. An input device 1914 , including alphanumeric and other keys, is coupled to bus 1902 for communicating information and command selections to processor 1904 . Another type of user input device is cursor control 1916 , such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor 1904 and for controlling cursor movement on display 1912 . This input device typically has two degrees of freedom in two axes, a first axis (e.g., x) and a second axis (e.g., y), that allows the device to specify positions in a plane.
Computer system 1900 may implement the techniques described herein using customized hard-wired logic, one or more ASICs or FPGAs, firmware and/or program logic which in combination with the computer system causes or programs computer system 1900 to be a special-purpose machine. According to one embodiment, the techniques herein are performed by computer system 1900 in response to processor 1904 executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 1906 . Such instructions may be read into main memory 1906 from another storage medium, such as storage device 1910 . Execution of the sequences of instructions contained in main memory 1906 causes processor 1904 to perform the process steps described herein. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions.
The term “storage media” as used herein refers to any non-transitory media that store data and/or instructions that cause a machine to operate in a specific fashion. Such storage media may comprise non-volatile media and/or volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical disks, magnetic disks, or solid-state drives, such as storage device 1910 . Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 1906 . Common forms of storage media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, solid-state drive, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic data storage medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical data storage medium, any physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, NVRAM, any other memory chip or cartridge.
Storage media is distinct from but may be used in conjunction with transmission media. Transmission media participates in transferring information between storage media. For example, transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise bus 1902 . Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications.
Various forms of media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to processor 1904 for execution. For example, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk or solid-state drive of a remote computer. The remote computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over a telephone line using a modem. A modem local to computer system 1900 can receive the data on the telephone line and use an infra-red transmitter to convert the data to an infra-red signal. An infra-red detector can receive the data carried in the infra-red signal and appropriate circuitry can place the data on bus 1902 . Bus 1902 carries the data to main memory 1906 , from which processor 1904 retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by main memory 1906 may optionally be stored on storage device 1910 either before or after execution by processor 1904 .
Computer system 1900 also includes a communication interface 1918 coupled to bus 1902 . Communication interface 1918 provides a two-way data communication coupling to a network link 1920 that is connected to a local network 1922 . For example, communication interface 1918 may be an integrated services digital network (ISDN) card, cable modem, satellite modem, or a modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line. As another example, communication interface 1918 may be a local area network (LAN) card to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wireless links may also be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface 1918 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.
Network link 1920 typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices. For example, network link 1920 may provide a connection through local network 1922 to a host computer 1924 or to data equipment operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) 1926 . ISP 1926 in turn provides data communication services through the world wide packet data communication network now commonly referred to as the “Internet” 1928 . Local network 1922 and Internet 1928 both use electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams. The signals through the various networks and the signals on network link 1920 and through communication interface 1918 , which carry the digital data to and from computer system 1900 , are example forms of transmission media.
Computer system 1900 can send messages and receive data, including program code, through the network(s), network link 1920 and communication interface 1918 . In the Internet example, a server 1930 might transmit a requested code for an application program through Internet 1928 , ISP 1926 , local network 1922 and communication interface 1918 .
The received code may be executed by processor 1904 as it is received, and/or stored in storage device 1910 , or other non-volatile storage for later execution.
In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to numerous specific details that may vary from implementation to implementation. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The sole and exclusive indicator of the scope of the invention, and what is intended by the applicants to be the scope of the invention, is the literal and equivalent scope of the set of claims that issue from this application, in the specific form in which such claims issue, including any subsequent correction.
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Techniques are provided for improving the speed and accuracy of analytics on big data using theta sketches, by converting fixed-size sketches to theta sketches, and by performing set operations on sketches. In a technique for performing a set operation, two sketches are analyzed to identify the maximum value of each sketch. The maximum values of the two sketches are compared. Based the comparison, one or more values are removed from the sketch whose maximum value is greater. After the removal, a set operation (e.g., union, intersection, or difference) is performed based on the modified sketch and the unmodified sketch. A result of the set operation is a third sketch, which may be used to estimate a cardinality of the larger data sets that are represented by the two input sketches.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile grape and raisin harvesters and more specifically to harvesters for dry grapes which are supported on vines that are severed from the trunks of the vines and are left to dry in the sun while supported on the vines as raisins before being shook from the vines by the mobile harvester and collected by the harvester of the present invention. Alternately, the harvester can be used to remove grapes still attached to the vines and nourished by nutrients in the soil and be sold as wine grapes or grapes to be consumed by the public.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Assignee's Orlando U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,682 and divisional U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,190 covers an apparatus for shaking grapes from rows of vines by using eccentric weights which are mounted on shaker arms which have spaced elongated striker bars that are oscillated against the trunks of the grape vines and posts which support trellis wires that have clusters of grapes trained thereover which fall on take-away conveyors for transfer to collecting means.
Assignee's Orlando U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,521 is similar to the two above Orlando patents except that striker bars are used to resiliently whip foliage hanging from trellis wires which are supported by posts.
Assignee's Scudder U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,062 discloses a coffee harvester which utilizes an eccentric weight arrangement mounted on the upper ends of two shaker units for oscillating shafts carrying tines which dislodge coffee beans from the plants.
Assignee's Scudder U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,836 discloses a tractor drawn trailer having a vertical wall to which cantilever beams are pivotally connected. A single oscillating shaker unit is journaled in the two beams for moving the single oscillating shaker unit different distances from the vines being harvested. A pair of hydraulic cylinders are connected to rear wheels to maintain the axis of the shaker unit substantially vertical when harvesting fruit such as berries and coffee.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improvements in grape and raisin harvesters and more particularly to grape harvesters for removing bunches of grapes supported on trellis wires. Alternately, the clusters of grapes may be supported on vines that have been severed from the trunks of the vines, but rest upon foliage supported by trellis wires that are secured to spaced posts. These clusters of grapes are left in the sun until they dry as raisins and are subsequently harvested by the grape and raisin harvester of the present invention for sale as raisins.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a self-adjusting grape and raisin harvester of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a rear elevation of the first embodiment of the self-adjusting grape and raisin harvester having a discharge conveyor positioned to receive the harvested grapes or raisins and discharge them over a second row of trellises into a truck or container.
FIG. 3 is a top view of a forked connector for maintaining the outer end of the discharge conveyor at a desired level when harvesting.
FIG. 4 is a section taken along lines 4--4 of FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrating the two shaker heads self-aligning feature with grape vines that are not aligned with the centerline of the harvester.
FIG. 5 is a section taken along lines 5--5 of FIG. 1 illustrating one of the shaker heads and a portion of a second shaker head in position to harvest one row of grapes, and to direct the row of grapes or raisins into a longitudinal conveying system.
FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic plan view illustrating a second embodiment of two shaker heads but using a tensioning device which utilizes a turn buckle and a spring for controlling the spacing between the shaker heads.
FIG. 7 is an operational view illustrating several positions which the shaker heads may assume when harvesting vines that are not aligned in linear rows.
FIG. 8 is an operational view of the apparatus used for moving the discharge conveyor frame from a harvesting position shown in full lines and a transport position shown in phantom lines.
FIG. 9 is a sectional view of one of the longitudinal conveying systems with parts cut away.
FIG. 10 is a section taken along lines 10--10 of FIG. 9 illustrating several components of one of the conveying systems.
FIG. 11 is a horizontal section taken along lines 11--11 of FIG. 10.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Having reference to the self-adjusting force balance radial grape and raisin harvester 30 (FIGS. 1 and 2) of the present invention illustrating an upper platform 32 on a main frame 33 which supports a conventional engine 34 with the usual controls for operating the engine. The engine and controls are supported on the upper platform 32 and are accessible by a ladder 36 connected to the upper platform 32 and having steps 40 (FIG. 1).
The upper platform 32 is partially supported by the main frame 33 and a pair of small steerable front wheels 42, only one being shown in FIG. 1. Each front wheel 42 is journaled on an axle 44 which is welded to an upright steering rods 46 (FIG. 1) that are pivotally connected to the upper platform 32 by tubes 47, only one being shown in FIG. 1. The steering rods 46 are connected to the steering wheel 50 of the harvester 30 through a conventional linkage 52.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, a pair of large diameter drive wheels 54 are connected to the engine 34 by conventional drive systems which are modified to connect the gear box of the engine 34 to chain drives (not shown) within a pair of housings 58, only one housing being shown in FIG. 1.
As best shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a pair of shaker heads 60 and 62 (FIGS. 1 and 2) are mounted on the main frame 33 of the harvester 30 which has a plurality of radially extending tines 64 that engage grapes or raisins and shake them free from the vines (not shown). Each shaking head 60 and 62 is driven by hydraulic motor 63, only one being shown in FIG. 1.
The shaker heads 60 and 62 (FIG. 2) are similar to those disclosed in Assignee's Scudder U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,062 which issued on Jul. 27, 1982, and is prior art to the subject application except that all of Applicant's tines 64 are substantially parallel to the ground.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the grape and raisin harvester 30 includes two longitudinal conveyor systems 66 (FIG. 1) with one system on each side of the harvester, which systems include an endless horizontal portion 68 and an upwardly inclined portion 70 which convey grapes and/or raisins to a discharge conveyor 72 (FIGS. 1 and 2). After passing through discharge chutes 73. Power driven blowers 74 are mounted on upwardly inclined elevator housings for blowing leaves or the like free from the grapes.
Each conveying system 66 (FIGS. 1 and 2) includes a plurality of plastic links 172 and 174 (FIGS. 9, 10 and 11) that are pivotally connected together by elongated bolts 176 and 178 (FIG. 9) defining an endless plastic chain 80 (FIGS. 10 and 11). End portions and intermediate portions of the plastic chain 80 (FIG. 10) are each trained around plastic wheels 82 (FIGS. 1 and 9), only one being shown within the chain 80 (FIG. 9). An upper chain supporting shaft 85 (FIG. 1) is journaled in each elevator housing 86, and is driven by a hydraulic motor 87 (FIG. 2).
As illustrated in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11, equally spaced flat steel bars 186 are bolted to the plastic links 174 and are slidably received on the upper surface of a pair of steel guide tracks 190 (FIG. 9). An endless stretchable conveyor belt 180 (FIGS. 9 and 10) is bolted to the steel bars 186 and includes flexible inwardly angled side walls 184, and upwardly and forwardly angled upstanding cross-bars 192 (FIG. 9) for retaining grapes and raisins on the belt 180 while conveying them upwardly into the discharge conveyor 72 (FIG. 1).
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the discharge conveyor 72 is shown in position over a trellis 103 supported on a trellis post 105 from which a row of grapes or raisins have been harvested and discharged into trucks or bins (not shown). As is conventional in the art, the harvested grapes or raisins tall onto spring loaded plates 104 (FIG. 2) which are resiliently opened in response to contacting the trunks of the grape vines and/or the trellis posts 105 (FIG. 2) and are closed after passing the post due to the forward motion of the grape harvester. As shown in phantom lines in FIG. 4, it is apparent that the tines 64 may be moved to the far left of the vehicle immediately adjacent the left arcuate plastic curtain 95 to harvest grapes or raisins when the body of certain vines are not in alignment with the center of the row. It will also be apparent that the shaker heads 60 and 62 will be automatically guided by the foliage of the plants in the row.
Having further reference to the harvester 30 (FIGS. 1, 2 and 3), the elongated discharge conveyor 72 is pivotally supported by a vertical pivot pin 106 (FIGS. 1 and 8) which permits the discharge conveyor 72 to be swung 90 degrees from a transport position along one side of the harvester 30 and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the harvester when driven between fields and roads or the like.
The shaker heads 60 and 62 (FIG. 4) are enclosed within removable arcuate plastic curtains 95 which cause the grapes or raisins to fall onto inclined surfaces 99 (FIGS. 1 and 5) which guide the grapes or raisins onto the horizontal portions 68 (FIGS. 1 and 5) of the conveying system 66. The spring loaded plates 104 (FIG. 2) also aid in guiding the grapes or raisins into the horizontal portion of the conveyor system 66.
When harvesting, the discharge conveyor 72 is positioned transversely of the longitudinal axis of the harvester as illustrated in FIG. 2. The discharge conveyor frame 98 (FIG. 1, 3 and 8), is pivotally connected to the upper platform 32 of the vehicle by the vertical pivot pin 106 (FIGS. 1 and 8) so that the discharge conveyor 72 may be positioned transversely of the vehicle when harvesting as illustrated in FIG. 2, and be positioned longitudinally of the vehicle when moving to different locations in response to activating hydraulic cylinder 110 (FIGS. 1 and 8).
In order to raise and lower the outer end of the discharge conveyor 72 for discharging grapes and/or raisins into trucks or containers (not shown) of different heights, a forked pivotal connector 114 (FIGS. 2 and 3) is pivotally connected to a lower portion of the discharge conveyor frame 98 by bolts 114a (FIG. 3).
The forked pivotal connector 114 (FIG. 3) includes a forked end portion 115 secured to a large square tube 116 which slidably receives a smaller square tube 117. A hydraulic cylinder 118 has one end portion connected to the large square tube 116 by a bracket 120 welded to the large tube 116. The opposite end of the hydraulic cylinder 118 is connected to the small square tube 117 by a second bracket 121.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the forked pivotal connector 114 is pivotally connected between the discharge conveyor frame 98 and a bracket 100 (FIG. 2) that is connected to the horizontal pivot pin 114a (FIG. 2). Accordingly, in response to directing hydraulic fluid into the hydraulic cylinder 118 (FIGS. 2 and 3), the outer end of the discharge conveyor 72 may be raised or lowered to the desired elevation for harvesting.
In order to pivot the discharge conveyor 72 between positions parallel to or perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the grape and raisin harvester 30, the hydraulic cylinder 110 (FIGS. 1 and 8) is pivotally connected between the frame 33 of the harvester and the discharge conveyor frame 98. As illustrated in FIG. 8, when the hydraulic cylinder 110 is fully extended, the discharge conveyor 72 is held in its transport position parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. When the hydraulic cylinder 110 is fully retracted, as shown in full lines in FIG. 8 the conveyor 72 is normal to the axis of the vehicle.
When in the transport position along one side of the harvester, the forward end of the transverse discharge conveyor 72 (FIG. 1) may be raised or lowered when supported by the forked connector 114 by actuating the hydraulic cylinder 118 (FIG. 3).
As best shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the shaking heads 60 and 62 (FIG. 4) are each supported by sub-frames 123 and 124 each of which are light weight frames that are pivotally connected between the horizontal upper platform 32 (FIG. 1) and to a lower frame member 119 (FIG. 1) thereby allowing the two shaking heads 60 and 62 to pivot outwardly or inwardly relative to the main frame 33.
An important feature of the invention is that the forward ends of the left and right sub-frames 123 and 124 (FIG. 4) are adjustably connected together by a chain tensioning device 125 which uses a chain 125a to establish a preferred minimum spacing between the tines of the two shaker heads 60 and 62. Also, a tensioning device 125b is connected between the two sub-frames 123 and 124 which allow the tines 64 to move the shaker heads 60 and 62 closer together or farther apart when harvesting small vines or large vines, respectively.
FIG. 5 is a transverse operational section through one shaker head 60 and a portion of a second shaker head 62 with a trellis having a trellis wire (not shown), and further illustrating the controlled path of movement into the longitudinal portion 68 (FIGS. 1 and 5) of the longitudinal conveying system 66 which minimizes the loss of grapes.
The arcuate plastic curtain 95 (FIGS. 4 and 5) and the inclined surfaces of the angled metal plates 99 direct the grapes onto one of the longitudinal conveyor systems 66 which includes the endless stretchable conveyor belt 180 having a plurality of transverse pockets therein (FIGS. 5 and 9). The spring loaded plates 104 are angled into the conveyor 66, and the spring loaded plates 104 are also opened in response to contacting the trellis posts 103 or trunks of the vines in the path of movement of the harvester.
FIG. 6 illustrates a second embodiment of a chain tensioning device 134 in the form of a pivotable diamond shape frame which includes two forward pivot arms 136 pivoted together by a front pin 138, and a second pair of rear arms 140 pivoted together at their ends by a rear pivot pin 142. The outer ends of the arms 136 and 140 are connected together by pivot pins 144 and 146 in order to permit the forward pivot arms 136 and rear pivot arms 140 to be pivoted about the axes of the pivot pins 138, 142, 144, and 146 (FIG. 6).
Sub-flames 148 and 150 (FIG. 6) are journaled about pins 152 and 154, respectively, and have their end portions connected together by a chain 156, the length of which may be adjusted depending upon the size of the grape vines being harvested. A turn buckle 158 (FIG. 6) is connected to a chain 159 (FIG. 6) that is anchored to the pivot pin 142, and its other end is connected to a spring 160 which is attached to the front pin 138. The sub-frames 148,150 (FIG. 6) are pivotally supported by pivot pins 152,154 (FIG. 6) and a transverse rod 155 thereby providing means for moving the tines (not shown) of the shaker head 60a and 62a different distances from the vines.
FIG. 7 diagrammatically illustrates a plurality of positions the shaker heads 60a may assume in relation to the centerline of several grape vines that are not in a linear path.
Having reference to FIG. 8, a pivotal assist mechanism 162 is provided for moving the discharge conveyor 72 between a position parallel to the longitudinal axis of the grape and raisin harvester, and a harvesting position normal to the longitudinal axis of the harvester 30.
The mechanism 162 includes a U-shaped frame 164 which pivotally supports the discharge conveyor frame 98 and conveyor 72 (not shown). One end of the horizontal hydraulic cylinder 110 is pivoted to the harvester's main frame 33 (FIG. 1) by the pivot pin 168. The piston rod of the hydraulic cylinder 110 (FIGS. 1 and 8) is pivotally connected to the U-shaped discharge conveyor frame 98 by the pivot pin 168 (FIGS. 1 and 8), and when hydraulic fluid is directed to the cylinder 110, the discharge conveyor frame 98 will be extended parallel to the longitudinal axis of the harvester as shown in phantom lines in FIG. 8.
FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 illustrate different features of the longitudinal conveying system 66. Each conveyor system 66 includes a plurality of plastic links 172 and 174 which are pivotally connected together by horizontal bolts 176 and 178 (FIG. 9). As illustrated in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11, the stretchable belt 180 has a plurality of grape receiving pockets 182 (FIG. 9 and 10) which have flexible side walls 184 (FIG. 10) that are attached to the endless stretchable belt 180. The belt 180 is attached to a plurality of transverse steel connector strips 186 (FIGS. 10 and 11) by connectors 188. As shown in FIG. 10 the connectors 188 connect the pockets 182 to a belt 180 and to steel connector strips 186. The connectors 188 also ride along steel tracks 190 (FIG. 10) and guide the conveyor 66 through its horizontal and upwardly inclined paths and discharge the grapes and/or raisins on a discharge conveyor 72 (FIG. 1) when harvesting.
The longitudinal conveying systems 66 (FIG. 1) are driven by the hydraulic motor 87 (FIG. 2) which drives both of the longitudinal conveying systems 66 (FIG. 2). The conveying systems 66 includes an upper drive shaft 85 (FIG. 2) having a plurality of driven sprockets 196 and two pairs of wheels 82 keyed thereto. The sprockets 196 mesh with the plastic links 172 and 174 (FIGS. 9, 10 and 11). Short idler shafts 200 (FIG. 5) are journaled in the rear ends of the two horizontal portions 68 of the conveyors 66. As shown in FIG. 2, the two rearward shafts 200 are provided with sprockets 202 which mesh with the chain links 172 (FIG. 9) and are also provided with plastic discs 82 (FIG. 1).
As best shown in FIG. 5, the arcuately shaped plastic curtains 95 and downwardly inclined plates 99 confine the harvested grapes or raisins until they fall onto the horizontal portion 68 of the two conveying systems 66 for subsequent discharge through the outlet or discharge chutes 73 (FIG. 1) onto the transverse discharge conveyor 72. The grapes or raisins are then conveyed into collecting means such as trucks driven along side of the harvester (not shown), into spaced bins (not shown) on the ground that are subsequently picked up by a fork lift truck for loading onto a conventional truck which takes them to market.
From the foregoing description it will be apparent that the self-balancing force balancing radial grape and raisin harvesters of the present invention is adapted to harvest dry grapes which are supported on vines which are harvested as raisins. Alternately, the harvester can harvest ripe grapes still attached to the vines and nourished by the nutrients in the soil and sold as wine grapes or grapes consumed by the public. The shaking heads of the harvester are also self adjustable to harvest grapes from rows that are not planted in straight rows.
Although the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention has been herein shown and described, it will be understood that modification and variation may be made without departing from what is regarded to be the subject matter of the invention.
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A self-adjustable mobile force balanced grape and raisin harvester is disclosed having a pair of driven oscillating shaker heads mounted on sub-frames enabling each shaker head to center itself on the row of grape vines being harvested even when the foliage of the vines are not aligned in a linear path. The harvester is also provided with a pair of stretchable belts mounted on interconnected plastic chain links for reliably transporting grapes or raisins to an elongated discharge conveyor which is positioned transversely when collecting and discharging grapes from the harvester and is pivoted parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle when moving along roadways.
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[0001] This divisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 from co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/845,967 filed on May 14, 2004 by William H. Adamson et al. with the same title, the full disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates generally to agricultural vehicles. More particularly, it relates to agricultural tractors. Even more particularly, it relates to cooling systems for such vehicles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Agricultural tractors are used to tow ground working or harvesting implements through agricultural fields. Tractors closely follow crop rows or other lines of demarcation in a field in order to properly space plants during planting and to avoid crushing growing plants during harvesting.
[0004] It is important that the operator be able to see around the vehicle, including in front of the vehicle with little or no restriction. To follow crop rows closely, the operator's good vision in front of the vehicle is essential.
[0005] Modern tractors are increasing in size resulting in larger more vision-obstructing hoods. As engine horsepower increases and the load capacity of the vehicle increases, tractors have increased proportionately in size, resulting in higher operator compartments, longer and higher hoods, and increasingly obstructed operator vision directly in front of him, where he most needs to see.
[0006] Newer hood arrangements are needed that lower the profile of the hood permitting the operator to see objects close to the front of the tractor. To provide improved vision, the newly designed vehicles must keep existing low hood lines at the front of the hood as the rest of the vehicle increases in size.
[0007] Lowering is possible only if the internal components are reconfigured to make room for the lowered hood. The traditional configurations of engine, heat exchangers and chassis have to be modified to relocate or reposition under-hood components in such a way that the front of the hood can be lowered.
[0008] The most important components to be reconfigured are those that are right at the front of the vehicle, particularly the heat exchangers. The heat exchangers are located at the very front of the vehicle underneath the leading edge of the hood adjacent the front grille. Their size is generally proportional to the output of the engine, and thus as the engine increases in power, the heat exchangers increase in size. Since they are located right at the front of the engine and are oriented vertically, they are the primary structures responsible for blocking the operator's view down the hood.
[0009] What is needed, therefore, is a tractor cooling system using an improved heat exchanger configuration that will permit the forward end of the tractor's hood to be lowered and the operator's vision improved. It is an object of this invention to provide such an improved heat exchanger configuration and cooling system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a cooling system for an agricultural tractor includes a front frame, an intercooler mounted on the frame, an engine water cooler mounted above the intercooler in a parallel air flow path.
[0011] The cooling system may include an inlet air conduit and an outlet air conduit coupled to the intercooler and extending vertically on either side of and in front of the engine water cooler. The intercooler may be a cross-flow cooler. The engine water cooler may be a cross-flow cooler. The engine water cooler may be recessed behind the intercooler.
[0012] In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, a cooling system for an agricultural tractor includes a first heat exchanger disposed in a first position adjacent to a frame of the tractor forward of a tractor engine and behind a cooling air inlet and defining a first cooling air path, and a second heat exchanger located behind and above the first heat exchanger and defining a cooling air path separate from the first cooling air path.
[0013] The first heat exchanger may be a cross-flow heat exchanger. The second heat exchanger may be a cross-flow heat exchanger. The cores of the first and second heat exchangers may be disposed both parallel to and adjacent to each other. The first and second heat exchangers may substantially fill the inlet of a fan shroud. The first and second heat exchangers may extend substantially the entire width of an under-hood space.
[0014] In accordance with a third aspect of the invention, a cooling system for a work vehicle having an elongated narrow hood disposed immediately in front of an operator's compartment, the hood having a front grille with cooling air vents, a left sidewall and a right sidewall, is provided, the system including, an engine water cooler disposed under the hood and extending from the first sidewall to the second sidewall; and a first heat exchanger disposed beneath and generally parallel to the engine water cooler.
[0015] The system may include a second heat exchanger disposed in front of the engine water cooler and the first heat exchanger to heat air entering both the engine water cooler and the first heat exchanger. The first and second heat exchangers may be selected from the set consisting of an oil cooler, a refrigerant condenser, a fuel cooler, and an intercooler. The engine water cooler and the first heat exchanger may not overlap. At least one of the engine water cooler and the first heat exchanger may be arranged for cross-flow cooling. The first heat exchanger may be selected from the group consisting of an oil cooler and an intercooler. The first heat exchanger may be a cross-flow intercooler and the engine water cooler is cross-flow.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0016] FIG. 1 is a side view of an agricultural tractor in accordance with the present invention.
[0017] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional front view of the tractor of FIG. 1 taken at section line 2 - 2 in FIG. 1 .
[0018] FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the tractor of the foregoing FIGURES with the hood removed and showing the arrangement of heat exchangers and heat exchanger conduits.
[0019] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side view of the tractor of the foregoing FIGURES taken at section line 4 - 4 in FIG. 2 through the middle of the heat exchangers and showing the stacked arrangement of the heat exchangers.
[0020] FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional front view of the engine water cooler and the intercooler taken at section line 5 - 5 in FIG. 4 .
[0021] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the components illustrated in FIG. 5 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] “Heat exchanger”, as that term is used herein, means a device for cooling a stream of fluid, the exchanger having a planar core made of a plurality of parallel tubes that are configured to carry the fluid being cooled. The tubes are covered with cooling fins, rods coils or other surface area enhancement structures and gaps between adjacent tubes are provided to permit atmospheric air to be conducted through the planar core in a direction generally perpendicular to the plane of the core.
[0023] “Cross-flow”, as that term is used herein, refers to the direction of flow through the core of a heat exchanger. In a cross-flow heat exchanger, the fluid being cooled travels laterally, from side to side, generally parallel to the ground, through the core of the heat exchanger.
[0024] Referring to FIG. 1 , a tractor 100 has a chassis or frame 102 that is supported by rear drive wheels 104 and front wheels 106 (which may or may not be drive wheels).
[0025] The chassis supports an operator's compartment 108 and narrow elongated narrow hood 110 that covers an engine (not shown) and several heat exchangers (not shown) that are disposed in front of the engine and behind a front grille 112 having cooling air vents 114 .
[0026] Heat exchangers are configured to cool a fluid medium by transmitting it through a core of many small tubes that has cooling fins extending from the tubes to enhance heat transfer to the surrounding air. A fan or other device is provided to draw cooling air across the cooling fins and through the core to extract heat from the tubes, and hence from the fluid medium passing through the core to be cooled.
[0027] Once cooled, the fluid medium is returned to the engine or other structure, such structures including the engine block (for engine water coolers, which are also known as radiators), the intake manifold (for charge air coolers, which are also known as “intercoolers”), the transmission (for transmission fluid coolers), refrigerant reservoirs (for refrigeration condensers) or fuel tanks (for fuel coolers).
[0028] The fluid medium may be a gas (e.g. in an intercooler), it may be a liquid (e.g. in an engine water cooler or radiator, a fuel cooler, transmission fluid cooler or engine oil cooler), or it may be both a gas and a liquid (e.g. in a refrigerant condenser, in which the fluid enters as a gas and leaves as a liquid).
[0029] Whatever the form of heat exchanger discussed herein, whether called a condenser, a radiator or a cooler, all have a few characteristics in common: the cooling fluid, i.e. the fluid that extracts the heat, is atmospheric air, the structure of the core is planar, and the cooling air passes through the core generally perpendicular to the plane of the core.
[0030] In FIG. 2 , four heat exchangers are illustrated: an engine water cooler or “radiator” 116 , a charge air cooler or “intercooler” 118 , a refrigerant condenser and fuel cooler 122 , and a transmission fluid or engine oil cooler 120 .
[0031] The front-most heat exchanger is a combined refrigerant condenser and fuel cooler 122 . Like all the pictured heat exchangers, it extends both vertically and laterally (side-to-side). It is different from the other heat exchangers in that it is made to simultaneously cool two separate and distinct fluids at the same time: refrigerant and tractor fuel. It has two discrete tubes for carrying two different fluids through a single core that is made of both tubes coiled together. One tube is for refrigerant and has a refrigerant inlet and a refrigerant outlet at its ends. The other tube is for tractor fuel and has a fuel inlet and fuel outlet at its ends. The two tubes define two fluid flow paths that are never comingled, but are always separate. Thus item 122 is simultaneously a refrigerant condenser and a tractor fuel cooler as well, and whatever air cools the condenser cools the fuel cooler as well.
[0032] A vector drawn perpendicular to the cores of all four heat exchangers extends generally fore-and-aft, parallel to the straight-ahead direction of travel of the vehicle.
[0033] The next heat exchanger is the engine and transmission oil cooler 120 . This heat exchanger is directly behind and larger than condenser 122 . The two heat exchangers 120 , 122 are arranged so that all air passing through the condenser 122 also passes through oil cooler 120 . However, not all air passing through oil cooler 120 passes through condenser 122 .
[0034] The next heat exchangers are the charge air cooler or intercooler 118 and the engine water cooler or radiator 116 . These heat exchangers are in an over-and-under arrangement as seen in FIG. 1 : Engine water cooler 116 is on top, and intercooler 118 is on the bottom. These two heat exchangers are disposed in parallel with regard to the flow of cooling air. Cooling air passing though the engine water cooler 116 bypasses the intercooler 118 , and cooling air passing though the intercooler 118 bypasses the engine water cooler 116 .
[0035] The two heat exchangers 116 , 118 therefore define two separate, distinct and parallel flow paths for cooling air. This parallel arrangement is of particular advantage in the present application. The intercooler 118 and engine water cooler 116 both have high heating loads. “Heat load” refers to the amount of heat each must transfer from the hot fluid medium to the cooler atmospheric air per unit time. Of the four heat exchangers shown in the FIGURES, the engine water cooler 116 and the intercooler 118 have the highest heat loads, loads that are greater than both the oil cooler 120 and the condenser 122 . Heat transfer from a heat exchanger to the atmosphere is a function of the temperature of the air to which heat is dumped, and the area of the heat exchanger core. The cooler the air passing through the heat exchanger, the more heat the air can absorb and the smaller the heat exchanger core necessary to transfer that amount of heat. By arranging the engine water cooler 116 and the intercooler 118 in parallel, the air each gets is only heated by the condenser 122 and the oil cooler 120 . The cooling air entering the engine air cooler and the intercooler is still relatively cool. Each heat exchanger can therefore be made much smaller since the inlet air is cool. Since the heat exchangers can be made smaller, they can also be stacked one on top of the other in the over-and-under arrangement shown in FIG. 2 . In an alternative design, if air entering the engine water cooler were already preheated by having previously passed through the intercooler, it would be so hot that a much larger engine water cooler would be required.
[0036] The intercooler 118 has an inlet conduit 124 and an outlet conduit 126 that are disposed on either side of the engine compartment adjacent to the sidewalls 128 , 130 of the hood. These conduits conduct hot air from the engine's turbocharger (not shown) through the intercooler, and then back to the intake manifold (not shown) of the engine.
[0037] Conduit 124 extends vertically from the left side of the intercooler 118 vertically along the left side of engine water cooler 116 , adjacent to left hood sidewall 128 , and then over the top of engine water cooler 116 and back to the engine (not shown). Conduit 126 extends vertically from the right side of the intercooler 118 vertically along the right side of engine water cooler 116 , adjacent to the right hood sidewall 130 , and then over the top of engine water cooler 116 and back to the engine (not shown). Conduits 124 and 126 are coupled to and between the turbocharger and the intake manifold (not shown).
[0038] It might appear that conduits 124 , 126 block air flow through at least a portion of the engine water cooler 116 , but this is not the case. Engine water cooler 116 is a cross-flow heat exchanger, in which the hot water entering cooler 116 from an inlet conduit 132 ( FIG. 6 ) fills a tank or plenum 134 disposed vertically on one side of cooler 116 , then travels through several laterally extending cooling tubes in the cooler 116 heat exchanger core). Water leaving the cooling tubes of the cooler 116 core is gathered into a second vertically extending tank or plenum 136 on the other side of the core and thence conducted away from cooler 116 by an engine cooler 116 outlet conduit 138 ( FIG. 6 ). As best seen in FIGS. 5 and 6 , intercooler conduits 124 , 126 are disposed directly in front of engine water cooler 116 tanks 134 , 136 , and therefore do not block air flow through the core of engine water cooler 116 .
[0039] The vertical arrangement of intercooler conduits 124 , 126 on either side of engine water cooler 116 is possible because intercooler 118 is also a cross-flow heat exchanger. Intercooler 118 has two vertically oriented tanks 140 , 142 that are disposed on either side of the core of intercooler 118 . As in the case of the engine water cooler 116 , tanks 140 , 142 couple left and right edges of the intercooler core to conduits 124 , 126 .
[0040] We now refer to FIG. 4 , a side view of the engine compartment partially cutaway to see the orientation of the heat exchangers. In this view, the core of engine water cooler 116 can be seen in cross section disposed above and slightly to the rear of intercooler 118 . The top of intercooler 118 and the bottom of engine water cooler 116 are disposed in abutting relation such that air passes through either the engine water cooler 116 or the intercooler 118 , but not both. They define two parallel and adjacent cooling air flow paths. Air is pulled through all four heat exchangers 116 , 118 , 120 , 122 by a fan 144 that is driven by the tractor engine (not shown). The fan is disposed in one end 146 of a fan shroud 148 . Engine water cooler 116 and intercooler 118 are disposed in the other end 150 of the fan shroud. When fan 144 turns, it draws air through vents 114 in hood 110 . The air is drawn backward, through condenser 122 and oil cooler 120 . It is then drawn through either engine water cooler 116 or intercooler 118 . Once it has passed through one of these two, it travels the length of shroud 148 , and is pulled through fan 144 at which point it exhausts into the engine compartment around the engine.
[0041] It can be seen in FIG. 4 that air is either (1) pulled directly from the outside into engine water cooler 116 and intercooler 118 , or (2) it is pulled first through the oil cooler 120 and then through either the engine water cooler 116 or the intercooler 118 , or (3) it is pulled through both the condenser 122 and the oil cooler 120 and then through either of the engine water cooler 116 and the intercooler 118 .
[0042] It will be understood that changes in the details, materials, steps, and arrangements of parts which have been described and illustrated to explain the nature of the invention will occur to and may be made by those skilled in the art upon a reading of this disclosure within the principles and scope of the invention. The foregoing description illustrates the preferred embodiment of the invention; however, concepts, as based upon the description, may be employed in other embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following claims are intended to protect the invention broadly as well as in the specific form shown.
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A cooling system for a work vehicle is disclosed that includes first and second heat exchangers disposed one above the other to create two discrete flow paths. The upper heat exchanger is an engine water cooler and the lower heat exchanger may be an intercooler, an oil cooler or a refrigerant condenser. The lower heat exchanger is disposed forward of the upper heat exchanger. Additional heat exchangers may be positioned in front of the first and second heat exchangers to provide additional cooling. The first and second heat exchanger may be cross-flow heat exchangers conducting the fluid to be cooled laterally through the core of the heat exchanger.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device for a primary braking system, more particularly, to a primary retarder in a vehicle, as well as to a method to control a primary braking system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Primary braking systems generally refer to braking systems which are positioned in front of the clutch and the transmission. (Ref. Kfz-Anzeiger. 44th year, 1991, report: “Safely Downhill”, page 30 and Lastauto Omnibus April, 1991, report “Against the Current”, page 30). Secondary braking systems, on the other hand, are mounted directly on the transmission or in the drivetrain downstream of the transmission, and act on the rear axles of the vehicle.
Next to primary retarders, there are the following additional primary braking systems that have become well known in the industry: Guillotine-type exhaust brake; bleeder brake; compression release brake
The guillotine-type exhaust brake relies on the increased backpressure to generate the braking torque. During braking, the exhaust piping is nearly fully blocked in order to impede the outflow of the cylinder charge during the exhaust stroke, thus elevating the braking power of the engine.
The bleeder brake (Ref. Kfz-Anzeiger. 44th year, 1991, report: “Safely Downhill”, pages 10-13) is a type of brake which utilizes an additional valve, a so-called decompression valve which is integrated into the cylinder head. When activated during the third stroke of the cycle, it substantially lowers the expansion pressure acting on the piston and, thus, lowers the acceleration of the piston. As a result, a difference develops between the compression and expansion work, which can be used to increase the braking power of the engine. In particular, such a braking system can be modulated by controlling the throttle positions.
In a further development of the bleeder brake, the decompression valve is not kept open during the entire working cycle, but only during a short time span (ref. MTZ Motortechnische Zeitschrift 56 (1995) 7/8 pages 418-423; “The New Decompression Release Brake (DVB) from Mercedes Benz”).
The control of such an engine brake can be performed by a proportional control valve, serving the function of a pressure control valve with the capability of affecting the opening characteristics of the decompression valve.
For further details, the above indicated article of the MTZ Motortechnische Zeitschrift 56 (1995) 7/8 page 422 is recommended as reference.
The compression release brake is, just like the bleeder brake, an engine brake. In the case of the compression release brake, a valve control device releases the compression, which leads to—as with the bleeder brake—a substantial increase in engine brake power (ref. Kfz-Anzeiger, 47th year, 1/1994, report: “Elegantly Packaged—Test Report Volvo FH”, pages 10-12).
While the control device and the control method, in accordance to the present invention can be, as indicated above, applied to any primary brake systems, primary retarders also provide a unique application for this invention. It is, unlike the secondary retarder which is normally mounted between the transmissions and the propeller shaft, acting directly on the engine, as already described above. A primary retarder, which is permanently connected to the engine, is known from German Patent document DE 44 08 349, incorporated herein by reference. Due to the direct connection of the primary retarder to the engine, it is particularly important on a configuration such as this one to assure that the retarder is deactivated upon separation of the driveline from the transmission, or upon activating the clutch or shifting the vehicle into neutral, in order to keep the retarder from slowing down the engine. If this is not assured, a rapid load change, as a result of a clutching or de-clutching event, can lead to unacceptable low engine speeds because of the braking action of the retarder.
This problem becomes especially acute whenever the retarder is activated during braking operation, especially during the basic retarder functions “braking mode” or “V-constant”. The basic function “braking mode” is characterized by a fixed brake setting of the retarder. This can be achieved by use of a hand brake lever of a foot pedal, which, based on a fixed correlation, achieves a certain braking torque, which can range from a minimum braking torque M min to a maximum braking torque M max .
While operating the brake at “V-constant”, the retarder can be, from a controls standpoint, coupled with the cruise control. The retarder braking action is achieved by controlling the braking torque so that a constant speed can be achieved, i.e., during downhill operation.
Control devices or methods for the control of a retarder with respect to its braking torque have been published in U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,361, which is incorporated herein by reference.
In order to avoid a conflicting operation between the retarder and the engine, i.e., at elevated speeds, German Patent Document DE 43 41 213 proposes to establish a relative priority of the individual systems for specific applications. For example, it is proposed to always yield the priority to the retarder in case the throttle and retarder are activated simultaneously. If the “constant velocity” function of the retarder is activated, the application suggests moving the throttle lever of the engine to the idle position.
A conflicting operation between the retarder and the engine is, according to the controls logic described in German Patent Document DE 43 41 213, acceptable for short periods of time during shift events.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention offers an improved control device—relative to the state-of-the-art devices—for a primary system, more particularly, a retarder, with the capability of avoiding conflicting operation between the engine and the retarder during shift events. Another feasible primary braking system is a decompression engine brake.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of one embodiment of a primary retarder with a control device in accordance to this invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a primary retarder including a control device in accordance to this invention;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, schematic diagram of the control/regulator unit of FIGS. 1 and 2 with the appropriate input configurations;
FIG. 4 is a table of the input signals (sensor signals), to the control/regulator unit per FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a table of the inputs and outputs of the control/regulator unit per FIG. 3 in the respective operating situations during braking operation; and
FIG. 6 is a plot of a simulated operating cycle over time with the input and output signals to the control/regulator unit, in accordance to this invention.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplifications set out herein illustrate one preferred embodiment of the invention, in one form, and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a representative drawing of a primary retarder, including the control/regulator unit as described in German Patent Document DE 44 08 349, whose contents are incorporated by reference herein. Retarder 1 is positioned in front of transmission 2 of engine 3 . Retarder 1 is permanently linked to engine 3 , more concisely, the crankshaft of the engine. In this particular case, the retarder is permanently linked to the engine 3 via gear reduction unit 4 . Retarder 1 and engine 3 utilize the same cooling circuit 5 . The coolant medium of cooling circuit 5 also serves as the working fluid for retarder 1 in the embodiment presented. The retarder is designed to operate when completely filled with operating fluid. Due to the placement of the retarder downstream of the transmission, the retarder remains permanently linked to the engine during all operating modes, which means that it can also function as a pump to recirculate the coolant medium. During normal operation, i.e., when the retarder is not activated, it serves to circulate the coolant medium within cooling circuit 5 . During non-braking operation, valve 6 has a relatively large through-flow area, so that the coolant medium can be pumped through the cooling circuit at minimum flow resistance.
During braking operation, valve 6 has only a small though flow area for the coolant medium to be pumped through the cooling circuit. This makes it possible to build up pressure inside the retarder for the generation of braking torque. Valve 6 can be a continuously variable flow control valve, making it feasible to achieve continuously variable control of the braking torque. It is also feasible to control the braking torque in step-like manner with an appropriately controlled valve.
The continuously variable flow control valve or proportional control valve 6 is controlled by control/regulator unit 12 (preferably a microprocessor) via control line 10 . The proportional control valve 6 can be controlled by control/regulator unit 12 via control line 10 in response to the sensor inputs to the control/regulator unit in such a way that desired braking torque can be achieved. For example, by changing the through-flow area of flow control valve 6 , the amount of charge into the retarder is reduced and therefore, the braking torque is altered.
In the present embodiment, vehicle acceleration or throttle activation is signaled via a first sensor 14 . For that purpose, a signal of the engine torque is recorded; whereby, a signal of M mot >0 indicates “accelerating” and M mot =0 indicates all other operating modes. If the fuel flow to the engine is increased by moving the throttle lever 16 and the vehicle is accelerated, the fuel sensing line 18 provides an “ON-signal” to the input of controller 12 ; in all other cases the signal is an “OFF-signal”.
In addition to the sensor input indicating that the vehicle is being accelerated, there are other sensor inputs used by control/regulator unit 12 for the control of valve 6 . The second sensor input relates to the operating state of the clutch which separates the drivetrain from the transmission. This sensor input is taken at the clutch unit 2 and is transmitted to the control/regulator unit 12 via the clutch state sensing line 20 . If the clutch is in the engaged state, clutch state sensing line 20 provides an “OFF-signal” to the input of control/regulator unit 12 ; in all other cases, it provides an “ON-signal” to the control/regulator unit.
A third sensor input to the control/regulator unit 12 for the control of valve 6 is an engine speed signal, which is received via sensor 24 from a pick-up location on the alternator.
In a further embodiment of this invention, a fourth sensor signal is provided to the control/regulator unit via line 26 , which recognizes the gearshift position of transmission 2 .
FIG. 2 illustrates a second embodiment of a primary retarder which is representative of a primary system with a control device in accordance to this invention.
The power plant comprising engine 3 , transmission 2 and retarder 1 is substantially the same as depicted in FIG. 1, and the same reference numbers are used for the same componentry. Retarder 1 is permanently connected or fixedly attached to the engine 3 , more particularly, to the crankshaft of the engine 3 . In the presented case, the permanent connection is achieved with a gear reduction unit. Cooling circuit 5 includes a cooler 30 including fan 32 . FIG. 2 includes a modification of the embodiment of FIG. 1, namely a different valve arrangement for the setting of the fundamental operating modes of the retarder 1 . The line from the cooler outlet to the fluid inlet at the retarder branches at point 40 into supply line 36 to the retarder 1 and by-pass line 38 . Point 40 is associated with a by-pass valve 42 , preferably a 3/2 directional control valve. Depending on the principal operating mode, the valve 42 is switched so that the coolant medium either bypasses the retarder 1 via the by-pass line 38 or passes through the retarder 1 . The by-pass line 38 is open whenever the vehicle is driven in a non-braking mode. FIG. 1 shows valve 6 positioned in line 44 leading from the retarder 1 to engine 3 . Valve 6 allows a continuously variable adjustment of the retarder braking torque during the braking mode. This valve 6 is preferably a control valve, which can adjust the degree of filling of the retarder 1 and thus, the braking torque on a continuously variable basis. There are advantages if this control valve 6 is designed as a proportional control valve.
By-pass valve 42 , as well as control valve 6 , are connected to the output of control/regulator unit 12 via control lines 48 and 10 . The input side of control/regulator unit 12 receives a total of 4 sensor input signals via control lines, as shown in the example of FIG. 1 . These inputs include the sensor input received on sensing line 18 signaling a fuel delivery state, the sensor input received on sensing line 20 , signaling the state of the clutch, the sensor input received on sensing line 22 , signaling the rotational speed of the engine 3 , and in a more advanced design, sensor input received on sensing line 26 , signaling the neutral gearshift position of the transmission 2 .
FIG. 3 shows an example of the individual connections of the control/regulator unit 12 which are of relevance in the present case. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the input of control/regulator unit 12 , serving as a microprocessor, is supplied with a load sensor signal, a fuel delivery state (throttle position) sensor signal, a clutch state sensor signal, as well as an engine speed sensor signal.
On the output side, connections PIN 11 and PIN 12 are linked to control valve 6 —which in this particular case is a proportional control valve—via line 10 ; PIN 13 and PIN 14 are linked to by-pass valve 42 , in accordance with the optional by-pass arrangement shown in FIG. 2 .
The control valve 6 , applied as a proportional control valve, is in the present exemplification designed so that it can be set to two states via control line 10 —an “ON-state” and an “OFF-state”. In the “OFF-state”, the proportional control valve 6 is inactive, meaning only minimum braking torque is generated by the retarder 1 . In the “ON-state”, the proportional control valve is active. In accordance to the selected setting of the braking torque level by use of an operator switch having the capability of being placed in different positions, the desired braking torque can be achieved on a continuously variable basis. With valve 6 , as shown here, this can be achieved by adjusting the through-flow port of the valve 6 in accordance to the selected braking level. In the section below, the control valve 6 will be referred to as a proportional control valve.
FIG. 4 depicts an overview of the input signals, which can be retrieved by a CAN-Bus and input to microprocessor 12 . PIN 3 is designated for the engine speed and can be, for example, a frequency signal. PIN 4 is designated for the clutch state and is, preferably, a digital signal, describing the clutch state in form of an “ON” or “OFF”. The sensor signal “accelerate” or vehicle acceleration can be, as described previously, a signal derived directly from the engine torque. A torque>0 indicates “accelerate” and a torque=0 indicates the remaining operating modes. In an alternative design, it is also feasible to directly sense the throttle pedal position in order to derive an appropriate sensor signal.
The optional neutral gearshift position signal PIN 8 is an indicator of whether the transmission is in neutral.
The control element, which is simply a proportional control valve 6 per the arrangement shown in FIG. 1, or a proportional control valve 6 including an additional by-pass valve 42 for activation of the bypass line 38 as shown in FIG. 2, is controlled in certain operating modes by the control/regulator unit 12 in response to the input sensor signals of which there are three listed in the first three columns of the table in FIG. 5 .
The matrix of FIG. 5 exemplifies the input and outputs of the control/regulator unit's microprocessor for various operating modes. In the subsequent description, an “ON-state” is represented by a logical ONE and an “OFF-state” is represented by a logical ZERO.
Column M 2 depicts the adaptation logic of the braking torque with respect to the clutch state. This adaptation occurs when the clutch pedal is depressed, which means the driving rotating components are separated from the driven rotating components. In this case, the output to the proportional control valve 6 signals a logical ZERO, so that the proportional control valve is in the OFF-state, which means that no braking torque is generated by the retarder 1 . If an additional by-pass valve 42 is to be controlled, an ON clutch signal also activates this by-pass valve 42 to the ON-position (logical ONE), which means the by-pass is not being opened and the total braking torque of the retarder 1 remains at the minimum level.
The case presented in column 3 , torque adaptation is achieved when the internal combustion engine 3 is supplied with fuel; that is, the throttle lever 16 is moved to increase the amount of fuel provided to the engine 3 . In this case, the engine 3 should not be operating against a retarder load. The “accelerate” signal is provided in form of engine torque, which in this case is>0. If this is the case, the sensor signal responsible for the state of the throttle is set to ON. If such a signal is attached to the input of microprocessor 12 , the output signal of the microprocessor to the proportional control valve 6 is set to an OFF state. In a design variation shown in FIG. 1, which includes only one proportional control valve 6 as control element, minimum retarder braking torque is achieved when the proportional control valve 6 is deactivated, or in the OFF position. In a design according to FIG. 2, which includes an additional by-pass valve 42 , there are two control possibilities to achieve torque adaptation during acceleration. In principal operating mode G 2 , which relates to a fixed braking mode, the by-pass valve 42 is in the ON-position, which means that the by-pass loop is shut off. In this operating mode, the retarder 1 is operated at minimum retarder braking torque M min . Alternatively, in the principal operating mode G 3 , which relates to a constant speed operating mode, the by-pass valve 42 is in the OFF position, which means that the by-pass valve 42 opens the by-pass loop. The braking torque applied to the engine 3 is near zero.
The third operating mode (M 4 ), which requires torque adaptation during the braking mode, occurs when the engine 3 falls below a certain rotational speed threshold n min. This can be the case with the clutch engaged or disengaged. If the engine speed falls below a certain minimum speed, the control/regulator unit 12 signals a logical ZERO to the proportional control valve 6 , which means that the proportional control valve 6 is set or held in the OFF position. If there is a by-pass valve 42 in addition to the proportional control valve 6 , then it is feasible to realize these two operating modes: one mode with the by-pass deactivated, which has the consequence that the retarder torque corresponds to the minimum retarder torque; the other mode is realized with the by-pass activated, allowing the braking torque to drop to nearly zero.
FIG. 6 shows in form of an example the input signals for clutching and accelerating, as well as the output signals for the proportional control valve 6 and the by-pass valve 42 . These signals are all associated with the input/output circuitry of the control/regulator unit 12 , serving the function as a microprocessor and are depicted in relation to various operating modes as a function of time. The logic convention in FIG. 6 is the same as indicated previously; an ON-position of the valve equals a logical ONE, an OFF position of the valve equals a logical ZERO. This convention was selected in order to present a clearer description of the logic diagram shown in FIG. 6 . It is to be understood that the ON and OFF positions can also be provided with other signals. FIG. 6 illustrates various possible operating modes which can be encountered during downhill operation while the retarder is in operation. Also shown are the principal operating modes of a fixed braking mode (G 2 ) as well as a constant speed mode (G 3 ).
In the first phase of the operating simulation, the vehicle is moving in eighth gear. The vehicle is in the operational mode “braking” by the retarder 1 . During this mode of operation, the driving rotating components are connected to the driven rotating components. The resulting signal for the clutch state is ZERO. Since no acceleration takes place during braking, the sensor signal for the throttle position—in the presented case, a throttle pedal—is also assigned a logical zero.
The output signal to the proportional control valve 6 is assigned a logical ONE, which means that the proportional control valve 6 is activated or in the ON state. For a fixed pre-set breaking level, a certain proportional voltage signal—a signal proportional to the braking level (G 2 )—is provided. For the case which calls for a constant speed (G 3 ), microprocessor 12 controls the proportional voltage signal of the proportional control valve 6 so that V actual =V target . The signal for the by-pass valve is assigned a logical ONE, which means that the by-pass valve 42 is not activated.
If the vehicle is accelerated after the braking phase and the vehicle is shifted into a different gear, then the input and output signals of FIG. 6 -phase 2 apply.
As long as a gear is engaged, the signal for the clutch state is assigned a logical ZERO. In the event the clutch is activated, the signal assigned to the clutch state changes to a logical ONE. During the time period in which the clutch state signal remains a logical ONE, the proportional control valve 6 is deactivated (logical ZERO), as evidenced in the input-output matrix vs. operating modes, column M 2 of FIG. 5 .
If, during the acceleration process and prior to any shift events, the throttle pedal is activated (ref. FIG. 6 ), then the throttle position signal to the microprocessor 12 is assigned a logical ONE, which, in accordance to the matrix of FIG. 5, operating mode M 3 , assigns a logical ZERO to proportional control valve 6 ; this translates to a braking torque reduction during this time period.
The signal of the by-pass valve 42 for the braking mode is always at a logical ONE, which means that the by-pass loop is closed off, as evidenced by the straight line depicting the operational state of this valve. This, however, is only valid for the principal operating mode (G 2 ) indicating a fixed braking level. If the vehicle operates in principal operating mode (G 3 ); that is, the vehicle is moving at constant speed, the by-pass valve 42 is set to a logical ZERO while the throttle pedal is activated, which in turn, opens the by-pass loop.
As can be gleaned from the time-history graph for the proportional control valve, the valve is assigned a logical ONE and, therefore, is activated for the duration of time in which the throttle pedal is not activated and the clutch pedal is not yet activated. This condition is shown in dashed line in the second phase of the time-history graph and labeled with the Roman Numerals I and II. A retarder braking torque is, at this stage, undesirable. In order to reduce the braking torque during the entire shift event, that is, the time period between shutting off the fuel supply to the engine 3 prior to the clutch event, and the subsequent increase in fuel supply to the engine 3 after the clutch event, the invention provides a time-delay element or “ramp”, which assures that no rapid retarder activations can occur. An activation of the retarder 1 occurs phase shifted with respect to the sensor signal. If the retarder 1 is activated in response to, for example, a change in the throttle signal from a logical ONE to a logical ZERO in a delayed fashion, then the activation of the proportional control can be—for a situation exemplified by the second phase—avoided for a duration of time labeled by Roman Numeral “I”.
It is equally feasible to activate the retarder 1 in response to a change in the clutch signal from a logical ONE to a logical ZERO in a delayed fashion. This way, the undesirable signal with the duration of time labeled by the Roman Numeral “II” in the second phase can be avoided. Because of these time-delay elements, it is possible—as described by this invention—to maintain the retarder braking torque at the minimum level during gearshift events or to assure a reduction in the braking torque.
The third phase of the presented driving cycle once again simulates a braking scenario. Since the throttle is in a non-activated state during braking, the throttle sensor signal changes from a logical ONE to a logical ZERO. In accordance to the assignments of the input and output functions, this has the consequence that during the braking mode the proportional control valve 6 changes from the OFF to the ON state and, henceforth, provides the desired braking action. For the principal operating mode G 3 which provides for a constant vehicle speed, this change to the input to the control device 12 provokes a change to the output, causing the by-pass valve 42 to switch from the “by-pass” mode to the “retarder” mode.
Adjacent to the third phase, which simulates a braking scenario, is a fourth phase which simulates a driving scenario in which the vehicle is shifted from a higher to a lower gear. When shifting to the lower gear, the clutch event is supported by a brief engine speed excursion (double clutch concept).
This means that, at first, the clutch pedal is depressed. This causes the clutch state input signal to the control device 12 to switch from a logical ZERO to a logical ONE, which, according to the table of FIG. 5, leads to torque adaptation per case M 2 . This has the consequence that the output signal to the proportional control valve 6 is assigned a logical ZERO, resulting in the proportional control valve 6 to be switched to the OFF position and causing the retarder 1 to provide only the minimum of braking torque. After the first clutch event, the engine is accelerated, followed by a second clutch event while the transmission is in neutral. Due to the second clutch event, the clutch state signal to the input of the microprocessor 12 changes from a logical ONE to a logical ZERO. This has the consequence that the torque reduction is no longer effective and the output signal to the proportional valve 6 is set to a logical ONE, causing it to be activated and, therefore, creating an undesirable braking torque.
This undesirable braking torque (shown by the dash-point-dash line and labeled with the Roman Numeral III) for the proportional control valve 6 continues to build until fuel is applied to the engine. As a result of the engine acceleration, torque adaptation (ref. FIG. 5) is activated, meaning the throttle state input signal, having been set to a logical ONE, leads to the output to the proportional control valve 6 to be set to a logical ZERO and, therefore, to the generation of minimum retarder torque when the vehicle is operated at a fixed braking level (G 2 ) or, to the generation of a near zero retarder torque, when the principal operating mode v=constant (G 3 ) is chosen. This undesirable build-up of braking torque for the time period between clutching and the renewed engine speed increase, can be avoided in different ways. One solution includes—as mentioned above in the description of the second phase—a time-delay tactic in form of a ramp for the activation of the retarder 1 .
Alternatively, it is feasible—if a neutral gearshift position can be recognized and submitted to the microprocessor 12 in form of an input signal—to appropriately control the proportional control valve 6 by setting the output to the proportional control valve 6 to a logical ZERO during the entire period of time in which the neutral gearshift position signal is present at the input to the microprocessor 12 . This has the consequence of de-activating the proportional control valve 6 and, hence, reducing the braking torque to the minimum braking torque level. In case the by-pass valve 42 is not deactivated, meaning the retarder 1 is being circulated by the cooling medium, then the minimum braking torque is achievable. In case the by-pass valve 42 is deactivated, and the cooling medium bypasses the retarder 1 , it is feasible to achieve the lowest possible braking torque. In addition to the neutral gearshift position recognition tactic, a device can be provided to recognize what gear the vehicle uses at any given point in time.
In case a neutral gearshift position recognition is not feasible, then a fall-off in engine speed below a pre-defined minimum engine speed threshold can be used as an input signal—independently from the clutch state (ref. FIG. 5, columns M)—to set the output signal to the proportional control valve 6 to a logical ZERO. This achieves an immediate reduction in braking torque, avoiding the retarder 1 being operational while the transmission 2 is in neutral.
As can be seen in the fourth phase of the time-history diagram, the period in time after the engine 3 has peaked in speed and after a renewed clutch event, undesirable braking torque once again develops if none of the measures described above have been implemented. The braking torque is, as described above, the result of the proportional control valve 6 being activated via a control signal which is set to ONE. This undesirable condition is shown in the time-history diagram for the proportional control valve 6 with a dash-point-dash line and labeled by the Roman Numeral IV. Just like the undesirable signal III, the build-up of a braking torque in this case can be avoided by implementing a time-delay during the activation of the retarder 1 in response to the throttle state signal changing from a logical ONE to logical ZERO. Alternatively, a neutral gearshift position recognition algorithm or a regulation due to the engine speed being too low could be applied here.
Adjacent to the fourth phase of the simulated driving cycle is the fifth phase, which reflects a braking operation in one of the principal braking modes—fixed braking level or a V-constant. As can be seen from the time-history diagram for the output signal to the proportional control valve 6 , there is braking torque present, as would be expected.
With the present invention, it is for the first time feasible to achieve torque adaptation to a minimum braking torque level during the entire gearshift event so that, during this entire period of time, the retarder 1 is not acting against the engine with the commanded braking torque.
Even though the above description is primarily in reference to a primary braking system such as a retarder 1 , in particular a hydrodynamic retarder, this invention is not limited to solely these types of devices. The term retarder can also include retarders which are based on the Eddy current concept (Ref.: Last Auto Omnibus Apr. 1, 1991 aaO). Furthermore, the control of all popular state-of-the-art engine brake systems, whether modulatable or not, can be achieved with the present invention.
While this invention has been described as having a preferred design, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles. Further, this application is intended to cover such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art to which this invention pertains and which fall within the limits of the appended claims.
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A regulating device is for a primary braking system in the drive train of a vehicle, especially a primary retarder in a vehicle. The device includes at least one control/regulator unit, a device for detecting gear shifts transmitting at least one measuring signal, and at least one actuator enabling the braking moment of the primary braking system to be adjusted. The regulating device is characterized in that the at least one control/regulator unit controls the at least one actuator in order to adjust the braking moment of the primary braking system according to the measuring signal or measuring signals in such a way that the braking moment of the primary brake is reduced for the entire duration of a gear shift.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to simulation methods and particularly to development of robust job shop scheduling for manufacturing facilities by integration with discrete event simulation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Job-shop scheduling optimization tools attempt to schedule various jobs for processing on various available resources in the most optimal way possible. However, in order to remain computationally tractable, job-shop scheduling optimization problems take into consideration only a sub-set of all resources needed to run operations in a manufacturing facility. For example, all tools or stations in a shop floor may be taken into account, but all material handling systems might be ignored. While one could design the material handling system, e.g., with cranes, transfer cars, guided automated vehicles etc., to have a capacity much higher than the overall throughput capacity of the stations in the floor, in reality physical space availability and complexity of movement constraints often limit the capacity of the material handling system to be equal to or slightly above the capacity of the rest of the system.
[0003] Resources are ignored in the formulation of a scheduler either because their effect on the scheduling is perceived to be minimal or because they are more complex to model compared to a fixed-location machine. For example, if the jobs are moved from a machine to the next resource using cranes on the same rail, then the location and status of each crane has to be tracked in order to serve a move request. This increases the scheduling problem size to intractable levels.
[0004] Another simplifying assumption made in job-shop scheduling is to assign deterministic values for many parameters that actually are considered to have random values. While many machine operations can be controlled to the point where they are essentially deterministic some values like “good yield of a chemical process”, “time taken to move between machine A and B” etc. are much harder to predict due to the complexity of manufacturing units and material handling systems. Thus those values are better treated as random variables. However, most scheduling optimization formulations do not handle them as random parameters because of computational time constraints.
[0005] As a result of the limitations discussed above schedules generated from job-shop scheduling formulations might not be viable in terms of their applicability to the actual manufacturing facility. For instance, the assumed travel time between stations might not always be feasible, which may lead to disruptions in the order of processing the jobs as prescribed in the generated schedule. Since job-shop schedulers are typically used when the sequence of operations and their particular timing constraints are crucial to production, this can lead to significant wastage and increased cost of operations.
[0006] To illustrate these problems, consider the operation of a steel plant. Different sub-divisions of a steel plant are usually operated with the help of sophisticated optimization-based schedulers. Crucial manufacturing constraints like sequencing of similar grades of steel lots together to avoid costly set-up times, sequencing the next operation within a preset time-window after completion of current operation in order to avoid cool-down of molten metal etc. are best handled by a scheduler using an optimization-based formulation of these constraints and objectives. However, important resources like the cranes and transfer cars needed to move large ladles filled with molten metal, and the ladles themselves are not included in the formulation. Often, the stochasticity inherent in the arrival times of molten metal from the blast furnace, the time taken to get a free crane or transfer car, and the time to move between machines etc. are ignored and these parameters assumed deterministic. If these variables are assigned to poor deterministic values that are often violated in the real world, the resultant schedule might often break when applied. This will lead to lots not arriving at locations close to their assigned times, resulting in breaks in long sequences, increased machine idle time, and the need for re-processing to heat up cold metal.
[0007] Michael C. Fu, 2002, Optimization for Simulation: Theory vs. Practice, INFORMS Journal on Computing Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 192-215; Andradóttir, S. 1998. Simulation optimization. Chapter 9 in J. Banks, ed. Handbook of Simulation: Principles, Methodology, Advances, Applications, and Practice . John Wiley & Sons, New York; Andradóttir, S. 2006. An overview of Simulation optimization via random search. Chapter 20 in S. G. Henderson and B. L. Nelson, eds. Simulation: Handbook in Operations Research and Management Science Vol 13. Elsevier, Amsterdam, survey using simulations to evaluate the candidate solutions produced by an optimization formulation. The methods described there, however, use the simulation to simply evaluate how good a candidate solution is. They specifically do not use the information provided to change the optimization formulation itself; the information is instead used simply to guide the search for a better candidate using the same formulation.
[0008] J. Atlason, M. A. Epelman and S. G. Henderson. 2002. Call center staffing with simulation and cutting plane methods. Annals of Operations Research 127, 333-358, describes a procedure to use simulation to change certain parameters in an optimization formulation. In that procedure, however, the structure of the formulation remains static, only the coefficients or parameters of the model are changed given new information. That procedure also does not broaden the formulation by modeling previously left-out resources of the system, for example, based on simulation results.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] A method and system for enhancing job shop scheduling formulations to generate robust schedules by integrating with discrete event simulation for manufacturing facilities are provided. The method in one aspect may comprise simulating a facility with a discrete event simulator, using job schedules generated by a scheduler. The simulator simulates the facility based on one or more local rules, one or more resources, and one or more parameters associated with said locals rules and said resources. The simulator further models said one or more parameters as random variables and using said random variables in its simulation of the facility. The method further includes providing a feedback to the scheduler based on output from the simulating step. The feedback includes at least an instruction to the scheduler to include at least one of said one or more resource and to change said one or more parameters based on said modeling of said one or more parameters as random variables. The scheduler uses the feedback for updating its optimization model and generating an updated schedule.
[0010] A system for integrating job shop scheduling with discrete event simulation for manufacturing facilities, in one aspect, may comprise a scheduler module operable to provide a job schedule for a facility, a simulator module operable to simulate discrete events of a facility using the job schedule generated by the scheduler. The simulator simulates the facility based on one or more local rules, one or more resources, and one or more parameters associated with said locals rules and said resources. The simulator further models said one or more parameters as random variables and uses the random variables in its simulation of the facility. The system may further include an analysis module operable to provide a feedback to said scheduler based on output from the simulator, said feedback including at least an instruction to the scheduler to include at least one of said one or more resource and to change said one or more parameters based on said modeling of said one or more parameters as random variables. The scheduler uses the feedback for generating an updated schedule.
[0011] Further features as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of integrating job shop scheduling with discrete event simulation in one embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0013] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system comprising a job-shop scheduler, discrete event simulator and a root cause analyzer that implements one embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0014] The method and system of the present disclosure in one embodiment integrates scheduling with a simulation model and simulation to produce viable schedules by including changes and other feedback suggested by the simulator within the scheduling algorithm. This allows a clear illustration of the impact of un-modeled random variables, resources and dispatching policies on the robustness of the schedule. The method and system of the present disclosure in one embodiment also allows a plant designer to identify plant design measures that could reduce variability and improve the plant's robustness in handling different schedules. The method and system may be utilized to design new production facility layouts as well as improving existing ones. Equipment makers also may use the method and system of the present disclosure to provide help on floor layout design to their prospective clients.
[0015] FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of integrating job shop scheduling with discrete event simulation in one embodiment of the present disclosure. The method combines a discrete event simulation model, for example, of a manufacturing facility, with an optimizing scheduler to provide an iterative approach to the formulation of the job-shop scheduling problem so as to generate realistic and viable job schedules. In one embodiment, a simulation model includes all the resources relevant to the manufacturing process, including those that are ignored by the scheduler. These are easier to include in a simulation model and simulations usually scale well with increasing complexity, unlike the optimization formulations frequently used by schedulers.
[0016] In a steel plant example, any processing station not included in the scheduling formulation, such as transportation cranes and cars (both on rails) and the molten metal carrying ladles are explicitly modeled. Since the usage of these resources is not driven by the scheduler, expert-designed local dispatch rules govern their use. A plant designer may also change these rules to determine if the simulation model can better match candidate schedules.
[0017] Referring to FIG. 1 , at 104 , optimization based schedule runs and the output of a scheduler, in terms of the timing and sequence of manufacturing stations to be visited by each job is fed into a simulator. A simulator may be any simulator can model simulation of a facility being run. At 106 , the simulator attempts to follow the schedule while also modeling the local dispatch rules governing the use of the other resources not modeled by the scheduler. In addition, the simulation models variables appropriately as random or deterministic. Historic evidence provides a basis to choose appropriate parameters for the distribution of the random variables. A steel simulation, for instance, may consider many manual operations like loading/unloading ladles as random variables and assign to them distributions that fit the historic data well.
[0018] When the simulator fails to follow the timing and sequence prescribed in a schedule or close to that schedule, it is deemed unviable. Thus, at 116 , if the schedule is not viable, 108 , the method and system identifies root variability that caused unviability. In one embodiment, for example, the simulator instructs the following. At 110 , if it is feasible to change the design of the facility (for example, if this analysis is being performed while the facility is being designed), the simulator can be used to determine facility parameters that can reduce the variability that caused scheduler unviability at 126 . This may be increasing capacity of the resources that are not modeled in the scheduler so as to eliminate them as a bottleneck or changing the dispatch rules governing their usage. In the above-described steel plant example, increasing the number of molten steel ladles could reduce the variability in the wait times for reserving ladles. At 112 , if redesigning the facility is not viable, or if the root cause of the variability is uncertainty of wait times for a resource that is un-modeled by the scheduler, the simulator instructs the scheduler to modify its model to include this previously ignored resource within the scheduler at 128 . For instance, the simulator identifies which new resources should be included and provide recommendations such as “include transportation cranes in formulation.” At 114 , if the simulator determines that unviability is caused by an incorrect deterministic value used for a random parameter variable, the simulator may instruct the scheduler to change the representative deterministic value of the parameter to better represent the capacity of the system at 120 . For example, the simulator may recommend to, “change transportation time from Machine KR to Machine DeP from 10 min to 12 min.” The simulator thus may make any one or combination of the above suggestions or feedback based on its determination. Other recommendations may also be possible.
[0019] At 102 , optimization is re-formulated with the feedback (for example, as shown at steps 126 , 128 , 120 ) from the simulator. At 104 , the optimization based scheduler is run again, and the method repeats the above steps. This iteration procedure may continue until the scheduler can produce realistic and viable schedules that also find to be of good value. For example, at 116 , if satisfactory, the process completes at 118 . In this manner, the method and system of the present disclosure is able to realize the effect of the complicating factors ignored by the scheduler on generating viable schedules while not explicitly modeling them within the scheduler.
[0020] In the context of the steel industry, as an example, the order book and, e.g., the associated variability in terms of order mix and amount, may be used as input along with the available resources to manufacture these orders. Based on such input, an operation plan and schedule may be created using a production design and operational scheduling engine such as PDOS, for a specified horizon, e.g., 2 days. This schedule defines which processing stations will be visited and when, by each lot. A simulation model of the manufacturing facility is developed that includes all the resources required to perform the manufacturing operations including the floor layout and the transportation mechanisms. Using this model, the method and system of the present disclosure simulates the flow of lots throughout all the manufacturing stations in the facility, for example, including (i) allocation of ladles to store and transport molten metal, (ii) the dispatching of transportation vehicles such as cranes and transfer cars to move the ladles from one processing station to another, and (iii) the actual processing at the stations. The specification of which stations will be visited by each job and at what time is determined by the provided schedule. For resources such as ladles and transport vehicles that are outside the scope of the schedule, the simulation models the local dispatching mechanisms used to select between alternate resources or to prioritize the jobs. The schedule of operations for each resource considered by the scheduler is then compared with the simulated flow of lots through the operations and their usage of resources. The resource utilizations and wait times for the availability of resources are monitored during the simulation. The impact of resources and other variables, such as the stochastic variability in the arrivals of each lot, the time delay and variability in conveying a lot from one station to another, the availability of other resource requirements not considered by the schedule can be evaluated in terms of whether the schedule can be followed during the course of the simulation.
[0021] This analysis can be done on a rolling window of a few days over a 6-12 month horizon, for example. When a schedule becomes unviable, the simulator data is analyzed to identify the factors responsible for it. The result of this analysis updates the model used for generating an updated schedule, such as changing the facility parameters, including additional resources to be scheduled or changing the minimum delay between two consecutive operations on a lot. A new schedule is generated and evaluated with the simulator and this process is iteratively applied until a desired level of robustness is achieved by the scheduling system.
[0022] By combining a discrete event simulation of the manufacturing facility with a scheduler the viability of schedules may be evaluated and updated. A simulator implements the schedule subject to the various random variables and additional constraints present in the manufacturing facility and expose the degree of robustness or viability of the scheduler. The analysis may be performed prior to the operational deployment of the scheduler to identify some or all random variables and additional constraints that have the impact or substantial impact on the unviability of schedules. These results can be used to expand the mathematical formulation of the optimization problem, if computationally tractable; add ‘hedges’ to the existing formulation; and/or to reduce variabilities and constraints in the actual manufacturing facility.
[0023] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system comprising a job-shop scheduler, discrete event simulator and a root cause analyzer that implements one embodiment of the present disclosure. A job scheduler module 202 produces schedules based on an initial subset of resources and initial parameter values 208 considered in its scheduler formulation model. A discrete-event simulator module 204 simulates workings of a facility using the schedule from the job scheduler module 202 , and an entire or a larger set of resources and variable parameter values 212 associated with the facility. The results of the simulation are compared with the schedule produced by the job scheduler 202 , and if it is determined that the schedule is unviable because it could not meet the time constraints of the job-shop, root cause analysis module 206 performs analysis and determines one or more causes for the difference. Analysis, for example, may include comparing the factors or parameters that the scheduler used differently than the simulator. Root cause analysis module 206 may then provide a feedback to the job shop scheduler 202 , for example, with updated resources and parameters to use in its scheduling formulation. The job shop scheduler 202 then remodels its scheduling model based on the feedback, for example, using a different or updated set of resources and different values for parameters 210 . The updated schedule output from the scheduler 202 may then be used again by the simulator 204 and the results again compared. The process performed by the job shop scheduler 202 , discrete event simulator 204 and root cause analyzer 206 may repeat until a satisfactory schedule is produced by the job shop scheduler 202 . A threshold that determines an acceptable or satisfactory schedule may be a design choice and may depend on individual facility that is being considered.
[0024] The system and method of the present disclosure may be implemented and run on a general-purpose computer or computer system. The computer system may be any type of known or will be known systems and may typically include a processor, memory device, a storage device, input/output devices, internal buses, and/or a communications interface for communicating with other computer systems in conjunction with communication hardware and software, etc. The terms “computer system” as may be used in the present application may include a variety of combinations of fixed and/or portable computer hardware, software, peripherals, and storage devices. The computer system may include a plurality of individual components that are networked or otherwise linked to perform collaboratively, or may include one or more stand-alone components. The hardware and software components of the computer system of the present application may include and may be included within fixed and portable devices such as desktop, laptop, server. A module may be a component of a device, software, program, or system that implements some “functionality”, which can be embodied as software, hardware, firmware, electronic circuitry, or etc.
[0025] The embodiments described above are illustrative examples and it should not be construed that the present invention is limited to these particular embodiments. Thus, various changes and modifications may be effected by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
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A method and system for integrating job shop scheduling with discrete event simulation for manufacturing facilities are provided. In one aspect a simulator simulates discrete events of a facility using a job schedule generated by a scheduler. The simulator simulates the facility based on one or more local rules, one or more resources, and one or more parameters associated with said locals rules and said resources. The simulator further models said one or more parameters as random variables and using said random variables in its simulation of the facility. The scheduler receives feedback based on output from the simulating step. The feedback includes at least an instruction to the scheduler to include at least one of said one or more resource and to change said one or more parameters based on said modeling of said one or more parameters as random variables. The scheduler uses the feedback for generating an updated schedule.
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RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to provisional application Ser. No. 60/657,267 filed Feb. 28, 2005 the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to nanoparticles having sub-nanometer surface features, and in particular to monolayer-protected nanoparticles that exhibit spontaneous assembly of ordered surface domains.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Protein adsorption is a limiting factor for materials in a wide range of applications, from aquaculture to surgical implements to biosensors. In all of these and many other areas, adsorption of proteins or “biofouling” can impair or destroy effectiveness, for example through the creation of biofilms (or “slime”). A variety of techniques have been used to limit biofouling, depending on the severity of the problem and the cost of the materials. These techniques include regularly disposing of implements (e.g., toothbrushes), treating with heat and/or chemicals to denature and remove proteins (e.g., surgical instruments), and coating with “non-stick” materials that limit the adsorption of proteins (e.g., surgical implants and ocean-going vessels). However, in many applications, instruments and sensors cannot be readily replaced or cleaned, and current materials that limit protein adsorption are limited and often include toxic components. A need thus exists for additional methods of rendering surfaces resistant to protein adsorption.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] The present invention provides novel materials that are resistant to protein adsorption, and methods of increasing the resistance of existing materials to biofouling.
[0005] In one aspect, the invention is a monolayer-protected article. An article has a surface, at least a portion of which has a local radius of curvature of about 1,000 nm or less and a monolayer coating on the portion. The monolayer includes a plurality of ligands organized into ordered domains having a characteristic size of less than or about equal to 10 nm. For example, the portion may have a radius of curvature of between about 1 and about 10 nm, between about 10 and about 100 nm, or between about 100 and about 1,000 nm. The characteristic size may be between about 0.2 and about 1 nm, between about 1 nm and about 5 nm or between about 5 nm and about 100 nm. The article may be a nanoparticle, and the surface may be textured. The ordered domains may define parallel strips or a mosaic of roughly hexagonal domains on the portion.
[0006] The monolayer coating may include two ligands differing in length by not more than the length of chain of 10 methylene groups. The ligands may be independently selected from mercaptopropionic acid, mercapto undecanoic acid, 4-amino thiophenol, hexanethiol, octanethiol, decanethiol, and duodecanethiol. Each ligand may be connected to the portion by a chemical group independently selected from silane, carboxylate, thiol, phosphonate, nitrile, isonitrile, hydroxamate, acid chloride, anhydride, sulfonyl, phosphoryl, hydroxyl, and an amino acid. Each ligand may include an endgroup independently characterized by one or more of ionic, non-ionic, polar, non-polar, halogenated, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, and aryl and a tether independently characterized by one or more of polar, non-polar, halogenated, positively charged, negatively charged, and uncharged. For example, the tether may be a saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched alkyl group or aromatic group.
[0007] The monolayer coating may include two ligands that, when deposited as self assembled monolayers on a flat surface, exhibit contact angles with water that differ at least 1 degree, at least 3 degrees, at least 5 degrees, or at least 7 degrees. At least two members of the plurality of ligands may have differing hydrophilicities. The monolayer-protected surface may be resistant to non-specific protein absorption. The portion may include a metal, a semiconductor material, a polymer, a ceramic, or a composite of any of these.
[0008] In another aspect the invention is a method of creating a monolayer-protected surface. The method includes providing a surface having a local radius of curvature of less than or about equal to 100 nm and attaching a first ligand and a second ligand to the surface. The first and second ligands are selected and attached so as to form domains having a characteristic size of less than or about equal to 10 nm. Providing a surface may include providing a textured surface, and providing a textured surface may include sanding, chemical etching, sandblasting, or dewetting. Providing a surface may include plasma etching the surface to generate hydroxyl groups.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0009] The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawings will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.
[0010] The invention is described with reference to the several figures of the drawing, in which,
[0011] FIG. 1( a ) is a diagram of ligand configuration in a “ripple” pattern, while FIG. 1( b ) is a diagram of ligand configuration in an “island” pattern (domain spacing is selected for clarity and does not necessarily reflect actual relative size of domains and particles);
[0012] FIG. 2 is an STM image of OT/MPA (2:1 molar ratio) gold nanoparticles showing phase-separated ripples on their ligand shell (scale bar 10 nm);
[0013] FIG. 3 is a plot of domain spacing vs. MPA fraction used in a one-step synthesis of gold nanoparticles having an average diameter of about 3.7 nm;
[0014] FIG. 4 is a series of STM images of mixed OT/MPA monolayers formed on surfaces of varying curvature, also shown schematically. A) A flat Au(111) on mica substrate, B) A gold film deposited on a silicon wafer showing bumps of about 20 nm diameter, C) A gold film containing gold crystals of about 10 nm diameter, D) A gold film with 5 nm gold crystals on it. All scale bars are 10 nm.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0015] Nanoparticles, nanowires, and nanotubes have recently attracted intensive research interest because of the uniqueness and ease in tailorability of their properties. Similarly, nanostructured materials have shown improved properties (for example, the mechanical behavior of nanostructured metals, as described in Schiotz, et al., “Softening of nanocrystalline metals at very small grain sizes,” Nature 391:561-563, 1998, incorporated herein by reference), as well as new ones (for example, the creation of a photonic bandgap in a block copolymer because of domain ordering, as described in Lauhon, et al., “Epitaxial core-shell and core-multishell nanowire heterostructures,” Nature 420:57-61, 2002, incorporated herein by reference). We have found that a combination of nanostructure sizes, exemplified by monolayer-protected nanoparticles (MPNPs) and monolayer-protected nanosurfaces (MPNSs) with phase-separated ordered domains in their ligand shells, provide unique properties, such as non-specific adsorption of proteins.
[0016] Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are monomolecular layers on surfaces that typically provide additional properties: for example, specific surface energies and opto-electronic behavior. SAMs composed of a mixture of ligands can be produced in either one step, by absorption from a solution of different molecules, or in two steps, by placing a preformed monolayer into a solution of a different ligand. Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) images have shown that some mixed SAMs present phase-separated domains, but with no particular order.
[0017] MPNPs are supramolecular assemblies composed of a nanosized core particle (typically metallic) and an outer ligand shell, that is, a SAM on the particle surface. These particles show unique properties due to their core (for example, surface plasmon absorption, as described in Link, et al., “Spectral properties and relaxation dynamics of surface plasmon electronic oscillations in gold and silver nanodots and nanorods,” J. Phys. Chem. B, 103:8410-8426, 1999, incorporated herein by reference), to their ligands (solubility, as described in Templeton, et al., “Monolayer protected cluster molecules,” Acc. Chem. Res. 33:27-36, 2000, incorporated herein by reference), or to both of their components (single electron transistor, as described in Andres, et al., “‘Coulomb staircase’ at room temperature in a self-assembled monolayer on Au{111},” Science 272:1323-1325, 1996, incorporated herein by reference). They have been synthesized by known methods; in particular, the Schriffin method, described in Brust, et al., “Synthesis of thiol-derivatized gold nanoparticles in a 2-phase liquid-liquid system,” J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 1994:801-802 (incorporated herein by reference), allows for straightforward control over the core size and ligand nature. We have developed new, related methods—using one or two steps—that lead to the synthesis of nanoparticles coated with a mixed SAM having subnanometer-ordered domains (see also Jackson, et al., “Spontaneous assembly of subnanometre-ordered domains in the ligand shell of monolayer-protected nanoparticles,” Nature Mat. 3:330-336, 2004, incorporated herein by reference).
Substrate Materials
[0018] As discussed above, both nanoparticles and larger objects with nanotextured surfaces may be coated with mixed composition SAMs using the techniques of the invention. In one embodiment, nanoparticles have a radius between 1 and 1000 nm. For example, the nanoparticles may have a radius between 1 and 10 nm, between 10 and 100 nm, or between 100 and 1000 nm. Nanoparticles of a desired size may be produced using any technique known to those skilled in the art. Exemplary methods of producing nanoparticles include but are not limited to those described in Cushing, B. L., et al., Chem. Rev. 2004, 104, 3893; Hiramatsu, H., et al., Chem. Mater. 2004, 16, 2509; Jana, N. R., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 14280; Hyeon, T., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 12798; Brust, M., et al., Chem. Commun. 1994, 801; Leff, D. V., et al., Langmuir 1996, 12, 4723; Osuna, J., et al., J. Phys. Chem. 1996, 100, 14571; Bardaji, M., et al., New J. Chem. 1997, 21, 1243; Zitoun, D., et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 2003, 107, 6997; Courty, A., et al., Adv. Mater. 2001, 13, 254; Ely, T. O., et al., Chem. Mater. 1999, 11, 526; Stoeva, S., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 2305; O'Brien, S., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 12085; Caruntu, D., et al., Inorg. Chem. 2002, 41, 6137; Sun, S., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 8204; Rockenberger, J., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1999, 121, 11595; Rosetti, R., et al., J. Chem. Phys. 1985, 83; Dannhauser, T., et al., J. Phys. Chem. 1953, 57, 670; Trindade, T., et al., Chem. Mater. 2001, 13, 3843; Stuczynski, S. M., et al., Inorg. Chem. 1989, 28, 4431; Lu, Y., et al., Nano Lett. 2005, 5, 5; Miles, D. T., et al., Anal. Chem. 2003, 75, 1251; Chen, S., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 10607; Puddephat, R. J. The Chemistry of Gold ; Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1978; Laguna, A. In Metal Clusters in Chemistry ; Braunstein, P., Oro, L., Raithby, P. R., Eds; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 1999; Nanoparticles and Nanostructured Films; Fendler, J. H., Ed.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 1998; Schmid, G., et al., Chem. Ber. 1981, 114, 3634; Hasan, M., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 1132; Brown, L. O., et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 2001, 105, 8911-8916; Li, W., et al., Colloids Surf 2000, 175, 217; Kanehara, M., et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 8708; Sarathy, K. V., et al., Chem. Commun. 1997, 537, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
[0019] Likewise a nanotextured surface, or nanosurface, may have features with a radius of curvature between 1 and 1000 nm, for example, between 1 and 10 nm, between 10 and 100 nm, or between 100 and 1000 nm. Often, a non-processed surface of a given substrate will have features in this range. However, where a surface does not exhibit texturing on this length scale, techniques well known to those skilled in the art, such as sanding, filing, plasma etching, chemical etching, and mechanical pitting (for example, by sandblasting), may be used to impart texture to a surface. The size scale of the texturing of the surface may be measured using profilometry and other techniques well known to those skilled in the art.
[0020] Both nanoparticles and nanotextured surfaces may be fabricated from any material to which a SAM will attach. As discussed below, different SAM anchor groups will attach to different materials. Practically any material, for example, metals, semiconductor materials, polymers, and ceramics, may be used. For example, nanoparticles or nanosurfaces may be fabricated on gold, silver, silicon, silica, calcium phosphate ceramics, alumina, and stainless steel. Many polymers, such as poly(vinyl alcohol), have native hydroxyl groups to which silanes and/or other molecules will bind to form a SAM. Where a material is not ordinarily conducive to the formation of a SAM, it may be modified to render it more receptive to a particular anchor group. For example, etching with an RF oxygen plasma establishes hydroxyl groups at the surface of many materials, e.g., polymers, that may be used to bind silanes or primary carboxylates to form a SAM. Non-hydroxylated polymers may be plasma etched to establish hydroxyl groups.
[0000] Formation of SAMs with Ordered Domains
[0021] We have found that subnanometer-ordered domains can be induced to form spontaneously on the ligand shell of MPNPs coated with mixtures of ligands in properly selected ratios. These ligands may form in sub-nanometer “ridges” around the nanoparticles, as illustrated in FIG. 1( a ), or in sub-nanometer “islands,” as illustrated in FIG. 1( b ). The configuration of domains is dependent on the choice of ligands, the ligand ratio, and the nanoparticle curvature. Even where there is some mixing of the ligands within a domain, the distinct domains are still able to form.
[0022] The ligands themselves may include any molecule capable of forming a SAM. In general, SAM-forming molecules have three sections—an anchor, a tether, and an end group. The anchor retains the molecule on a substrate. The tether extends out from the anchor in a linear chain, for example, a hydrocarbon chain. The tether is generally inert with respect to subsequent processing steps or interactions, although it is not required to be so. Any tether that does not disrupt SAM packing and that allows the SAM layer to be somewhat impermeable to various reagents (e.g., etchants) or organic or aqueous environments is suitable. The tether may be polar, non-polar, halogenated (e.g., with fluorine), positively charged, negatively charged, or uncharged. For example, a saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched alkyl, aryl, or other hydrocarbon spacer may be used. Any combination of these functional groups may also be used in the tether. Exemplary tethers include long chain (e.g., C 4 -C 17 or more) hydrocarbon groups.
[0023] An end group is at the opposite end of the molecule from the anchor, adjacent to the tether, and comprises a functionality which confers a specific surface property on the assembled monolayer, which functionality is typically exposed when the SAM is formed. End groups with hydroxyl or amine moieties will tend to be hydrophilic, while halogenated and aliphatic groups will tend to be hydrophobic. Aromatic groups contribute to specific chemical interactions and are also photoactive. Alternatively, if no specific terminal group is chosen, the end of the tether essentially forms the end group. For example, hydrocarbon tethers present a methyl end group, while a halogenated or hydroxylated hydrocarbon will present a halogenated or hydroxylated end group. In one embodiment, a functional group is retained on the last few carbons of the anchor, so that the end group of the molecule is not a single group but is a section of the molecule, for example, the last three carbons of 1-trifluoro-2,3-difluorooctanesilane. The end group may be hydrophobic or hydrophilic or selectively bind various biological or other chemical species. For example, ionic, non-ionic, polar, non-polar, halogenated, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, aryl or other functionalities may be exploited as part of the end group. A non-limiting, exemplary list of such functional groups includes those employed as tether groups as well as: —OH, —CONH—, —CONHCO—, —NH 2 , —NH—, —COOH, —COOR, —CSNH—, —NO 2 − , —SO 2 − , —RCOR—, —RCSR—, —RSR, —ROR—, —PO 4 3− , OSO 3 −2 , —SO 3 − , PO 3 2− , NH x R 4- x + , —COO − , —SOO − , —RSOR—, —CONR 2 , —SO 3 H, —(OCH 2 CH 2 ) n OH (where n=1-20), —CH 3 , —PO 3 H − , —2-imidazole, —N(CH 3 ) 2 , —NR 2 , —PO 3 H 2 , —CN, —(CF 2 ) n CF 3 (where n=1-20), olefins, hydrocarbons, etc. In the above list, R is hydrogen or an organic group such as a hydrocarbon or fluorinated hydrocarbon. As used herein, the term “hydrocarbon” includes aliphatic, aromatic, cyclic, polycyclic, unsubstituted, and substituted organics, e.g., alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, alkaryl, aralkyl, etc. The hydrocarbon group may, for example, comprise a methyl, propenyl, ethynyl, cyclohexyl, phenyl, tolyl, naphthyl, and benzyl group. The term “fluorinated hydrocarbon” is meant to refer to partially and fully fluorinated derivatives, in addition to perfluorinated derivatives of the above-described hydrocarbon groups. A wide variety of functionalities that may be used to modify the chemical properties are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,748, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
[0024] In one embodiment, the anchor group has a single functionality that attaches to the substrate, for example, amine or dimethyl-methoxysilane. Any anchor group that is used to anchor a SAM may be used to form a monolayer protective coating using the techniques of the invention. For example, organosilanes may be deposited on silicon, glass, fused silica, or any substrate with an oxidized surface, for example, silica, alumina, calcium phosphate ceramics, and hydroxylated polymers. Carboxylic acids may also be used as anchors to oxidized substrates such as silica, alumina, quartz, glass, and other oxidized surfaces, including oxidized polymeric surfaces. Metals such as gold, silver, copper, cadmium, zinc, palladium, platinum, mercury, lead, iron, chromium, manganese, tungsten, and alloys of these may be patterned by forming thiol, sulfide, and disulfide bonds with molecules having sulfur-containing anchor groups. In addition, molecules may be attached to aluminum substrates via a phosphonic acid (PO 3 2− ) anchor. Nitriles and isonitriles may be used to attach molecules to platinum and palladium, and copper and aluminum may be coated with a SAM via a hydroxamic acid. Other functional groups available suitable for use as anchors include acid chlorides, anhydrides, sulfonyl groups, phosphoryl and phosphonic groups, hydroxyl groups, and amino acid groups.
[0025] Of course, SAMs may be deposited on semiconductor materials such as germanium, gallium, arsenic, and gallium arsenide. Unoxidized polymeric materials, especially those having electron-rich elements in their backbones or side chains, may also be used as substrates. Exemplary materials include epoxy compounds, polysulfones, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymers, and biodegradable polymers such as polyanhydrides, polylactic acid, polyglycolic acid, and copolymers of these materials. Non-conductive materials may also be used as substrates.
[0026] The appropriate length of the tether and end group is determined by several factors, including the radius of curvature of the substrate and the other ligand or ligands in the mixture. In one embodiment, the length of the ligand is within about an order of magnitude of the radius of curvature of the substrate surface. Where ligands are mixed in a ratio to form band-like domains on a nanosurface or nanoparticle, it may be undesirable to have one ligand be so much longer than the other ligand that it bends over and covers the second ligand.
[0027] Mixed ligands will form domains on the surface so long as they differ in length from one another. The difference in length need not be great and can be as small as one methylene group or other moiety in the chain (e.g., a secondary amine). It is not necessary that the ligands differ from one another in end group composition to form domains, although a difference in composition may enhance the ability of the MPNS or MPNP to repel proteins. Without wishing to be bound by any particular theory, it is believed that the organization of ligands on a curved surface is determined by the length of the projection of the individual ligands, which extend out from the surface at an angle, on the surface. The ligands organize themselves in domains according to the length of the projection. Because the surface is curved, domains cannot extend very far in two dimensions because the extended ligands will not actually be pointing in the same direction. To cover the surface and maintain the energetic advantages of self assembly, the ligands organize themselves in domains by height. We have demonstrated that mixed SAMs using hydrocarbon-thiol ligands of different lengths still organize themselves into domains. Where one ligand is excessively longer than another, for example, by more than ten methylene groups, the SAM phase formed by that ligand may bend over the other ligand. The relative ratios of the two ligands determines the shape of the domains. For example, ligands in a ratio of about 10:1 will form approximately hexagonal domains. More evenly proportioned mixtures will result in the formation of alternating stripes of each ligand, as if the domains were parallel latitude lines on a globe.
[0028] When the ligand mixture is selected to include both hydrophilic and hydrophobic ligands, the ridges form extremely fine-scale alternating hydrophilic-hydrophobic domains, which are found to exhibit exceptionally low non-specific adsorption of proteins. We have found that domains characterized by a width of between 0.2 nm to 10 nm, for example, 0.2 to 1 nm, 1 nm to 5 nm, or 5 nm to 10 nm, prevent non-specific adsorption of proteins to the surface. Without wishing to be bound by any particular explanation, it is currently believed that this feature stems from the fact that the domain size of the MPNPs is sufficiently small that there is no conformation of the protein that is only attracted to or only repelled by the MPNP. As a result, there is a series of attractive and repulsive forces between the protein's outer shell and the particle's domains, and consequently, there is almost no net attraction between the protein and the particle. Protein adsorption from solution is thus not thermodynamically favorable. Moreover, inhibition of protein adsorption also inhibits cellular adsorption because cells adsorb onto a surface through proteins in their cell coats. Likewise, viruses have a protein coat whose adsorption onto surfaces may be prevented using an appropriate surface treatment.
[0029] It is not necessary that one ligand be hydrophilic and the other hydrophobic. Rather, protein adsorption is inhibited where the two ligands have different hydrophilicities. The comparative hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of two ligands may be determined by comparing the contact angle of a drop of water deposited on a SAM of each ligand. In one embodiment, the contact angles for the two ligands differ by at least one degree, for example by at least three degrees, at least five degrees, or at least seven degrees.
[0030] As further discussed below, one factor that influences the creation and size of subnanometer-ordered domains on MPNPs is the curvature of the nanoparticle surface. Subnanometer-ordered domains can also be formed on surfaces that have an arbitrary curvature on a macroscopic scale, if those surfaces have a local radius of curvature on the nanometer scale (hereinafter, “nanosurfaces” or MPNSs). Such surfaces can be formed by the adhesion of nanoparticles to a flat or curved surface, or by any other nanoscale “roughening” of the surface that produces a desired local radius of curvature. Because radii of curvature of about 1000 nm are appropriate for use in this invention, standard texturing techniques such as sanding, chemical etching, sandblasting, dewetting, etc. may be used to texture the surface. Indeed, many surfaces may already have surface texture of a size scale appropriate for use with the teachings of the invention. Profilometry may be used to determine the surface roughness of a potential substrate.
[0031] The resistance of MPNPs and MPNSs to protein adsorption allows them to be used for a wide variety of applications where protein adsorption is undesired. For example, MPNPs may be applied to surfaces of vessels or columns used in protein assays to avoid contamination, to medical devices (such as surgical implants), to filters, or to other implements exposed to biological fluids. The surfaces of these objects may also be rendered nanostructured, for example by chemical, electrochemical, or physical means, and coated with ligands to form MPNSs.
[0032] In one embodiment, the surfaces of medical devices are treated to form MPNSs. Medical devices are grouped by the FDA according to the amount of time they will be inside the body. Devices that are designed to remain in the body for days or even just hours may benefit from an MPNS or an MPNP coating. Proteins will being to deposit on most materials immediately after insertion into the body. Sensors that are designed to repeatedly make a particular measurement may need to be recalibrated over time because adsorbed proteins interfere with a particular measurement. Alternatively, the performance of the sensor may decrease over time because protein adsorption reduces the signal to noise ratio of the sensor. For sensors that measure the intensity or wavelength of a particular electromagnetic emission or an electrical potential, a thin SAM can prevent the adsorption of proteins that degrade the measurement without themselves interfering with the sensor because they are too thin to interfere with an electrical potential and are transparent.
[0033] Many patients have to wear temporary shunts, tubes, or other devices that provide continuous access to the interior of the body for a specific period of time. These shunts may become clogged over time, or the development of a protein coat may provide a substrate on which bacteria may proliferate and cause infection. The protein coat may also provide a favorable surface for platelet deposition, causing blood clots to form and increasing the patient's risk of a stroke. Shunts are also used for internal fluid transport, for example, as artificial arteries or to transport excess fluid from the brain to the kidneys. Similar devices, such as prosthetic heart valves, can also exhibit impaired performance as a result of protein adsorption. Thus, a monolayer protective coating on these devices can not only increase the performance of the device but can also help reduce a patient's risk from using the device.
[0034] Longer term implants can also find life-saving benefits in the use of MPNSs. Millions of “permanent” devices are implanted into patients every year. While these devices are intended to be permanent and usually are replaced when they fail, they are rarely truly permanent. One of the factors that limit the life of thee devices is protein adsorption. For example, stents are implanted into various blood vessels to facilitate blood circulation. However, protein adsorption onto the stent may cause clotting, reblocking blood flow and necessitating repeated surgeries to maintain the patient's circulation. The leads on pacemakers develop a thick protein coating over time, increasing the impedance on the circuit and reducing battery life. In addition, there may very well be potential medical devices whose development today is impractical because protein adsorption would severely impair the utility of the device. A protective coating such as those described herein could lead to the development of long term devices to treat or prevent a variety of ailments.
[0035] MPNSs and MPNPs may also be exploited to improve the efficiency of drug delivery. Even where a drug is injected directly into or near the target tissue, a large proportion of the injected drug will be non-specifically adsorbed by proteins and will not reach the target. However, small molecules and bioactive agents may be encapsulated using the techniques of the invention. In one embodiment, a drug is encapsulated using techniques known to those skilled in the art, and the capsule is coated with nanoparticles using the techniques of the invention. In another embodiment, nanoparticles are coated with a mixture of ligands according to the teachings of the invention, following which drug molecules are attached to the nanoparticle. For example, the ligand may include a functional group that reacts with the drug to covalently or non-covalently link it to the nanoparticle. Alternatively or in addition, the ligand may include a functional group that simulates a receptor that coordinates with the drug. Alternatively or in addition, a receptor molecule may be attached to either the drug or directly to the nanoparticle.
[0036] Monolayer protective coatings may also be exploited for non-implant related applications. For example, consumer objects may be coated to prevent protein adsorption on surfaces ranging from doorknobs to elevator buttons. Surfaces that are touched by multiple people each day facilitate the transfer of disease. Covering these surfaces with a coating that can prevent non-specific protein adsorption may help reduce transfer of disease causing microorganisms, which have proteins in their cell membranes and coats, from a person to the object. In addition, it may also increase the efficiency of standard cleaning solvents in removing bacteria and viruses from these surfaces. Because the SAM is covalently attached, it is not removed from the surface during cleaning. In one embodiment, the coating is made up of nanoparticles that are attached to one another and to the surface using difunctional anchoring molecules. For example, 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysiloxane has a sulfur atom that binds to a gold particle and a siloxane group that attaches the particle to a surface, while nonanedithiol can link two gold particles to one another. These molecules serve as a cross-linking group and may be included in quantities that do not disrupt the formation of aligned phases or domains. In one embodiment, their concentration may be comparable to the concentration of cross-linking agents in thermoplastic materials, e.g., a few percent.
[0037] Likewise, items that are partially or totally immersed in aqueous environments may also benefit from a monolayer coating. Ships are constantly having to be cleaned to remove both barnacles and other clinging shellfish and coatings of protein and algal sludge that collect on their hulls. These organisms increase drag on the ship and also degrade the surface of the hull, increasing corrosion. A coating that prevents adsorption of proteins on the ship can save both maintenance and fuel costs and increase the life of the ship. Other items, such as pipes for household plumbing, coolant lines for equipment, small nozzles, and any other item where water both flows and sits, depending on the frequency of demand, may also benefit from a monolayer coating.
EXAMPLES
[0038] Gold MPNPs were synthesized with a variety of starting materials, as detailed in Table 1. For each of the stoichiometries tested, 354 mg (0.9 mmol) of HAuCl 4 .3H 2 O was dissolved in 50 ml of water and 2.187 (4 mmol) of BrN((CH 2 ) 7 CH 3 ) 4 was dissolved in 80 ml of toluene. The two phases were mixed and left stirring for 30 min. Mixtures of ligands in the molar amounts specified in Table 1 were injected in the solution once the color due to the gold salt had transferred completely to the organic phase (ligand abbreviations are shown in Table 2). The solution was allowed to react for ten minutes and acquired a typical white color. A 10 mM solution (30 ml) of NaBH 4 was then added dropwise over one hour. After this addition, the solution was stirred for two hours. The phases were separated and the organic phase was collected, reduced to 10 ml, diluted with 100 ml of absolute ethanol, and placed in a refrigerator overnight. The precipitate was collected by vacuum filtration using quantitative paper filters and extensively washed with water, acetone, and ethanol. This process usually yielded about 100 mg of collected black powder. Nanoparticles soluble in ethanol were collected by vacuum evaporation of the ethanol solution and extensive rinsing with water, acetone, and toluene.
[0039] Silver MPNPs were synthesized by dissolving 152.9 mg (0.9 mmol) of AgNO 3 in 100 ml of ethanol followed by the addition of mixtures of the targeted ligands in the molar amounts specified in Table 1. The solution was kept at 0° C. After 10 minutes, a saturated solution (100 ml) of NaBH 4 was slowly added dropwise. After completion, the solution was stirred for 2 hours, brought to room temperature, and placed in a refrigerator overnight. Subsequent purification was the same as that described above for gold nanoparticles.
[0040] Table 1 shows the observed domain morphologies, ripple spacings (if applicable), solubilites, and metal nanoparticle diameters observed. Note that ripple spacing is peak-to-peak; i.e., the sum of the widths of one “stripe” of each ligand. Solubility definitions are as follows: “Highly soluble” indicates no precipitation visually observed, “Soluble” indicates little precipitation observed over time with consequent slight decoloration of the solution, “Slightly soluble” indicates most of sample precipitated but a small coloration of the solution remains, and “Insoluble” means that essentially all of the sample precipitated, leaving the solution visually colorless.
[0000]
TABLE 1
Average
Metal:Ligand
Ligand 1:Ligand 2
Peak to Peak
Solubility
Core
Metal
Ligand 1
Ligand 2
Molar Ratio
Molar Ratio
Morphology
Spacing (nm)
Toluene
Ethanol
Size (nm)
Au
HT
MPA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
0.95
Highly
Soluble
3.5
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
1.1
2.1
Ripples
1
Highly
Insoluble
3.8
soluble
Au
DT
MPA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
1
Highly
Slightly
3.5
soluble
soluble
Au
DDT
MPA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
.55-.75
Highly
Insoluble
3.5
soluble
Au
OT
MUA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
1
Insoluble
Highly
3.7
soluble
Au
DDT
MUA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
0.62
Insoluble
Soluble
3.7
Au
OT
MPA
1:1
1:2
Ripples
0.66
Highly
Slightly
3.6
soluble
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
1
Highly
Slightly
3.8
soluble
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
1:1
10:1
Domains
N/A
Highly
Slightly
3.5
soluble
soluble
Au
OT
MUA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
1
Insoluble
Highly
3.7
soluble
Au
OT
MUA
1:1
5:1
Domains
N/A
Slightly
Highly
3.6
soluble
soluble
Au
OT
MUA
1:1
20:1
Domains
N/A
Highly
Insoluble
3.6
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
1
Highly
Insoluble
3.8
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
2:1
2:1
Ripples
0.82
Highly
Insoluble
4.3
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
5:1
2:1
Ripples
0.73
Highly
Slightly
5.1
soluble
soluble
Au
OT
MUA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
1
Insoluble
Highly
3.7
soluble
Au
OT
MUA
3:1
2:1
Ripples
0.8
Insoluble
Highly
4.9
soluble
Au
HT
APT
1:1
1:2
Ripples
0.6
Highly
Insoluble
3.5
soluble
Au
OT
APT/
1:1
1:1:1
Domains
N/A
Insoluble
Soluble
3.6
MUA
Au
OT
MPA
3:1
30:1
N/A
Highly
Insoluble
soluble
Au
OT
MPA
1:1
Substituted
Partial
0.75
Insoluble
Insoluble
3.6
ripples
Ag
OT
MPA
1:1
2:1
Ripples
0.92
Slightly
Slightly
3.8
soluble
soluble
[0000]
TABLE 2
Abbreviation
Ligand
MPA
HOOC—(CH 2 ) 2 —SH (mercaptopropionic acid)
MUA
HOOC—(CH 2 ) 10 —SH (mercapto undecanoic acid)
APT
H 2 N—C 6 H 4 —SH (4-amino thiophenol)
HT
CH 3 —(CH 2 ) 5 —SH (hexanethiol)
OT
CH 3 —(CH 2 ) 7 —SH (octanethiol)
DT
CH 3 —(CH 2 ) 9 —SH (decanethiol)
DDT
CH 3 —(CH 2 ) 11 —SH (duodecanethiol)
[0041] Particles were examined by STM to determine domain morphology and spacing. STM samples were prepared by immersing a 1 cm 2 gold substrate (either gold foil or Au(111) thermally evaporated on mica) in 20 ml of a 5.6×10 −2 mM toluene solution of 1,8-octane-dithiol containing 2 mg nanoparticles for 24 hours. The dithiol was used to bind the nanoparticles to the substrate and to one another; this was found to be beneficial in imaging as the particles were immobilized and the STM tip could not be contaminated.
[0042] As shown by the STM image of FIG. 2 , gold particles synthesized in one step with a 2:1 OT/MPA molar composition present domains that align into parallel ripples that encircle and/or spiral around the nanoparticles, forming long channels with hydrophilic bottoms and hydrophobic walls. (The common alignment along multiple nanoparticles shown in FIG. 2 is believed to be due to interdigitation of ligands.) In contrast, STM images of homo-ligand nanoparticles lacked the rippled stripes and showed hexagonally packed head groups. The presence of ripples on the nanoparticles has also been confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD). XRD plots of rippled nanoparticles showed peaks at 20 ranging from 2.50 to 13°. Some of the peaks were temperature dependent, as is expected for peaks due to inter-particle packing arrangements. However, some peaks were temperature independent, pointing to periodic arrangements, with 0.5-2.5 nm spacing, on single nanoparticles. Such temperature-independent peaks were not observed in homo-ligand nanoparticles. On heating the nanoparticles to 120° C. and subsequent gentle cooling and rinsing in toluene, dichloromethane, ethanol, acetone, and acetonitrile, ripple alignment across the sample was improved. SAMs deposited on gold foil and heated above 150° C. did not exhibit consistent ripple alignment.
[0043] Additional confirmation of the presence of ordered phase-separated domains was provided by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. In these images we have found that there is an observable ring around the nanoparticles' metallic cores consisting of discrete dots spaced ˜0.5-0.6 nm. Ripples on silver particles formed with similar spacing to those on gold, suggesting that the formation of domains is not solely determined by the substrate material. In addition, by comparing the TEM images of metallic cores of MPMNs with the STM images of ligand shells of the same particles, we determined that the crystallographic nature of the metal is not a determining factor for domain formation.
[0044] One property of these nanoparticles is that the morphology of the ligand shell can be easily tailored. By simply varying the stoichiometry of the reagents during the one-step synthesis, it is possible to control and change the height difference, the spacing and the shape of the phase-separated domains, that is, the resulting exterior shape of the nanoparticle. We varied the height difference between the peaks and valleys of the ripples by synthesizing nanoparticles with MPA and one type of n-alkane thiol (CH 3 —(CH 2 ) n —SH, where n=5,7,9,11) in a 1:2 molar ratio; all of the particles showed ripples and, as expected, the spacing remained constant. (As the term is used herein, interdomain spacing is the distance between one peak and the next one in the ripples on the MPNP surface. It should be noted that this distance is a measure not of one single domain, but of the total width of one OT and one MPA domain.) We then varied the spacing between the ripples by first changing the metallic core size, while keeping the ligand (OT/MPA) ratio constant, and found that peak-to-peak distance decreases as the nanoparticle diameter increases. Without wishing to be bound by any particular explanation, we believe that this is because the radius of curvature imposes the relative angle between one OT domain and the next, and this angle decreases with increasing core diameter. Even more strikingly, by varying the ligand ratio while keeping the core size constant, we found that we can change the peak-to-peak distance in quantized increments of ˜3 Å (see FIG. 3 ). The global domain morphology could also be controlled by varying the ligand ratio, going from perfect ripples to defect-rich ripples to discrete domains. In the case of OT/MPA mixtures, we have observed that for extreme compositions in which one molecule is present in small amounts, discrete and ordered domains of the lesser component form in a percolated matrix of the more abundant one. This behavior has some striking similarities to that of block copolymers (albeit at a much smaller length scale); the ripples are analogous to the lamellar phase.
[0045] The formation of phase-separated domains on nanoparticles is not confined to specific molecular mixtures or intermolecular forces. We synthesized a series of nanoparticles coated with alkane thiols and a longer carboxylic-acid-terminated thiolated molecule (mercapto undecanoic acid, MUA). All of the synthesized particles showed ordered domains. Nanoparticles that had a 2:1 molar ratio of dodecanethiol to MUA, two molecules that are approximately the same length, showed ripples, proving that the relative height difference is not the sole factor in determining ripple formation. Nanoparticles coated with a binary mixture of OT and 4-amino thiophenol in a 1:1 molar ratio showed clear evidence of ripples with a 0.6-nm spacing. This demonstrates that the phase-separated domains form also in the case of intermolecular forces such as π-π interactions.
[0046] To produce a broader size and curvature range, we prepared surfaces covered with small gold hemispheres of varying diameters. Mixed SAMs were formed on gold thermally evaporated on silicon, which presents a high density of 20-nm-diameter hemispheres of, on average, 4 nm in height. Because of the low curvature of the substrate, there was no domain ordering. To better approximate the curvature present on nanoparticle surfaces, nanoparticle submonolayers were prepared on gold on mica substrates and then processed so as to completely remove their ligands by heating under vacuum at 170° C. for 1 hr or by irradiating with UV light for 8 hours, resulting in gold hemispheres about 4 nm in diameter and height. When mixed monolayers were assembled on these surfaces, ordered ripples spontaneously formed only on the curved part of the substrate ( FIG. 4 .).
[0047] To show that the monolayers prepared according to the techniques of the invention are resistant to non-specific protein adsorption, we choose three proteins: 1) cytochrome C, a medium-sized protein known to bind strongly to both OT and MPA homo- and mixed monolayers (Hobara, et al., Nano Lett . (2002), 2, 1125-1129), 2) lysozyme, a small, positively charged (pH 7.4) and rigid protein known not to unfold when adsorbing on hydrophilic monolayers (Satulovsky, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA , (2000), 97, 9037-9041), and 3) fibrinogen, a large protein present in blood plasma that adsorbs strongly to hydrophobic surfaces by unfolding (Kidoaki, et al., Langmuir (1999), 15, 7639-7646). Cytochrome C was adsorbed on the SAMs by immersing the monolayers for 24 hr in a solution of 127 mmol NaCl, 2.7 mmol KCl, and 10 mmol phosphate buffer (200 ml water, pH 7.4) containing 197.6 mg (0.016 mmol) cytochrome C. Lysozyme adsorption was performed by incubating the monolayers in 0.1 mg lysozyme/1 ml PBS for 24 hr. Fibrinogen adsorption was performed by incubating the substrates in a 0.5 mg fibrinogen/1 ml PBS for 24 hr. All substrates were subsequently rinsed with PBS and purified water and dried under air. Using STM, atomic force microscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, we confirmed that all of these proteins adsorb on MPA, OT, and on mixed MPA-OT monolayers. The same behavior occurs on OT homo-ligand nanoparticle films, but the proteins do not adsorb on rippled or domained MPA/OT nanoparticle films, even after 24 hour exposure to a concentrated solution.
[0048] Mixed ligand OT/MPA nanoparticles were also synthesized by a two step procedure. First, OT homo-ligand nanoparticles were synthesized by the one-step procedure described above. 50 mg of the resulting nanoparticles were then dissolved in 45 ml toluene and 5 ml MPA. The solution was stirred for 24 hr, followed by centrifugation to remove unsubstituted ligands. We observed ripples with the same spacing as those formed on nanoparticles synthesized in only one step.
[0049] Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the specification or practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with the true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.
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An article has a surface, at least a portion of which has a local radius of curvature of about 1000 nm or less. For example, the article may be a nanoparticle or a surface, a portion of which has a roughness characterized by a radius of curvature of about 1000 nm or less. A monolayer coating disposed on the surface includes a plurality of ligands organized into ordered domains having a characteristic size of less than or about equal to 10 nm.
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This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 13/805,436, filed Dec. 19, 2012, which is a national stage filing under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/CN2011/076967 filed on Jul. 8, 2011, which claims the benefit of priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201010224173.3 filed on Jul. 9, 2010. All of those applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY
The present invention relates to a novel medical use of compound 5α-androstane-3β,5,6β-triol (hereinafter abbreviated as YC-6).
BACKGROUND
Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) is conventionally treated mainly by thrombolysis or neuroprotection. Neuroprotection refers to medicament or measures, during treatment of AIS, that are able to inhibit pathological and biochemical reactions of brain tissue caused by ischemia, interfere with various pathways of ischemic cascade and prolong survival of neurons.
Neuroprotection has currently become one of the research hotspots in the field of AIS treatment. Various neuroprotectants are under clinical development, the mechanism of which is to prevent or limit brain damage resulted from ischemia by blocking various harmful pathological processes due to ischemia, so as to reduce brain tissue death and promote function recovery. The neuroprotectants can reduce cerebral infarct size; do not result in hemorrhage complication that may occur during thrombolytics or anticoagulants therapy; and can be used without confirmation of etiology, making early treatment possible. The therapeutic effect of neuroprotectants is therefore promising.
There is no neuroprotectant yet, however, that has been proven safe and effective. Drugs that are under clinical trials and have potential value of clinical application include calcium channel blockers (CCB), calcium channel modulators, glutamate release inhibitors, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor agonists, free radical scavengers, anti-intercellular adhesion molecule antibodies, and so on.
Among various compounds, neuroactive steroids draw growing concern due to their comprehensive effect in neuroprotection. The levels of neuroactive steroids are correlated with the development and progression of some central nervous system (CNS) diseases, and play a significant role in modulating neuron damage, death, and those CNS diseases. These steroid hormones, either natural or synthetic with activity in nerve tissues, were named neuroactive steroids (NAS) since 1980s. These steroid hormones have been used clinically as replacement therapy. Estrogen is known to be one of the NAS that have the strongest neuroprotective effect. The ovaries of menopausal women do not produce estrogen again, probably leading to beta-amyloid protein (Aβ) deposition and then Alzheimer's disease (AD). Administration of estrogen can significantly reduce the levels of Aβ in brain. Clinically, estrogen treatment of AD has achieved good results. It was demonstrated that allopregnanolone protects cultured hippocampal neurons in vitro against irreversible neurotoxic insult by hypoxia or glutamate. 5α-androstane-3β,5,6β-triol (YC-6) is a compound, found having neuroprotective effect during our research on neurosteroids, with the following structural formula. Information retrieval until now did not reveal any reports about pharmacological effect of YC-6 or its neuroactivity/neuroprotective effect.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide the use of 5α-androstane-3β,5,6β-triol in preparation of neuroprotective drugs, so as to provide a novel drug for treatment of neuron related diseases.
Our research has shown that 5α-androstane-3β,5,6β-triol (YC-6) significantly inhibits glutamate-induced excitotoxic damage of cerebellar granule neurons, cortical neurons, and spinal motor neurons, increases survival rate of neurons and reduces release of lactate dehydrogenase in a dose-dependent manner with minimal effective concentration of 1 μM. YC-6 also significantly inhibits damage of cerebral cortical neurons caused by ischemia in a dose-dependent manner with minimal effective concentration of 2.5 μM.
To confirm the neuroprotective effect of YC-6 in vivo, focal cerebral ischemic model and spinal cord injury model induced by abdominal aorta block were used to explore the protective effect of YC-6 against neuron damage caused by rat cerebral ischemia and rabbit spinal cord ischemia.
1 mg. Kg −1 of YC-6 was administrated via caudal vein injection to rats of YC-6 group 30 minutes prior to cerebral ischemia. The animals in YC-6 group has much higher neurological score and much smaller cerebral infarct volume than that in untreated control group, indicating that YC-6 has significant protective effect against cerebral neuron damage.
The rabbits received 2 mg. Kg −1 of YC-6 administration 30 minutes prior to spinal cord ischemia has significant higher neurological score than that in untreated control group. No paralysis was observed in YC-6 group while all the animals in control group show paralysis. It was demonstrated histopathologically that, there remained greater amount of normal spinal cord anterior horn motor neurons in the animals of YC-6 group than that of control group, further indicating that YC-6 has significant protective effect against spinal cord neuron damage.
Taken the above evident together, YC-6 has protective effect against neuron damage caused by cerebral ischemia, spinal cord ischemia or hypoxia. No other research has reported the neuroactivity/neuroprotective effect of YC-6 so far.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 . The protective effect of YC-6 against glutamate-induced excitotoxicity of cerebellar granule neurons, spinal motor neurons, and cerebral cortical neurons. Morphology of (A) cerebellar granule neurons, (B) spinal motor neurons, and (C) cerebral cortical neurons; (D) LDH release rate and (E) survival rate of neurons. * and **: significantly different vs. Glutamate (Glu) group of cerebellar granule neurons, *P<0.05 and **P<0.01; # and ## : significantly different vs. Glutamate (Glu) group of spinal motor neurons, # P<0.05 and ## P<0.01; $ and $$ : significantly different vs. Glutamate (Glu) group of cerebral cortical neurons, $ P<0.05 and $$ P<0.01.
FIG. 2 . The protective effect of YC-6 against hypoxia-induced cortical neuron damage. (A) the result of phase contrast microscope; (B) survival rate of neurons; (C) LDH release rate. ## : significantly different vs. control group, P<0.01; * and **: significantly different vs. hypoxia group, *P<0.05, **P<0.01.
FIG. 3 . The neuroprotective effect of YC-6 in rabbit spinal cord ischemia induced by abdominal aorta block. (A) neurological function score; (B) the histopathologic slices (HE staining); (C) the number of normal spinal motor neurons.
FIG. 4 . The neuroprotective effect of YC-6 against rat focal cerebral ischemia. (A) neurological function score; (B) the brain slices (TTC staining); (C) comparison of cerebral infarct volume.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The present invention will be described in more detail in specific examples. Yet, the present invention is not limited to the following examples.
Example 1
Culture of Primary Neurons
1. Primary Rat Cerebellar Granule Neurons Cultures
Cerebella with meninges and blood vessels removed were obtained from 7-8 days old rats weighted 15-20 g. 0.05 g/L DNase I was used to pipette the cell to single cell suspension following 0.25 g/L trypsin digestion. The suspension was then centrifuged to collect precipitation and resuspended with BME medium containing 10% (v/v) FBS and 25 mM KCl. The cells were then seeded on dishes pre-coated with poly-lysine. 24 hours following the seeding, 10 μM Ara-C was added to inhibit growth and proliferation of non-neuron cells, such that the cerebellar granule neurons have purity not less than 95%. Glucose was added during culture to provide supplementary energy for cellular metabolism. Experiments were carried out at 8 DIV.
2. Rat Spinal Motor Neurons
Spinal cord was obtained from 15-day pregnant SD rats. The cristae membrane and blood film were removed. The spinal cord tissues of fetal rats is digested with 0.125% trypsin and then centrifuged to collect intermediate layer enriched with motor neurons. Cell debris were removed by centrifugation and cells were adhered by differential velocity adherent technique for 1 h. Suspending spinal motor neurons with slower adhering velocity were collected and seeded. 24 hours following the seeding, Ara-C was added. The Culture medium was replaced on the 3 DIV with L-15 serum free medium, followed by half medium change every 2˜3 days. Experiments were carried out on the 3-5 DIV.
3. Rat Cortical Neurons
Cortex with meninges and blood vessels removed were obtained from newborn (1-day old) rats. 0.05 g/L DNase I was used to pipette the cell to single cell suspension following 0.25 g/L trypsin digestion. The suspension was then centrifuged to collect precipitation and diluted it with DMEM-F12 medium containing 5% (v/v) FBS and 2% B27. The cell was seeded on dishes pre-coated with poly-lysine. 24 hours following the seeding, 10 μM Ara-C was added to inhibit growth and proliferation of non-neuron cells. Half medium change was performed 2-3 times per week. Experiments were carried out on the 10 DIV.
Example 2
Protective Effect of YC-6 on Primarily Cultured Neurons
1. Protective Effect of YC-6 Against Glutamate-Induced Excitotoxicity of Cerebellar Granule Neurons
The cerebellar granule neurons cultured for 8 days were divided into four groups: control group, glutamate group, MK801+glutamate group, and YC-6+glutamate group. The control group received no treatment. The glutamate group was treated with 200 μM glutamate. The MK801 group and the YC-6 group were pre-treated with MK801 (10 μM) and YC-6 with different concentrations, respectively, followed by incubation at 37° C. for 30 minutes, then glutamate was added. After 24 hours, phase contrast microscope was used to observe neuronal morphologies. The cells were stained by FDA and observed under inverted fluorescent microscope for cell counting to calculate survival rate of neurons. The activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was also determined for each group.
Survival Rate=Number of live cells for each group/Number of live cells in the control group*100%
The results showed that the majority of cerebellar granule neurons in the YC-6+glutamate group and the MK801+glutamate group could maintain the integrity of soma and processes and had increased survival rate and decreased LDH release. Statistical differences were observed between the YC-6 and MK801 groups and the glutamate group. As shown in FIGS. 1 -A, D, and E, the effect of YC-6 was concentration dependent. YC-6 showed no affect on the survival rate of normal neuron cells within the indicated dose ranges.
2. Protective Effect of YC-6 Against Glutamate-Induced Excitotoxicity of Spinal Motor Neurons
The primary cultured spinal motor neurons at 5 DIV were divided into four groups: control group, glutamate group, MK801+glutamate group, and YC-6+glutamate group. The control group received no treatment. The glutamate group was treated with 200 nM glutamate. The MK801 group and the YC-6 group were pre-treated with MK801 (10 μM) and YC-6 with different concentrations, respectively, followed by incubation at 37° C. for 30 minutes, then glutamate was added. After 24 hours, phase contrast microscope was used to observe neuronal morphologies. The cells were stained by FDA and observed under inverted fluorescent microscope for cell counting to calculate survival rate of neurons. The activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was also determined for each group.
Survival Rate=Number of live cells for each group/Number of live cells in the control group*100%
The observation of phase contrast microscope showed that a great number of living spinal motor neurons were survived in control group with intact triangle or polygon-shaped soma. The cells were stereoscopic and had halo and visible neurites. Few spinal motor neurons survived in glutamate group, although with neurites formed. Cells in this group were severely damaged. The number of spinal motor neurons in MK801+glutamate group and YC-6+glutamate group were significantly increased and many neuritis were seen although a small number of cells were dead. Compared with the control group, the survival rates of the remaining groups were decreased by different degrees. Compared with the glutamate group, the survival rate of the YC-6+glutamate group was significantly increased and YC-6 concentration dependent, as shown in FIGS. 1 -B, D, and E. YC-6 showed no effect on the survival rate of normal neuron cells within the indicated dose ranges.
3. Protective Effect of YC-6 Against Glutamate-Induced Excitotoxicity of Cortical Neurons
The primary cultured cortical neurons at 10 DIV were divided into four groups: control group, glutamate group, MK801+glutamate group, and YC-6+glutamate group. The control group received no treatment. The glutamate group was treated with 200 μM glutamate. The MK801 group and the YC-6 group were pre-treated with MK801 (10 nM) and YC-6 with different concentrations, respectively, followed by incubation at 37° C. for 30 minutes, then glutamate was added. After 24 hours, phase contrast microscope was used to observe neuronal morphologies. The cells were stained by FDA and observed under inverted fluorescent microscope for cell counting to calculate survival rate of neurons. The activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was also determined for each group.
Survival Rate=Number of live cells for each group/Number of live cells in the control group*100%
The results showed that a great number of cortical neurons in the YC-6+glutamate group and the MK801+glutamate group maintained intact soma and neurites and had increased survival rates and decreased LDH release. Statistical differences were observed between the YC-6 and MK801 groups and the glutamate group. As shown in FIGS. 1 -C, D, and E, the effect of YC-6 was concentration dependent. YC-6 showed no effect on the survival rate of normal neuron cells within the indicated dose ranges.
4. Protective Effect of YC-6 Against Hypoxia-Induced Damage of Cortical Neurons
The primary cultured cortical neurons at 10 DIV were divided into four groups: control group, hypoxia group, MK801+ hypoxia group, and YC-6+ hypoxia group. 3 duplicates wells were provided for each group. The control group was incubated in CO 2 normoxic incubator. The hypoxia group was placed in a hypoxia work station (oxygen concentrate: 1%). The MK801+ hypoxia group and YC-6+ hypoxia group were pretreated with MK801 (10 μM) and YC-6 with different concentrations 30 min before replaced to hypoxia work station (oxygen concentrate: 1%). After 12 hours, the cells were observed and photographed under phase contrast microscope.
The treatment was performed in 96-well plates. 200 μl MTT stock solution was added to each well and incubated for 4 h. Hyacinthine colored crystals were formed in live cells. The liquid in each well was removed and replaced with 150 μl DMSO to dissolve the crystals. The crystals were dissolved after half an hour and OD value was detected at 570 nm wavelength by Microplates-Reader. 50 μL of culture medium was obtained from all groups at different time points and LDH release was determined for each well according to the supplier's instructions. Data were presented as the mean±SD, one-way ANOVA and statistically analyzed using paired-samples t-test and analysis of variance among means of multiple samples. See references [1] and [2]. [1] Brewer G J. Isolation and culture of adult rat hippocampal neurons. J. Neurosci. Meth. 1997, 71:143-155. [2] Lee M. M., Hseih M. T. Magnolol protects cortical neuronal cells from chemical hypoxia in rats. Neuroreport 1998, 9:3451-3456.
The results showed primary cultured rat cortical neurons at 10 DIV were cone-shaped or multi-pole shaped with bright soma, clear boundary and nucleus. The cells had very high refractivity and neurites were connected to form a network.
Cortical neurons exposed to hypoxia were shown a disrupted integrity and decreased refractivity. Neurites were broken or disappeared. Cytoplasm was undergone granular degeneration. Some of soma was swollen or disappeared.
Compared with the control group, MK801+ hypoxia group and YC-6+ hypoxia group showed no difference in morphology of cortical neuronal cells. The neuron protection effect of YC-6 was concentration dependent ( FIG. 2A ). MTT method showed that hypoxia treatment significantly decreased survival rate of neurons (P<0.05), while YC-6 increased the survival rate of neurons in a concentration dependent manner ( FIG. 2B ). LDH release data was consistent with the results of MTT method. YC-6 pretreated group relieved neuron damaged caused by hypoxia in a concentration dependent manner ( FIG. 2 -C, P<0.05).
Example 3
Neuroprotective Effect of YC-6 Against Rabbit Spinal Cord Ischemia Induced by Abdominal Aorta Block
40 male New Zealand white rabbits were grouped into 4 groups (n=10): Control group for establishing rabbit spinal cord ischemia model; YC-6 group, with 2 mg.Kg −1 steroid YC-6 intravenously injected via rabbit ear marginal vein 30 minutes prior to spinal cord ischemia; Vehicle group, with equivalent capacity of hydroxypropyl cyclodextrins (1 ml.Kg −1 ) injected in the same way 30 minutes prior to spinal cord ischemia; Sham group, with only abdominal aorta exposure but no blockage.
The establishment process of rabbit spinal cord ischemia model was performed according to references [3] and [4] and our previous report [5]. [3] Celik M. et al. Erythropoietin prevents motor neuron apoptosis and neurologic disability in experimental spinal cord ischemic injury. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2002, 99: 2258-2263. [4] Johnson S H, Kraimer J. M., Graeber G M. Effects of flunarizine on neurological recovery and spinal cord blood flow in experimental spinal cord ischemia in rabbits. Stroke, 1993, 24: 1547-1553. [5] Sang H., Cao L., Qiu P., Xiong L., Wang R., Yan G. Isoflurane produces delayed preconditioning against spinal cord ischemic injury via release of free radicals in rabbits. Anesthesiology, 2006, 105: 953-960.
Physiological parameters were obtained for each group immediately before ischemia, 10 min after ischemia and 20 min after reperfusion. Talov scoring [5] was used to obtain functional scores for each group: 0 score, complete hind limb paralysis; 1 score, visible joint movement of hind limb; 2 score, free movement of joint of hind limb but incapable of standing up; 3 score, capable of standing up but incapable of walk; 4 score, full recovery of movement function of hind limb and capable of walk as normal.
After the neurological function scoring, the rabbits were subjected to anesthesia and spinal cord tissues at lumbar segments (L 5 -L 7 ) were obtained. The tissues were paraffin-embedded, sliced, and then subjected to HE staining. Pathological changes were observed under an optical microscope by an observer who did not know how the rabbits were grouped and normal motor neurons of anterior horn of spinal cord were countered. The counting of normal motor neurons of anterior horn of spinal cord for each animal was presented as mean value of 3 slides.
The results showed that no statistical difference (P>0.05) in physiological parameters obtained immediately before ischemia, 10 min after ischemia and 20 min after reperfusion. The neurological function score was determined and shown in FIG. 3 -A. The neurological function of hind limb of rabbits in Sham group was completely normal during the whole observation (4 score); none of the rabbits in Control and Vehicle groups can stand up; 7 of rabbits in YC-6 group can stand up (3 score or higher). The neurological function scores of YC-6 and Sham groups were significantly higher than those of Control and Vehicle groups (P<0.05).
In the Control and Vehicle groups, the spinal cord tissues at lumbar segments were severely damaged, embodied as substantive disappearance of normal motor neurons and extensive vacuolar degeneration. In the YC-6 group, however, the spinal cord damage was substantively alleviated and normal motor neurons were observed ( FIG. 3 -B) The number of normal motor neurons of anterior horn of spinal cord in YC-6 and Sham groups was significantly increased ( FIG. 3 -C)
In conclusion, YC-6 is neuroprotecctive against spinal cord ischemia.
Example 4
Neuroprotective Effect of YC-6 Against Rat Focal Cerebral Ischemic (MCAO)
30 male SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=10): Control group, for establishment of rat focal cerebral ischemic model; YC-6 group, with 1 mg.Kg −1 YC-6 intravenously injected via tail vein 30 min prior to cerebral ischemia; Vehicle group, with equivalent capacity of hydroxypropyl cyclodextrins (2 ml.Kg −1 ) injected in the same way 30 min prior to cerebral ischemia.
The rats were subjected to postoperative fasting for 12 hours while allowed to drink freely. Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model was established by intraluminal thread technique [6]. [6] Wang Q., Peng Y., Chen S., Gou X., Hu B., Du J., Lu Y., Xiong L. Pretreatment with electroacupuncture induces rapid tolerance to focal cerebral ischemia through regulation of endocannabinoid system. Stroke, 2009, 40(6): 2157-2164. After occlusion for 120 min, the thread was released and followed by reperfusion continued. Regional cerebral blood flow was monitored by laser Doppler blood flow meter. The animals were returned to cage when waked and allowed to drink and eat freely. 72 h of reperfusion after cerebral ischemia, Longa scoring method [7] was used to assess and score neurological function by an observer who did not know how the rats were grouped: grade 0, without dysfunction; grade 1, incapable of stretching left forelimb; grade 2, rotation towards left; grade 3, falling towards left; grade 4, without autonomic activities accompanied by conscious inhibition; grade 5, death. [7] Longa E. Z., Weinstein P. R., Carlson S., Cummins R. Reversible middle cerebral artery occlusion without craniectomy in rats. Stroke, 1989, 20(1): 84-91.
After neurological function scoring, the rats were sacrificed and brains were rapidly taken out. After sliced, the brain sections were immediately stained in TTC solution for 30 mins, followed by paraformaldehyde fixation. After 24 h, the slides were photographed using digital camera and images were imported into computer. Image processing software (ADOBE, PHOTOSHOP 8.0) was used to calculate infarct volume (normal brain tissue shown in pink and infarct area shown in white). In order to calibrate deviation in infarct volume caused by cerebral edema, the infarct volume was presented as percentage of normal volume in the opposite side.
Infarct volume=(Normal tissue volume of opposite side−normal tissue volume of corresponding side)/normal tissue volume of opposite side*100%
The neurological behavior scoring (NBS) was tested using Kruskal-Wallis test. If difference was present between groups, Mann-Whitney U test and Bonferroni calibration were used for paired comparison. Infarct volume and physiological parameters were presented as mean±SD error and analyzed using one-way ANOVA following Post hoc Studeng-Newman-Keuls (SNK) test for paired comparison among multiple groups. *P<0.05 indicates statistical difference.
The neurological function scores for animals in each group were shown in FIG. 4 . Compared to Control and Vehicle groups, YC-6 group has significant improvement in neurological function and reduced infarct volume (*P<0.05).
Taken the above evident together, YC-6, i.e., 5α-androstane-3β,5,6β-triol has protective effect against neuronal injuries caused by hypoxia, cerebral ischemia or spinal cord ischemia.
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Disclosed is the use of 5α-androstane-3β,5,6β-triol in preparing neuroprotective drugs. The compound has significant protective effect against neuron injuries caused by cerebral ischemia, spinal cord ischemia or hypoxia and has no obvious toxic reaction within effective dose thereof.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/226,763 (Issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,394,611) filed on Oct. 27, 2008, which application is a U.S. National Stage Application of International Application No. PCT/US2007/010454 filed on Apr. 30, 2007, which application claims benefit to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/796,375, filed May 1, 2006, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
STATEMENT OF GOVERNMENT RIGHTS
This invention was made with government support under XCO-3-33033-01 awarded by the United States Department of Energy and under 00-52104-9663 awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture. The government has certain rights in the invention.
FIELD
The present invention relates to a process for the treatment of a lignocellulosic biomass with concentrated ammonium hydroxide and preferably with ammonia gas to increase the availability of structural carbohydrates (polysaccharides). Preferably, steam under pressure is used to strip ammonia from the biomass for recycling. In particular, the present invention relates to a process which enables the efficient conversion of the polysaccharides to monosaccharides preferably by enzymatic hydrolysis.
BACKGROUND
A wide variety of methods (e.g. concentrated or dilute acids or bases, high temperatures, radiation of various forms) have been used to pretreat lignocellulosic biomass to extract structural carbohydrates to be used to obtain monosaccharides for many different uses. The goal of these pretreatments is to increase the rate and/or yield at which the monosaccharides are subsequently obtained from the structural carbohydrates by chemical or biochemical means such as acid catalysis, enzymatic catalysis, fermentation or animal digestion. In general, these pretreatments have fallen short of desired economic and technical performance for several reasons: 1) many pretreatments degrade some of the sugars, e.g. to acids or aldehydes, thus reducing yields and inhibiting subsequent biological conversion of the remaining sugars; 2) when chemicals are used in the pretreatment, it is frequently difficult to recover these chemicals at reasonable cost; 3) residual chemicals can negatively affect downstream conversion operations; and 4) the effectiveness of many pretreatments is limited so that the ultimate conversions of structural carbohydrates obtained, independent of lost yield by sugar degradation reactions, is inadequate for competitive process economics. Thus there are many prior art methods, and they have numerous drawbacks including those outlined above.
Sufficiently inexpensive monosaccharides from renewable plant biomass can become the basis of chemical and fuels industries, replacing or substituting for petroleum and other fossil feedstocks. Effective, economical pretreatments are required to make these monosaccharides available at high yield and acceptable cost.
The prior art in the pretreatment of plant biomass with anhydrous liquid ammonia or ammonium hydroxide solutions is extensive. Illustrative are the following patents and literature references:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,590 to Dale U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,060 to Chou U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,663 to Dale U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,592 to Holtzapple et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,898 to Holtzapple et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,544 to Karsents et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,061 to Bredereck et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,621 to Karstens U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,888 to Dale et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,176 to Dale et al. Felix, A., et al., Anim. Prod, 51 47-61 (1990) Waiss, A. C., Jr., et al., Journal of Animal Science 35 No. 1, 1.09-112 (1972). All of these patents and publications are incorporated herein in their entireties.
In particular, ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX™) (hereinafter “AFEX”, now more commonly referred to as “ammonia fiber expansion”) represents a unique and effective pretreatment for biologically converting lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol (Dale, B. E., 1986. U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,663; Dale, B. E., 1991. U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,590; Alizadeh, H., F. Teymouri, T. I. Gilbert, B. E. Dale, 2005. Pretreatment of Switchgrass by Ammonia Fiber Explosion. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 121-124:1133-1141; Dale, B. E., 1991. U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,590; Dale, B. E., 1986. U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,663). In AFEX pretreatment, lignocellulosic biomass is exposed to concentrated ammonia at elevated pressures sufficient to maintain ammonia in liquid phase and moderate temperatures (e.g. around 100° C.). Residence times in the AFEX reactor are generally less than 30 minutes. To terminate the AFEX reaction, the pretreated biomass is depressurized (flashed). The AFEX process is not limited to anhydrous ammonia with AFEX. Some water is added to the biomass, so that any anhydrous ammonia is immediately converted into a concentrated ammonia water mixture on beginning the AFEX treatment.
Recovery of ammonia used in AFEX pretreatment is a key objective when integrating AFEX into a broader biomass conversion process design. The existing ammonia recovery design (Eggeman, T. 2001). Ammonia Fiber Explosion Pretreatment for Bioethanol Production, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Subcontract No. LCO-1-31055-01), which is depicted in FIG. 1 , calls for compressing ammonia, which is vaporized as a result of the flash operation, and separating liquid ammonia that remains in contact with the pretreated solids via evaporation in a dryer. The resulting vapor, which also contains water, is then delivered to a distillation column to purify the ammonia. The ammonia from the column is pumped up to pressure and, together with the compressed flash ammonia, is recycled to the AFEX reactor. FIG. 1 shows the existing ammonia recovery approach.
FIG. 1 shows the prior art system 10 including a closed AFEX reactor vessel 12 into which biomass, water and ammonia are introduced under pressure. Valve V 1 is used to release pressure from the vessel 12 . The treated biomass is transferred to a heated dryer 14 . The dried biomass is transferred out of the dryer 14 for subsequent treatment. Ammonia from the dryer 14 is condensed by condenser 22 and sent to slurry column 16 . Water is removed and condensed by condenser 18 . Ammonia is condensed in condenser 20 and recycled to the vessel 12 . Ammonia gas is pressurized in a compressor 24 , condensed and recycled into vessel 12 .
The problem is that the processes either produce low yields of the monosaccharides and/or require large amounts of liquid ammonia or ammonium hydroxide solutions.
OBJECTS
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a process which effectively combines the use of concentrated ammonium hydroxide to extract the structural carbohydrates with an effective recycling of the ammonia. Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide an economical process which enables the production of monosaccharides in high yield from the structural carbohydrates. These and other objects will become increasingly apparent by reference to the following description and the drawings.
SUMMARY
The present invention relate to a process for the treatment of structural carbohydrates in lignocellulosic biomass which comprises: (a) reacting the biomass with a heated aqueous ammonium hydroxide solution having a concentration greater than about 30% by weight ammonia in a closed vessel at 50° C. or above at an elevated pressure from atmospheric pressure while simultaneously manipulating the temperature, a mass ratio of ammonia to a dry biomass and a mass ratio of water to the dry biomass to increase the digestibility and/or accessibility of the structural carbohydrates; (b) rapidly releasing the pressure in the vessel; (c) recovering at least some of the ammonia and ammonium hydroxide from the biomass and the solution; and (d) optionally further processing the treated biomass via enzymes, microbial conversion or animal digestive processes. Preferably the structural carbohydrates are recovered as a mixture of glucose, xylose, arabinose and other sugars in step (d). Preferably the structural carbohydrates made available by the further treatment which is the microbial conversion which produces organic acids, alcohols, and other byproducts. Preferably the carbohydrates made available by the process are utilized by the animal digestive processes in either ruminant or non-ruminant animal diets. Preferably the temperature of the mixture of ammonia, biomass and water in the closed vessel is at a temperature between about 50° C. and 120° C. Preferably the pressure in the closed vessel is between about 4 and 50 atm. Preferably ammonia gas is added to the vessel to fill any void space in the vessel. The ammonia treatment does not directly solubilize very much of the biomass. About 20% or so of the hemicellulose (xylan polymer primarily) can be solubilized, but essentially none of the glucan structural polysaccharides (cellulose) are solubilized. What happens is that they are “activated” or rendered much more susceptible to hydrolysis. The term “structural carbohydrates” means cellulose and hemicellulose.
The present invention also relates to a process for the treatment of a lignocellulosic containing plant biomass comprising structural carbohydrates with water naturally present in the biomass to produce more digestible or accessible structural carbohydrates which comprises: (a) reacting the biomass with a heated aqueous ammonium hydroxide solution in an amount greater than about 30% by weight ammonia in the aqueous ammonium hydroxide solution in a closed vessel at an elevated pressure and at an elevated temperature without degrading the lignocellulose to remove the structural carbohydrates from the biomass into the solution, wherein an amount of water provided with the biomass is greater than 1% by weight and less than 50% by weight of the biomass; (b) releasing the pressure in the biomass in the vessel; (c) removing a slurry of the biomass with the structural carbohydrates from the vessel; and (d) stripping the ammonium hydroxide solution and ammonia from the slurry to provide the structural carbohydrates in the slurry, wherein greater than 85% of the available glucose in the structural carbohydrates can be recovered as a result of enzymatic hydrolysis of the structural carbohydrates. Preferably the ammonia is recycled. Preferably the sugars comprise a mixture of xylose and glucose. Preferably a temperature of the mixture of ammonia, biomass and water in the closed vessel is between about 50 and 120° C. Preferably ammonia gas is added to fill any void space in the vessel. Preferably the pressure is released rapidly. Preferably the pressure is between about 6.9 and 20.7 atm.
The present invention further relates to a process for recovery of ammonia from an ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) treatment of a lignocellulosic biomass which comprises: (a) treating the biomass with an aqueous solution of ammonium hydroxide in a closed reaction vessel under pressure to form a slurry; (b) releasing the pressure in the vessel of the reaction vessel and pumping the slurry to a stripping column; (c) stripping ammonia from an upper portion of the stripping column, using steam under pressure with removal of a stripped slurry from a bottom portion of the column; (d) introducing the stripped ammonia from the upper portion of the column into a mixer and adding water under pressure to the mixer to form a diluted aqueous ammonia solution; (e) cooling the diluted aqueous ammonia solution from the mixer; and (f) introducing the cooled aqueous ammonia solution into the reaction vessel along with the additional biomass under pressure. Preferably, the reaction is continuous. The, present invention also relates to a system for performing the process as described herein.
The substance and advantages of the present invention will become increasingly apparent by reference to the following drawings and the description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram for a prior art AFEX pretreatment with ammonia recovery and recycling.
FIG. 2 is a process flow diagram for the present invention for AFEX pretreatment with an efficient ammonia recovery.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Cellulosic biomass contains large amounts of structural carbohydrates or polysaccharides (cellulose, hemicellulose, and the like) that can provide much less expensive single sugars for fermentation or non-biological transformation to a variety of products or as improved animal feeds. However, these polysaccharides are difficult to access. The present invention provides a pretreatment process using concentrated ammonium hydroxide under pressure to improve the accessibility/digestibility of the polysaccharides from a cellulosic biomass. The present invention preferably uses combinations of anhydrous ammonia and concentrated ammonium hydroxide solutions to obtain results that are not obtained by either dilute ammonium hydroxide or anhydrous ammonia acting alone.
In the present invention the lignocellulosic material is treated with concentrated ammonium hydroxide in an amount greater than 30% by weight in an ammonium hydroxide solution. The process can be performed in a continuous reactor or a batch reactor as in the Examples.
The biomass contains water which is naturally present. Typically this natural water represents about 1% to 20% by weight of the biomass. In general this natural water tends to be bound in the biomass and thus the water which is primarily relied upon is that added with the ammonium hydroxide solution. Water can also be added to the biomass and, if so, then this mixes with the ammonium hydroxide to provide the ammonium hydroxide solution. Up to 50% of the biomass can be added water.
The term “lignocellulosic biomass” means a naturally derived lignin and cellulose based material. Such materials are, for instance, alfalfa, wheat straw, corn stover, wood fibers, and the like. Preferably the materials are comminuted into particles in a longest dimension.
The term “structural carbohydrates” means the polysaccharide materials containing monosaccharide moieties available by hydrolysis.
The mass ratio of a lignocellulose biomass to ammonia is preferably 1 to 1.
The reaction temperature is preferably 90° C.; however the temperature can be between 50° C. and 120° C.
The pressure is preferably between 100 psia and 300 psi (6.9 to 20.7 atm); however, pressures between 4 and 50 atm can be used.
Hot ammonium hydroxide/water solutions or hot ammonia/water vapors can be added to ground lignocellulosic biomass in a contained vessel to obtain final mixture temperatures of 50° C. or above, preferably 90° C. A preferred ammonia to dry biomass mass weight ratio was about 0.2 to 1.0. A preferred water to dry biomass mass ratio was about 0.4 to 1.0.
FIG. 2 shows the improved system 100 with an AFEX reactor vessel. The slurry is sent directly to the stripping column 104 and condenser in condenser 106 and is sent to mixer 108 for addition of water. High pressure steam is used in the stripping column 104 to remove the ammonia from the slurry. The hot aqueous slurry is removed from the bottom of the stripping column. Condensers 110 and 112 are used to cool the water and ammonia mixture which is recycled into the vessel 102 . By comparing FIGS. 1 and 2 , it can be seen that the process is more efficient.
EXAMPLES 1 TO 20
A 300 ml pressure vessel 102 was first filled with a given mass of corn stover wetted to the desired moisture level as indicated in Table 1 and the vessel 102 was sealed. Thereafter, a concentrated ammonium hydroxide mixture was prepared by mixing the right proportions of anhydrous ammonia and water in another pressure vessel. This mixture was added to the corn stover in the 300 ml reactor vessel 102 to achieve the desired final level of ammonia and water. In this case the target was 1 kg of ammonia per kg of dry biomass and 0.6 kg of water per kg of dry biomass. The mixture of ammonia, water and biomass was then heated to 90° C., held at that temperature for 5 minutes and the pressure rapidly released.
The resulting solid was hydrolyzed to mixtures of monosaccharides containing, for example, glucose, xylose and arabinose.
The results of the present invention are shown in Table 1 in Examples 2 to 15.
TABLE 1
Glucose and Xylose yields of ammonia treated corn stover after
168 hr (7 days) for hydrolysis with a cellulose enzyme. Different
ammonia concentrations were used. All runs are at 1 kg NH3: 1 Kg
dry stover (BM), 90° C. reactor temperature, 0.6 kg water/kg
dry stover (except for the last 4 experiments 17 to 20) and 5 min
residence time. 15 FPU cellulase enzyme/gram glucan in BM.
Kg NH 3 /kg
%
water in
Ammonia
Water
Glu-
%
Expt.
ammonium
distri-
distri-
cose
Xylose
Re-
#
hydroxide
bution
bution
yield
yield
peats
1(a)
1 kg NH 3
All NH 3
All in BM
92.96
74.25
2
2
0.5
¾ NH 3
½ in
92.20
78.85
2
and ¼
NH 4 OH ½
NH 4 OH
in BM
3
0.5
3.4 NH 3
All in
79.88
64.90
2
and ¼
NH 4 OH
NH 4 OH
4
0.41
⅔ NH 3
All in
86.60
70.54
1
and ⅓
NH 4 OH
NH 4 OH
5
0.58
⅔ NH 3
½ in
78.23
65.83
1
and ⅓
NH 4 OH ½
NH 4 OH
in BM
6
0.5
½ NH 3
All in
57.65
47.85
1
and ½
NH 4 OH
NH 4 OH
7
0.8
½ NH 3
¾ in
85.50
70.37
1
and ½
NH 4 OH ¼
NH 4 OH
in BM
8
0.66
½ NH 3
½ in
97.78
81.98
2
and ½
NH 4 OH ½
NH 4 OH
in BM
9
0.79
½ NH 3
¾ in
98.54
78.70
2
and ½
BM ¼
NH 4 OH
in NH 4 OH
10
0.38
⅓ NH 3
All in
74.52
56.47
1
and ⅔
NH 4 OH
NH 4 OH
11
0.73
⅓ NH 3
½ in
81.51
69.66
1
and ⅔
NH 4 OH ½
NH 4 OH
in BM
12
0.66
All NH 4 OH
All in
71.00
57.00
2
NH 4 OH
13
0.75
All NH 4 OH
½ in
96.78
79.00
3
NH 4 OH ½
in BM
14
0.88
All NH 4 OH
¾ in
97.11
79.00
2
NH 4 OH ¼
in BM
15
0.72
All NH 4 OH
¼ in
88.31
75.37
2
NH 4 OH ¾
in BM
16(b)
0.3
All NH 4 OH
2.3 g water
83.58
68.18
1
per g BM
17(b)
0.15
All NH 4 OH
5.6 g water
70.50
42.46
1
per g BM
18(b)
0.1
All NH 4 OH
9 g water
64.85
49.31
1
per g BM
19(b)
0.05
All NH 4 OH
19 g water
51.26
39.32
1
per g BM
20(c)
Control
No
Not
29.5
17.5
2
ammonia
applicable
Note:
Pressures range from about 100 psia to about 300 psia except for Expt. 16-19, which are at atmospheric pressure
(a)Comparative Example 1 shows the AFEX process described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,600,590 and 5,037,663 to Date, exemplified by FIG. 1. Comparative Examples 16 to 19
(b)show the results at atmospheric pressure with ammonium hydroxide Example 20
(c)shows the process without ammonia.
Table 1 shows the results for the conversion of corn stover to glucose and xylose following treatment with ammonia and water. The total amount of water, ammonia and biomass and the system temperature is the same in all cases. The biomass was treated with 1 kg of ammonia per 1 kg dry biomass (the untreated stover has a moisture content of about 15% dry basis). The experiments were run at 90° C. with a five minute holding time at that temperature and the treated material of Example 1 was hydrolyzed with 15 filter paper units of cellulose per gram of cellulose in the stover. From the point of view of the final conditions to which the stover was subjected, these conditions are identical.
The first two (2) columns of the Table show how this was done. For example, the column titled “Ammonia Addition” shows whether the ammonia (as NH3) was added as anhydrous ammonia or as ammonium hydroxide (ammonia in water). For example, “all NH3” means that all of the ammonia was added to the biomass as anhydrous liquid ammonia has in Example directly from the pressure tank. “ALL NH4OH” means all of the ammonia was added as aqueous ammonium hydroxide.
The second column shows whether the water was added to the stover directly or added as part of the ammonium hydroxide. In the first row, “all NH 3 ” and “All of the water in EM” means that all the ammonia was added as anhydrous and all of the water was in the biomass as in Example 1. The last set of rows is for “All NH 4 OH” meaning that ail of the ammonia was added as ammonium hydroxide and the water was added either to the stover or with the ammonium hydroxide.
Thus, depending on how the ammonia and water are added, very different results are obtained. Eighty-five percent (85%) conversion of cellulose to glucose is used as the minimum for a cost competitive process. Using that criterion, the final column shows the % yield after 168 hours of hydrolysis for both glucose (G) and xylose (X). In no case, when all of the water was added as ammonium hydroxide (comparatively more dilute ammonium hydroxide) is the 85% criterion achieved.
It appears from Table 1 that the ammonium concentration is important. Water naturally associated with the biomass does not act as free water available to dilute the ammonia.
The specific features of the process of the present invention that make it more advantageous than prior art methods are as follows: (1) it does not degrade any biomass carbohydrates so that yield is not compromised due to the pretreatment; (2) high overall yields of glucose (nearly 100% of theoretical) and 85% of theoretical yields of xylose, are obtained; (3) low application rates of otherwise expensive hydrolytic enzymes are needed to obtain these yields; (4) residual ammonia can serve as a nitrogen source for subsequent fermentations or animal feeding operations; (5) treated biomass and polysaccharides can be fed at very high solids levels to subsequent process operations, thereby increasing the concentration of all products and reducing the expense of producing other chemicals from the polysaccharides; and (6) using ammonia and ammonium hydroxide combinations fits well into recovery operations for the ammonia.
Markets that can use this invention include: (1) the U.S. chemical industry which is beginning to move away from petroleum as a source of chemical feedstocks and is interested in inexpensive monosaccharides as platform chemicals for new, sustainable processes; (2) the fermentation industry, especially the fuel ethanol production industry which is also interested in inexpensive sugars from plant biomass; and (3) the animal feed industry which is strongly affected by the cost of available carbohydrates/calories for making animal feeds of various kinds.
The following Example 16 describes two (2) design features that reduce process energy requirements relative to existing designs of ammonia recovery for AFEX pretreatment: (1) steam stripping of pretreated material; and (2) water quench condensation of ammonia vapor. FIG. 2 presents a process flow sheet of these features in the context of the broader AFEX pretreatment design.
Steam Stripping of Pretreated Material
After the AFEX pretreatment is complete, the pretreated material is flashed to a lower pressure, as in the existing design. Unlike the existing design; however, the present invention uses steam-stripping of the resulting pretreated solids to recover residual ammonia. This feature enables the elimination of energy intensive solids drying that is used in the design of FIG. 1 . The processing equipment can be similar to that used for direct steam drying of solids for which there are an increasing number of commercial examples (Kudra, T., A. S. Mujumdar, 2002. Advanced Drying Technologies, New York, N.Y.: Marcel Dekker, Inc.; Pronyk, C., S. Cenkowski, 2003. “Superheating Steam Drying Technologies,” ASAE Meeting Presentation, Paper Number RRV03-0014.).
Water Quench Condensation of Ammonia Vapor
Ammonia vapor coming from the ammonia recovery steam stripping column is combined with ammonia vapor arising from the post-AFEX flash operation and condensed by first adding water in the mixer and then indirectly cooling the aqueous solution in two steps, first with cooling water, and then with chilled water. The condensed aqueous mixture is then pressurized via liquid pumping and recycled to the AFEX reactor. These steps eliminate the need for ammonia vapor compression that is used in the design of FIG. 1 .
Utility of Invention
Based on Aspen Plus (a commercially available modeling software) process simulations of the process of FIGS. 1 and 2 , the present invention requires significantly less process energy relative to the existing design, as indicated in Table 2. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the invention will result in lower processing costs as well.
TABLE 2
Comparison of process energy requirements: proposed versus
existing design for AFEX pretreatment with ammonia recovery. 1,2
FIG. 1 Design
FIG. 2 Design
Required Energy
Required Energy
Energy Flow
% feedstock LHV)
(% feedstock LHV)
Steam to dryer
7.73%
—
Steam to NH 3 column
2.87%
3.82%
Power to compressor
0.02%
—
Power to chilled water unit
—
0.14%
Total
10.62%
3.96%
1 Energy necessary to achieve AFEX reaction temperature is met entirely by heat of mixing between ammonia and water in the reactor.
2 Both designs use the same ammonia and water loadings: 0.3 g NH 3 /g biomass; 0.5 g H 2 0/g biomass.
While the present invention is described herein with reference to illustrated embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is not limited hereto. Those having ordinary skill in-the art and access to the teachings herein will recognize additional modifications and embodiments within the scope thereof. Therefore, the present invention is limited only by the claims attached herein.
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A process for the treatment of biomass to render structural carbohydrates more accessible and/or digestible using concentrated ammonium hydroxide with or without anhydrous ammonia addition, is described. The process preferably uses steam to strip ammonia from the biomass for recycling. The process yields of monosaccharides from the structural carbohydrates are good, particularly as measured by the enzymatic hydrolysis of the structural carbohydrates. The monosaccharides are used as animal feeds and energy sources for ethanol production.
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This nonprovisional application claims priority to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2009 060 504.4, which was filed in Germany on Dec. 23, 2009, and to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/289,846, which was filed on Dec. 23, 2009, and which are both herein incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a circuit and method for setting an offset output current for an input current amplifier.
2. Description of the Background Art
A current amplifier (CC-OPV) is known, for example, from “Halbleiterschaltungstechnik” (Semiconductor Technology), Tietze, Schenk, 12 th edition, 2002, pages 563-565.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to improve a circuit with a current amplifier as much as possible. Accordingly, a circuit is provided which can be monolithically integrated on a semiconductor chip.
The circuit can have a current amplifier and an adjusting circuit. The current amplifier has a current input and at a current output outputs the amplified input current as an output current at a current output of the current amplifier. A current amplifier for amplifying small input currents can also be called an input current amplifier. The adjusting circuit is set up to correct an offset of the output current of the current amplifier.
The adjusting circuit can have a controlled current source. The controlled current source provides an output current, which depends on a control variable, particularly a control voltage. The output current of the controlled current source is also constant with a constant control variable.
The output of the controlled current source can be connected to the current amplifier for impressing the output current of the controlled current source in the current amplifier. Preferably, the controlled current source is connected to an output of the current amplifier. Alternatively, the controlled current source can also be connected to an input of the current amplifier.
An input of the controlled current source, to form a regulation element of a control loop, can be connected by a first switching device of the adjusting circuit to the output of the current amplifier. The first switching device is, for example, a semiconductor switch, particularly a transmission gate or a field-effect transistor.
The input of the controlled current source, to form a holding element, moreover, is disconnected from the output of the current amplifier by the first switching device. The controlled current source in the closed switch position of the first switching device as a first function therefore has a regulation function as a regulation element of the control loop and in synergy in the open switch position of the first switching device as a second function has a holding function as a holding element. The control loop in this regard can be closed by the first switching device. The control loop is disconnected by opening of the first switching device. In the disconnected state, the output current of the controlled current source acting as a holding element for the amplification of a temporally succeeding input signal is substantially constant.
The controlled current source, acting as a regulation element in the control loop, is set up to regulate the offset to a minimum by setting a current value of the output current. The minimum offset is achieved when the output current from a current amplifier has reached a steady state; therefore it is substantially constant, ideally zero.
The regulation function is ended when the steady state is attained. The controlled current source, now acting as a holding element, is set up to hold the output current value associated with the offset minimum. The controlled current source acting as a holding element holds the output current substantially constant in this regard at least for the duration of an amplification of input signals of the current amplifier.
The object of the invention further is to provide a method for correcting an offset of a current amplifier. Accordingly, a method is provided for correcting an offset of an output current of a current amplifier of a circuit. In this regard, the method can be carried out by a control device.
In the method, a controlled current source, to form a regulation element of a control loop, is connected by a first switching device to an output of the current amplifier. The control loop in this case is formed to regulate to a steady state.
The offset is regulated to a minimum by setting a current value of the output current of the controlled current source, acting as a regulation element. The current value in a regulated state belongs to the minimum offset. The regulation occurs when an input signal of the current amplifier has a constant value. Therefore, only a direct current value but not an alternating current is present at the input of the current amplifier during the regulation. Ideally, the direct current value, present at the input of the current amplifier, of the input signal is zero.
The controlled current source, to form a holding element for holding the output current value, associated with the minimum, of the controlled current source, is disconnected by the first switching device from the output of the current amplifier. In this regard, the current value is held by the controlled current source until amplification, following the regulation, of a time-variant input signal has occurred at the input of the current amplifier.
The embodiments described hereinafter relate to the circuit and to the adjusting method. The functional features of the circuit in this regard emerge from the method features. Method features can be derived from the functions of the circuit.
In an embodiment, the controlled current source of the circuit has a capacitor. The capacitor in this case can be formed by an integrated capacitor, for example, a MIM capacitor, or by a capacitor of an active component, such as the gate-source capacitor of a field-effect transistor. Preferably, the first switching device is connected to the capacitor. Preferably, a current can be connected for charging the capacitor by the first switching device.
An embodiment provides that it is possible to control the controlled current source by a control voltage. In this regard, the control voltage can be generated by an element of the controlled current source itself.
According to an refinement, the controlled current source has a transistor. The transistor is preferably a field-effect transistor. The transistor controls the output current of the controlled current source by a control voltage at the control input of the transistor.
In another embodiment, it is provided that the controlled current source has a storage device, such as a capacitor, for storing the control voltage. The output current of the controlled current source can be kept constant in its function as a holding element by means of the stored control voltage. Alternatively, in a more elaborate embodiment, a digital value as well for controlling the controlled current source could be stored.
According to an embodiment, the capacitor of the controlled current source, acting as a regulation element, can be connected to the output of the input current amplifier. The connection can occur by means of the first switching device for charging the capacitor until a steady state is attained for the minimum offset. In the steady state, the charging current is reduced to a minimum by the capacitor.
According to another embodiment, the adjusting circuit can have a constant current source, which is connected to the current amplifier for impressing a constant current. The constant current source can be connected to an output of the current amplifier. Alternatively, the constant current source can also be connected to an input of the current amplifier. In this case, the constant current of the constant current source is also amplified by the current amplifier. Preferably, the current flow, produced by the constant current at the output of the current amplifier, is greater than the maximum offset of the current amplifier. The maximum offset can be determined, for example, by means of a simulation.
It is provided in an embodiment that an output current of the controlled current source, said current which is impressed in the current amplifier, at the output of the current amplifier causes a current flow that is directed opposite to a current flow of the constant current. In this case, the constant current together with the offset can be compensated predominantly by the current flow caused by the controlled current source. The output current of the controlled current source is impressed in the output of the current amplifier. Both the constant current of the constant current source and the output current of the controlled current source are impressed in the output of the current amplifier and have an opposite current direction. Alternatively, one of the two or both currents of the constant current source and the controlled current source can be impressed in an input in the amplification path of the current amplifier and act according to the amplification in an opposite current direction at the output of the current amplifier.
In an embodiment, it is provided that the current amplifier has a first current mirror and a second current mirror for current amplification. The outputs of the current mirrors are connected to the current output of the current amplifier and therefore to the output of the circuit. The first current mirror of an amplification can be assigned a positive signal current at the current input of the current amplifier and the second current mirror of an amplification a negative signal current at the current input of the current amplifier. Preferably, the constant current source and/or the controlled current source are connected to the first and/or second current mirror.
The current amplifier can have a current summing node connected to the output of the current amplifier. Preferably, a first current and a second current are summed in the current summing node. The second current is the constant current of the constant current source or is based on the constant current of the constant current source. The second current is the output current of the controlled current source or is based on the output current of the controlled current source.
The constant current source can be connected to the output of the current amplifier directly or via a component, such as a field-effect transistor. Preferably, the controlled current source is connected to the output of the current amplifier directly or via a component, such as a field-effect transistor. The first current or the second current enters the summation with a negative sign. If the constant current source and the controlled current source are connected to the output of the current amplifier, the constant current of the constant current source or the output current of the controlled current source enters the summation with a negative sign.
In an embodiment, the adjusting circuit has a second switching device. The second switching device is connected via an input of the adjusting circuit to the output of the current amplifier and to the circuit output. The output of the circuit can be disconnected from the output of the current amplifier and can be connected to the output of the current amplifier by means of the second switching device. The second switching device is, for example, a semiconductor switch, particularly a transmission gate or a field-effect transistor.
According to an embodiment, it is provided that the adjusting circuit has a third switching device. The third switching device is connected to the capacitor of the controlled current source and is formed to discharge the capacitor in the closed state.
In an embodiment, the circuit has a control circuit which is connected to the adjusting circuit.
The control circuit, to control the first switching device, can be connected to a first control terminal of the first switching device. The control circuit, to control the second switching device, is preferably connected to a second control terminal of the second switching device. The control circuit, to control the third switching device, is preferably connected to a third control terminal of the third switching device. The control circuit preferably has a number of delay elements for a time-dependent control.
The control circuit can be set up in a first step to disconnect the output of the current amplifier from the circuit output by opening the second switching device. Preferably, the control circuit is set up in a second step to connect the capacitor of the controlled current source to the output of the current amplifier by closing the first switching device, whereby after the second step the capacitor is charged by a charging current and by the charging of the capacitor an output current of the controlled current source is increased until a minimum is attained at a current value of the steady state of the charging current. Preferably, the control circuit is set up in a third step to disconnect the charged capacitor of the controlled current source from the output of the current amplifier by opening the first switching device.
The control circuit can be set up in a fourth step to connect the output of the current amplifier to the circuit output by closing the second switching device.
According to an embodiment, the method has several process steps, which are carried out, for example, by a state machine or a program sequence in an arithmetic unit. First, the third switching device can be temporarily closed, so that the capacitor is discharged via the third switching device. Then, the third switching device is opened again.
Next, in a process step the capacitor of the controlled current source is connected to the output of the current amplifier by closing the first switching device. Moreover, an output of the current amplifier is disconnected from a circuit output by opening of the second switching device, so that the regulation process produces no desirable output signal. After this process step, the capacitor is charged by the charging current. An output current of the controlled current source is increased by the charging of the capacitor until the charging current attains a minimum.
In a subsequent process step, the charged capacitor of the controlled current source is disconnected from the output of the current amplifier by opening of the first switching device. In a subsequent process step, the output of the current amplifier is connected to the circuit output by closing of the second switching device in order to output a signal, amplified by the current amplifier, as an output signal.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood 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.
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 limitive of the present invention, and wherein:
FIG. 1 a shows a schematic illustration of an input current amplifier;
FIG. 1 b shows a schematic illustration of an input current amplifier with an adjusting circuit for adjusting the offset output current;
FIG. 2 a shows a circuit diagram of a first exemplary embodiment;
FIG. 2 b shows a schematic diagram; and
FIG. 3 shows a circuit diagram of another exemplary embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A current amplifier 100 with a low input impedance is shown schematically in FIG. 1 , which is also called an input current amplifier below. Current amplifier 100 has a current input and a current output. The input current through the current input in this case is output at the output amplified by the current amplification of the current amplifier. In this case, a signal output current Io at the circuit output is superposed by an undesirable offset Ioff at the output. The offset Ioff is caused by process variations during the production of amplifier transistors of input current amplifier 100 and is shown schematically in FIG. 1 a as current source Ioff. The amplifier-inherent offset Ioff in this case can be positive or negative in regard to the current direction at the circuit output.
To correct the offset Ioff at the circuit output, an adjusting circuit 200 , which compensates at least predominantly the Offset Ioff at the output of the circuit and in the ideal case subtracts completely the amplifier-intrinsic offset Ioff, is provided in FIG. 1 b.
An example for an input current amplifier 100 with a low-ohmic input impedance at the current input of current amplifier 100 is shown in FIG. 2 a as a circuit diagram. Further, an exemplary embodiment of an adjusting circuit 200 for adjusting the offset Ioff of input current amplifier 100 is shown in FIG. 2 a . PMOS transistors 123 and 124 form a first current mirror of input current amplifier 100 with a first transformation ratio. The first current mirror 123 , 124 is connected to the supply voltage V+. NMOS transistors 125 and 126 form a second current mirror of input current amplifier 100 with a second transformation ratio. The second current mirror 125 , 126 is connected to ground. In the ideal case, the first transformation ratio and the second transformation ratio would be precisely the same. Because of process deviations during production, the first transformation ratio and the second transformation ratio, however, do not turn out precisely the same and therefore cause the offset Ioff at the current output of current amplifier 100 . PMOS transistor 112 and NMOS transistor 111 , connected to input 101 of input current amplifier 100 , are used to adjust the voltage at input 101 by means of the gate voltages Vn and Vp. For example, the voltage at input 101 is adjusted to half the operating voltage V+/2 by means of gate voltages Vn and Vp.
Output transistor 124 of the first current mirror is connected via PMOS transistor 131 to a current summing node 105 and an output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . Output transistor 126 of the second current mirror is connected via NMOS transistor 132 to current summing node 105 and output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . Transistors 131 and 132 are controlled by the gate voltages Vcp and Vcn and cause an increase in the output resistance of input current amplifier 100 (cascode current mirror).
Further, adjusting circuit 200 , which is connected to input current amplifier 100 for adjusting and therefore for correcting the offset Ioff, is shown in FIG. 2 a . Preferably, adjusting circuit 200 is formed to adjust the offset Ioff to a minimum, preferably to the value of zero. Adjusting circuit 200 has two current sources, a controlled current source 210 and a constant current source 220 , which in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 a are connected to output 102 of input current amplifier 100 .
Constant current source 220 generates a constant current I 2 . Constant current I 2 is greater in terms of value than the maximum expected offset Ioff. The maximum expected offset Ioff can be determined, for example, by simulating process deviations. Constant current source 220 in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 a is connected to PMOS output transistor 124 of the first current mirror via terminal 203 of adjusting circuit 200 and terminal 103 of input current amplifier 100 . The output current of output transistor 124 of the first current mirror and the constant current I 2 are summed in the terminal node. Constant current source 220 is therefore connected via PMOS transistor 131 to output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . It would also be possible to connect constant current source 220 directly to output 102 of input amplifier 100 . In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 a , constant current source 220 has a current source 224 and a current mirror comprising PMOS transistors 225 , 226 to generate constant current I 2 .
Controlled current source 210 generates a controlled current I 1 as the output current. The controlled current source 210 in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 a is connected to NMOS output transistor 126 of the second current mirror via terminal 204 of adjusting circuit 200 and via terminal 104 of input current amplifier 100 . The output current of NMOS output transistor 126 of the second current mirror and output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 are summed in the terminal node. Controlled current source 210 is therefore connected via NMOS transistor 132 to output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . It would also be possible to connect controlled current source 210 directly to output 102 of input amplifier 100 .
Controlled current source 210 has a capacitor 212 . A voltage Uc dropping across capacitor 212 controls output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 . In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 a , an NMOS transistor 213 is provided as an element for voltage-current conversion. The voltage Uc dropping across capacitor 212 in this case is present as gate-source voltage at NMOS transistor 213 . If the voltage Uc dropping across capacitor 212 is zero, NMOS transistor 213 blocks. With an increasing voltage Uc, the gate-source voltage increases and turns on NMOS transistor 213 , so that output current I 1 also increases. Output current I 1 increases until the sum of the amplifier-intrinsic offset Ioff, constant current I 2 , and output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 reaches a minimum. Capacitor 212 is no longer charged and the voltage Uc is constant. An especially rapid adjustment of the steady state is achieved in this way, so that the time during which the input current amplifier is not available for current amplification of the input signal Isig is minimized.
Constant current source 220 and controlled current source 210 in this regard are connected to output 102 of the input current amplifier 100 in such a way that the constant current I 2 and output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 are summed, whereby one of the two currents enters the summation with a negative sign. The current direction, acting in node 105 and therefore at output 102 , of the constant current I 2 and the current direction, acting in node 105 and therefore at output 102 , of the output current I 1 of the controlled current source 210 are therefore opposite. If the technical current direction in FIG. 2 a is considered, constant current I 2 flows into summing node 105 . In contrast, output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 flows out of summing node 105 , therefore enters the summation as negative.
As an alternative to the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 a , constant current source 220 and/or controlled current source 210 can be connected to current input 101 of current amplifier 100 . If constant current source 220 is connected to input 101 , constant current I 2 is amplified by current amplifier 100 . If controlled current source 210 is connected to input 101 , the output current I 1 thereof is amplified by current amplifier 100 . If both constant current source 220 and controlled current source 210 are connected to current input 101 , a difference current (I 1 -I 2 ) between constant current I 2 and output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 is amplified accordingly by current amplifier 100 . In these three embodiment variants as well, a regulation of the offset Ioff to a minimum is possible, so that in the case of amplification of an input current signal Isig no or only a negligible offset Ioff interferes with the output signal Io of the circuit.
Constant current I 2 , which is greater than the offset Ioff in value, is impressed on output 102 of input current amplifier 100 by adjusting circuit 200 , shown in FIG. 2 a , for adjusting the offset (Ioff. Likewise at output 102 of current amplifier 100 , output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 is impressed with the current direction opposite to I 2 . Adjusting circuit 200 , moreover, has a first switching device S 1 and a second switching device S 2 . First switching device S 1 in this regard is connected to output 102 of adjusting circuit 200 and to an input 219 of controlled current source 210 . In the closed state, first switching device S 1 connects output 102 of adjusting circuit 200 to input 219 of controlled current source 210 and forms a control loop, whereby controlled current source 210 acts as a regulation element of this control loop. In said control loop, the actual value is the current Ic through terminal 102 , which also charges capacitor 212 . Current Ic is the same as the current through current output 102 of current amplifier 100 and therefore the same as the resulting offset Ioff, which is minimized by the regulation. The actual value is compared with the target value zero, the generation of which requires no component. The control variable of the control loop is output current I 1 of controlled current 210 .
For regulation, second switching device S 2 is open and disconnects output 202 of the circuit from output 102 of adjusting circuit 200 . The input signal current Isig is zero in this case. As a result, the resulting current, which results from the summation of the output current of first current mirror 123 , 124 , of the output current of second current mirror 125 , 126 , and of constant current I 2 , flows out at output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . Output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 is equal to zero because of the initially still discharged capacitor 212 .
By charging capacitor 212 by charging current Ic, the gate of NMOS transistor 213 is controlled so that the controlled current source 210 as a regulation element sets a current value of output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 , so that the current through output 102 is regulated to a steady state, whereby output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 again draws off specifically the sum of constant current I 2 and the amplifier-intrinsic offset Ioff. In this case, the offset Ioff active at output 102 is regulated to a minimum and thereby to a constant value, ideally zero. In the steady state, the current value of output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 is constant.
The amplifier-intrinsic offset Ioff can be positive or negative. Capacitor 212 and NMOS transistor 213 form the regulation element of the control loop. In the steady state, output current I 1 is equal to the (signed) sum of the constant current I 2 and amplifier-intrinsic offset Ioff. In the steady state case, therefore, a constant current no longer flows out of output 102 of input current amplifier 100 , so that charging current Ic as well is zero.
A diagram for the control signals of switching devices S 1 , S 2 , and S 3 of adjusting circuit 200 is shown schematically in FIG. 2 b . Between time points t 1 and t 4 , second switching device S 2 is opened and disconnects circuit output 202 from output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . Before, during, or after the opening of second switching device S 2 , a third switching device S 3 is closed, which in the closed state short-circuits capacitor 212 , so that capacitor 212 discharges via third switching device S 3 between time points t 2 and t 3 .
At time point t 5 , both second switching device S 2 and third switching device S 3 are in the switch position open “0.” In contrast, first switching device S 1 between time points t 5 and t 6 is controlled into the switch position closed “1.” Between time points t 5 and t 6 , capacitor 212 is connected via first switching device S 1 to output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . Between the time points t 5 and t 6 , therefore, as previously described, capacitor 212 is charged until the steady state is attained.
At time t 6 , first switching device S 1 is opened and again disconnects capacitor 212 from output 102 of input current amplifier 100 . Only a very low leakage current thereby flows through capacitor 212 , the gate of transistor 213 and first and third switching device S 1 , S 3 , so that the charging of capacitor 212 is substantially retained for a longer time. The charge is stored in capacitor 212 as storage device, so that the current value of output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 remains substantially constant. Timewise after time point t 6 , at time point t 7 , second switching device S 2 is closed and the output of input current amplifier 100 is connected to circuit output 202 . A time difference is therefore provided between time points t 6 and t 7 . Switching devices S 1 and S 2 are preferably not closed simultaneously. Switching devices S 1 , S 2 , S 3 are preferably semiconductor switches, for example, in the form of field-effect transistors or transmission gates.
Between time points t 8 and t 9 , a voltage signal Vsig is sent to a capacitor Cm of a touch screen. If the screen is touched, the capacitor Cm is changed and moreover a signal current Isig is produced, which flows as an input current via input 101 into/out of input current amplifier 100 and is amplified by input current amplifier 100 . A readjustment of output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 can occur, for example, before each signal or before a group of signals with the signal voltage Vsig. Preferably, the adjustment of output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 occurs within a time interval of, for example, 500 us. For example, the adjustment of output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 occurs periodically. Advantageously, the time interval or the periods can be adjusted.
Another exemplary embodiment for the use of a touch screen is shown schematically in FIG. 3 as circuit diagram. The exemplary embodiment of FIG. 3 also has an input current amplifier 100 with a low-ohmic input impedance. Input current amplifier 100 has two current mirrors 121 and 122 and four transistors 111 , 112 , 131 , 132 analogous to FIG. 2 a . Constant current source 220 , with current source 223 and NMOS transistors 221 and 222 , to output constant current I 2 is formed accordingly complementary to constant current source 220 of FIG. 2 a . Therefore, constant current I 2 in keeping with the technical current direction flows into constant current source 220 . A controlled current source 210 with a capacitor 212 and a PMOS transistor 211 is also formed complementary to controlled current source 210 of FIG. 2 a . Switching devices S 1 and S 3 are accordingly closed. The operation of adjusting circuit 200 corresponds here substantially to the operation of the adjusting circuit of FIG. 2 a . If the control loop with the regulation element of controlled current source 210 with PMOS transistor 211 and capacitor 212 is activated by the closing of first switching device S 1 , current Ic flows to charge capacitor 212 into output 102 of input current amplifier 100 until in the steady state output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 is the same as the (signed) sum of constant current I 2 and offset Ioff.
Furthermore, a control circuit 300 , which has an interface 310 to an arithmetic unit 400 , such as, for example, a microprocessor, is shown in FIG. 3 . Control circuit 300 is formed to control the described time course. Control circuit 300 is set up in a first step to disconnect output 102 of input current amplifier 100 from circuit output 202 by opening the second switching device S 2 . To this end, control circuit 300 via output 301 sends a control signal, for example, according to FIG. 2 b , to second switching device S 2 .
Control circuit 300 is set up in the first step to close a third switching device S 3 , so that capacitor 212 is discharged via third switching device S 3 . To this end, control circuit 300 via output 303 sends a control signal, for example, according to FIG. 2 b , to third switching device S 3 . This step is optional, and thus the regulation can be started also with a partially charged capacitor 212 .
Control circuit 300 is set up in a second step to connect capacitor 212 of controlled current source 210 to output 102 of input current amplifier 100 by closing first switching device S 1 . To this end, control circuit 300 via output 302 sends a control signal, for example, according to FIG. 2 b , to first switching device S 1 . After the second step, capacitor 212 is charged by a charging current Ic. An output current I 1 of controlled current source 210 is increased by the charging of capacitor 212 until the charging current Ic attains a minimum.
Control circuit 300 is set up in a third step to disconnect charged capacitor 212 of controlled current source 210 from output 102 of input current amplifier 100 by opening first switching device S 1 . Furthermore, control circuit 300 is set up in a fourth step to connect output 102 of input current amplifier 100 to circuit output 202 by closing second switching device S 2 .
Control circuit 300 for generating the signals and their time sequence has a logic and a number of delay elements, for example, at least two delay elements (not shown in FIG. 3 ). The delay elements are triggered by arithmetic unit 400 via interface 310 to generate the signals Vsig.
The invention is not limited to the shown embodiment variants in FIGS. 1 through 3 . For example, it is possible to provide a different input current amplifier. It is also possible to provide a different voltage-current conversion of the controlled current source instead of transistors 213 , 211 . The functionality of the circuit according to FIG. 2 a can be used especially advantageously for a touch screen.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may 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 as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are to be included within the scope of the following claims.
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A circuit and a method for correcting an offset is provided that includes a current amplifier and an adjusting circuit for correcting an offset of an output current of the current amplifier. Wherein the adjusting circuit has a controlled current source, an output of the controlled current source is connected to the current amplifier for impressing an output current of the controlled current source in the current amplifier, an input of the controlled current source to form a regulation element of a control loop is connected by a first switching device of the adjusting circuit to an output of the current amplifier and to form a holding element is disconnected from the output of the current amplifier by the first switching device. The controlled current source, acting as a regulation element in the control loop, is set up to regulate the offset to a minimum by setting of a current value of the output current, and the controlled current source, acting as a holding element, is set up to hold the current value, associated with the minimum, of the output current.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is based upon and claims benefit of priority under 35 USC §119 from the Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-131523, filed on Apr. 27, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
RELATED ART
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same.
Recently, a MISFET (Metal Insulator Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) has the following problem that, as micropatterning progresses, the thickness of a gate insulating film for controlling the flow of an electric current decreases, and this increases a gate leakage current.
To avoid this problem, therefore, the gate leakage current is reduced by using a gate insulating film made of a high-dielectric-constant (High-k) material.
When a high-dielectric-constant gate insulating film is formed in the fabrication process of a MISFET, however, a low-dielectric-constant interface insulating film (interface layer) is formed between this high-dielectric-constant gate insulating film and a silicon substrate. This low-dielectric-constant interface insulating film lowers the dielectric constant of the gate insulating film.
The low-dielectric-constant interface insulating film has a film thickness of 0.8 to 2 [nm]. To avoid the decrease in dielectric constant of the gate insulating film, it is desirable to decrease the thickness and increase the dielectric constant of this low-dielectric-constant interface insulating film.
As a method of forming a high-dielectric-constant gate insulating film, it is possible to form a zirconium silicon nitride (ZrSiN) film on a silicon substrate, and oxidize this film to form a zirconium silicate nitride (ZrSiON) film.
In this method, however, nitrogen (N) is mixed during film formation, so this nitrogen reaches the interface of the silicon substrate. Accordingly, in a MISFET fabricated by using this method, the nitrogen present in the interface of the silicon substrate interferes with an electric current flowing in a channel region. As a consequence, the interface characteristics deteriorate, and this deteriorates the characteristics of the field effect transistor.
References related to a high-dielectric-constant gate insulating film are as follows.
Patent reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-218108 Patent reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-249497
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device comprising:
an interface insulating film selectively formed on a predetermined region of a semiconductor substrate, and having a film thickness of substantially one atomic layer;
a gate insulating film formed on said interface insulating film, and having a dielectric constant higher than that of said interface insulating film;
a gate electrode formed on said gate insulating film; and
source and drain regions formed in a surface region of said semiconductor substrate on two sides of a channel region positioned below said gate electrode.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device fabrication method, comprising:
forming a film on a semiconductor substrate by depositing a material selected from the group consisting of a combination of a metal and silicon and, an alloy of metals;
forming a nitride film by nitriding the film by supplying nitrogen; and
forming a gate insulating film by oxidizing the nitride film by supplying oxygen, and forming an interface insulating film between the gate insulating film and semiconductor substrate by oxidizing the semiconductor substrate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the structure of a MISFET according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the device sectional structures in individual steps of a method of forming a gate insulating film and interface insulating film according to the embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a graph showing the concentration distribution of nitrogen (N) in the gate insulating film;
FIG. 4 is a graph showing the concentration distribution of nitrogen (N) in the interface insulating film and gate insulating film; and
FIG. 5 is a graph showing the concentration distribution of oxygen (O) in the interface insulating film and gate insulating film.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 shows the structure of a MISFET 10 of a semiconductor device according to the embodiment of the present invention. In a surface portion of a silicon substrate 20 , element isolation insulating films 30 A and 30 B for element isolation are formed. The MISFET 10 is formed in this element region isolated by the element isolation insulating films 30 A and 30 B.
In the vicinity of a central portion of the element region isolated by the element isolation insulating films 30 A and 30 B, a gate electrode 60 is formed on an interface insulating film 40 formed on the surface of the silicon substrate 20 and a silicon metal oxynitride film 50 stacked as a gate insulating film on the interface insulating film 40 .
The interface insulating film 40 is a silicon oxide film (SiO 2 ) having a low dielectric constant and a very small film thickness. For example, the relative dielectric constant of the film is 3.9, and its film thickness is 4 to 6 [Å] which is approximately equivalent to one atomic layer of oxygen (O) atoms. Note that the interface insulating film 40 also has a portion having a film thickness equivalent to two atomic layers of oxygen (O) atoms, so the film thickness has the range of 4 to 6 [Å].
The silicon metal oxynitride film 50 is a hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film having a high dielectric constant. For example, the relative dielectric constant is 8 to 22, and the total film thickness of the silicon metal oxynitride film 50 and interface insulating film 40 is 10 to 20 [Å]. Accordingly, the silicon metal oxynitride film 50 is so formed that the combination of the relative dielectric constant and film thickness falls within the range of 8 and 10 [Å] to 22 and 20 [Å].
The gate electrode 60 is made of, e.g., silicon germanium (Si x Ge 1-x (0≦×≦0.8)), or silicon (Si) and a metal such as Fe, Co, Ni, Ti, Hf, Zr, or W or an alloy of any of these metals. However, it is also possible to extensively use various gate electrode materials.
On the side surfaces of the gate electrode 60 , gate electrode sidewalls 70 A and 70 B made of an insulating film are formed. In addition, a channel region 75 in which an electric current flows is formed in a position below the gate electrode 60 and near the surface of the silicon substrate 20 .
At the two ends of the channel region 75 , a source extension region 90 A and drain extension region 90 B having shallow junctions are formed. A source region 80 A is formed between the source extension region 90 A and element isolation insulating film 30 A. A drain region 80 B is formed between the drain extension region 90 B and element isolation insulating film 30 B.
The junction depth of the source extension region 90 A and drain extension region 90 B is 20 [nm] or less. The junction depth of the source region 80 A and drain region 80 B is 100 [nm] or less. The impurity concentration of any of the source extension region 90 A, drain extension region 90 B, source region 80 A, and drain region 80 B is about 1.0×10 20 cm −3 .
Furthermore, on the surfaces of the source region 80 A and drain region 80 B, salicide films 100 A and 100 B for reducing the contact resistance of the source regions 80 A and 80 B, respectively, are formed.
A method of forming a hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film and silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film as the silicon metal oxynitride film 50 and interface insulating film 40 , respectively, which are gate insulating films according to this embodiment will be explained below with reference to FIG. 2 . First, a silicon (Si) substrate 200 on which an element isolation insulating film is formed is prepared. A natural oxide film on the surface of the silicon (Si) substrate 200 is removed by an aqueous hydrogen fluoride (HF) solution. After that, a hafnium silicon (HfSi) film 210 which is an alloy of hafnium (Hf) and silicon (Si) is formed on the silicon (Si) substrate 200 by deposition.
Examples of the deposition method are a sputtering method, sol-gel method, vacuum evaporation method, electron beam evaporation method, molecular beam evaporation method, laser abrasion method, and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) method.
The materials of hafnium (Hf) and silicon (Si) are those containing no oxygen. For example, the hafnium silicon (HfSi) film 210 is formed by supplying tetrakisdiethylaminohafnium (Hf(N(C 2 H 5 ) 2 ) 4 ) as the material of hafnium (Hf) and tetrakisdimethylaminosilicon (Si(N(CH 3 ) 2 ) 4 ) as the material of silicon (Si) onto the silicon (Si) substrate 200 held at 450 to 650° C. It is also possible to use organic metal compounds containing hafnium (Hf) and silicon (Si). Other examples of the materials of hafnium (Hf) and silicon (Si) are hydrogen compounds and chlorine compounds.
In this film formation method, no oxidizing ambient is present, so it is possible to avoid the formation of any silicon oxide film (SiO 2 ) which is a low-dielectric-constant interface insulating film.
By nitriding the hafnium silicon (HfSi) film 210 , a hafnium silicon nitride (HfSiN) film 220 as a silicon metal nitride film is formed on the silicon (Si) substrate 200 .
Examples of this nitriding process are high-temperature processing performed in an ambient of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), nitrogen oxide (NO), or ammonia, high-temperature processing performed in an ND 3 ambient in which hydrogen is replaced with heavy hydrogen, a plasma nitriding process, and a radical nitriding process.
In this process, the concentration distribution of nitrogen (N) can be controlled by mixing nitrogen (N) into the hafnium silicon (HfSi) film from above it. This makes it possible to suppress mixing of nitrogen (N) into the interface between the hafnium silicon nitride (HfSiN) film and silicon (Si) substrate, and avoid deterioration of the interface characteristics.
FIG. 3 shows an example of the concentration distribution of nitrogen (N) in the hafnium silicon nitride (HfSiN) film 220 . As shown in FIG. 3 , the nitrogen concentration in the interface is about 0%. The nitrogen concentration increases as the distance from the interface increases, and becomes a predetermined value within the range of 10 to 20%, e.g., about 17.5%, when the distance from the interface exceeds 3 [Å].
Note that the heat resistance can be increased by the addition of nitrogen.
A hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film 230 as a silicon metal oxynitride film is formed on the silicon substrate 200 by oxidizing the hafnium silicon nitride (HfSiN) film 220 .
Examples of this oxidation process are a heating process performed in an ambient of nitrous oxide (N 2 O), oxygen (O 2 ), or ozone, a plasma oxidation process, and a radical oxidation process.
As in the nitriding process, the concentration distribution of oxygen (O) can be controlled by mixing oxygen (O) into the hafnium silicon nitride (HfSiN) film 220 from above it. Therefore, for the purpose of improving the interface characteristics of the silicon (Si) substrate, the concentration distribution can be controlled such that oxygen (O) is present closer to the substrate by about one atomic layer than nitrogen (N).
By oxidizing the silicon (Si) substrate 200 by about one atomic layer, a silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 of about one atomic layer is formed between the hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film 230 as a high-dielectric-constant gate insulating film and the silicon (Si) substrate 200 .
FIG. 4 shows an example of the concentration distribution of nitrogen (N) in the silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 and hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film 230 . FIG. 5 shows an example of the concentration distribution of oxygen (O) in the silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 and hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film 230 .
As shown in FIG. 4 , the nitrogen concentration is about 0% when the distance from the interface is 0 to 5 [Å], i.e., in the interface of the silicon (Si) substrate 200 and in the silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 . The nitrogen concentration increases as the distance from the silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 increases, and becomes a predetermined value within the range of 10 to 20%, e.g., 17.5% when the distance from the interface exceeds 8 [Å].
As shown in FIG. 5 , on the other hand, the oxygen concentration is a predetermined value within the range of 40 to 66%, e.g., 55%, regardless of the distance from the interface.
As described above, it is desirable to decrease the thickness of the silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film as a low-dielectric-constant interface insulating film which decreases the dielectric constant of the gate insulating film. However, if this silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film is not formed at all, the interface stability cannot be ensured, so the interface characteristics deteriorate anyway. Therefore, a silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 of about one atomic layer which is a minimum film thickness by which deterioration of the interface characteristics can be avoided is formed. This makes it possible to avoid deterioration of the interface characteristics while the dielectric constant of the gate insulating film is maintained.
After that, a gate electrode material is deposited, and this gate electrode material and the hafnium silicate nitride (HfSiON) film 230 and silicon oxide (SiO 2 ) film 240 are patterned in the order named, thereby forming a gate electrode 60 , silicon metal oxynitride film 50 , and interface insulating film 40 shown in FIG. 1 . Finally, a MISFET 10 shown in FIG. 1 is formed by forming, in self-alignment, a source extension region 90 A and drain extension region 90 B, gate electrode sidewalls 70 A and 70 B, a source region 80 A and drain region 80 B, and salicide films 100 A and 100 B in this order.
The MISFET 10 thus fabricated can be applied to a memory or logic circuit of, e.g., a cell phone required to consume low power.
In the semiconductor device and the method of fabricating the same according to this embodiment, deterioration of the interface characteristics can be avoided while the dielectric constant of the gate insulating film is maintained.
The above embodiment is merely an example and hence does not limit the present invention. For example, zirconium (Zr) may also be used instead of hafnium (Hf). That is, it is also possible to form a zirconium silicon (ZrSi) film, nitride this zirconium silicon (ZrSi) film to form a zirconium silicon nitride (ZrSiN) film, and oxidize this zirconium silicon nitride (ZrSiN) film to form a zirconium silicate nitride (ZrSiON) film.
Also, in the above embodiment, a silicon (Si) substrate is used as a semiconductor substrate. However, the present invention is also applicable to a semiconductor substrate such as a germanium (Ge) substrate.
Furthermore, in the above embodiment, film formation is performed by depositing an alloy of hafnium (Hf) and silicon (Si) on the silicon (Si) substrate 200 . In the present invention, however, film formation may also be performed by depositing an alloy of hafnium (Hf) and aluminum (Al).
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According to the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor device comprising:
an interface insulating film selectively formed on a predetermined region of a semiconductor substrate, and having a film thickness of substantially one atomic layer;
a gate insulating film formed on said interface insulating film, and having a dielectric constant higher than that of said interface insulating film;
a gate electrode formed on said gate insulating film; and
source and drain regions formed in a surface region of said semiconductor substrate on two sides of a channel region positioned below said gate electrode.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus for use in quantitative analysis of ion concentration in a sample liquid such as blood and urea. In the apparatus according to the invention, the quantitative analysis of ion concentration is performed with the aid of ion selective electrodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus using ion selective electrodes as an ion concentration measuring element, a single ion selective electrode is used for measuring a concentration of a single kind of ion included in the sample. But, this apparatus has a drawback that an analyzing speed cannot be made fast due to the responding speed of the ion selective electrode. In order to increase the analyzing speed of the ion concentration, an improvement of the apparatus is suggested, in which a plurality of ion selective electrodes are used for measuring the concentration of a single kind of ion included in the sample to be measured. However, since a number of ion concentration measuring systems are required in the improvement of the apparatus, the size of the analyzing apparatus as a whole becomes great.
In Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-8523, such an ion concentration analyzing apparatus is disclosed that a plurality of ion concentration measuring cells each comprising an ion selective electrode are provided, but a calculating section for calculating the measuring results measured in the ion concentration measuring cells and a displaying section for displaying the measuring results are commonly used for the plurality of ion concentration measuring systems. That is to say, electric signals supplied from the plurality of ion concentration measuring cells are commonly processed in the commonly used calculating and displaying sections. In the apparatus disclosed in this Japanese Utility Model Publication, although a plurality of ion selective electrodes are used for measuring the concentration of the single kind of ion included in the sample to be measured, it is attempted to make the apparatus as a whole, small in size. However, in the ion concentration analyzing apparatus, the ion concentration measuring section occupies a large capacity and the mechanism is rather more complex than the calculating and displaying sections. That is to say, in the ion concentration measuring section of the apparatus, there are provided not only a plurality of sample suction nozzles but also a plurality of nozzle driving systems for moving the plurality of sample suction nozzles to sample pick up positions, where sample cups each containing a sample to be measured are fed to, and to a nozzle washing section. Further, it is necessary to provide a plurality of sample cup feeding systems for feeding the sample cups to the sample pick up positions. Therefore, the ion concentration analyzing apparatus using a plurality of ion selective electrodes could not help being large in size.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has for its object to provide an automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus in which ion concentrations of samples can be effectively analyzed by using a plurality of ion selective electrodes, which is for a single kind of ion, the apparatus as a whole not becoming to be too large in size.
The automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus according to the invention comprises:
a plurality of ion concentration measuring cells for measuring a concentration of one kind of ion included in a sample each comprising an ion selective electrode and a reference electrode;
a single sample suction nozzle for suctioning a sample being commonly used to supply said sample to said plurality of ion concentration measuring cells;
a sample supply means for selectively supplying the sample sucked in said sample suction nozzle to said plurality of ion concentration measuring cells;
a nozzle driving means for driving said sample suction nozzle so as to pick up said sample;
a calculating means for calculating an ion concentration of said sample by detecting electric potentials of said ion selective electrode and said reference electrode; and
an output means for outputting a measurement result of said ion concentration of said sample.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a construction of an automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view depicting a time chart of a movement of a nozzle transferring device, a first pump and a second pump, and electric potential measuring timing, at which the ion concentrations of samples are measured in the measuring cells;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a construction of an automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 4 is a schematic view representing a time chart of a movement of a nozzle transferring device, a pump and a switching valve provided in the apparatus according to the second embodiment.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a construction of the automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
Sample vessels 12 each containing a sample 13 to be analyzed are successively fed to a sample pick up position by a sample vessel feeding device (not shown); at the sample pick up position the sample 13 is picked up by a suction nozzle 1. The nozzle 1 is driven by a nozzle driving device 11 in upper and lower directions to pick up the sample 13 contained in the sample vessels 12. The nozzle 1 is connected to a first measuring cell 3 and a second measuring cell 4, respectively, via a divergence tube 2. In the first and second measuring cells 3 and 4, there are provided ion selective electrodes 5, 7 and reference electrodes 6, 8, respectively. It should be noted that the ion selective electrodes 5 and 7 are the same type electrodes. The first measuring cell 3 is further connected to a first pump 9; and the sample 13 contained in the sample vessel 12 is supplied to the first measuring cell 3 by driving of the first pump 9. The second measuring cell 4 is also connected to a second pump 10; and the sample 13 is supplied to the second measuring cell 4 by driving of the second pump 10. In accordance to a concentration of ion included in the sample 13, which has been supplied to the first measuring box 3, an electric potential is induced on the ion selective electrode 5 and the reference electrode 6. Both electrodes 5 and 7 are connected to a calculating device 16, in which an electric potential difference between the ion selective electrode 5 and the reference electrode 6 measured in the first measuring cell 3 is calculated. The calculating device 16 is further connected to an output device, by which the calculated result is displayed on a monitor screen and may be printed out. In the same manner, the ion concentration of the sample 13 supplied to the second measuring cell 4 is also detected and outputted in the calculator 16 and the output device 17, which are commonly used for the first and second measuring cells 3 and 4. The sample 13 left in the nozzle 1 and the divergence tube 2 may be washed away with the aid of the sample to be measured next. The other known washing method can be applied therefor. If not only the inner wall of the nozzle 1 but also the outer wall thereof is necessary to be cleared, it may be possible to arrange to wipe the outer wall of the nozzle with a cloth or to clear it with the aid of air.
A series of ion concentration measuring operations performed in the apparatus according to the first embodiment will be explained below, referring the time chart shown in FIG. 2.
A nozzle 1 positioned at an upper position is lifted down to a lower position by the nozzle driving device 11 so as to suck a first sample 13-1 contained in a first sample vessel 12-1. Then, the first sample 13-1 sucked into the nozzle 1 is supplied to the first measuring cell 3 by driving of the first pump 9. After supplying the sample 13-1 into the first measuring cell 3, the first pump 9 is stopped to wait until the electric potentials are induced on the ion selective electrode 5 and the reference electrode 6 in response to the ion contained in the first sample 13-1. During this action, the nozzle driving device 11 works to lift up the nozzle 1 and then the second sample vessel 12-2 containing the second sample 13-2 is fed to the sample pick up position under the nozzle 1. Then the nozzle 1 is driven to be lifted down by the nozzle driving device 11; and thereafter the second pump 10 is driven such that the nozzle 1 sucks the second sample 13-2 and supplies the second sample 13-2 into the second measuring cell 4. After supplying the second sample 13-2 to the second measuring cell 4, the second pump 10 is stopped to wait for the reaction of the ion selective electrode 7 and the reference electrode 8 provided in the second measuring cell 4. On the other hand, in the first measuring cell 3, the electric potentials induced on the first ion selective electrode 5 and the reference electrode 6 are measured. The signal representing the electric potential measured in the first cell 3 is supplied to the calculator 16, in which the electric potential difference between the first ion selective electrode 5 and the reference electrode 6 is calculated. Next, a third sample 13-3 is supplied to the first measuring cell 3 in the same manner; and during the action the electric potentials induced on the second ion selective electrode 7 and the reference electrode 8 in accordance with the ion concentration of the second sample 13-2 are measured in the second measuring cell 4. In such manner, the samples 13 fed to the sample pick up position under the nozzle 1 are alternately supplied to the first and second measuring cells 3 and 4 to be analyzed.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a construction of the second embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention. It should be noted that the same numerical numbers are denoted on the same elements used in the first embodiment explained in the above.
In the second embodiment, there is provided a switching valve 14 instead of the divergence tube 2 and only one pump 15 is connected to the first and second measuring cells 3 and 4. The sample suction nozzle 1 is connected to a common port COM of the switching valve 14. A normal closed port NCP of the switching vale 14 is connected to the first measuring cell 3; and a normal open port NOP to the second measuring cell 4. The first and second measuring cells 3 and 4 are connected to the commonly used pump 15; and when the pump 15 is operated under the condition that the normal closed port NCP and the common port COM of the switching valve 14 are made ON, the sample 13 is supplied to the first measuring cell 3; and when the pump 15 is operated under the condition that the normal open port and the common port of the switching valve 14 are made ON, the sample 13 is supplied to the second measuring cell 4. Since the other construction of the apparatus is the same as that of the first embodiment, a repetitive explanation therefor is omitted.
The operational movements of the sample suction nozzle 1, the pump 15 and the switching valve 14 will be explained below, referring the time chart shown in FIG. 4. When the nozzle 1 is lifted down in the lower direction at the sample pick up position by driving the nozzle driving device 11, the pump 15 is driven such that the nozzle 1 sucks the sample 13-1 contained in the sample vessel 12-1. Thereafter, the connection between the normal closed port NCP and the common port COP of the switching valve 14 is made ON. After the sample 13-1 is supplied into the first measuring cell 3 by driving the commonly used pump 15, the connection of the switching valve 14 is switched to the condition that the connection of the normal open port NOP and the common port COP is made ON. And then the nozzle 1 is lifted up, and the next sample cap 12-2 is fed to the sample pick up position under the nozzle 1. Then the nozzle 1 is lifted down to suck the sample 13-2; the pump 15 is driven to supply the sample 13-2 into the second measuring cell 4. After the supply of the sample 13-2 to the second measuring cell 4, the nozzle 1 is lifted up again and the connection of the valve 14 is switched again to the condition that the normal closed port NCP and the common port COM is made ON. In such a manner, the sample, which is fed to the sample pick up position successively, is alternately supplied to the measuring cells 3 and 4; and the ion concentration concerning each sample 13 is measured.
In the above mentioned embodiments, two ion concentration measuring systems are provided, however, it may be possible to provide an apparatus having three or more ion concentration measuring systems, in which the samples are supplied to the plurality of measuring cells and the ion concentration concerning the respective samples are measured in a successive manner. Further, it may be possible to arrange a plurality of different kinds of ion selective electrodes in each measuring cell in order to measure the concentrations of a plurality of different kinds of ion included in the sample. Furthermore, a sample whose ion concentration is unknown, a diluted sample whose ion concentration is unknown, and a sample, whose ion concentration is known, used for a correction purpose may be measured in the apparatus according to the invention.
As explained in the above, according to the present invention, a plurality of measuring cells are provided, but only a pair of sample suction nozzle and nozzle driving device is required. Further, although only the sample cap feeder for one ion concentration measuring system is required in the apparatus, the ion concentration of the sample can be analyzed in an effective manner.
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An automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus including a plurality of ion concentration measuring cells each having an ion selective electrode and a reference electrode; a single pair of sample suction nozzle and nozzle driving device for picking up the sample to be measured; a sample supplying device for selectively supplying the sample sucked in the nozzle to the ion concentration measuring cells; and calculation and display section, which is commonly used for calculating the ion concentration concerning samples to be measured by comparing the measurement results of electric potentials induced on the ion selective electrode and the reference electrode. In the apparatus according to the invention, although the apparatus can be made small in size, the ion concentration of the samples to be measured can be analyzed in an effective manner.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The field of invention relates generally to imprint lithography. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method of forming a template to be used in imprint lithography processes.
[0002] Micro-fabrication involves the fabrication of very small structures, e.g., having features on the order of micro-meters or smaller. One area in which micro-fabrication has had a sizeable impact is in the processing of integrated circuits. As the semiconductor processing industry continues to strive for higher production yields while increasing the circuits per unit area formed on a substrate, micro-fabrication becomes increasingly important. Micro-fabrication provides greater process control, while allowing increased reduction of the minimum feature dimension of the structures formed. Other areas of development in which micro-fabrication have been employed include biotechnology, optical technology, mechanical systems and the like.
[0003] An exemplary micro-fabrication technique is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,960 to Willson et al. Willson et al. disclose a method of forming a relief image in a structure. The method includes providing a substrate having a transfer layer. The transfer layer is covered with a polymerizable fluid composition. A template makes mechanical contact with the polymerizable fluid. The template includes a relief structure formed from lands and grooves. The polymerizable fluid composition fills the relief structure with the thickness of the polymerizable fluid in superimposition with the lands defining a residual thickness. The polymerizable fluid composition is then subjected to conditions to solidify and to polymerize the same, forming a solidified polymeric material on the transfer layer that contains a relief structure complimentary to that of the template. The template is then separated from the solid polymeric material such that a replica of the relief structure of the template is formed in the solidified polymeric material. The transfer layer and the solidified polymeric material are subjected to an environment to selectively etch the transfer layer relative to the solidified polymeric material such that a relief image is formed in the transfer layer. Thereafter, conventional etching processes may be employed to transfer the pattern of the relief structure into the substrate.
[0004] The templates employed in the micro-fabrication described above are typically comprised of fused silica, and as a result, the templates are transparent to actinic radiation employed in the polymerization step of the polymerizable fluid composition described above. However, while fused silica templates can be readily prepared with etch depths of a few hundred nanometers, etching deep structures of the order of a few microns while maintaining vertical sidewalls is much more difficult, and obtaining etch depths on the order of tens of microns is extremely difficult. Using templates of this kind, with deep etched features are very useful when, instead of using solidified materials, as described above, as etch resists, the materials defined are intended to form part of the final device functionality. Examples where such deep etched templates are valuable include, without limitation, the formation of polymeric waveguides, the generation of micro/nano-fluidic channels, or in areas of IC packaging.
[0005] Previous art attempts have employed etching as a means for improving the feature depth of fused silica templates. However, such etching techniques have drawbacks associated therewith. Dry etching of fused silica templates to achieve etch depths of greater than a few microns, e.g. 5 μm, is problematic, and more specifically, achieving vertical sidewalls on features more than a few microns, e.g. 5 μm, in fused silica templates is difficult. Wet etching is capable of creating deep features in fused silica; however, it is not anisotropic enough to be used in this application.
[0006] It is desired, therefore, to provide an improved method of forming a template having deep features formed therein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] The present invention is directed to a method of forming a pattern on a plate by employing a mold. The method includes placing the plate in superimposition with the mold. Formable material is present between the plate and the mold. A pattern is formed in the formable material having a shape complementary to the shape of the mold, defining patterned material. The patterned material is then adhered to the plate. These and other embodiments are described more fully below.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a lithographic system in accordance with the present invention;
[0009] FIG. 2 is a side view of the backing plate disposed opposite a mold with a pattern of the mold forming a pattern to be transferred to the backing plate;
[0010] FIG. 3 is an exploded view of FIG. 2 depicting a feature depth of the mold;
[0011] FIG. 4 is a side view of the backing plate disposed opposite the mold with an imprinting layer disposed upon the mold;
[0012] FIG. 5 is a side view of the backing plate in contact with the imprinting layer with a radiation source impinging actinic radiation upon the imprinting layer;
[0013] FIG. 6 is a side view of the backing plate having the imprinting layer disposed thereon and spaced-apart from the mold with a radiation source impinging actinic radiation upon the imprinting layer;
[0014] FIG. 7 is a side view of a template comprising the imprinting layer coupled to the backing plate formed utilizing the method employed in the present invention; and
[0015] FIG. 8 is an exploded view of FIG. 7 depicting a feature depth of the imprinting layer.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0016] FIG. 1 depicts a lithographic system 10 that includes a pair of spaced-apart bridge supports 12 having a bridge 14 and a stage support 16 extending therebetween. Bridge 14 and stage support 16 are spaced-apart. Coupled to bridge 14 is an imprint head 18 , which extends from bridge 14 toward stage support 16 and provides movement along the Z-axis. Disposed upon stage support 16 to face imprint head 18 is a motion stage 20 . Motion stage 20 is configured to move with respect to stage support 16 along X- and Y-axes. It should be understood that imprint head 18 may provide movement along the X- and Y-axes, as well as the Z-axis, and motion stage 20 may provide movement in the Z-axis, as well as the X- and Y-axes. An exemplary motion stage device is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/194,414, filed Jul. 11, 2002, entitled “Step and Repeat Imprint Lithography Systems,” assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. A radiation source 22 is coupled to lithographic system 10 to impinge actinic radiation upon motion stage 20 . As shown, radiation source 22 is coupled to bridge 14 and includes a power generator 23 connected to radiation source 22 . An exemplary lithographic system is available under the trade name IMPRIO 100™ from Molecular Imprints, Inc., having a place of business at 1807-C Braker Lane, Suite 100, Austin, Tex. 78758. The system description for the IMPRIO 100™ is available at www.molecularimprints.com and is incorporated herein by reference.
[0017] FIG. 2 shows a master template 24 spaced apart from a backing plate 26 with a distance “d” defined therebetween, with backing plate 26 being substantially parallel to master template 24 . Master template 24 comprises a mold 28 disposed on a surface 30 of a substrate 32 with surface 30 having a substantially planar surface and mold 28 being substantially parallel to substrate 32 . Substrate 32 is located on a wafer chuck 34 with an exemplary chuck disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/293,224, filed Nov. 13, 2003, entitled “A Chucking System for Modulating Shapes of Substrates,” which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
[0018] Backing plate 26 is formed from a material that is substantially transparent to actinic radiation, e.g., ultraviolet (UV) radiation. In a further embodiment, backing plate 26 is formed from a material that is also substantially transparent to infrared (IR) radiation. To that end, backing plate 26 may be formed from such materials including, but not limited to, quartz, fused silica, and soda lime glass. Backing plate 26 may be coated with a coupling agent 35 , wherein coupling agent 35 is substantially transparent to actinic radiation, e.g., UV radiation. In a further embodiment, coupling agent 35 is also substantially transparent to IR radiation. Coupling agent 35 may be deposited upon backing plate 26 in a plurality of methods including, but not limited to, spin coating and dip coating. Coupling agent 35 may be thermally treated, with such thermal treatment techniques including baking coupling agent 35 at a temperature in the range of 50° C.-150° C. for approximately fifteen minutes. Coupling agent 35 is employed to chemically bond to a layer in contact therewith when exposed to actinic radiation, e.g., UV radiation, described further below. An exemplary embodiment of coupling agent 35 used in the present invention is 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl acrylate available from Sigma-Aldrich located in St. Louis, Mo.
[0019] Mold 28 may be formed from any suitable material including materials that are substantially opaque to actinic radiation. Additionally, mold 28 may be formed from materials including, but not limited to, silicon, gallium arsenide, quartz, fused-silica, sapphire, organic polymers, siloxane polymers, borosilicate glass, fluorocarbon polymers or a combination thereof. In an exemplary case, mold 28 is formed from silicon. Mold 28 may be treated with a release layer 36 . Release layer 36 may be formed from materials including, but not limited to, perfluoro silane, diamond-like carbon (DLC), diamond-like nano-composite or a surfactant. An example of a surfactant is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/463,396, filed Jun. 17, 2003, entitled “Method to Reduce Adhesions Between a Conformable Region and Pattern of a Mold,” which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein. Release layer 36 may be deposited upon mold 28 before or after mold 28 is coupled to substrate 30 to form master template 24 and may be applied using any known method, with such methods including, but not limited to, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition or various other techniques, such as dip coating and spin coating and the like.
[0020] Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3 , mold 28 comprises a relief pattern 38 defined thereon. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, relief pattern 38 comprises a plurality of spaced-apart protrusions 40 and recessions 42 , however, any relief pattern may be employed. The plurality of protrusions 40 and recessions 42 defines an original pattern that forms the basis of a pattern to be transferred onto backing plate 26 , described more fully below. Protrusions 40 and recessions 42 have a height ‘h 1 ’ associated therewith, as shown in FIG. 3 .
[0021] As mentioned above, in an example, mold 28 is formed from silicon. As a result, protrusions 40 and recessions 42 may comprise deep feature depths since anisotropic etching of deep features within silicon is well known. In the present invention, to form such deep feature depths of protrusions 40 and recessions 42 , mold 28 is subjected to a lattice etch. The lattice etch provides a uniform etch of the silicon contained within mold 28 with an etch rate of 3-45 μm/hr. In the present invention, height ‘h 1 ’ of protrusions 40 and recessions 42 may have a value in the range of 5 μm-100 μm; however, smaller values of ‘h 1 ’ may be achieved if desired. In a preferred embodiment, height ‘h 1 ’ had a value of 60 μm.
[0022] By employing mold 28 having deep features of protrusions 40 and recessions 42 , mold 28 may be used to form deep featured structures therefrom, with such structures having a pattern complimentary to relief pattern 38 . The structure formed from mold 28 may then be utilized as a template in subsequent imprint lithography processes, and more specifically, in subsequent patterning of substrates. An exemplary imprint lithography method and system for patterning of substrates is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/194,410 filed July 2002 entitled “Method and System for Imprint Lithography using an Electric Field,” which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
[0023] Referring to FIG. 4 , a flowable region, such as an imprinting layer 44 , is disposed on a surface 46 of mold 28 . Imprinting layer 44 may be deposited upon mold 28 in a plurality of methods including, but not limited to, spin coating techniques and discrete fluid dispense techniques. In an exemplary technique of the present invention, imprinting layer 44 is deposited upon mold 28 as a plurality of spaced-apart discrete droplets 48 . In a further embodiment, imprinting layer 44 may be deposited upon backing plate 26 in a plurality of methods including, but not limited to, spin coating techniques, discrete fluid dispense techniques, and as a plurality of spaced-apart droplets. In a further embodiment, imprinting layer 44 may be substantially transparent to actinic radiation. Imprinting layer 44 may comprise a composition selected from, but not limited to, polycarbonate, poly(methylmethacrylate), epoxy, a sol-gel material, and a hybrid sol-gel material. In an example of the present invention, imprinting layer 44 comprises a hybrid sol-gel material, wherein the sol-gel material has both an organic and inorganic composition. An exemplary hybrid sol-gel material used in the present invention is sold under the trade name Ormocer® B59 available from Microresist Technology GmbH located in Berlin, Germany.
[0024] The hybrid sol-gel material of the present invention comprises both inorganic and organic reactive functionality. During exposure of the hybrid sol-gel material to actinic radiation, e.g. UV radiation, described further below, a photoinitiator incorporated into the hybrid sol-gel initiates polymerization of organic functionality causing the hybrid material to solidify. Suitable photoinitiators for such a hybrid sol-gel depend on the reactive organic functionality used include, but not limited to, 1-hydroxycyclohexyl phenyl ketone, 2-chlorothioxanthone, 2-methylthioxanthone, and 2-isopropylthioxanthoney, where the reactive organic functionality is acrylic-ester based, or where the reactive organic functionality is epoxy or vinyl ether based.
[0025] The hybrid sol-gel as described above further contains an inorganic reactive functionality. Following exposure of the hybrid sol-gel material to actinic radiation, e.g. UV radiation, a thermal processing step allows the reactive inorganic functionality to crosslink to form a rigid, glass-like structured material through condensation polymerization, described further below. Such reactions are well known in the art to be possible with such materials including, but not limited to, silicon alkoxides, titanium alkoxides and aluminum alkoxides. Such reactions are enhanced by the presence of an acid. The acid may be, if desired, generated in such materials either during the application of actinic radiation, e.g. UV radiation, by the addition of photo-acid generators of the kind described above, or during the thermal process, described further below, by the use of thermal acid generators.
[0026] The hybrid sol-gel material employed in imprinting layer 44 has many properties associated therewith, with such properties offering advantages employed in the present invention. More specifically, the hybrid sol-gel material has properties, such as that a hard transparent pattern having desired deep features may be produced therefrom without the need to be subjected to high temperature settings. Thus, the hybrid sol-gel material may be formed using prior art techniques comparable to those utilized in connection with forming photresists, and, as a result, mass production of templates comprising the hybrid sol-gel material may be possible, described further below.
[0027] Additionally, the hybrid sol-gel material comprises other such properties to enable a coupling of imprinting layer 44 to backing plate 26 . More specifically, the hybrid sol-gel material comprises a component that is responsive to actinic radiation, e.g., UV radiation, and cross-links in response thereto, forming a chemical bond between the hybrid sol-gel material of imprinting layer 44 and coupling agent 35 disposed on backing plate 26 , described further below.
[0028] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 5 , backing plate 26 is shown being coupled to motion stage 20 . To that end, imprint head 18 and/or motion stage 20 may reduce distance “d” between master template 24 and backing plate 26 to allow droplets 48 to come into mechanical contact with coupling layer 35 of backing plate 26 , spreading droplets 48 so as to form imprinting layer 44 with a contiguous formation over relief structure 38 , with imprinting layer 44 substantially taking the shape of relief structure 38 and forming a pattern complimentary therefrom. Protrusions 40 of mold 28 form recessions 50 within imprinting layer 44 , and recessions 42 of mold 28 form protrusions 52 within imprinting layer 44 , shown more clearly in FIG. 6 . In this manner, the features of mold 28 may be transferred onto backing plate 26 through imprinting layer 44 , wherein imprinting layer 44 becomes coupled to backing plate 26 through chemical bonding.
[0029] Before separation of imprinting layer 44 from mold 28 , imprinting layer 44 is subjected to actinic radiation, e.g., UV radiation. The UV radiation induces a chemical reaction between imprinting layer 44 and coupling agent 35 of backing plate 26 , such that the hybrid sol-gel material of imprinting layer 44 becomes chemically bonded to coupling agent 35 when imprinting layer 44 is in contact with coupling agent 35 . Specifically, as mentioned above, the hybrid sol-gel material comprises a component that facilitates solidification of the hybrid sol-gel material in response to actinic radiation. As a result, the hybrid sol-gel material of imprinting layer 44 becomes chemically bonded to coupling agent 35 upon exposure to UV radiation.
[0030] Referring to FIG. 6 , furthermore, as mentioned above, mold 28 is treated with a release layer 36 , wherein release layer 36 has a desired surface energy to facilitate release of imprinting layer 44 from mold 28 so as to minimize shearing or tearing of imprinting layer 44 . In this fashion, the integrity of the desired pattern formed in imprinting layer 44 is maintained when imprinting layer 44 is separated from mold 28 .
[0031] Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7 , after impinging UV radiation upon imprinting layer 44 , imprint head 18 , shown in FIG. 1 , is moved to increase the distance “d” so that master template 24 and backing plate 26 are spaced-apart. As mentioned above, imprinting layer 44 becomes chemically bonded to coupling agent 35 of backing plate 26 . To that end, increasing the distance ‘d’ between master template 24 and backing plate 26 forms a daughter template 54 , shown in FIG. 7 . Daughter template 54 may subsequently be utilized in imprint lithography processes for patterning of substrates, as described above in the micro-fabrication of Willson et al. Daughter template 54 may be substantially transparent to UV radiation.
[0032] Referring to FIG. 8 , as mentioned above, protrusions 40 of mold 28 form recessions 52 of imprinting layer 44 and recessions 42 of mold 28 form protrusions 50 of imprinting layer 44 . To that end, protrusions 50 and recessions 52 of imprinting layer 44 have a height ‘h 2 ’ associated therewith. Height ‘h 2 ’ of imprinting layer 44 is substantially the same as height ‘h 1 ’ of mold 28 . As a result, height ‘h 2 ’ of recessions 50 and protrusions 52 may have a value in the range of 10 μm-100 μm; however, smaller values of ‘h 2 ’ may be achieved if desired. In a preferred embodiment, height ‘h 2 ’ had a value of approximately 60 μm.
[0033] Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7 , after the separation of imprinting layer 44 from mold 28 to form daughter template 54 , daughter template 54 is thermally treating to complete the vitrification of the hybrid sol-gel material within imprinting layer 44 . Furthermore, thermally treating the hybrid sol-gel material within imprinting layer 44 creates a condensation reaction within the hybrid sol-gel material to form a vitrified, glassy material. To that end, such thermal treatment methods include impinging IR radiation that is produced by radiation source 22 upon imprinting layer 44 . The IR radiation produced by radiation source 22 may be transmitted through backing plate 26 and coupling layer 35 . In a further embodiment, the IR radiation produced by radiation source 22 may be impinged directly onto imprinting layer 44 without being transmitted through backing plate 26 and coupling layer 35 . In a further embodiment, microwave radiation may be impinged upon imprinting layer 44 . Other such thermal treatment methods include baking daughter template 54 at a temperature of 150° C. for approximately one to three hours.
[0034] In a further embodiment, a low surface energy layer 56 may be disposed upon imprinting layer 44 . Low surface energy layer 56 has a desired surface energy associated therewith, wherein the desired surface energy minimizes adhesion between daughter template 54 and any substrates in contact therewith. Low surface energy layer 56 may be formed from materials including, but not limited to, a perfluoro silane, diamond-like carbon (DLC), diamond-like nano-composite, or a surfactant containing material. An exemplary low surface energy layer is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/687,519, filed Oct. 16, 2003, entitled “Low Surface Energy Templates,” which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
[0035] The embodiments of the present invention described above are exemplary. For example, anomalies in processing regions other than film thickness may be determined. As a result, many changes and modifications may be made to the disclosure recited above, while remaining within the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be limited by the above description, but instead should be determined with reference to the appended claims along with their full scope of equivalents.
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The present invention is directed to a method of forming a pattern on a plate employing a mold. The method includes placing the plate in superimposition with said mold. Formable material is positioned between that plate and the mold. A pattern is formed in the formable material having a shape complementary to the shape of the mold, defining patterned material. The patterned material is then adhered to the plate.
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CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application JP 2007-316938 filed in the Japan Patent Office on Dec. 7, 2007, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to a semiconductor chip including a plurality of processing devices such as processor elements or the like.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] A semiconductor chip including a plurality of identical processor elements (Processing Elements: PE) is known.
[0006] Each PE includes an arithmetic unit (core), an individual memory (LS: Local Storage) connected to the core on a one-to-one basis, and a communication unit (COM) for performing communication with another PE.
[0007] Techniques of using the individual memory (LS) of an unused core between PEs, or lending and borrowing the LS of a core between PEs in such a semiconductor system are proposed (see “NGARC Forum 2007 Kyushu University, Memory Architecture of Next-Generation Multiprocessor,” for example).
[0008] In addition, techniques of turning off power to the whole of a PE by a power gate (PG) are known (see Japanese Patent No. 3899092, for example).
[0009] FIGS. 1A , 1 B, and 1 C are diagrams showing an example of a configuration when the techniques of a power gate are applied to the proposed techniques of lending and borrowing the LS of a core between PEs.
[0010] In the example of FIG. 1 , two PEs, that is, a PE-a and a PE-b are connected to a power supply potential Vcc and configured such that an LS can be lent and borrowed between the PE-a and the PE-b.
[0011] The PE-a includes a core 1 a, an LS 2 a of the core 1 a, and a communication unit (COM) 3 a. Then, the PE-a has a power control unit 4 a formed by a power gate that is connected between the power supply terminal of the PE-a as a whole and the power supply potential Vcc and which can turn on and off the power supply line.
[0012] The PE-b includes a core 1 b, an LS 2 b of the core 1 b, and a communication unit (COM) 3 b. Then, the PE-b has a power control unit 4 b formed by a power gate that is connected between the power supply terminal of the PE-b as a whole and the power supply potential Vcc and which can turn on and off the power supply line.
[0013] The communication unit 3 a of the PE-a and the communication unit 3 b of the PE-b are connected to each other.
[0014] As shown in FIG. 1A , when both of the PE-a and the PE-b are operated, the PE-a and the PE-b are both maintained in an on state (operating state) by the power control units 4 a and 4 b.
[0015] As shown in FIG. 1B , when only the PE-a is operated, the PE-a is maintained in the on state (operating state) by the power control unit 4 a, and the PE-b is maintained in an off state (non-operating state) by the power control unit 4 b.
[0016] As shown in FIG. 1C , when the PE-a operates and the PE-a uses the LS 2 b of the PE-b, that is, the PE-a borrows the LS 2 b of the PE-b (the PE-b lends the LS 2 b to the PE-a), the PE-a and the PE-b are both maintained in the on state by the power control units 4 a and 4 b.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0017] In the above-described techniques, however, when the PE-a operates and uses the LS 2 b of the PE-b, even though the core 1 b of the PE-b is not used, the PE-a and the PE-b are both maintained in the on state by the power control units 4 a and 4 b, and the core 1 b is supplied with power.
[0018] The constitution of FIG. 1 consequently has a disadvantage of having difficulty in operating with a minimum necessary power consumption and wasting power.
[0019] It is desirable to provide a semiconductor chip that can suppress unnecessary power consumption and operate with a minimum necessary power consumption.
[0020] According to a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor chip including: a plurality of processing devices that can communicate with each other; wherein each of the processing devices includes an arithmetic unit, an individual memory connected to the arithmetic unit on a one-to-one basis, and a control unit configured to independently control turning on and off of operation of the arithmetic unit and the individual memory.
[0021] Preferably, each of the processing devices has a communication unit enabling communication with another processing device, and the communication unit is controlled to be on when the individual memory is on, and is controlled to be off when the individual memory is off.
[0022] Preferably, the control unit independently controls supply of power to the arithmetic unit and the individual memory.
[0023] Preferably, the control unit independently controls supply of a clock to the arithmetic unit and the individual memory.
[0024] Preferably, the individual memory is divided into a plurality of individual memories, and the control unit independently controls supply of power to the plurality of divided individual memories.
[0025] Preferably, the individual memory is divided into a plurality of individual memories, and the control unit independently controls supply of a clock to the plurality of divided individual memories.
[0026] Preferably, each of the processing devices has a communication unit enabling communication with another processing device, the communication unit is controlled to be on when the individual memory is on, and is controlled to be off when the individual memory is off, and the control unit includes a plurality of transistors connected between a power supply potential and respective power supply terminals of the arithmetic unit, the divided individual memories, and the communication unit, a gate of each of the plurality of transistors being supplied with a signal controlling turning on and off of the transistor, and a power gate control unit configured to independently control turning on and off of the plurality of transistors according to a control signal.
[0027] Preferably, each of the processing devices has a communication unit enabling communication with another processing device, the communication unit is controlled to be on when the individual memory is on, and is controlled to be off when the individual memory is off, and the control unit includes a plurality of gates connected between a power supply potential and respective clock terminals of the arithmetic unit, the divided individual memories, and the communication unit, the plurality of gates each being supplied with a signal that controls passage of the clock, and a gate control unit configured to independently control the plurality of gates according to a control signal.
[0028] According to a second embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor chip including: a plurality of processing devices that can communicate with each other; a main processing device configured to supply each of the processing devices with a control signal for performing control according to a role allotted to each of the processing devices; and a bus for connecting the plurality of processing devices to an external part; wherein each of the processing devices includes an arithmetic unit, an individual memory connected to the arithmetic unit on a one-to-one basis, and a control unit configured to independently control turning on and off of operation involving power consumption of the arithmetic unit and the individual memory according to a control signal supplied by the main processing device.
[0029] According to the embodiments of the present invention, each of the plurality of processing devices in the semiconductor chip has an individual memory connected to an arithmetic unit on a one-to-one basis. In each of the processing devices, turning on and off of operation involving power consumption of the arithmetic unit and the individual memory is controlled individually.
[0030] According to the embodiments of the present invention, it is possible to suppress unnecessary power consumption, and perform operation with a minimum necessary power consumption.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0031] FIGS. 1A , 1 B, and 1 C are diagrams showing an example of a configuration when the techniques of a power gate are applied to the proposed techniques of lending and borrowing the LS of a core between PEs;
[0032] FIGS. 2A , 2 B, and 2 C are diagrams showing an outline of a basic configuration of a semiconductor chip according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0033] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a general configuration of a semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment and a state of supply of a gate control signal to each PE;
[0034] FIG. 4 is a chart of a procedure for determining the value of the gate control signal GCTL supplied from a main PE to each PE;
[0035] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of implementation of a power gate in each PE of the semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment; and
[0036] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of implementation of a clock gate in each PE of the semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0037] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described with reference to the drawings.
[0038] FIGS. 2A to 2C are diagrams showing an outline of a basic configuration of a semiconductor chip according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0039] Description in the following will be made of a case of two PEs. A structure is supposed in which two PEs, that is, PE-a and PE-b are connected to each other by communication units (COM).
[0040] The semiconductor chip 10 in FIGS. 2A to 2C is configured such that two PEs 11 (PE-a) and 12 (PE-b) can lend and borrow an LS (individual memory) to and from each other.
[0041] The PE 11 (PE-a) includes a core 111 , an LS 112 of the core 111 , and a communication unit (COM) 113 . Then, the PE 11 (PE-a) has a power control unit 114 formed by a power gate that is connected between the power supply terminal TV of the core 111 in the PE 11 (PE-a) and a power supply potential Vcc and which can turn on and off the power supply line, and a power control unit 115 formed by a power gate that is connected between the power supply terminal TV of the LS 112 and the power supply potential Vcc and which can turn on and off the power supply line.
[0042] Incidentally, the communication unit (COM) 113 is formed so as to be supplied with power by the LS 112 via a power line LP. Hence, when the power control unit 115 is on, the LS 112 and the communication unit (COM) 113 are supplied with power. When the power control unit 115 is off, on the other hand, the LS 112 and the communication unit (COM) 113 are not supplied with power.
[0043] The PE 12 (PE-b) includes a core 121 , an LS 122 of the core 121 , and a communication unit (COM) 123 . Then, the PE 12 (PE-b) has a power control unit 124 formed by a power gate that is connected between the power supply terminal TV of the core 121 in the PE 12 (PE-b) and the power supply potential Vcc and which can turn on and off the power supply line, and a power control unit 125 formed by a power gate that is connected between the power supply terminal TV of the LS 122 and the power supply potential Vcc and which can turn on and off the power supply line.
[0044] Incidentally, the communication unit (COM) 123 is formed so as to be supplied with power by the LS 122 via a power line LP. Hence, when the power control unit 125 is on, the LS 122 and the communication unit (COM) 123 are supplied with power. When the power control unit 125 is off, on the other hand, the LS 122 and the communication unit (COM) 123 are not supplied with power.
[0045] The communication unit 113 of the PE 11 (PE-a) and the communication unit 123 of the PE 12 (PE-b) are connected to each other by a bus 13 .
[0046] As shown in FIG. 2A , when both of the PE 11 (PE-a) and the PE 12 (PE-b) are operated, all the elements of the core 111 , the LS 112 , and the communication unit 113 of the PE 11 (PE-a) and the core 121 , the LS 122 , and the communication unit 123 of the PE 12 (PE-b) are maintained in an on state by the power control units 114 , 115 , 124 , and 125 .
[0047] As shown in FIG. 2B , when only the PE 11 (PE-a) is operated, all the elements of the core 111 , the LS 112 , and the communication unit 113 of the PE 11 (PE-a) are maintained in an on state by the power control units 114 and 115 . On the other hand, all the elements of the core 121 , the LS 122 , and the communication unit 123 of the PE 12 (PE-b) are maintained in an off state by the power control units 124 and 125 .
[0048] As shown in FIG. 2C , in a case where the PE 11 (PE-a) operates and the PE 11 (PE-a) uses the LS 122 of the PE 12 (PE-b), that is, the PE 11 (PE-a) borrows the LS 122 of the PE 12 (PE-b) (the PE 12 (PE-b) lends the LS 122 to the PE 11 (PE-a)) when the capacity of the LS 112 of the PE 11 (PE-a) alone is not sufficient, for example, power control is performed as follows.
[0049] All the elements of the core 111 , the LS 112 , and the communication unit 113 of the PE 11 (PE-a) are maintained in an on state by the power control units 114 and 115 .
[0050] On the other hand, in the PE 12 (PE-b), the core 121 is maintained in an off state by the power control unit 124 , and the LS 122 and the communication unit 123 are maintained in an on state by the power control unit 125 .
[0051] Thus, when an LS (individual memory) is lent and borrowed, power to the core not being operated can be turned off, whereby the power consumption of the part of the core can be reduced. Therefore operation with a minimum necessary power consumption is made possible.
[0052] Incidentally, when a larger number of PEs are implemented, and also when an LS in a PE that is not made to perform arithmetic processing which PE is set as a memory common to each PE is used, power consumption can be lowered by not supplying power to the core of the PE whose LS is used.
[0053] The above description has been made of a case where a core and an LS are subjected to on/off control independently of each other by a power gate. However, a core and an LS can be subjected to on/off control independently of each other by a clock gate, for example.
[0054] Description will next be made of a general configuration of a semiconductor chip including a plurality of PEs having the configuration shown in FIGS. 2A to 2C and an example of supply of gate control signals.
[0055] FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a general configuration of a semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment and a state of supply of a gate control signal to each PE.
[0056] The semiconductor chip 20 includes a main PE (Main PE) 21 , a plurality of PEs (four PEs in FIG. 3 ) 11 (PE-a), 12 (PE-b), 13 (PE-c), and 14 (PE-d) that can lend and borrow an LS (individual memory), and an AXI (Advanced extensible Interface) bus 22 .
[0057] Incidentally, in FIG. 3 , the PEs that can lend and borrow an LS (individual memory) are identified by similar references to those of FIGS. 2A to 2C to facilitate understanding.
[0058] In the semiconductor chip 20 of FIG. 3 , the PEs 11 (PE-a), 12 (PE-b), 13 (PE-c), and 14 (PE-d) are supplied with respective gate control signals GCTL-a, GCTL-b, GCTL-c, and GCTL-d from the main PE 21 .
[0059] The main PE 21 performs power control according to roles allotted to the respective PEs 11 (PE-a), 12 (PE-b), 13 (PE-c), and 14 (PE-d).
[0060] The programs and data interfaces COMIO-a, COMIO-b, COMIO-c, and COMIO-d of the respective PEs 11 (PE-a), 12 (PE-b), 13 (PE-c), and 14 (PE-d) are connected to the AXI bus 22 , whereby a communication path of communication of the semiconductor chip 20 with an outside is secured.
[0061] FIG. 4 is a chart of a procedure for determining the value of the gate control signal GCTL supplied from the main PE to each PE.
[0062] This procedure may be performed by either of software control and hardware control, and can be implemented by a program in the main PE or the like.
[0063] At a start of GCTL control, whether there is a request to stop the whole of the PEs is first determined (ST 1 ). When a result of the determination is Yes, a setting is made such that GCTL=0, and then the process is ended (ST 2 ).
[0064] When it is determined in step ST 1 that the request is not a request to stop the whole of the PEs, the process proceeds to a next step to determine whether the request is a request to operate the whole of the PEs (ST 3 ). When a result of the determination is Yes, a setting is made such that GCTL=1, and then the process is ended (ST 4 ).
[0065] When it is determined in step ST 3 that the request is not a request to operate the whole of the PEs, whether the request is a request to operate the whole of the LSs is determined (ST 5 ). When a result of the determination is Yes, a setting is made such that GCTL=2, and then the process is ended (ST 6 ).
[0066] When it is determined in step ST 5 that the request is not a request to operate the whole of the LSs, the process proceeds to a next step to determine whether the request is a request to operate the LS 1 , the LS 2 , and the LS 3 (ST 7 ). When a result of the determination is Yes, a setting is made such that GCTL=3, and then the process is ended (ST 8 ).
[0067] When it is determined in step ST 7 that the request is not a request to operate the LS 1 , the LS 2 , and the LS 3 , the process proceeds to a next step to determine whether the request is a request to operate the LS 1 and the LS 2 (ST 9 ). When a result of the determination is Yes, a setting is made such that GCTL=4, and then the process is ended (ST 10 ).
[0068] When it is determined in step ST 9 that the request is not a request to operate the LS 1 and the LS 2 , the process proceeds to a next step, where a setting is made such that GCTL=5, and then the process is ended (ST 11 ).
[0069] With the configuration and the procedure described above, when an LS area is enlarged or an LS is used as a memory shared between PEs, it is possible to turn off power or a clock to a core not used in a PE, rather than turning on and off power or a clock to the whole of the PEs.
[0070] An example of implementation of a power gate and a clock gate in the present embodiment will be described below.
[0071] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of implementation of a power gate in each PE of the semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment.
[0072] In FIG. 5 , a PE is identified by reference numeral 200 .
[0073] The PE 200 in FIG. 5 includes a core 210 , an LS 220 , a communication unit 230 , and a power gate control unit 240 .
[0074] In the example of FIG. 5 , the LS 220 is divided into four banks 221 , 222 , 223 , and 224 .
[0075] The communication unit 230 includes a communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , a communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , and a communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 .
[0076] The power gate control unit 240 includes a power gate control block (PGC block) 241 and p-channel MOS (PMOS) transistors 242 to 249 whose sources are connected to a power supply potential Vcc and whose drains are connected to the power supply terminal TV of the core 210 , the respective power supply terminals TV of the four banks 221 , 222 , 223 , and 224 , and the respective power supply terminals TV of the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , and the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , the core 210 , the banks 221 , 222 , 223 , and 224 , the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , and the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 each being an element block.
[0077] The gates of the PMOS transistors 242 to 249 are connected to respective gate control lines CTL 242 to CTL 249 of the PGC block 241 .
[0078] FIG. 5 shows two interfaces for data of one PE.
[0079] One interface is COMIO for loading/storing a program, transferring data before operation and after the operation, and the like. The other interface is GCTLIF for controlling the power gate.
[0080] The PGC block 241 encodes an input signal (gate control signal) GCTL from GCTLIF to the PE 200 , and then supplies an on/off control signal to the gates of the PMOS transistors 242 to 249 , which turn on or off power supply to each block.
[0081] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=0 in the encoding process of the PGC block 241 , all gate control signals of the PGC block 241 are output at a high level, so that all the PMOS transistors 242 to 249 are turned off to stop power supply to all the blocks.
[0082] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=1, all the gate control signals of the PGC block 241 are output at a low level, so that all the PMOS transistors 242 to 249 are turned on to supply power to all the blocks.
[0083] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=2, the PMOS transistors 248 , 249 , 243 to 246 which control power to the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the banks 221 (Bank 1 ), 222 (Bank 2 ), 223 (Bank 3 ), and 224 (Bank 4 ) are turned on, and the PMOS transistors 242 and 247 which control power to the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 and the core (CORE) 210 are turned off. Thus, the LSs of the banks 221 to 224 are usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0084] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=3, the PMOS transistors 248 , 249 , 243 to 245 which control power to the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the banks 221 (Bank 1 ), 222 (Bank 2 ), and 223 (Bank 3 ) are turned on, and the PMOS transistors 242 , 247 , and 246 which control power to the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the core (CORE) 210 , and the bank 224 (Bank 4 ) are turned off. Thus, the LSs of the banks 221 to 223 are usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0085] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=4, the PMOS transistors 248 , 249 , 243 , and 244 which control power to the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the banks 221 (Bank 1 ) and 222 (Bank 2 ) are turned on, and the PMOS transistors 242 , 247 , 245 , and 246 which control power to the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the core (CORE) 210 , and the banks 223 (Bank 3 ) and 224 (Bank 4 ) are turned off. Thus, the LSs of the banks 221 and 222 are usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0086] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=5, the PMOS transistors 248 , 249 , and 243 which control power to the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the bank 221 (Bank 1 ) are turned on, and the PMOS transistors 242 , 247 , and 244 to 246 which control power to the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the core (CORE) 210 , and the banks 222 (Bank 2 ), 223 (Bank 3 ), and 224 (Bank 4 ) are turned off. Thus, the LS of the bank 221 is usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0087] An example of implementation of a clock gate will next be described.
[0088] FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of implementation of a clock gate in each PE of the semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment.
[0089] A PE 200 A in FIG. 6 is different from the PE 200 in FIG. 5 in that a clock gate control unit 250 is provided in place of the power gate control unit, a clock gate control block (CGC block) 251 is disposed in place of the PGC block 241 , and two-input AND gates 252 to 259 are arranged in place of the PMOS transistors 242 to 249 . The outputs of the AND gates 252 to 259 are respectively connected to the clock terminal TCK of a core 210 , the respective clock terminals TCK of four banks 221 , 222 , 223 , and 224 , and the respective clock terminals TCK of a communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , a communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , and a communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , the core 210 , the banks 221 , 222 , 223 , and 224 , the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , and the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 each being an element block.
[0090] The CGC block 251 encodes an input signal (gate control signal) GCTL from GCTLIF to the PE 200 A, and then supplies an on/off control signal to the gates of the AND gates 252 to 259 , which turn on or off supply of a clock CLK to each block.
[0091] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=0 in the encoding process of the CGC block 251 , all clock control signals of the CGC block 251 are output at a low level, so that the outputs of all the AND gates 252 to 259 are set to a low level to stop the clock supply to all the blocks.
[0092] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=1, all the clock control signals are output at a high level, so that the outputs of all the AND gates 252 to 259 pass the clock CLK as it is to supply the clock CLK to all the blocks.
[0093] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=2, inputs of the AND gates 258 , 259 , 253 to 256 which perform clock control on the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the banks 221 (Bank 1 ), 222 (Bank 2 ), 223 (Bank 3 ), and 224 (Bank 4 ) are set to a high level to supply the clock CLK, and inputs of the AND gates 252 and 257 which perform clock control on the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 and the core (CORE) 210 are set to a low level to stop supplying the clock CLK. Thus, the LSs of the banks 221 to 224 are usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0094] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL= 3 , the inputs of the AND gates 258 , 259 , 253 to 255 which perform clock control on the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the banks 221 (Bank 1 ), 222 (Bank 2 ), and 223 (Bank 3 ) are set to a high level to supply the clock CLK, and the inputs of the AND gates 252 , 257 , and 256 which perform clock control on the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the core (CORE) 210 , and the bank 224 (Bank 4 ) are set to a low level to stop supplying the clock CLK. Thus, the LSs of the banks 221 to 223 are usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0095] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=4, the inputs of the AND gates 258 , 259 , 253 , and 254 which perform clock control on the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the banks 221 (Bank 1 ) and 222 (Bank 2 ) are set to a high level to supply the clock CLK, and the inputs of the AND gates 252 , 257 , 255 , and 256 which perform clock control on the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the core (CORE) 210 , and the banks 223 (Bank 3 ) and 224 (Bank 4 ) are set to a low level to stop supplying the clock CLK. Thus, the LSs of the banks 221 and 222 are usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0096] In a case of the gate control signal GCTL=5, the inputs of the AND gates 258 , 259 , and 253 which perform clock control on the communication unit PE (COM PE) 232 , the communication unit memory (COM MEMORY) 233 , and the bank 221 (Bank 1 ) are set to a high level to supply the clock CLK, and the inputs of the AND gates 252 , 257 , and 254 to 256 which perform clock control on the communication unit core (COM CORE) 231 , the core (CORE) 210 , and the banks 222 (Bank 2 ), 223 (Bank 3 ), and 224 (Bank 4 ) are set to a low level to stop supplying the clock CLK. Thus, the LS of the bank 221 is usable, and unnecessary power to the core (CORE) 210 and the like is cut off.
[0097] Because the semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment has the configuration as described above, the semiconductor chip according to the present embodiment can realize the following effects.
[0098] Power to a core not being operated when an LS (individual memory) is lent and borrowed can be turned off, whereby the power consumption of the part of the core can be reduced. Therefore operation with a minimum necessary power consumption is made possible.
[0099] Power control is performed on each of LSs divided in banks, whereby only a minimum of LSs are operated according to necessary LS size. Thus operation with a minimum necessary power consumption is made possible.
[0100] It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occur depending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they are within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.
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Disclosed herein is a semiconductor chip including: a plurality of processing devices that can communicate with each other; wherein each of the processing devices includes an arithmetic unit, an individual memory connected to the arithmetic unit on a one-to-one basis, and a control unit configured to independently control turning on and off of operation of the arithmetic unit and the individual memory.
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[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims priority from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/847,614, filed on May 2, 2001, entitled “A Combined String Line Anchor and Plumb Bob,” the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] This invention relates generally to construction and carpentry equipment and tools, and more particularly to anchoring devices for string/chalk lines and/or to plumb bobs. In particular, this invention relates to a protector and holder for a pointed, multifunction tool that serves both as a chalk line anchor and as a plumb bob.
[0004] 2. Related Art
[0005] In building construction and carpentry projects, alignment strings and chalk lines are frequently used to confirm or establish straight lines. Such string or line systems have one portion that serves to store the unused portion of the string, e.g. a simple ball of string or, as is often the case, a reel of some sort to pay-out and pay-in the line. The other “free” end of the line is usually held by an assistant or anchored by a mechanical device. Such mechanical devices typically include a nail, an awl, or a stickpin, for example. Frequently, commercial chalk lines include an L-shaped hook with an eyelet tied to the line's free end. The hook is used to anchor the line over the edge of a workpiece. After the chalk line is properly positioned, the line is plucked near its center to cause a chalk mark to be left on the surface of the underlying material.
[0006] All of the above-mentioned anchoring devices see considerable use at construction job sites. The stickpin is one of the more commonly-used string line anchoring devices. These pins are about the size of an adult finger and have the general shape of the body of a dart (without feathers). The forward end of the stickpin, as in a dart, includes a highly sharpened needle like point. In use, the string is tied around an annular groove in the stickpin, the pin is pressed by hand into the work surface and the line is then looped around the needle portion immediately adjacent to the work surface. The other end of the line is then pulled to tighten the string against the stickpin. The needle portion of the stickpin is typically formed from a high strength steel so that it may be pushed by hand, without damaging the point, into a variety of non-metallic materials, such as wood, plywood, sheet-rock, etc.
[0007] Plumb bobs are also frequently used by carpenters and other construction industry professionals. As is well known, a plumb bob is used to determine the “plumbness” or verticality of a wall, stud column, etc. It also is used to vertically transfer a point at one elevation to another elevation.
[0008] In laying out construction projects, plumb bobs are frequently used in concert with string lines and chalk lines. The instant inventor has previously invented combined string line anchor and plumb bob tools, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,113 (issued Feb. 24, 1998) and in the application from which this application claims priority, Combined String Line Anchor and Plumb Bob, Ser. No. 09/847,614. These tools integrate features of a string/chalk line stickpin anchoring device and a plumb bob, to increase the efficiency of the carpenter and reduce overall expenses to the project.
[0009] In U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,113 (“'113”), the multi-function tool has a point at its distal end, and a recess and clamping system for mounting on the tool an L-shaped hook of the type conventionally used for attaching a string line over an edge of a work-piece. The '113 tool includes a channel through the proximal end of the tool so that the string line may extend out of the tool at the axial centerline, and a cap on the proximal end that may be removed to reveal the channel, and may be tightened onto the tool to move a slidable jaw to hold the hook in place in the tool.
[0010] The tool of Ser. No. 09/847,614 (“'614”) includes an external channel system through which the string line may extend to exit the tool at the axial centerline of the tool. In addition, the '614 tool includes an adjustable pointed spike that may be moved axially to protrude various amounts out from the body of the tool. This adjustability feature allows the tool body to serve as a fixed stop for the insertion of the needle into materials of differing hardness so that the sharpened spike is not inserted into the wood or other material farther than is needed to satisfactorily anchor the string. Also, the adjustability feature reduces the risk of breaking the point when it is inserted too far. If the sharpened spike is broken, it may be removed from the tool and replaced with another adjustable spike, further increasing the efficiency of the carpenter and decrease his/her equipment costs.
[0011] Thus, the integrated string line anchoring device and a plumb bob provides a simple, but useful, economical, and efficient tool that is reusable and effective for a long period of time. As a means of protecting the tool and preventing dulling or breakage of the tool point, and preventing injury by the tool point, a cover or sheath for the tool is needed. The instant invention meets this need, in an effective, economical, and easily-used sheath that allows the tool to be safely and comfortably carried in a tool box, on a chalk box, or by other means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] This invention comprises a sheath for a pointed tool, such as a combination string line anchor and a plumb bob. The sheath serves as a cover for the point of the tool, a protector for the tool in general, and a system for connecting/mounting the covered tool on a chalk box or other container or workplace item. In this Description and in the claims, the terms “string line” or “string” includes strings, cables, cords, strips, lines, or other elongated flexible members for attachment to the tool, and used with or without chalk or other materials and substances. In the Description and in the claims, the term “pointed spike” includes the preferred needle-like member, but also may be other sharpened elongated members.
[0013] The sheath is generally elongated and comprises an internal cavity with a spike-receiving portion for receiving the distal (forward) end of the tool including the pointed needle or spike, and a body-receiving portion for receiving the central body of the tool. The sheath also includes a lock system that secures the tool in the sheath until the user purposely releases the lock to remove the tool. The sheath preferably includes a base with a generally planar outer surface for resting on an object or for attachment to a chalk box or other surface. The sheath preferably includes a slot for the string line that allows the string line to exit the sheath to extend to a chalk box or a take-up reel and that helps prevent tangling of the string line.
[0014] By inserting and locking the tool in the invented sheath, the point of the tool is much less likely to become dull or broken from abrasion or impact by nails, other tools, or other objects in a tool box, nail box, or vehicle bed, for example. Also, when the sheath covers the point, the tool is unlikely to hurt people, animals, or materials and surfaces. With the tool secured via the sheath to a chalk box, for example, the tool is easily located when needed and is kept close to the equipment with which it is normally used.
[0015] A preferred feature of the sheath is that it is sized and shaped in such a way that the tool will not fit or lock into the sheath if the point spike or needle of the tool extends out from the tool beyond a certain length. This way, the sheath may be designed to cooperate only with a tool that has a spike sized or adjusted to what may be considered a relatively safe length.
[0016] These and many other features and attendant advantages of the invention will become apparent as the invention becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed descriptions and accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] [0017]FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of one embodiment of the invented sheath.
[0018] [0018]FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the sheath of FIG. 1, with one embodiment of a combined anchor and plumb bob tool inserted and locked into the sheath.
[0019] [0019]FIG. 3 is a rear perspective view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 and 2, with the tool of FIG. 2 distanced from the sheath.
[0020] [0020]FIG. 4 is a rear perspective view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 3 , with the tool of FIGS. 2 and 3 inserted and locked into the sheath.
[0021] [0021]FIG. 5 is a rear perspective view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 4 , attached to a top surface of a carpenter's chalk box.
[0022] [0022]FIG. 6 is a rear perspective view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 5 , attached to a side surface of the carpenter's chalk box.
[0023] [0023]FIG. 7 is a top view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 6 .
[0024] [0024]FIG. 8 is a side view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 7 .
[0025] [0025]FIG. 9 is a bottom view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 8 .
[0026] [0026]FIG. 10 is a side, cross-sectional view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 9 , with the tool of FIGS. 2 - 6 shown in cross-section in the sheath.
[0027] [0027]FIG. 11 is rear perspective view of the sheath of FIGS. 1 - 10 , at an angle that allows viewing deep into the tool-receiving cavity of the sheath.
[0028] [0028]FIG. 12 is an alternative embodiment of a combined anchor tool and plumb bob that may be used with an embodiment of the invented sheath.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0029] Referring to the Figures, there is shown one, but not the only, embodiment of the invented sheath for a pointed tool. In particular, the preferred sheath is adapted to receive, cover, and protect a combination string line anchor and plumb bob tool. While various combination string line anchor and plumb bob tools may be used in the invented sheath, the preferred tool is shown in the Figures as the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,113 by the present inventor. The combination anchor and plumb bob tool described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/847,614 and portrayed in this application's FIG. 12, or other tools with pointed tips, may also be used with various embodiments of the invented sheath, wherein some adaptation may be made to the sheath or to the tool so that the sizes and lengths of the cavities in the sheath are appropriate and so that the locking system of the sheath catches properly on a recess or protrusion of the tool.
[0030] In FIG. 1, there is shown the preferred sheath 10 , in an empty state. The sheath 10 comprises a cavity wall 12 with a front portion 11 and a rear portion 13 , wherein the cavity wall 12 surrounds and defines an interior cavity. The interior cavity comprises a forward cavity portion 14 at the sheath front end (distal end) 15 , a rearward cavity portion 16 generally central between the front end 15 and the sheath rear end (proximal end) 17 , and an opening 18 into the interior cavity at the rearward cavity portion. Forward and rearward cavity portions 14 , 16 and opening 18 preferably lie in series coaxially on the sheath longitudinal centerline or “longitudinal axis.” The forward cavity portion 14 is adapted to receive the pointed end of the tool 50 , particularly, the portion of the pointed spike 52 protruding from the tool body 54 . The rearward cavity portion 16 is adapted to receive the forward end of the tool body 54 so that the generally conical surface 56 of the tool abuts against the front, inside surface of the rearward cavity, herein also called the limiting surface 20 . This surface 20 serves as a stop to limit forward movement of the tool, so that the tool may only be inserted to a certain extent, no matter how small a distance the pointed spike 52 extends from the body 54 . The limiting surface 20 results in a certain location for the tool body 54 along the longitudinal axis of the sheath, which certain location is preferably the proper location for locking of the tool in the sheath by the preferred locking system 40 , as further discussed below. In embodiments in which the spike 52 is adjustable in and out from the body, this limiting surface feature is beneficial as it prevents a tool from being placed in the sheath with the spike 52 extended far outward from the body. While the preferred limiting surface 20 and cooperating tool surface 56 are described as generally conical, they may also be called “conoidal” or “bullet-shaped” as their conical walls are curved as in a conventional bullet shape. Alternatively, other cooperating/mating shapes may be used, which preferably do not allow “wiggle” or “rattling” of the tool in the sheath.
[0031] When the tool is inserted into the sheath and locked into place with the generally conical surface 56 against the limiting surface 20 , there is preferably only ⅝ inch of distance from the front tip 60 of the tool body to the forward inner surface 22 of the forward cavity portion 14 . This way, only a maximum of ⅝ inch of spike 52 may protrude from the tool if the tool is to fit in, and lock into, the sheath 10 . A protruding spike length of ⅝ inch is sufficient for nearly all construction materials, and the inventor believes that this adjustment is useful as well as safe, if handled in a reasonable way. With the sheath being designed for this maximum spike protrusion length, the tool is more likely to remain in the relatively safe ⅝ inch maximum spike configuration, so that it is less likely to be used in an unsafe way. If the spike 52 is adjusted outward farther than ⅝ inch, the tool will no longer fit into the preferred sheath 10 . If the spike 52 is adjusted inward to less than ⅝ inch, then the tool may be even safer, and the tool will fit and lock properly into the sheath.
[0032] The limiting surface 20 also serves to stabilize the tool inside the sheath, due to the generally conical shape of the surface 20 corresponding to the generally conical surface 56 of the tool. The sheath conical surface 20 preferably curves at least about 200 degrees around the tool, and, more preferably, at least about 260 degrees. The embodiment shown in the Figures features a rearward cavity portion wall that extends about 280 around the tool. Once the tool is in place in the sheath, these closely adjacent and curved surfaces 20 , 56 tend to prevent movement transverse to the longitudinal axis, and, most preferably, to prevent other than longitudinal movement of the tool in a rearward direction relative to the sheath.
[0033] The forward cavity 14 , on the other hand, serves mainly to contain and cover the pointed spike, rather than to stabilize the tool by preventing movement of the tool. Preferably, the spike does not abut or stick into the inner surface 22 . The forward cavity exterior has a generally elongated shape of a smaller width and height than the rearward cavity portion 16 , with a curved top surface 28 and front surface 30 . The inner surface of the rearward cavity preferably transitions smoothly to the inner surface of the forward cavity, so that, during insertion of the tool, if the spike slides along the cavity interior surface, it slides smoothly and is, in effect, guided from the rearward cavity portion into the narrower forward cavity portion.
[0034] The locking system 40 preferably automatically engages or sets when the tool 50 is inserted into the sheath 10 , and is released only manually when the user wishes to remove the tool. Preferably, the locking system 22 comprises a latch 41 that catches in a recess 62 in the tool body 54 when the tool slides into place against the limiting surface 20 . The latch is preferably biased into the closed position, that is, biased inward toward the center of the cavity, and, hence, toward the tool surface. The latch preferably “snaps” into the tool recess when the tool is properly in place in the sheath. This way, the tool is easily and conveniently sheathed, and yet is not easily accidently unlocked or dropped out of the sheath. The recess 62 into which the latch 41 snaps is preferably the recess in which the L-shaped hook (call-out 64 in this application) resides when captured in the tool as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,113. The forward wall 65 of the recess 62 is the wall against which the latch abut, thus preventing rearward movement of the tool out of the sheath.
[0035] When the user wishes to remove the tool from the sheath, he/she may actuate an unlatching means, such as a manual handle that lifts the latch 41 out of the recess 62 . The preferred lock mechanism comprises a lock member 43 that integrally connects to the top of the cavity wall at a connection region 44 (also called “hinge region”). The lock member 43 extends generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of the sheath above the top surface of the cavity wall 12 . From the connection region 44 , the lock member extends forward to form the handle 45 and rearward to form the latch 41 . The handle 45 extends in a forward direction generally parallel to the top surface 28 of the forward cavity wall, with the handle being distanced from the top surface 28 . Pressure on the handle 45 toward the top surface 28 causes the connection region and/or the cavity wall in that area to flex slightly, so that the lock member 43 pivots generally at the connection region 44 to raise the latch 41 up out of the recess 62 . Thus, the connection region may be considered a hinge, hinge region, or pivotal connection, as the connection region 44 acts to allow the lock member 43 to pivot relative to the rearward cavity wall portion 13 . Tool 50 can then be pulled longitudinally rearward outward of the sheath. When the pressure on the handle is released, the resiliency of the connection region and the cavity wall near region 44 returns the lock member 43 to its starting position, with the latch 41 biased toward the centerline of the sheath to be slightly closer to the centerline than is the inner surface of the rearward cavity portion at the rearward edge of the cavity wall, as best shown in FIG. 10. In effect, a fulcrum is created at or near the attachment of the lock member 43 to the sheath wall (“cavity wall”), allowing the lock member 43 to be biased into the latched position and to pivot to raise the latch into the unlatched position.
[0036] One may note that the rear edge 46 of the cavity wall curves, from a position P 1 on the base 48 about ⅓ of the base length from the rear end 17 , upwards and forward to a position P 2 , which is about ⅔ of the base length from rear end 17 and which is forward from the latch end of the lock member. In other words, the lock member extends rearward beyond the rear edge 46 of the cavity wall, so that, in effect, the rearward latch end of the lock member extends rearward past the cavity wall, over the opening 18 , substantially unsupported by, and unconnected to, the cavity wall except at the connection region 44 . This way, the lock member connection region flexes more readily relative to the rest of the sheath, allowing the biased latching and handle-actuated unlatching described above.
[0037] The lock member 43 is long enough and extends rearward enough that, when it is biased to pivot the latch end down toward the longitudinal axis of the sheath, the latch end preferably extends down in back of the opening. While the latch end does not necessarily extend into the plane of the opening itself, it may be said to extend “across the opening” when it is rearward and near to the opening.
[0038] While various ways of attaching the lock member 43 to the cavity wall may be used, and various ways of forming the biasing means and the pivoting fulcrum may be used, the preferred ways comprise integral molding of the plastic lock member as part of the plastic sheath. This way, the natural resilience of the plastic of the sheath wall, and the lock member connection region may be used to create the biasing that latches the tool in place. Preferably, the sheath is made by molding plastic, preferably a plastic or plastics that are durable and that allow the hinge area (“connection region”) to be sufficiently flexible and resilient to properly operate the lock system. The plastic may be chosen and the thickness and shape of the lock bar attachment area and the adjacent cavity wall areas are chosen so that the flexing moves the latch upwards a sufficient distance to unlatch the tool. The biasing of the latch system into the closed, locked position against the tool wall may comprise the resilience of the plastic that moves the lock bar back into its original position when the handle is no longer being pressed.
[0039] While the preferred recess 62 of the tool, into which protrudes the latch 41 , is the recess adapted to also receive the L-hook of the tool from U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,113, other recesses or fasteners for cooperating with a latch or lock on the sheath may be used. For example, an alternative recess, such as the thumb-hole recess of the tool in patent application Ser. No. 09/847,614, may be used, in which case the tool 80 thumb-hole recess 90 may be adapted to have a recess front wall 95 that is transverse to the longitudinal axis of the tool or slanted forward from the top of the wall to the bottom of the wall, so that the latch of the sheath “catches” on the recess wall.
[0040] A slot through the cavity wall is preferably provided for passage of the string line from the interior cavity to outside the sheath. As shown in FIG. 3, the string line 47 is normally wrapped around or otherwise connected to the spike 52 when the tool is inserted into the sheath. The string line, therefore, extends rearward from the spike and out of the internal cavity through the slot 49 . Preferably, the slot 49 extends at its forward end to approximately the border between the forward cavity portion and rearward cavity portion, so that the string line 47 may exit the interior cavity without lying between the conical surface 56 of the tool body 54 and the limiting surface 20 of the internal cavity. This way, the string line 47 is not trapped or pinched between the conical surface 56 and the limiting surface 20 . The slot 49 is sized so that the string line 47 is not pinched or pressured to an extent that would, even after repeated sheathings, damage or weaken the string. After passing through the slot, the string line preferably extends into a chalk box 70 or is taken-up by other means, such as being wound on a spool or other object. By positively locating the string line's exit from the sheath and by containing/taking-up the length of the string line in a chalk box or other container or holder, tangling and knotting of the string line are minimized.
[0041] As illustrated in FIGS. 5, 6 and 9 , the sheath 10 preferably is adapted for attachment to a chalk box 70 or other object, to further aid in preventing tangling of the string line and/or damage to the sheath and tool that might otherwise occur if the sheath and tool are stored or transported loose in a tool box or vehicle. The preferred adaptation comprises a base 48 positioned underneath the cavity wall that has a generally planar platform surface 72 upon which the sheath may rest. The base 48 includes means for attachment to the chalk box or other object, preferably, an aperture 74 for receiving a screw or bolt that may extend, for example, into an attachment hole 73 in the chalk box. The sheath 10 is preferably fastened by means of a screw (not shown) through the aperture 74 to a carpenter's chalk box 70 , either on a top surface 76 or on a side surface 78 . The string line extends from the slot 49 to the string line hole (not shown) in the chalk box 70 and preferably all of the length of the string line is contained within the chalk box until use of the tool and the string line. This way, the chance of tangles and damage to the string line and to the tool is minimized, and the tool is unlikely to be lost or to do damage to people or materials. Alternatively, the sheath 10 may be molded or otherwise formed as an integral part of a chalk box 70 or tool box, for example.
[0042] Preferably, the base 48 is sized to provide a stable platform for the sheath. The base 48 preferably extends forward beyond the front portion 11 of the cavity wall to be the frontmost extremity of the sheath. The base 48 preferably extends rearward beyond the rear edge 46 of the rear portion 13 of the cavity wall to be the rearmost extremity of the sheath. Also, the base 48 extends transversely to the longitudinal axis to extend at least underneath, or out past, both sides of the sheath cavity wall.
[0043] With the tool 50 housed in the sheath 10 attached to the chalk box 70 , the tool may be easily withdrawn from the sheath, as detailed above, by pressing on the handle 45 and pulling out the tool. Because the sheath is secured to the chalk box, the tool may be easily removed without the sheath tipping over or moving during the operation. The tool 50 may then be moved away from the chalk box 70 to pull the string line out of the chalk box, coated with chalk, for use. Use of the tool, either as an anchoring device for chalk line marking or as a plumb bob, may be done according to the techniques described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/847,614, from which this application claims priority and which is incorporated herein, and/or described U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,113.
[0044] The inventor envisions that other tools, and especially other combined anchor and plumb bob tools, may be used in the invented sheath. Some modification to the sheath may be necessary, for example, to lengthen or adapt the locking mechanism. Or, some modification to the tool may be necessary, for example, to supply a recess or other structure for cooperating with a locking system to retain the tool in the sheath.
[0045] Although this invention has been described above with reference to particular means, materials and embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these disclosed particulars, but extends instead to all equivalents within the scope of the following claims.
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Embodiments of a sheath for a pointed tool are described, which tool may be a combination string/chalk line anchor and plumb bob. The sheath includes a cavity for housing the pointed needle or spike that extends out from the combination tool, and a cavity for at least partially encircling the body of the tool. A locking mechanism is included to secure the tool in the sheath until removed is desired. The sheath may include a system for attaching it to a chalk box, and a slot defining an exit-point for string line to extend out from the sheath to the chalk box or other container or spool.
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This application claims the priority of Great Britain Patent Application No. GB 1009802.8 filed on Jun. 11, 2010, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD
The present invention relates to a barrier assembly, and more particularly to a barrier assembly for shoreline preservation and restoration. The present invention also relates to a method of preserving and restoring a shoreline, and use of a barrier assembly.
BACKGROUND
Hurricanes are one of many natural disasters that seriously affect people all over the world. In particular, hurricanes pose a serious threat to coastlines and their surrounding eco-systems. The loss of shorelines and coastal areas due to storm activity can be a devastating event. Almost every year, several areas suffer from significant casualties and damage caused by hurricane winds, rain and storm surge.
Hurricanes and other natural disasters have the ability to destroy farmland and vegetation, which is a vital resource to humans. It becomes necessary to protect existing cultivated areas and to replace those that have been destroyed. This can, however, be a difficult task. The present invention addresses this problem.
Another significant problem caused by hurricanes and other natural disasters is the disruption and/or destruction of the underwater eco-system surrounding shorelines. The natural habitat of marine life and the marine life itself can be decimated and measures are, therefore, needed to restore the habitat to attract marine life back into areas surrounding devastated shorelines. The present invention also addresses this problem.
Marshlands adjacent susceptible coastal regions provide at least some form of protection against the harsh environments caused by hurricanes. Typically, marshlands offer a first line of defense for populated areas against the wave energy of a hurricane. The marshlands act as a barrier to absorb, redirect or dissipate the wave energy so that by the time it reaches a populated area its force is significantly reduced thereby limiting the damaged inflicted on the populated area.
However, on occasion the force of the wave energy is such that marshlands are themselves swept away or destroyed leaving little, or no, protection to the populated areas. Clearly, this is a cause for concern.
Although measures have been taken to resurrect destroyed marshlands in areas such as coastal Louisiana following hurricane Katrina, these have been found to have major drawbacks. This is because in order for marshlands to be effective at dissipating wave energy, large stretches are needed to reduce a large storm surge to a more or less harmless level. However, in order to create large stretches, vast amounts of sediment are necessary which makes this process less feasible in terms of cost and logistics.
Coastal erosion caused by wave energy or other natural forces is a particularly daunting problem for a seaside city. The subsidence of the coastline can be catastrophic in such places and, therefore, it is important that these places are adequately protected.
Coastlines have thus been lined with gabion structures to inhibit subsidence thereof, but the gabion structures are generally square and form a flat surface which faces the oncoming wave energy. The flat surface tends to finds it difficult to redirect and dissipate the wave energy, and instead experiences the full impact of the wave. Indeed, if the wave energy is of sufficient strength, for instance, or if it collides with the gabion faces often enough, it is possible that the gabion structure will become damaged and will require very regular maintenance and repair. This can be labor intensive and costly.
From the discussion that is to follow, it will become apparent how the present invention addresses the aforementioned deficiencies while providing numerous additional advantages not hitherto contemplated or possible with known constructions.
SUMMARY
According to a first aspect, the present invention provides a barrier assembly for shoreline preservation or restoration comprising a gabion having opposed side walls connected together at spaced intervals along the length of the gabion by a plurality of partition walls, the spaces between neighboring pairs of partition walls defining, together with the side walls, at least one individual compartment of the gabion, the at least one individual compartment of the gabion being bounded by the respective opposed side walls or by opposed side wall sections of the respective opposed side walls, the partition walls being pivotally connected to the side walls, the individual compartment of the gabion having extending therefrom in a direction away from the individual compartment convergent at least partly open framework panels forming or forming part of a protuberant compartment on the gabion
The barrier assembly provides means for rebuilding the underwater eco-system and also allows vegetation to grow therefrom. In essence, the present invention provides a combination of effects.
On one hand, the protuberant compartment can be filled with marine dwelling medium, such as oyster shells, so as to attract oysters and other marine life into the surrounding area. Marine life, including oysters, can attach itself to the oyster shells protruding through the open framework of the protuberant compartment whereby to grow outwardly into the sea. This enables the barrier assembly to naturally repair itself without requiring maintenance of the protuberant compartment or refilling of the protuberant compartment because the marine life which attaches itself to the barrier assembly essentially becomes part of the barrier assembly. Attached marine life can in turn attract further marine life and the cycle may thus continue. This provides a way in which to build or re-establish a self-generating thriving underwater eco-system. There may be created a “barrier reef”.
On the other hand, the at least one individual compartment can be filled with vegetation and/roots to grow outwardly therefrom into the surrounding land area. This provides a mechanism for cultivation of areas surrounding damaged shorelines.
These effects allow the restoration and preservation of shorelines, for example.
The barrier assembly may also protect adjacent areas of the coastal region by reducing the effects of the wave energy of, for instance, a hurricane. The barrier assembly may redirect, absorb or redistribute the forces of the wave energy, thereby protecting neighboring areas, such as populated areas.
The barrier assembly can be used, for example, to line a coastline to inhibit its subsidence by a greater extent than known measures. The external surface of the protuberant compartment allows the barrier assembly to redirect wave energy efficiently and effectively. The angle of configuration of the panels forming the protuberant compartment may be such that the force of the wave energy is dissipated in a “glancing” manner so that the barrier assembly need not experience the entire impacting force of the wave energy. This may preserve the integrity of the barrier assembly to a greater degree than known barriers so that frequent labor-intensive maintenance need not be required.
Another benefit of the barrier assembly is the filtering capacity offered by the combination of oyster shells and the protuberant compartment (including chambers of non-protuberant compartments). This may act to remove debris from the water to make the area more pleasant for sea-users such as swimmers, for example. It may also help reduce pollution which could otherwise adversely affect marine life. There may, therefore, be provided a natural filtering mechanism.
It will be appreciated that the protuberant compartment may take a variety of shapes including semi-circular, quadrilateral, pyramidal and pentagonal.
The barrier assembly may comprise a multi-compartmental gabion having opposed side walls connected together at spaced intervals along the length of the gabion by a plurality of partition walls, the spaces between neighboring pairs of partition walls defining, together with the side walls, individual compartments of the multi-compartmental gabion, individual compartments of the multi-compartmental gabion being bounded by opposed side wall sections of the respective opposed side walls, the partition walls being pivotally connected to the side walls and neighboring side wall sections being pivotally connected to each other, a first individual compartment of the gabion having extending therefrom in a direction away from the first individual compartment convergent at least partly open framework panels forming or forming part of a protuberant compartment on the gabion.
It may be that a second individual compartment of the gabion neighboring the first individual compartment is absent any protuberant compartment of the same shape or size as the protuberant compartment extending from the first individual compartment. More particularly, the second individual compartment may be absent any protuberant compartment. The second individual compartment may provide additional means for receiving vegetation and/roots to grow outwardly therefrom into the surrounding land area. This provides an improved mechanism for cultivation of areas surrounding damaged shorelines. The second individual compartment may also provide additional means by which wave energy may be redirected. It may be that the wave energy flows along the surface of the second individual compartment having initially contacted the first individual compartment.
In embodiments, a second individual compartment neighboring the first individual compartment may comprise at least two chambers. One of the chambers may provide additional means for receiving vegetation and/roots to grow outwardly therefrom into the surrounding land area. Another chamber may receive marine dwelling medium, such as oyster shells, so as to attract oysters and other marine life into the surrounding area. Marine life, including oysters, can attach itself to the oyster shells protruding through the chamber whereby to grow outwardly into the sea. This enables the barrier assembly to naturally repair itself without requiring maintenance of the chamber or refilling of the chamber because the marine life which attaches itself to the barrier assembly essentially becomes part of the barrier assembly. Attached marine life can in turn attract further marine life and the cycle may thus continue. This provides a way in which to build or re-establish a self-generating thriving underwater eco-system. There may be created a “barrier reef”.
The chambers may be unequal in size. They may be disproportional in size. For example, one chamber may be a quarter the width of another chamber. The proportion of the sizes may be dependent on the intended use of the barrier assembly; that is, if the emphasis is to restore marine life then the chamber facing the sea may be larger; conversely, if the emphasis is to cultivate the surrounding shoreline area then the chamber facing in-land may be larger.
The chambered compartment may have a parallelepiped structure. Each chamber may have a rectangular-cross section. Together, the chambers of a second compartment may amount to the same dimensions as those of the first individual compartment. This may improve space optimization when multiple assemblies are stacked on top of one another.
The barrier assembly may comprise a plurality of protuberant compartments along the length of the gabion, neighboring protuberant compartments being separated from each other by a length of side wall.
The length of side wall may correspond in length to the length of a side wall section. More particularly, the length of side wall is a side wall section.
It may be that at least parts of the neighboring protuberant compartments and the length of side wall define a channel. The channel may be substantially continuous. The channel may provide a particularly effective way in which to dissipate the wave energy. The wave energy can be concentrated into the channel and dispersed therefrom. The wave energy may be dissipated upwardly or downwardly from the channel, for example. This is in contrast with a flat surface which makes a full impact with the wave causing damage to itself.
The barrier assembly may comprise an even numbers of compartments, preferably four compartments. This may constitute a barrier assembly having a manageable number of compartments in terms of transport and construction.
The convergent panels may form triangular compartments.
The at least one individual compartment may have a square-cross section. This may aid optimization of space when the multiple compartments are adjacently located.
The at least one individual compartment may be lined with a geotextile material. A geotextile can be lightweight, strong and porous; which characteristics lend themselves to the objective of the present invention. The geotextile material may include polyolefins such as polypropylene, polyethylene and copolymers thereof; rayon; polyesters; nylon; acrylic polymers and copolymers; polyamides; polyamide copolymers; polyurethanes, and the like.
The porous material may line an inwardly facing surface of the at least one individual compartment. The porous material may line an outwardly facing surface of the at least one individual compartment. The porous material may line both an inwardly and outwardly facing surface of the at least one individual compartment. The efficiency of the assembly may be enhanced by lining both/all surfaces of the at least one individual compartment.
The at least one individual compartment may be at least partly filled with a fill material, such as sand, rocks and/or vegetation. The fill material may stabilize the assembly and weigh it down. The fill material may be porous in nature, such as an aggregate material so that wave energy may be dissipated rather than repelled. Where the fill material is vegetation, the assembly may offer a dual function of protection and cultivation.
It may be that at least the protuberant compartment has a mesh form. A mesh form is advantageous because it utilizes less material than a solid panel of the same dimensions, while potentially providing the same level of strength of a solid panel. Material costs may, therefore, be reduced. A mesh is also porous in nature; which characteristic lends itself to an objective of the present invention. Of course, the at least one individual compartment may also have a mesh form.
The at least one individual compartment may be in box form. The box form may not have a plurality of panels; rather being formed as a single unit, which is structurally uncomplicated compared with a compartment formed from a plurality of panels, for example. This may improve its sturdiness.
The protuberant compartment may be at least partly filled with oyster shells or the like. Of course, the triangular compartment may be entirely filled with oyster shells or the like. This may enhance the performance of the assembly.
Oyster shells may be arranged to protrude through the at least partly open framework of the protuberant compartment and sit proudly of its surface. Such an arrangement may improve the ability of the assembly to attract other marine life. More particularly, it may attract oysters which may eventually grow outwardly into the sea thereby enhancing the strength and efficacy of the barrier assembly.
The protuberant compartment may be detachably attached to the at least one individual compartment. This may be of assistance when the assembly is to be transported between locations. Storage may also be simplified. Of course, the protuberant compartment may be integrally formed with the at least one individual compartment.
The barrier assembly may comprise a strengthening member for the protuberant compartment. The strengthening member may be in the form of a panel. The strengthening member may be in the form of a mesh panel. The strengthening member may improve the structural integrity of the protuberant compartment, particularly at its apex when in triangular form, and ultimately improve the structural integrity of the assembly.
The protuberant compartment may be a triangular compartment and the strengthening member may be positioned along its median.
The strengthening member may be positioned along the median connecting the midpoint of an interior wall of the triangular compartment and the protruding apex of the triangular compartment. It may be considered important to ensure that the apex is reinforced since it is this point at which the wave energy may be primarily diverted onto a different course.
The protuberant compartment may be pivotally connected to the at least one individual compartment. This may be particularly advantageous if the compartments are required to be collapsible.
The protuberant compartment may comprise two panels forming a triangular configuration with the at least one individual compartment. Each compartment may be formed from a plurality of framework panels. Repair and maintenance of a compartment may, therefore, be made with ease in case any particular panel is in need of replacement. This avoids the need to replace the compartment in its entirety thereby reducing costs to maintain the system. This may also preclude hindering the restoration/preservation process during maintenance work, since only a single panel may need replacing as opposed to an entire compartment.
It may be that each edge of the at least two panels is connected to the respective edge of the at least one individual compartment by at least two overlapping helical coils. Such an arrangement may lend itself to detachably attaching the protuberant compartment, particularly a triangular compartment, to the at least one individual compartment in a pivotal manner.
The at least two overlapping helical coils may be releasably connected by a joining pin intersecting the overlapping region of the coils, thereby detachably securing the coils and panels together.
It may be that the edges of the panels which define a protruding apex of the triangular compartment are connected to one another by a single helical coil. A helical coil may, for example, be intertwined between adjacent panels of a gabion thereby connecting them. A helical coil may be in one panel and thus its structural integrity will be sound as compared with hinge members employing an assimilation of parts. The helical coil may also be unwound, when necessary, so as to disconnect adjacent panels or walls of the assembly without undue burden.
The apex of the protruding triangular compartment may comprise an interior angle which is obtuse. The apex of the protruding triangular compartment may comprise an interior angle which is acute. The strength of the apex may be determined by the interior angle of the apex; thus, the interior angle of the apex may be dependent on the force of the wave energy that must be counteracted.
A chamber may comprise three panels forming a rectangular arrangement with another chamber. In this way, the other chamber may provide effectively the fourth panel/side of the first chamber. Alternatively, a partition wall in the second individual compartment may divide it into at least two chambers. This arrangement may make the assembly lighter and less costly due to reduced material use.
It may be that the edges of the panels are connected to the at least one individual compartment by a respective helical spring. A pivotal motion may be provided in this manner. The helical spring also lends itself to the collapsible nature of the assembly, when this is required.
The barrier assembly may comprise an even number compartments; more particularly, an even number of first individual compartments and an even number of second individual compartments. An even number of each type of compartment helps ensure that when multiple assemblies are placed next to one another when lining a coastline, for example, first and second compartments can be positioned alternately when in a linear relationship.
The first and second compartments may have a linear relationship, and each compartment may be alternately positioned. Replicating patterns can thus be realized when multiple assemblies are placed next to one another. This may aid the efficacy of the design of the barrier assembly.
The barrier assembly may be collapsible. This improves the usage of space during transport because the assembly may be “flat packed”. Carrying an assembly is also made easier in a stowed-collapsed form. Quick and easy erection is also desirable in hostile environments.
According to a second aspect, the present invention comprehends a method of preserving or restoring a shoreline, comprising the steps of: providing a barrier assembly comprising a gabion having opposed side walls connected together at spaced intervals along the length of the gabion by a plurality of partition walls, the spaces between neighboring pairs of partition walls defining, together with the side walls, at least one individual compartment of the gabion, the at least one individual compartment of the gabion being bounded by the respective opposed side walls or by opposed side wall sections of the respective opposed side walls, the partition walls being pivotally connected to the side walls, the individual compartment of the gabion having extending therefrom in a direction away from the individual compartment convergent at least partly open framework panels forming or forming part of a protuberant compartment on the gabion; at least partly filling the at least one individual compartment with a fill material, preferably sand, rocks and/or vegetation; at least partly filling the protuberant compartment with oyster shells; and at least partly lining a shoreline with the barrier assembly.
The method may include the step of lining the at least one individual compartment with a geotextile material before it receives any fill material.
The method may include the step of providing at least two individual compartments and positioning them in a linear relationship.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is envisaged the use of a barrier (as described herein) in redirecting wave energy, particularly sea wave energy.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is contemplated the use of a barrier (as described herein) in preserving a shoreline.
According to a fifth aspect, the present invention provides the use of a barrier (as described herein) in restoring a shoreline.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Various embodiments of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a barrier assembly having a first individual compartment formed according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of part of the triangular compartment (protuberant compartment) of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of the triangular compartment of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 4 is a plan view of part of the triangular compartment and part of the first individual compartment of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the barrier assembly of FIG. 1 in which the first individual compartment is lined with a geotextile material;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the barrier assembly of FIG. 5 in which the triangular compartment is filled with oyster shells;
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a second individual compartment formed according to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a barrier assembly formed from the first individual compartment of FIG. 1 and second individual compartment of FIG. 7 ;
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a barrier assembly comprising two first individual compartments and two second individual compartments; and
FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a triangular compartment similar to that shown in FIG. 1 , but comprising a strengthening member.
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a barrier assembly wherein the two first individual compartments and the two second individual compartments are formed from a mesh structure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring first to FIG. 1 , there is illustrated a barrier assembly generally indicated 1 . In this embodiment, the barrier assembly is constituted by a first individual compartment 7 . The first individual compartment 7 having extending therefrom in a direction away from the individual compartment 7 a protuberant compartment in the form of a triangular compartment 5 connected to the first individual compartment 7 . Of course, it will be appreciated that the protuberant compartment may have a different shape in other embodiments.
The first individual compartment 7 is an open-top cuboid formed from five square panels. There are two opposing side walls 13 , 15 , two partition walls 9 , 11 and a base 17 . These walls are connected at their respective edges by a helical coil 19 . The walls are solid, but it will be appreciated that in other embodiments the walls may have a mesh form. Of course, it will be understood that the base 17 is not essential as the ground upon which the assembly 1 rests may provide the same function.
The triangular compartment 5 comprises two angled panels 21 which are connected to the first individual compartment 7 such that the side wall 13 makes up the third side of the triangular compartment 5 . The two angled panels 21 have a mesh form and define an external surface of the first individual compartment 7 .
With reference to FIG. 2 , there is illustrated an exploded view of an angled panel 21 and side wall 13 . Respective edges 13 a and 21 a of the side wall 13 and angled panel 21 are each lined with a helical coil 19 . In this way, the side wall 13 and panel 21 can be pivotally connected. There is also shown a joining pin 23 which is rod-shaped member 25 having a hooked end 27 .
FIG. 3 shows a plan view of the triangular compartment 5 . The side wall 13 is provided with a helical coil 19 at either of its opposite edges 13 a , 13 b . Each angled panel 21 is provided with a helical coil 19 at its edge 21 a . The helical coils 19 of edges 21 a are intertwined with the helical coils 19 of edges 13 a , 13 b to define two overlapping regions 25 a , 25 b . A joining pin 23 intersects each overlapping region 25 a , 25 b to connect the side wall 13 to the two angled panels 21 . The two angled panels 21 are connected to one another by a single helical coil 19 which joins respective edges 21 b , thereby defining a protruding apex 29 . The interior angle α at the apex 29 is 91 so it is obtuse. Of course, in other embodiments, the interior angle α may be acute.
Referring now to FIG. 4 , there is shown a more detailed plan view of the connection region of the side wall 13 , partition wall 17 and angled panel 21 . Each respective edge 13 a , 17 a , 21 a is provided with a helical coil 19 . The three helical coils 19 overlap to effect an overlapping region 25 c . The overlapping region 25 is intersected by joining pin 23 to connect the walls 13 , 17 and panel 21 together.
With reference to FIG. 5 , there is illustrated the barrier assembly 1 of FIG. 1 in which the first individual compartment 7 is lined with a geotextile material 31 . More particularly, it is the inwardly facing surface of each wall 9 , 11 , 13 , 15 and base 17 that is lined with the geotextile material 31 . The geotextile material 31 acts to hold fill material in place and also provides a filtering mechanism.
Referring to FIG. 6 , there is depicted the barrier assembly 1 of FIG. 5 in which the geotextile-lined first individual compartment 7 is filled with sand 33 . Of course, in other embodiments, the first individual compartment 7 may be filled with vegetation which may grow in an in-land direction. The triangular compartment 5 is filled with oyster shells 35 . It can be seen that some oyster shells 35 protrude through the mesh 37 of the panels 21 .
With reference to FIG. 7 , there is illustrated a second individual compartment 39 . The second individual compartment 39 has a cuboid shape. The second individual compartment 39 is divided into a smaller chamber 41 and a larger chamber 43 . Both compartments 41 and 43 are of equal height. Both compartments 41 and 43 are rectangular prisms the volumes of which amount to the cuboid shape of the second individual compartment 39 .
The larger chamber 43 is an open-top rectangular prism formed from five rectangular panels. There are two opposing side walls 49 , 51 , two partition walls 45 , 47 and a base (not shown). These walls 45 , 47 , 49 , 51 are connected at their respective edges by an E. coli 19 . The walls are solid, but it will be appreciated that in other embodiments the walls may have a mesh form.
The larger chamber 43 is lined with a geotextile material 53 . More particularly, it is the inwardly facing surface of each wall 45 , 47 , 49 , 51 that is lined with the geotextile material 53 . The geotextile material 53 acts to hold fill material in place and also provides a filtering mechanism.
The smaller chamber 41 has a width which is a quarter of the width of the larger compartment 43 . The smaller chamber 41 is a planar compartment and comprises a planar front panel 55 and two planar side panels 57 , 59 which are connected to larger chamber 43 such that the side wall 51 makes up the fourth side of the planar compartment 41 . The planar front panel 55 and two planar side panels 57 , 59 have a mesh form and define an external surface of the second individual compartment 39 . Helical coils 19 connect all panels of the second individual compartment 39 .
Referring now to FIG. 8 , there is depicted a barrier assembly 61 comprising the first individual compartment 7 of FIG. 6 abutting the second individual compartment 39 of FIG. 7 . There is thus depicted a multi-compartmental gabion. Here, the second individual compartment 39 is also shown filled with sand 63 in its larger lined chamber 43 , and filled with oyster shells 65 in its smaller chamber 41 . It can be seen that some oyster shells 65 protrude through the mesh 64 of the panels 55 , 59 . The dimensions of the second individual compartment 39 are the same as those of the first individual compartment 7 . Angled panels 21 and front planar panel 55 define the external surface of the barrier assembly 61 which encounters the wave energy during use. It may be that the wave energy flows along the surface of the second individual compartment 39 having initially contacted the first individual compartment 7 .
During use, the oyster shells 65 attract oysters and other marine life into the surrounding area of the shoreline. Marine life, including oysters, can attach itself to the oyster shells 65 protruding through the open framework of the angled panels 21 and front planar panel 55 whereby to grow outwardly into the sea. This enables the barrier assembly 61 to naturally repair itself without requiring maintenance of the oyster-filled compartment 5 and chamber 41 because the marine life which attaches itself to the barrier assembly 61 essentially becomes part of the barrier assembly 61 . Attached marine life can in turn attract further marine life and the cycle may thus continue. This provides a way in which to build or re-establish a self-generating thriving underwater eco-system.
With reference to FIG. 9 , there is shown a barrier assembly 67 which is similar to that of FIG. 8 except that barrier assembly 67 comprises two first individual compartments 7 and two second individual compartments 39 . All compartments 7 , 39 are in a linear relationship and alternately positioned. Hence, first individual compartment 7 abuts one side of second individual compartment 39 ; the other side of second individual compartment 39 abuts one side of another first individual compartment 7 ; and the other side of that first individual compartment 7 abuts one side of another second individual compartment 39 .
Angled panels 21 and front planar panels 55 define the external surface of the barrier assembly 67 which encounters the wave energy during use. A substantially continuous channel (indicated 69 ) is defined by an angled panel 21 of a first individual compartment 7 , a front planar panel 55 of a sandwiched second individual compartment 39 , and an angled panel 21 of another second individual compartment 7 . The channel 69 is boat-shaped.
The channel 69 may provide a particularly effective way in which to dissipate the wave energy. The wave energy can be concentrated into the channel 69 and dispersed therefrom. The wave energy may be dissipated upwardly or downwardly from the channel 69 .
FIG. 10 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a protuberant compartment constituted by a triangular compartment 71 . In this embodiment, the triangular compartment 71 comprises a strengthening member 73 . The strengthening member 73 is in the form of a mesh panel 75 .
The triangular compartment 71 comprises a side wall 77 and two angled panels 79 . The strengthening member 73 is positioned along the median connecting the interior midpoint 81 of the side wall 77 and the protruding apex 83 of the two angled panels 79 . Helical coils 19 effect the connections of the strengthening member 73 . It will be appreciated that the strengthening member may be employed in any of the embodiments disclosed herein without undue effort.
With reference to FIG. 11 , there is depicted a barrier assembly 85 similar to that shown in FIG. 9 , except, in this embodiment, the two first individual compartments 7 T and the two second individual compartments 39 T are formed from a mesh structure. Second individual compartment 39 T is depicted as being divided into two chambers 41 T, 43 T. A further difference is that barrier assembly 85 comprises two strengthening members 75 T within the triangular compartments 5 T extending outwardly and away from the first individual compartments 7 T. Each triangular compartment 5 T connects to its respective individual compartment 39 T by way of double helical coils 19 T and locking pin 27 T in the arrangement as shown in FIG. 3 . The barrier assembly 85 is shown with the first and second individual compartments 7 T, 39 T lined on their inwardly facing surfaces with a geotextile material 53 T.
The above description is for the purpose of teaching the person of ordinary skill in the art how to practice the present application, and it is not intended to detail all those obvious modifications and variations of it which will become apparent to the skilled worker upon reading the description. It is intended, however, that all such obvious modifications and variations be included within the scope of the present application, which is defined by the following claims. The claims are intended to cover the components and steps in any sequence which is effective to meet the objectives there intended, unless the context specifically indicates the contrary.
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There is disclosed a barrier assembly for shoreline preservation or restoration comprising a gabion having opposed side walls connected together at spaced intervals along the length of the gabion by a plurality of partition walls, the spaces between neighboring pairs of partition walls defining, together with the side walls, at least one individual compartment of the gabion, the at least one individual compartment of the gabion being bounded by the respective opposed side walls or by opposed side wall sections of the respective opposed side walls, the partition walls being pivotally connected to the side walls, the individual compartment of the gabion having extending therefrom in a direction away from the individual compartment convergent at least partly open framework panels forming or forming part of a protuberant compartment on the gabion. A method of preserving and restoring a shoreline, and use of a barrier assembly is also disclosed.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of operating a drive system comprising a diesel engine provided with a diesel oxidation catalyst for purifying the exhaust gases from the engine.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The main pollutants from diesel engines are, apart from the very small amounts of hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot particles (PM). The soot particles are composed of a constituent which is soluble in organic solvents and a constituent which is insoluble. The soluble part comprises a large number of different hydrocarbons which are condensed or adsorbed or absorbed on the particle core. The insoluble component comprises sulfur trioxide or sulfate, carbon, abraded metal (for example iron and nickel) and small amounts of other oxides formed from additives in lubricating oil and in the fuel (for example zinc, calcium, phosphorus). Sulfur trioxide is formed by oxidation of sulfur dioxide over the catalyst as a function of temperature, noble metal loading and exhaust gas flow. A particular characteristic of diesel engines is the high oxygen content of the exhaust gas. While the exhaust gas of stoichiometrically operated gasoline engines contains only about 0.7% by volume of oxygen, the exhaust gas of diesel engines can contain from 6 to 15% by volume of oxygen.
The ratio of the various pollutants in the diesel exhaust gas to one another depends on the type of diesel engine and its mode of operation. In principle, what has been said above applies both to stationary diesel engines and to diesel engines in motor vehicles for light and heavy duties.
The permissible emissions of diesel engines are subjected to upper limits imposed by legislation. To adhere to these limits, various concepts are employed depending on the type of diesel engine and its mode of operation.
In the case of relatively low power diesel engines in passenger cars, it is frequently sufficient to pass the exhaust gas over a diesel oxidation catalyst which burns the emitted hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and also part of the soluble organic compounds adsorbed on the soot particles. The oxidation function of diesel oxidation catalysts is designed so that although they oxidize the organic compounds and carbon monoxide, they do not convert the nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide into more highly oxidized species. Together with the remaining proportion of the particles, the nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxide leave the catalyst virtually unchanged. A typical representative of such catalysts is described in DE 39 40 758 A1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,007).
The conversion of pollutants by means of such catalysts is strongly dependent on the temperature. In the case of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, the conversion of the pollutants increases with increasing exhaust gas temperature. The temperature at which a prescribed percentage, usually 50%, of a pollutant is reacted is referred to as the light-off temperature of the catalyst for the conversion of this pollutant. It is an important parameter for describing the catalytic activity of the catalyst.
Furthermore, the aging state of the catalysts has a significant influence on the degree of conversion for the various pollutants. As aging increases, the catalytic activity of the catalysts decreases. Aging can comprise damage caused by thermal overloading and/or poisoning by poisoning elements such as lead, phosphorus, calcium and sulfur, some of which are present in the fuel or are constituents of motor oil.
The catalysts have to be able to ensure adherence to particular limit values for pollutant conversion even after the vehicle has been driven for up to 150 000 miles. This requirement is usually fulfilled by over-dimensioning of the fresh catalyst. Thus, for example, it can be designed so as to be significantly larger than would be necessary on the assumption of its fresh activity, or the catalyst formulation in terms of composition and noble metal loading is adapted appropriately.
It is known that high noble metal loadings have to be used in diesel vehicles in order to be able to adhere to the emission limits even after aging because of the low exhaust gas temperatures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of operating a drive system comprising a diesel engine and an exhaust gas purification unit containing a diesel oxidation catalyst, which method allows the aging-induced decrease in the catalytic activity of the catalyst to be compensated by means of suitable control measures in operation of the drive system, so that the customary over-dimensioning of the catalyst can be reduced.
This object is achieved by a method in which the aging-induced decrease in the catalytic activity of the catalyst is compensated at least part of the time by increasing the exhaust gas temperature of the engine.
The invention is described below for a drive system comprising a diesel engine and an exhaust gas purification unit containing a diesel oxidation catalyst However, it can readily be seen that the present invention can also be applied in the same way to other internal combustion engines and catalysts, for example to a four-stroke engine with three-way catalyst.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
FIG. 1 shows the exhaust gas temperature of a 1.41 diesel engine as a function of the test time for the first 500 seconds of the NEDC test.
FIG. 2 shows modeling calculations on the CO emission of the diesel engine during the test for different platinum loadings of the diesel oxidation catalyst.
FIG. 3 shows the exhaust gas temperature upstream of a particle filter for particular driving cycles.
FIGS. 4 to 6 illustrate the determination of the aging state by means of the evolution of heat with the aid of modeling calculations for a drive system comprising a 1.41 diesel engine provided with a 2.41 honeycomb catalyst.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Various driving cycles have been developed for checking adherence to the exhaust gas limits. Thus, the “New European Driving Cycle”, referred to as NEDC for short, specifies a driving cycle commencing with a cold start followed by inner city operation with acceleration and braking phases and a maximum speed of 50 km/h. The last third of the test provides for country operation at a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The total test takes about 1200 seconds. The vehicle covers a distance of about 11.4 km during this driving cycle.
FIG. 1 shows the exhaust gas temperature of a 1.41 diesel engine as a function of the test time for the first 500 seconds of the NEDC test. The curve denoted as “reference” records the actual exhaust gas temperatures of the diesel engine. This engine is equipped with a standard honeycomb catalyst having a volume of 2.41, a cell density of 62 cm −2 and a platinum loading of 2.83 g/l (80 g/ft 3 ) for exhaust gas purification.
FIG. 2 shows modeling calculations by the inventors on the CO emission of the diesel engine during the test for different platinum loadings of the diesel oxidation catalyst. The emission values were calculated for exhaust gas temperatures decreased or increased linearly relative to the reference case. The emission values for the abscissa value of 1.00 indicate the CO emission of the diesel engine at the original exhaust gas temperature corresponding to the reference curve of FIG. 1 for different platinum loadings. For abscissa values deviating from this, an exhaust gas temperature of the diesel engine increased or reduced linearly relative to the reference curve was assumed. In the case of the abscissa values 0.85 and 1.15, these temperature curves are shown in FIG. 1 , curve a) for an exhaust gas temperature reduced linearly by 15% and curve b) for an exhaust gas temperature increased linearly by 15%.
It can be seen from FIG. 2 that the emission of carbon monoxide during the test at a given platinum loading can be decreased by increasing the exhaust gas temperature. Thus, an aging-induced deterioration in the emission values can be compensated by increasing the exhaust gas temperature.
It is known that the exhaust gas temperatures of a diesel engine can be increased by means of various measures. For the purposes of the invention, the exhaust gas temperature of the engine can be increased either immediately after the cold start or after some time delay. In the first case, preference is given to selecting measures which have only a small influence on the emission behavior of the engine so as to prevent excessive emission of pollutants during the cold start phase. In the latter case, it is also possible to choose measures which lead to somewhat higher emission values, since pollutants are reliably converted into nonpolluting substances by the method of the invention.
Possible measures for increasing the exhaust gas temperature for the purposes of the method of the invention are, for example:
Choking the air drawn in, which results in the amount of exhaust gas being reduced at the same power; this leads to a higher temperature Increasing the exhaust gas temperature by post-injection, possibly in only one cylinder Shifting the combustion peak to “later”; a 1° shift in the combustion peak results in a temperature increase of about 10 K Increasing the exhaust gas backpressure Altering the gearing ratio of the gearbox Switching off the charge cooling
The above measures for increasing the temperature of the exhaust gas result in a slight increase in fuel consumption. To keep this additional consumption as small as possible, these measures are preferably employed only when the exhaust gas temperature drops below a prescribed minimum temperature. When the diesel engine is operated at high load, the exhaust gas temperature is generally sufficiently high for even an aged catalyst to ensure satisfactory conversion of pollutants.
Among the above-described measures for increasing the temperature of the exhaust gas, choking the engine is very effective. FIG. 3 shows this by way of example for a heavy duty vehicle engine. The temperature curve denoted by “production model” indicates the exhaust gas temperature upstream of a particle filter for a particular driving cycle. The exhaust gas temperature during this same driving cycle can be increased by about 100° C. by choking the engine (curve “modified engine”). This causes an additional fuel consumption of about 10%. However, the method of the invention generally requires a temperature increase of only 20 K or less to compensate for the aging of the catalyst. The additional fuel consumption due to the method will therefore be correspondingly lower.
The aging-induced decrease in the catalytic activity can be determined in various ways. In the simplest case, an average aging behavior for a series of catalysts can be measured beforehand as a function of the time of operation. To implement the method, it is then possible, for example, to enter the necessary modifications to the operating parameters which ensure a sufficient increase in the exhaust gas temperature for the respective aging state in the engine control system of the diesel engine as a function of the time of operation.
However, it is more advantageous to determine the aging state of the catalyst directly. Both continuous and discontinuous methods of determination are suitable for this purpose. For example, the aging state can be determined by continuously measuring the pollutant conversion by means of a directly measuring gas sensor system and fitting the data to a catalyst model entered in the engine control system. Similarly to the previous case, the necessary modifications to the operating parameters which ensure a sufficient increase in the exhaust gas temperature for the respective aging state can be entered in the engine control system as a function of the aging state determined.
The gas sensor system for determining the pollutant conversion can, for example, comprise a sensor upstream of the catalyst and a sensor downstream of the catalyst for the pollutant concerned (CO, HC or NO). The sensor upstream of the catalyst can be omitted if the pollutant concentrations in the exhaust gas for any operating point of the engine have previously been entered in the form of performance characteristics in the engine control system.
As indicated above, the aging state of the catalyst can also be determined discontinuously, i.e. after a particular distance covered or a particular number of hours of operation. For this purpose, for example, the heat evolved over the catalyst on post-injection of a defined amount of hydrocarbons can be measured. The fresh catalyst burns the additional hydrocarbons better than the aged catalyst and therefore leads to a greater increase in the temperature of the exhaust gas as a result of this process.
The necessary changes to the operating parameters of the engine can be determined directly as follows: the heat evolved in the combustion of a given amount of hydrocarbons over the catalyst is firstly measured and compared with the heat evolved over the fresh catalyst at this operating point. In the case of a reduced amount of heat evolved compared to the fresh catalyst, the exhaust gas temperature of the engine prevailing at this operating point is increased without altering the torque by engine measures until the newly measured heat evolved over the aged catalyst corresponds to the heat evolved over the fresh catalyst. From this it is possible to determine the factor by which the exhaust gas temperature has to be increased to compensate for the aging-induced decrease in performance of the catalyst. In this case too, the necessary modifications to the process parameters which ensure a sufficient increase in the exhaust gas temperature for the respective aging state at all other operating points can be entered in the engine control system as a function of the factor determined.
If the diesel engine is also equipped with a particle filter, the above-described determination of the aging state via the heat evolved on combustion of a defined amount of hydrocarbons can also be combined particularly advantageously with the regeneration function for the particle filter. To regenerate the particle filter, the exhaust gas temperature at the particle filter is from time to time increased to the ignition temperature of the soot in order to burn the latter. This is usually achieved by post-injection of hydrocarbons and combustion of these over the oxidation catalyst. The heat evolved in this procedure can at the same time be utilized for determining the aging state of the oxidation catalyst.
FIGS. 4 to 6 illustrate the determination of the aging state by means of the evolution of heat with the aid of modeling calculations on the above-described drive system comprising a 1.41 diesel engine provided with a 2.41 honeycomb catalyst. The modeling calculations were carried out for an arbitrary section of the NEDC test. It was assumed that post-injection increases the HC concentration in the exhaust gas to 10 000 ppm in the driving time interval from 710 to 830 seconds.
FIG. 4 shows the calculated temperature curves for the exhaust gas temperature at the entrance to the catalyst (curve “entry temperature”) and for the temperature difference between the exit temperature of the exhaust gas on leaving the catalyst and the entry temperature. A positive temperature difference indicates an exothermic reaction over the catalyst. The calculation of the temperature difference in FIG. 4 was carried out for a fresh catalyst without HC post-injection.
FIG. 5 shows the comparison of the evolution of heat with post-injection of hydrocarbons for the fresh catalyst and an aged catalyst. It can be seen that the evolution of heat over the aged catalyst is significantly lower than in the case of the fresh catalyst.
FIG. 6 shows the comparison of the evolution of heat over the fresh catalyst with post-injection with the evolution of heat over the aged catalyst with post-injection and a simultaneous, linear temperature increase by 10%. As can be seen from FIG. 6 , a linear temperature increase of 10% in the calculated example is sufficient to increase the reduced catalytic activity of the aged catalyst almost to the level of the fresh catalyst.
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The invention relates to a method and an apparatus of operating a drive system comprising an engine and an exhaust gas purification unit containing a catalyst, where the engine emits an exhaust gas having an exhaust gas temperature and the catalyst has a catalytic activity for the purification of the exhaust gas. In the method, an aging-induced decrease in the catalytic activity of the catalyst is compensated at least part of the time by increasing the exhaust gas temperature of the engine.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/556,916, filed Mar. 26, 2004, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
The work that led to this disclosure was supported, at least in part, by Grant No. DE-FC36-03GO13105 from the United States Department of Energy. The Government has certain rights in inventions disclosed herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is believed that over the next few decades many of the currently used power sources, such as internal combustion engines in automobiles will be replaced by polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC's). In order to make these technologies cost effective, and also to meet recycling and reuse standards such as those set by the European Union for vehicle waste, recycling and reuse of the fuel cell materials is essential. (Handley et al., 2002).
Conventional technologies for platinum group metal (PGM) recovery are based on acid dissolution of the PGMs, or a high temperature melt alloying process. The temperatures used sometimes exceed 2000° C. and the methods are thus energy intensive. The above process is most widely applied in the recycling of precious metals from internal combustion engine exhaust gas catalytic converters (Barnes et al, Chemistry and Industry 151, (Mar. 6, 1982); Benson et al., Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 31,1, (2000); Bhakta J. Met., 36 (February, 1994); Hageluken Metall, 55, 104 (March, 2001); Hoffmann Journal of Metals, 40 (June, 1988); Wernick et al., Ann. Rev. Energy Environ., 23, 465, (1998)). Although this recycling technology may be applicable to the recycling of certain fuel processor catalytic components, it is ill suited for PGM recovery from catalyst coated membranes (CCM).
Perfluorosulfonic acid polymer (PFSA) membranes are the most frequently used membrane in the PEM fuel cells. Commercially available polymers include NAFION® marketed by Dupont. The presence of the PFSA, which results in contamination of the high temperature furnace equipment unless expensive HF scrubbing equipment is added, is a major technical limitation in the recycling and reuse of the fuel cell materials. In fact one of the largest reactors in the U.S. is located in the Engelhard facility and is capable of handling at most 10 lbs/hour of perfluoronated polymer material. In Japan the largest PGM recycling facility operated by Tanaka for recycling is based on the Rose process, which cannot tolerate the presence of any F containing material. Regarding hydrometallurgy, the presence of the PFSA™ may block access of the reagent to the Pt sites, thus resulting in poor yields of metal recovery.
Recycling of used perfluorosulfonic acid membranes such as NAFION® from the Chlor-alkali industry also represents a significant source of low cost polymer at the current time. In fact several 10's of thousands of kilograms are sent to landfills annually. The recovery of these materials would allow for a lower cost source of polymer than is currently available.
SUMMARY
The present disclosure addresses at least some of the shortcomings of the prior art by providing technology for the recycling and/or re-manufacture of catalyst coated fuel cell membranes and catalyst-coated fuel processing components that are used in fuel cell systems. A novel feature is the recovery of the active ionomer as well as the precious metals. Currently platinum is the most viable catalyst for PEM fuel cells systems. However, if the potential of this technology is to be realized, the long-term availability of precious group metals may become a serious limitation. With increasing platinum consumption, reserves are depleted, which increases the cost of fuel cells. Hence, platinum recycling is critical to the long-term economic sustainability of PEM fuel cells. In addition, the value of the ionomer component in catalyst-coated membranes currently exceeds that of the precious metals and thus, recovery of the ionomer is also warranted. Future cost estimates using projected annual fuel cell vehicle production volumes of 500,000 per year demonstrate that cost of the ionomer will continue to be a major cost contributor to fuel cell power plants relative to the platinum required. Furthermore, the presence of the PFSA™ fluorine-containing polymer in the fuel cell recycle stream greatly complicates conventional recycling methods, which are ill suited due to the toxic and corrosive HF gas released during these processes. The present disclosure thus contemplates processes that enable the extraction and reuse of both the precious metals and the ionomer in current fuel cell components by recovering the platinum group metals in an environmentally benign manner as well as the valuable PFSA™.
Furthermore the present disclosure presents techniques that can be used to recover and separate the PFSA™ ionomer from the end-of-life fabric reinforced perfluorosulfonic acid polymer industrial membranes, such as Chlor-alkali membranes.
In certain embodiments, the disclosure includes processes that allow for the re-manufacture of new catalyst coated membranes (CCMs) from used CCMs extracted from failed fuel cell stacks. This may be accomplished by removing the CCM from the stack, decontaminating the CCM to remove impurities, and then dissolving the ionomer component of the CCM to form a slurry of dissolved PFSA™ together with the Pt/C catalyst particles. The dissolution may, in certain embodiments, be done at increased pressure in an autoclave, for example. Preferred embodiments include a pressure of from 500 to 2000 psi. These two valuable ingredients are then separated, allowing the PFSA™ solution to be reprocessed into a new fuel cell membrane. Ideally the recovered catalyst (Pt/C) is redeposited on the re-manufactured membrane so that a completely re-manufactured CCM is the final result. The same process would be used for an end-of-life Chlor-alkali membrane where the separation of the fiber reinforcement and other solids are separated by similar methods.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The following drawings form part of the present specification and are included to further demonstrate certain aspects of the present invention. The invention may be better understood by reference to one or more of these drawings in combination with the detailed description of specific embodiments presented herein.
The figure is a diagram of an embodiment of methods of recycling used membrane electrolyte assemblies.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In certain preferred embodiments, a recycling process as shown in the figure may be used. The first step in the process involves the decontamination of the used membrane electrolyte assembly (MEA). This is followed by dissolution of the catalyst coated membrane (CCM) in a water aqueous solvent mixture which may comprise from about 20% to about 90% by weight of water and from about 10% to about 80% of methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, isopropanol, n-butanol, 2-butanol, 2-methoxyethanol, 2-ethoxyethanol, ethylene glycol dimethyl ether, ethylene glycol diethyl ether, diethylene glycol dimethyl ether, diethylene glycol diethyl ether, dioxane, acetonitrile or combinations of any thereof, optionally using an autoclaving process at pressure of from 500 to 2000 psi, and temperatures from about 190° to 290° C. In certain preferred embodiments, the mixture comprises a ratio of 160 grams of water, 25 grams of normal propanol, and 42 grams of polymer with approximately 10 grams of Pt/C. The autoclave process may be a batch or continuous process. The pulp resulting from the autoclave procedure is then coarse filtered to remove foreign matter. It has also been discovered that when Kapton®, a polyimide electrical insulating film used as a framing material is present, it remains as strips after the autoclave step and is easily removed and recovered after the autoclave run.
EXAMPLE 1
In the embodiment shown in the figure, a centrifuge is used for separation of pigment from the PFSA™ solution.
In this example of a preferred method, cut un-used catalyst coated membranes were autoclaved. The composition of the materials was
NAFION ®
42.15 gm
Pt/C
9.55 gm
Kapton
1.3 gm
Total
53 gm
A standard solution making procedure was used that resulted in a low viscosity solution by autoclaving. The resulting mixture behaved as a typical catalyst/NAFION® solution ink as used in the manufacturing processes. During the processing, the stirrer and reactor head were covered with a black “ink”-like material. This material was collected into the total recovered batch from the autoclave with a water rinse. A total of 473 grams was recovered and separated by centrifugation.
In order to demonstrate the efficacy of the separation process, a Sorvall SS-3 Automatic Super-Speed centrifuge was used. The centrifuge has a controllable speed, and at its maximum rated speed of 18,000 rpm, it generates centrifugal forces of about 40,000×g. A rotor capable of holding up to 8 tubes (29.3×105 mm) was used. One pair of centrifugation tubes was filled with 40.3 g each of a 6.5% NAFION® solution with an “H” type micelle structure; and a second pair with 39.4 g each of a 5.0% NAFION® solution with an “L” type micelle structure. All 4 tubes were centrifuged at 15,000 rpm for 90 minutes. A pipette was used to take 5 ml samples from the very top and very bottom of the tubes after centrifugation. The samples were evaporated to dryness to determine the % NAFION®:
“H” Type: Top 6.56%; Bottom 6.53% “L” Type: Top 4.96%; Bottom 5.02%
Next a composition of catalyst (Pt/C) and NAFION® solution containing about 5% NAFION® and 5% of Engelhard Selectra F5012 50 wt % Pt on Carbon was prepared. This mixture was well mixed by ball milling for 2 hours. The mixture was first centrifuged at slow speeds (5000 rpm), and most of the pigment separated as a thick sediment at these modest speeds. However, enough pigment to render the liquid phase opaque remained dispersed and required a speed in excess of 10,000 rpm to obtain a totally clear liquid phase. It is likely that this second fraction of pigment contains little or no platinum. These samples are being evaluated to determine the catalytic properties of this recovered material.
From these studies, the present inventors concluded that centrifugation has essentially no effect on the NAFION® particle distribution under aggressive high G force centrifugation. This supports the efficacy of this method, since it indicates that the NAFION® does not settle to the bottom upon centrifugation. They also conclude that centrifugation was very successful in separating the Pt/C solids from the NAFION® component in a prepared mixture of Pt/C and NAFION® solution.
EXAMPLE 2
A 70 gram sample of the recovered autoclave discharge was centrifuged and then rinsed further in a second centrifuge step. The resulting wet pigment cake weighed 3.3 gm and the estimated composition was:
NAFION ®
unknown, target to be 0
Pt/C
1.4 gm (dry estimated)
Solvent
1.9 gm (estimated)
Total
3.3 gm
EXAMPLE 3
23 grams of catalyst coated membranes (9 pieces of 300 cm 2 ) were autoclaved and centrifuged so that a catalyst powder was recovered and 500 ml of NAFION® solution was recovered. Of the 2.25 grams of catalyst powder that was recovered, 10% NAFION® remained, or 0.22 grams NAFION® of the 20.75 grams of NAFION® that was in the original samples. Thus the efficiency of recovery of the NAFION® is 98.9% of the original amount of NAFION®; recovered in a re-usable form as a 500 ml, 5 wt % clear NAFION® solution.
EXAMPLE 4
Forty eight used membrane electrolyte assemblies (MEAs) were obtained from an end-of-life 500 Watt Avista fuel cell system. The performance of the system had degraded to the point that it would no longer start. The membranes were manually separated by Drexel from the system and sent to the inventors. The lonomer was extracted by a dissolution process from a set of 5 MEAs, and the resulting supporting structure of e-PTFE, typical of the GORE-SELECT membrane was easily filtered out. A film of pure ionomer was cast and the ionomer tested for ion-exchange-capacity. The film contained 1030 EW (grams polymer/mole ion-exchange). This value is typical of the ion-exchange-capacity of new ionomer, indicating the performance of the ionomer is not significantly degraded during its operating life.
New MEAs were produced for re-build into the system. The MEAs materials were re-assembled into the fuel cell re-using all other components; i.e. seals, gas diffusion layers, etc. The system was started and performance was similar to the as-received system performance.
All of the compositions and methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the compositions and methods of this invention have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the methods described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. More specifically, it will be apparent that certain agents which are chemically or physically related may be substituted for the agents described herein while the same or similar results would be achieved. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
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A method for recovering and recycling catalyst coated fuel cell membranes includes dissolving the used membranes in water and solvent, heating the dissolved membranes under pressure and separating the components. Active membranes are produced from the recycled materials.
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BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to input/output (IO) cells in general and to high speed IO cells using an auxiliary power supply in particular.
A goal in integrated circuit manufacturing is to increase circuit density and functionality. Accordingly, there has been a great deal of effort put into reducing the size of individual transistors so that more transistors, and thus more functionality, can be placed on each device.
There is a downside to these higher densities and smaller devices. For example, smaller devices can only standoff or support a limited voltage before breakdown occurs. Higher densities can result in an increase in power supply dissipation per unit area of an integrated circuit, which can limit operability and lifetime, as measure in mean time before failure, of the circuit. To mitigate both these consequences, the power supply voltages applied to integrated circuits has been progressively lowered over the years, from 5 volts to 3.3, then to 2.5 and recently 1.8 volts and even lower.
This reduction in power supply voltage has taken its toll on some of the individual circuits that are used in the design and manufacture of integrated circuits. One type of circuit that has been particularly effected are output drivers. The reduction in supply voltage has meant a corresponding decrease in their drive capability.
To compensate for this, the size of output devices has often been increased. This has the undesirable results of consuming more die area for the output drivers, and also necessitate the increase in size of predriver circuits that drive the output drivers themselves. The increase in size of these circuits increases their power supply currents, thus offsetting some of the gains achieved by having the smaller devices and lower power supplies in the first place. Alternately, a slower output driver may be used, but these outputs are more susceptible to noise and jitter.
Accordingly, what is needed are circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide fast output drivers using lower power supplies but do not require large integrated circuit areas for their implementation.
SUMMARY
Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention provide circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide output drivers that consume relatively little integrated circuit area and provide fast output switching. An exemplary embodiment provides an output driver including pull-up and pull-down devices, each device driven by a pre-driver stage. The pre-driver for the pull-down device is supplied from an auxiliary power supply that has a higher voltage than the supply seen by the pull-up device. The pre-driver for the pull-down is biased by a voltage that tracks the higher of the auxiliary and output supplies. In some embodiments, the output driver may be part of an input/output cell. In that case, the well for the pull-up device is biased by a voltage that tracks the highest of the output supply and input received voltage, while the pull-up predriver circuit bias is changed to the higher between the auxiliary and output supplies and the input received voltage. Various embodiments of the present invention may incorporate one or more of these and the other features discussed herein.
A better understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be gained with reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a programmable logic device that can implement embodiments of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic system that may incorporate embodiments of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic of an input/output (I/O) cell consistent with an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a plot illustrating drain current as a function of drain-to-source voltage for different drain-to-gate voltages for an NMOS transistor;
FIG. 5 is a schematic of a pre-driver that may be used as the pre-drivers in FIG. 3 , or as a pre-driver in other embodiments of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a schematic of a level shift circuit that may be used as the level shift circuit in FIG. 5 , or as a level shift circuit in other embodiments of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a schematic of an output well-bias circuit that may be used as the output well-bias circuit 360 in FIG. 3 , or as an output well-bias circuit in other embodiments of the present invention; and
FIG. 8 is a schematic of a pre-driver well-bias circuit that may be used as the pre-driver well-bias circuit 350 in FIG. 3 or as a pre-driver well-bias circuit in other embodiments of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 is a simplified partial block diagram of an exemplary high-density programmable logic device 100 wherein techniques according to the present invention can be utilized. PLD 100 includes a two-dimensional array of programmable logic array blocks (or LABs) 102 that are interconnected by a network of column and row interconnects of varying length and speed. LABs 102 include multiple (e.g., 10) logic elements (or LEs), an LE being a small unit of logic that provides for efficient implementation of user defined logic functions.
PLD 100 also includes a distributed memory structure including RAM blocks of varying sizes provided throughout the array. The RAM blocks include, for example, 512 bit blocks 104 , 4K blocks 106 and a M-Block 108 providing 512K bits of RAM. These memory blocks may also include shift registers and FIFO buffers. PLD 100 further includes digital signal processing (DSP) blocks 110 that can implement, for example, multipliers with add or subtract features. I/O elements (IOEs) 112 located, in this example, around the periphery of the device support numerous single-ended and differential I/O standards. It is to be understood that PLD 100 is described herein for illustrative purposes only and that the present invention can be implemented in many different types of PLDs, FPGAs, and the like.
While PLDs of the type shown in FIG. 1 provide many of the resources required to implement system level solutions, the present invention can also benefit systems wherein a PLD is one of several components. FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an exemplary digital system 200 , within which the present invention may be embodied. System 200 can be a programmed digital computer system, digital signal processing system, specialized digital switching network, or other processing system. Moreover, such systems may be designed for a wide variety of applications such as telecommunications systems, automotive systems, control systems, consumer electronics, personal computers, Internet communications and networking, and others. Further, system 200 may be provided on a single board, on multiple boards, or within multiple enclosures.
System 200 includes a processing unit 202 , a memory unit 204 and an I/O unit 206 interconnected together by one or more buses. According to this exemplary embodiment, a programmable logic device (PLD) 208 is embedded in processing unit 202 . PLD 208 may serve many different purposes within the system in FIG. 2 . PLD 208 can, for example, be a logical building block of processing unit 202 , supporting its internal and external operations. PLD 208 is programmed to implement the logical functions necessary to carry on its particular role in system operation. PLD 208 may be specially coupled to memory 204 through connection 210 and to I/O unit 206 through connection 212 .
Processing unit 202 may direct data to an appropriate system component for processing or storage, execute a program stored in memory 204 or receive and transmit data via I/O unit 206 , or other similar function. Processing unit 202 can be a central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, floating point coprocessor, graphics coprocessor, hardware controller, microcontroller, programmable logic device programmed for use as a controller, network controller, and the like. Furthermore, in many embodiments, there is often no need for a CPU.
For example, instead of a CPU, one or more PLD 208 can control the logical operations of the system. In an embodiment, PLD 208 acts as a reconfigurable processor, which can be reprogrammed as needed to handle a particular computing task. Alternately, programmable logic device 208 may itself include an embedded microprocessor. Memory unit 204 may be a random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), fixed or flexible disk media, PC Card flash disk memory, tape, or any other storage means, or any combination of these storage means.
FIG. 3 is a schematic of an input/output cell that is consistent with an embodiment of the present invention. This I/O cell may be used as the I/O cell 112 in FIG. 1 , or as an I/O cell in other integrated circuits. This figure, as with the other included figures, is shown for illustrative purposes only and does not limit either the possible embodiments of the present invention or the claims.
Include are output driver devices M 1 310 and M 2 320 , pre-drivers 330 and 340 , PD well bias circuit 350 , output well bias circuit 360 , and optional input receiver or buffer 370 . When the optional input receiver 370 is removed, this circuit is an output cell. When the optional input receiver 370 is included, the circuit forms an IO cell.
When configured as an output cell, the output may be active or tristated. For example, when configured as an output, the output pin VOUT on line 315 may be connected to a tristate bus, and the output cell may need to be tri-stated on occasion. When configured as an IO cell, the circuit may act as an input or an output. When the circuit is receiving signals as a input, the output portion of the circuit is tristated. Again, when the circuit is an output, the output may be active or tristated.
When the circuit is acting as an active output, whether as an output cell or an IO cell, an input signal VINA is received on line 342 from the integrated circuit internal core. Also, a signal VINB, which may be the same signal as VINA, is received on line 332 from the core. VINA (and VINB) is typically a logic signal that swings between the power supply voltages in the core of the integrated circuit. Often, these voltages are kept low to reduce the power dissipation for the integrated circuit, for example the core voltages may be 1.2 volts and ground. Pre-driver 330 translates its input signal to a logic signal having a high-voltage approximately equal to the voltage applied at VPD on line 335 , and a low voltage approximately equal to ground. Pre-driver 340 translates its input signal to logic signal having a high-voltage approximately equal to the higher of the voltage applied at VPD on line 335 and VCCN on line 325 , and a low voltage approximately equal to ground.
The input signal VINA (and VINB) is buffered by the pre-drivers 340 and 330 , the outputs of which drive pull-up device M 1 310 and pull-down device M 2 320 . The drains of M 1 310 and M 2 320 connect to line 315 . Typically, line 315 connects to a pad, which in turn connects to a pin of the integrated circuit device package. The source of M 1 310 connects to a supply VCCN, which is 1.8 volts in a specific embodiment of the present invention. The source of M 2 320 connects to ground. In this mode, the output well bias circuit 360 connects the well of the pull up device M 1 310 to VCCN.
To improve the switching performance of the circuit when it is an active output, the pre-driver 330 supply voltage is supplied by a separate supply, VPD on line 335 . By using the higher supply VPD on line 335 to bias the pre-driver 330 , a larger drive is seen at the gate of M 2 320 . This larger gate translates to a larger VGS (specifically, the maximum value of VGS is equal to VPD), and hence a larger pull-down current for device M 2 320 when it is on. The pre-driver 340 is biased by the higher of the supply voltages, VCCN and VPD. A higher voltage here does not translate to a performance improvement to the same degree. Since the source of M 1 is tied to VCCN on line 325 , the maximum VGS for M 1 310 is still VCCN, the larger swing simply shuts off M 1 310 .
When the output cell is tristated, either because the cell is configured as an IO cell and it is acting as an input, or it is configured as an output but tristated, VINA on line 342 and VINB on line 332 are separate signals. In this case, the input VINA on line 342 is high, such that the gate of the pull-up driver M 1 310 is high, and M 1 310 is off, and the input VINB on line 332 is low, such that gate of the pull-down driver M 2 320 is low and M 2 320 is off.
When the cell is acting as an input, an input signal is received on line 315 and buffered by input buffer 370 . Input buffer 370 is typically supplied by the core voltage power supplies. In this configuration, conventional cells are susceptible to problems is the parasitic drain-to-bulk diode of the pull-up device M 1 310 turns on. Specifically, if the input voltage on line 315 exceeds the voltage VCCN on line 325 by a diode drop (approximately 0.7 volts) and the well of the pull-up device M 1 310 is tied to VCCN on line 325 , the drain-to-bulk diode of M 1 310 conducts current from the input line 315 to VCCN on line 325 . To avoid this, the output well bias circuit biases the well of M 1 310 to the higher voltage between VCCN on line 325 and the received signal on line 315 .
It will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that although this figure illustrates circuitry operating between positive power supplies and ground, other power supply schemes are possible consistent with embodiments of the present invention. For example, these circuits may operate between ground and one or more negative supplies. Alternately, the circuit may operate between on or more positive power supplies and one or more negative power supplies, and may also possibly include ground.
Also, this and the following figures show circuitry as being made of CMOS devices. In other embodiments, other processes, such as bipolar, BiCMOS, HFETs, HBTs, and other processes and technologies may be used consistent with the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a plot illustrating drain current as a function of drain-to-source voltage for different drain-to-gate voltages for an NMOS transistor, such as the pull-down transistor M 2 320 in FIG. 3 . Drain current Id is plotted along a Y-axis 410 as a function of VDS along an X-axis 420 . Trace 450 illustrates how zero, or near zero drain current flows when VGS is approximately equal to the threshold voltage Vth for the device. As VGS is increased, for example to VCCN, trace 440 indicates that a higher current flows at a corresponding VDS. As VGS is further increased, for example to VPD, the drain current increases further, as indicated by trace 430 .
In this way, the higher VGS provided to the pull-down driver M 2 320 in FIG. 3 results in a larger pull-down current in that device. This advantage may be used in one of two ways. The device size may be kept large, in which case the switching speed is improved. Alternately, device size may be reduced while maintaining similar switching characteristics. Often, a compromise between these two may be desirable, where the device sizes reduced and switching performance is improved, but both to a lesser degree.
FIG. 5 is a schematic of a pre-driver that may be used as the pre-drivers 330 and 340 in FIG. 3 , or as a pre-driver in other embodiments of the present invention. Include are level shift circuit 510 and inverters 520 , 530 , and 540 .
An input signal is received on line 505 by the level shift circuit 510 . Typically, this signal operates in a voltage range provided to the core of the integrated circuit. For example, the input may be a digital signal operating between 1.2 volts and ground. The level shift circuit 510 translates this signal to a signal operating between VCC on line 555 and ground on line 515 . This signal is then buffered by inverters 520 , 530 , and 540 . Inverter 540 provides an output voltage VOUT on line 545 .
The buffers 520 , 530 , and 540 typically increase progressively in size, with inverter 520 being the smallest and inverter 540 being the largest. A typical ratio of device widths is on the order of 3:1 to 5:1. In a specific embodiment of the present invention, this ratio is approximately 4:1. In this way, a signal with a comparatively low drive is boosted in power, until it is capable of driving a large output device. Each of the inverters 520 , 530 , and 540 typically are formed of a series of a p-channel and n-channel coupled between VCC on line 555 and ground on line 515 . The gates of the p-channel and n-channel devices both connect to the input, while the drains of the devices tie together to form the output.
Typically the p-channel device in an inverter has a longer width than the n-channel. This is to compensate for differences in the mobility of the majority carriers between the p-channel and n-channel devices. By adjusting the widths of the devices to compensate for differences in mobility, the threshold voltage of the inverter remains near one-half of VCC. In a specific embodiment however, this is not desirable, since the output of the level shift circuit 510 is asymmetrical. In this specific embodiments, the lengths of the p and n-channel inverter 520 is close to a 1:2 ratio. This moves the threshold for the inverter closer to ground to compensate for the asymmetry in the voltage swing at the output of the level shift 510 . In this embodiment the lengths of devices in inverter 530 are very close to 1:1, while the ratio of devices in inverter 540 have approximately a 3:1 ratio.
Again, VCC for the pre-driver 330 is equal to VPD. This voltage is typically higher than the core power supply, or the output supply VCCN. In this way, a greater swing is provided to the n-channel pull down driver M 2 320 in FIG. 3 .
FIG. 6 is a schematic of a level shift circuit that may be used as the level shift circuit 510 in FIG. 5 , or as a level shift circuit in other embodiments of the present invention. Included are p-channel transistors M 1610 and M 2 620 , n-channel devices M 3 630 and M 4 640 , and inverter I 1 650 .
An input signal VIN is received on line 605 . Again, this signal is typically provided by a core logic element LE in logic array block LAB 102 . This input signal typically transitions between a high voltage and a low voltage, for example, 1.2 volts and ground. The level shift circuit provides an output VOUT on line 625 . The output VOUT on line 625 swings between a voltage VCC applied on line 615 and ground.
The input signal VIN on line 605 drives the gates of n-channel device M 3 630 and inverter I 1 650 . Inverter I 1 650 inverts the signal VIN on line 605 and drives the gate of M 4 640 . When the input VIN on line 605 is high, device M 3 630 is on, while device M 4 640 is off. Device M 3 630 conducts current, thus pulling down the gate of device M 2 620 . The device M 2 620 in turn pulls VOUT on line 625 to the voltage VCC applied on line 615 . When the input voltage VIN on line 605 his low, device M 3 630 is off, while device M 4 640 is on. Device M 4 440 pulls VOUT on line 645 to ground. The devices M 1610 and M 2 620 are crossed coupled to provide positive feedback for faster switching.
The inverter I 1 650 may be powered by the core voltage or by the voltage VCC applied on line 615 . In a specific embodiment, I 1 650 is powered by VCC on line 615 . This means that device M 3 630 and M 4 440 receive different input voltages. For this reason, M 4 440 receives a stronger drive, thus resulting in a lower average voltage for VOUT on line 625 . For this reason, the inverters driven by the output VOUT on line 645 have their input thresholds set low to compensate.
FIG. 7 is a schematic of an output well-bias circuit that may be used as the output well-bias circuit 360 in FIG. 3 , or as an output well-bias circuit in other embodiments of the present invention. Included are p-channel devices M 1 710 , M 2 720 , M 3 730 , and M 4 740 .
Again, this is circuit tracks the higher of voltage between VCCN on line 705 and VPIN on line 715 . If the two voltages are equal, or within a threshold voltage of each other, the bias voltage VBIAS on line 735 is set by the diodes M 1 710 or M 4 740 . If the difference between the voltage VCCN on line 705 and VPIN on line 715 is greater than a threshold voltage, one of the devices M 2 720 or M 3 730 shorts VBIAS on line 735 to it the respective voltage line.
Specifically, when VCCN on line 705 is higher than VIN on line 715 by more than a threshold voltage, device 720 conducts and shorts VCCN on line 705 to VBIAS on line 735 . Conversely, if VPIN on line 715 is higher than VCCN on line 705 by more than a threshold voltage, device M 3 730 conducts, thus shorting VPIN on line 715 to VBIAS 735 . In this way, the well of pull-up device M 1 310 is sufficiently high such that an excess received voltage at the pad VOUT on line 315 does not cause conduction in its drain-to bulk diode.
A table listing exemplary voltages for VCCN on line 705 and VPIN on line 715 , and the resulting voltage for VBIAS on line 735 follows:
VCCN
VPIN
VBIAS
1.5
2.5
2.5
1.8
2.5
2.5
1.8
1.8
1.8-V TP
2.5
1.8
2.5
2.5
1.5
2.5
Where V TP is the threshold voltage for a p-channel device.
FIG. 8 is a schematic of a pre-driver well-bias circuit that may be used as the pre-driver well-bias circuit 350 in FIG. 3 or as a pre-driver well-bias circuit in other embodiments of the present invention. Included are P-channel devices M 1 810 , M 2 820 , M 830 , M 4 840 , M 5 850 , M 6 860 , and M 7 870 .
Devices M 1 810 , M 2 820 , M 3 830 , and M 4 840 operate similarly as described regarding the output well-bias circuit in FIG. 7 . Additionally, VPD on line 825 is received by this circuit. In some embodiments of the present invention, this circuit is used to bias both in the pre-driver 340 and the well of the output pull up device M 1 310 .
When VPD on line 825 is higher than the voltages VCCN on line 805 or VPIN on line 815 , which is often the case, device M 6 860 conducts, thus shorting VPD on line 825 to VBIAS on line 835 . If the voltage VPD on line 825 is lower than other the voltages VCCN on line 805 or VPIN on line 815 , then the voltage at the intermediate node 860 in shorted to VBIAS on line 835 . In this case, the intermediate voltage on line 860 is set as before by VCCN on line 805 and VPIN on line 815 . If two or more of the voltages VPD on line 825 , VCCN on line 805 and VPIN on line 815 are within a threshold voltage of each other (and higher than the remaining voltage, if applicable), then VBIAS is approximately a threshold voltage below the highest voltage level.
A table listing exemplary voltages for VPD on line 825 , VCCN on line 805 and VPIN on line 815 , and the resulting voltage VBIAS on line 835 follows:
VPD
VCCN
VPIN
VBIAS
1.5
1.5
2.5
2.5
1.8
1.5
2.5
2.5
1.8
1.5
1.8
1.8-V TP
2.5
1.5
1.8
2.5
2.5
1.5
1.5
2.5
The above description of exemplary embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form described, and many modifications and variations are possible in light of the teaching above. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
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Circuits, methods, and apparatus that provide output drivers that consume relatively little integrated circuit area and provide fast output switching. An exemplary embodiment provides an output driver including pull-up and pull-down devices, each device driven by a pre-driver stage. The pre-driver for the pull-down device is supplied from an auxiliary power supply, which has a higher voltage than the supply seen by the pull-up device. The pre-driver for the pull-down is biased by a voltage that tracks the higher of the auxiliary and output supplies. In some embodiments, the output driver may be part of an input/output cell. In that case, the well for the pull-up device is biased by a voltage that tracks the highest of the output supply and input received voltage, while the pull-up predriver circuit bias is the higher between the auxiliary and output supplies and the input received voltage.
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This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 737,630, filed 5-24-85, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to extrahigh-frequency (EHF) circuitry, operating at frequencies above 30 GHz (gigahertz) and, more specifically, to techniques for interfacing multiple circuit modules at those frequencies. Receivers operating in the EHF region typically employ antennas, arrays, or feed assemblies fabricated in the form of metal waveguides to provide for minimum loss and optimum performance. Metal waveguides are hollow tubes of rectangular or other cross section, through which electromagnetic energy is propagated. Propagation through waveguides is ensured by successive reflections on the conductive boundaries of the guides. Waveguides have relatively low losses, which is the principal reason they are preferred, since any losses directly degrade the overall performance of the receiver.
When long waveguide runs are required, such as from an antenna to the receiver, or if superior performance is desired, low-noise amplification is provided. Unfortunately, however, interfacing a waveguide with an active two-port amplifier device poses great difficulties. The principal one is that a waveguide has a transmission aperture that is orders of magnitude larger than the physical size of an amplifier device, such as a field-effect transistor. Moreover, input/output isolation is difficult to achieve, and provision must be made for electrical bias supplies to the amplifiers. When multiple amplifier stages are cascaded, the bias supplies have to be isolated from each other by series-connected decoupling capacitors, which increase losses in the system.
Another difficulty arises in the testing and assembly of interconnected EHF circuit modules. Typically, each module is tested separately before assembly, and test equipment for this purpose employs waveguide connections A test fixture inevitably introduces discontinuities between the fixture and the module being tested, and part of the testing procedure involves tuning the module to achieved a desired performance. Waveguides are relatively inconvenient to tune, since tuning involves adjustments of some kind to the physical waveguide structure. A more important problem is that, when the separately tested modules are subsequently assembled together as a system, the discontinuities that were present during testing are replaced by different discontinuities, and further tuning is usually required to obtain the desired performance.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that there is a need for an EHF circuit module that eliminates or minimizes these problems. Ideally, the circuit module should employ an external waveguide interface, to provide low losses and ease of coupling with other modules and with test equipment, but should also provide for convenient coupling to active two-port devices, such as amplifiers. It is also very important that the circuit module be easily tunable when assembled in its final configuration. As will now be summarized, the present invention is directed to these ends.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention resides in a radiofrequency (rf) circuit module having a waveguide interface for coupling to other modules, and employing an internal microstrip transmission line, for ease of coupling to active devices, and for ease of tuning. Briefly, and in general terms, the circuit of the invention comprises a waveguide input section, a waveguide output section, coupling means at the input and output sections, to facilitate coupling with modules having similar coupling means, a microstrip line section within the module, input transistion means for coupling energy from the waveguide input section to the microstrip line, output transistion means for coupling energy from the microstrip line to the waveguide output means, and an active device coupled to the microstrip line. The microstrip line facilitates both coupling to the active device and tuning of the module, and the waveguide sections provide for low losses and convenience of coupling to other modules.
In the illustrative embodiment of the invention, the transition means is a tapered or "fin-line" transition section formed on a common substrate with the microstrip section, and the microstrip line is formed on two substrates. One substrate supports the input transition and a section of microstrip line, and the other substrate supports the output transition and another section of microstrip line. The active device is located at the junction between the two substrates.
One useful embodiment of the module includes dual balanced amplifiers. The module in this case has two waveguide input sections and two waveguide output sections. There are also two input transition sections, two output transition sections, two microstrip line sections and two active amplifiers mounted on the microstrop lines. This module is used in conjunction with two quadrature hybrid couplers. These are conventional waveguide elements to convert a single-ended input signal to two balanced output signals differing in phase by ninety degrees, or to convert two balanced input signals separated by ninety degrees to a single-ended output signal. Although conventional from a waveguide design standpoint, the couplers both include coupling means identical with that on the amplifier module, to facilitate connection of the couplers to an amplifier module or to other types of modules. It will be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to amplifier modules. In a complete receiver system, amplifier modules, local oscillator modules, coupler modules, and other types of modules, may be interconnected to form the receiver system.
The principal advantages of the modular approach of the invention are, first, that the low losses and coupling convenience of a rectangular waveguide system are retained, but the advantages of microstrip lines are also included, namely ease of coupling to active devices and ease of tuning. The circuit module of the invention provides a high level of repeatability in manufacturing and assembly. Once the microstrip sections have been tuned, by selective addition to or removal of topographical features of the substrates, the resulting topography can be easily and permanently incorporated into the manufacturing process. Other advantages are a relatively low manufacturing cost, and minimization of the discontinuities between interconnected modules. yet another advantage is that decoupling capacitors between the modules are eliminated.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following more detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a number of connected circuit modules of the invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective veiw of a quadrature hybrid coupler configured in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a balanced amplifier module in accordance with the present invention; and
FIG. 4 is an enlarged plan view, with portions broken away, of the microstrip line and transition portions of the balanced amplifier of FIG. 3.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the present invention is concerned with extra-high-frequency (EHF) circuit modules and their interconnection. In the past, it has been a difficult and relatively costly process to provide for the interconnection of EHF circuit modules, such as amplifiers, couplers, and local oscillators, principally because of the difficulty of coupling waveguide structures to two-port active devices, such as amplifiers, and also because of the difficulty of tuning waveguides after testing and assembly. In spite of these drawbacks, the waveguide structures are desirable because of their low losses and ease of interconnection with each other and with test equipment.
In accordance with the invention, a radiofrequency (rf) circuit module is constructed to include waveguide sections for input and output, and also to include microstrip sections for coupling with active devices and for ease of tuning. FIG. 3 shows by way of example a balanced amplifier module, indicated generally by reference numeral 10, for use in the extra-high-frequency range. The module 10 includes a housing of two separable portions 12a and 12b held in an assembled position by set screws 14.
The bottom housing section 12a is basically a block of metal in which are formed two input channels 16 of rectangular cross section, each extending from one end face of the block to a rounded closed end, and two similarly shaped output channels 18, each extending from the opposite end face, aligned with a corresponding one of the input channels, and also terminating in a rounded closed end. The lower portion 12a has an upper surface 20 that interfaces with the upper portion 12b. The upper surface 20 has two parallel recesses 22 extending the full length of the portion 12a and having a width greater than the channels 16 and 18. Thus the recesses 22 leave a central raised rail 24 extending between the channels 16 and between the channels 18, and also leave raised areas of the surface 20 at each edge of the block parallel to the channels 16 and 18.
The upper half 12b of the housing has two parallel input channels 26 at one end and two parallel output channels 28 at its other end. The upper half 12b also has an opening 30 in a central position. As will be discussed, the opening 30 facilitates tuning of the device. When the halves of the housing 12 are assembled, the channels 16 and 26 together define a pair of input waveguides, and the channels 18 and 28 together define a pair of output waveguides.
The recesses 22 are designed to receive four rectangular substrates 32, 34, 36 and 38. Substrates 32 and 34 disposed in the input waveguides and substrates 36 and 38 are disposed in the output waveguides. The substrates 32 and 36 are aligned in the same recess and are separated by an integral spacer 40 in the center of the recess. Similarly, the substrates 34 and 38 are aligned in the other recess 22 and are separated by another spacer 42. Each of the substrates has a section of microstrip line 44 located at the end of the substrate furthest from the ends of the housing 12 from which the channels extend, that is to say nearest the center of the recesses 22. The microstrip line 44 includes a matching network 46.
Coupling from the microstrip sections to the waveguide sections is effected by a fin-line transition section 48 extending from the microstrip line out toward the outer end of the substrate. Basically, the fin-line section 48 includes a tapered portion of conductive material on top of the substrate, operating in conjunction with a tapered opening 50 in a ground plane 52 on the underside of each substrate, as shown for the substrate 36. At the outer edge of the substrate, energy is transmitted through the device in the manner of a waveguide, since there is no ground plane at that point, and the fin-line has tapered to zero width. As one progresses toward the center of the device, the fin-line increases in width, and so does the ground plane, thereby gradually effecting a transition from waveguided to microstrip transmission. The transition operates equally well in both directions, and is similar in principle to one described in a paper by J. H. C. VanHewven, entitled "A New Integrated Waveguide-Microstrip Transition," IEEE Trans., 1976, MTT-24, pp. 144-47.
An amplifier, indicated diagrammatically at 54 in FIG. 4, is located on the lower half 12a of the housing, between each pair of substrates. In the illustrative embodiment of the invention, the amplifier 54 is a field-effect transistor (FET) designed for operation at extra high frequencies, such as a gallium arsenide (GaAs) FET. The source terminal of the FET is bonded to the housing, and the gate and drain terminals are connected to the microstrip lines on either side of transistor. Direct-current biasing of the transistor 54 is provided by a dc bias circuit 56 extending in from the side of the substrate. A bias voltage is applied through an rf choke and through pins 58 extending through to a channel (not shown) in the lower housing 12a, to facilitate connection with a power supply.
The module 10 includes two precision dowel pins 60 at one end of the housing 12 and two similarly positioned holes (not shown) at the opposite end. These allow precise location and alignment of modules to be coupled together. Dowel pins 62 and holes 64 are also used to locate the upper and lower halves of the housing 12 for assembly.
The module 10 provides a convenient waveguide interface with other modules, but includes a microstrip section to simplify interface with the amplifiers 54, and to facilitate tuning of the module. Tuning of microstrip lines is a relatively conventional process, in which metal, usually in the form of gold ribbon, is bonded to discrete spots of metalization formed on the upper surface of the substrate. Once a matching network has been empirically formed in this manner, the topology of the matching network, which is indicated by reference numeral 46, can be permanently incorporated into the manufacturing process, so that a tuned network will be repeatably formed by photolithographic means. The initial tuning process is facilitated in the illustrative embodiment by the presence of the opening 30 in the upper portion 12b of the housing.
FIG. 2 shows a quadrature hybrid coupler 70 for use in conjunction with the amplifier of FIGS. 3 and 4. The coupler 70 is formed to include a lower block 72 and an upper block 74, having the same width as the housing 12 of the amplifier module 10. Each block has two rectangular openings 76 in one face and two similar openings 78 in the opposite face. The channels do not extend the full length of the blocks, but instead intersect with a central mixing chamber 80 in which there is positioned a central post 82. The waveguide principles of the hybrid coupler are conventional and not critical to the invention. Suffice to say that, when a single-ended input signal is applied to one input channel of the coupler, two balanced output signals are obtained from the opposite end of the coupler, the two output signals being separated by a ninety degree phase angle. In a typical application, a single-ended signal is passed through a hybrid coupler, and then the balanced signals are amplified in an amplifier module, such as the module 10. If a single-ended output signal is required, the outputs from the amplifier module are passed through another coupler, used in a reverse sense to convert a balanced double-ended amplifier output into a single-ended signal again.
FIG. 1 shows how six separate modules 90 can be coupled together in sequence to form a receiver or other type of EHF system. Each module 90 includes an integral outer skirt 92, depending from each side of the housing of the module. When the interconnected modules 90 are placed in an enclosure (not shown), the skirts 92 form sidewalls of a channel, which may be used to supply dc bias signals to the amplifiers, or for other purposes.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the present invention represents a significant advance in the field of circuit modules for use at extra high frequencies. In particular, the invention provides a modular technique for constructing EHF circuitry, taking advantage of the convenience and low losses of waveguide structures, but also taking advntage of the tunability of internal microstrip sections and the greater ease with which microstrip can be coupled to two-port active devices. The resulting structure is low in cost and can be reliably fabricated in a repeatable manner. Finally, the elimination of decoupling capacitors effects a further reduction in cost over conventional construction techniques. It will also be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described in detail for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited except as by the appended claims.
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A structure for extra-high-frequency circuit modules, to take advantage of the low losses and convenience of assembly of waveguides, and at the same time to take advantage of the ease of tuning of microstrip lines. Each module is adapted to be conveniently connectable to others in a cascade arrangement, and each presents a waveguide interface to adjacent modules. If a module is to contain an active device, such as an amplifier, the module incorporates a microstrip section and two transition sections to couple the microstrip section to the waveguides at input and output. The microstrip section is easily tunable and is easier to couple to the active device.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This is a divisional of copending application Ser. No. 08/814,562 filed on Mar. 11, 1997, Pat. No. 5,882,131.
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to ink-jet printers with paper advancing mechanisms, and more particularly to an improved drive roller for low-cost ink-jet printers
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Grit rollers have been employed to provide a gripping surface on printer drive rollers to advance the paper through the paper path and prevent slippage of the paper. These rollers have a rough surface defined by grit adhered to a surface, can have a relatively small diameter, and work well for the intended purpose. Grit rollers are relatively expensive, and would unduly add to the cost of low cost, high volume printers.
Rubber surfaced rollers have also been used as drive rollers for printers, and are relatively inexpensive, but are not as accurate as grit rollers, and also have the disadvantage of relatively large diameter error, requiring a larger roller diameter to compensate for the lack of tolerances.
Another problem of drive rollers is that of attachment of the bearings for the drive rollers. Bearings are expensive, and attachment to the drive rollers can lead to damage.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a drive roller for a printer which is accurate and with relatively diameter error, and is relatively inexpensive to build.
It would further be advantageous to provide an inexpensive technique for attaching the bearings to the drive roller in such a way as to avoid the need for high tolerances.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A drive roller for an ink-jet printer is described which overcomes the foregoing limitations. The drive roller has a media engaging surface that is roughened by grit blasting along an entire media engaging longitudinal peripheral extent. The surface is hardened by anodizing. The roller is relatively inexpensive to fabricate yet has a small diameter error and high traction to provide highly accurate media positioning performance. The drive roller rotates about shaft mounted bearings. The shaft journal is formed with a small raised bump, which has very loose diametrical tolerance requirements, but is short in comparison to the bearing length dimension. When the bearing is press fit onto the shaft journal, the material forming the raised bump is sheared by the bearing. The sheared material drops into a recess on the journal, and does not interfere with the axial positioning of the bearing. The axial position of the bearing is controlled by placing the bearing next to a shoulder formed on the shaft.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows in simplified side view an exemplary printer 30 using a drive roller in accordance with this invention.
FIG. 2 is a simplified flow diagram showing exemplary steps in the fabrication of a drive roller in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 3 is a front view of a drive roller in a preliminary state of fabrication in accordance with the invention.
FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate the respective left and right roller shaft journals of the unfinished roller in enlarged view.
FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary grit blasting apparatus 100 suitable for grit blasting the aluminum drive roller surface.
FIG. 7 is a front view of the drive roller in a finished form, prior to installation of the bearings.
FIG. 8 is a partial cross-sectional view of the end of the drive roller shaft, taken along line 8--8 of FIG. 7, and showing a bearing in a first position of a press fitting process.
FIGS. 9-11 are cross-sectional views similar to FIG. 7, showing further progressive positions of the bearing during the course of the press fitting process.
FIG. 12 is a front view of the finished drive roller part.
FIG. 13 is a front view of the finished drive roller after installation in a media drive system of the printer of FIG. 1.
FIG. 14 is a partial bottom view of the media drive system illustrated in FIG. 13.
FIG. 15 is a side view of the media drive system of FIG. 13.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
This invention relates to a drive roller used in the paper path of a printer used for making hard copies. In an exemplary embodiment, the printer is an ink-jet printer employing a traversing carriage holding one or more ink-jet print cartridges. A carriage scanning mechanism scans the carriage along a carriage scan axis generally transverse to the media path through the machine. A paper advancing apparatus is employed for advancing the media from an input tray through the print zone. The drive roller according to the present invention is used in the paper advancing apparatus.
FIG. 1 shows in simplified side view an exemplary printer 30 using a drive roller in accordance with this invention. The printer includes an input paper tray for holding a supply of paper or other media in sheet form. Upon command by the printer controller, a pick roller 34 engages the top sheet 20 of media in the tray 32, and advances it past a page guide 36 into the nip between a drive roller 50 and a pinch roller 38. In this exemplary embodiment, the printer 30 also includes a single sheet feed path, wherein a single sheet of paper or other media can be fed manually on door assembly 40, along lower shim 42 and into the nip between the drive roller and pinch roller. The drive roller 50 is motor-driven, and its direction of rotation can be reversed to the counter-clockwise direction if a single sheet is fed from the door assembly 40.
It is to be understood that the particular details of the printer 30 are merely illustrative, and that the drive roller of this invention has utility in other types of printers and paper handling apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a simplified flow diagram illustrating exemplary steps in the fabrication of a drive roller in accordance with this invention. The initial step 10 in this exemplary method is to machine a solid rod of aluminum into an unfinished form of the drive roller with a circumferential surface. Next, at step 12, the surface of the unfinished part is grit blasted to form a roughened media engaging surface. The surface is then anodized at step 14 to harden the roughened surface. The roller bearings are then installed at step 16.
FIG. 3 is a front view of a drive roller in a preliminary state of fabrication. The roller in this preliminary state shall be referred to as unfinished roller 50'. The unfinished roller has a substantial longitudinal extent portion, indicated by reference 52, which comes into contact with the print media. The roller 50 is machined from solid aluminum, and has a circular cross-section along the longitudinal extent portion 52 with a nominal diameter dimension D1 of 0.679 inch, in this exemplary embodiment. The longitudinal extent portion 52 of the unfinished roller 50' has a generally smooth surface indicated generally as surface 54', due to the machining process. However, in accordance with the invention, the surface 54' is processed by grit blasting to present a roughened surface with a nominal 400 microinches Ra, where Ra is the arithmetical mean deviation of the surface profile, i.e. the arithmetic mean of the absolute values of the profile deviations from the mean line. Other Ra surface roughnesses will also produce satisfactory traction results. Preferably, the surface profile will be in the range of 350 microinches to 700 microinches Ra. This is rough enough to hold the media without slippage, and at the same time is not so rough as to permanently mark the paper. The roller is then anodized so that it will not rust, and to harden the grit blasted surface so that it will have sufficient hardness to last the life of the printer.
FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary grit blasting apparatus 100 suitable for grit blasting the aluminum drive roller surface. In this case, the apparatus 100 includes a plurality of grit blasting nozzles 102 connected to a source of air pressure and aluminum oxide particles for directing a stream of particles in a spray pattern 104 onto the surface 54' of the roller. The system includes turning fixtures 106 for turning the rollers during the blasting process to present fresh surface areas to the spray nozzles. The fixtures include housings 108 and 110 which protect the ends of the rollers 50' outboard of the surface 54' from the grit blasting. In an exemplary embodiment, there are four nozzles 102 carried by fixture 112 arranged on a semicircle at 60 degree spacings, on a plane transverse to the roller axis when mounted in the apparatus 100, with the roller at the center of the semicircle, its surface spaced about 6 inches from the nozzles. The fixture 112 is moved along an axis parallel to the roller axis, to pass the nozzle array along the longitudinal extent of the roller surface to be grit blasted. In an exemplary embodiment, the roller is rotated at 30 RPM, plus or minus 1 RPM, and the nozzle array is moved from one end of the roller surface to the other end at a rate of 0.41 inches per second, plus or minus 0.1 inches per second. The aluminum oxide particle size for this exemplary embodiment is #16, and the nozzle pressure is 70-90 psi. The blasting process can be performed under computer control to obtain a uniform surface roughness on the surface 54'.
After the surface 54' is grit blasted to obtain the desired surface roughness, the surface 54' is anodized to harden the surface. In this exemplary embodiment, the surface is anodized to a depth between 7.6 and 10.1 microinches, using a Type II, clear, Class One anodizing process.
After anodizing is completed, the roller 54' has been finished to provide a finished roller part, indicated in FIG. 7 as element 50, with a roughened surface 54. The external roughened surface 54 is an integral part of the roller 50, without the need for adhesives or other forms of adhering particles to a surface to provide the roughness desired for gripping the paper. The roller has been fabricated from a single rod of aluminum stock. The advantages of the roller 50 in accordance with the invention are its relatively low cost and its accuracy. The accuracy is achieved because of the relative high tolerances on the roller diameter and the hardness of the aluminum in relation to that of a rubber/elastomeric coating for the roller. The hardness results in a constant diameter even when the roller is loaded with force.
The shaft 60 of the roller 50 is mounted on small bearings 80, 90 for mounting in the roller drive apparatus of the printer 30, as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. These small bearings need high tolerances, e.g. on the order of 0.0003 inches on the diameter of the shaft journal to prevent damage in the bearing mounting process. To machine the shaft to such high tolerances is expensive. A new technique of mounting the bearings on the shaft journal is provided, in accordance with a further aspect of this invention.
FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate the respective roller shaft journals of the unfinished roller 50' in enlarged view. FIG. 3 shows the left shaft portion 60A, with journal portions 62A, 64A and 66A. The shaft and journal portions are all formed integrally from machining a solid rod of aluminum. However, in accordance with this aspect of the invention, the journal portions 62A, 64A and 66A have diametrical dimensions D2, D3 and D4, wherein D3 is slightly larger than D2, and D2 is slightly larger than D4. In an exemplary embodiment, nominal dimensions for D2, D3 and D4 are 0.197 inch, 0.198 inch and 0.176 inch. Journal portion 64A therefor defines a raised mass or bump of aluminum. A shoulder 68A is defined at the inner edge of journal portion 66A.
In a similar fashion, the right shaft portion 60B is shown in FIG. 5, with journal portions 62B, 64B and 66B, again having respective diametrical dimensions D2, D3 and D4 and with shoulder 68B.
The journal portions 64A and 64B have a length L1. The journal portions 66A and 66B have a length L2. In this exemplary embodiment, L1 is 0.035 inch, and L2 is 0.032 inches. These lengths are related to the thickness of the bearing to be press fit into place, as illustrated in detail in FIGS. 8-11, which illustrate sequential positions of a bearing 80 as it is being press fit onto the right shaft journal.
The bearing 80 includes an inner race member 82, and outer race member 84, and a plurality of ball bearings 86 which ride in the race between the inner and outer race members. The inner race member 82 has an inner diameter D5, and a width dimension W. In this exemplary embodiment, the dimension D5 is 0.1969 inch, and the dimension W is 0.098 inch. Note that W is larger than L1 and L2. The dimension D2, i.e. the diameter of the journal portion 62B is nominally slightly smaller than the bearing inner diameter D5, and so the bearing 80 can readily be pressed onto the shaft journal portion 62B, as shown in FIG. 8. As the bearing moves onto the journal, however, the face 82A of the inner race member 82 comes into contact with the raised bump defined by journal portion 64B. As pressure is exerted by the press tool, the relatively hard steel race member 82 shears the relatively soft aluminum defining the raised bump, as shown in FIG. 9, shearing a mass of material 88. As the bearing is pressed onto the journal, the mass of material 88 is pushed into the journal shaft recess defined by the journal portion 66B, with a diameter smaller than the portion 64B, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, until the bearing face 82 comes into contact with shoulder 68B. At this point, the axial position of the bearing on the shaft is precisely registered. Moreover, the bearing is tightly fitted onto the shaft, with only a low tolerance initial fit. It will be seen that the length L1 of the raised bump is substantially less than the width dimension of the bearing, leaving sufficient volume in the recess formed by journal portion 66B to accept the sheared material 88.
A similar press fit process is used to press fit the bearing 90 onto the left shaft journal. The result is illustrated in FIG. 12, which shows both bearings 80 and 90 in place adjacent the shaft ends. A drive gear 92 is also press fit onto the left end of the shaft, as shown in FIG. 13. The drive roller can then be assembled into the chassis and drive apparatus of the printer.
FIGS. 13-15 illustrate an exemplary printer media drive apparatus for driving the roller 50. The shaft bearings 80 and 90 are fitted to bearing receptacle structures 204 and 206, which secure the roller in position. A stepper motor 200 has a worm roller gear 202 fitted on its shaft. The gear 202 engages the gear 92 mounted at the roller shaft, and thus allows the stepper motor to rotationally drive the roller 50. It is understood that the above-described embodiments are merely illustrative of the possible specific embodiments which may represent principles of the present invention. Other arrangements may readily be devised in accordance with these principles by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
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A drive roller for an ink-jet printer. The drive roller has a media engaging surface that is roughened by grit blasting along an entire media engaging longitudinal peripheral extent. The surface is hardened by anodizing. The roller is relatively inexpensive to fabricate yet has a small error on diameter and run out, and high traction due to the surface roughness, to provide highly accurate media positioning performance. The drive roller rotates about shaft mounted bearings. The shaft journal is formed with a small raised bump, which has very loose diametrical tolerance requirements, but is short in comparison to the bearing length dimension. When the bearing is press fit onto the shaft journal, the material forming the raised bump is sheared by the bearing. The sheared material drops into a recess on the journal, and does not interfere with the axial positioning of the bearing. The axial position of the bearing is controlled by placing the bearing next to a shoulder formed on the shaft.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spinning apparatus, and in particular a spinning apparatus for producing a spun yarn by using swirling air currents to twist a non-twisted short staple fiber bundle drafted by a drafting unit.
2. Description of Related Art
A known spinning apparatus comprises a nozzle block provided with nozzles for jetting air to induce swirling air currents that act on a fiber bundle delivered from a drafting unit. Such known spinning apparatus includes a hollow spindle and a guide member disposed with its extremity located near the inlet end of the hollow spindle, and capable of twisting the non-twisted fiber bundle by the agency of the swirling air currents to produce a spun yarn.
One example of such a known spinning apparatus is shown in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 5, a needle holder 4' which holds a guide member 5 may be placed at the inlet of a nozzle block 2. The needle holder 4' may be formed by cutting a portion of a cylindrical body provided with a projection at one end thereof along a plane parallel to and spaced from the axis of the cylindrical body. A fiber bundle F delivered from a drafting unit advances into the nozzle block 2 through a fiber bundle inlet 13 defined by the inner circumference of the nozzle block 2 and the flat guide surface of the needle holder 4'.
In this known spinning apparatus, vortices are generated in the swirling air currents swirling around the guide member 5, as indicated by the clockwise directed arrow in the lower portion of FIG. 5. These vortices urge some of the component fibers of the fiber bundle F toward the "wrong" side of the guide member 5. Consequently, the arrangement of the binding fibers is disturbed, which in turn may reduce the strength of the resultant spun yarn.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a spinning apparatus for twisting a fiber bundle moving around a guide member with swirling air currents that is capable of reducing or eliminating the swirling vortices that would otherwise dishevel the fiber bundle and that is consequently capable of producing a spun yarn having a relatively higher strength.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, these and other objectives are achieved by providing a spinning apparatus that uses a swirling air current to twist a short, non-twisted staple fiber bundle drafted by a drafting device to produce a spun yarn. In its preferred embodiment the spinning apparatus comprises a number of elements in combination, including a nozzle block having nozzles for providing swirling air currents that act on a fiber bundle delivered from a drafting unit, a needle holder having a twisting guide surface that gently twists around the longitudinal axis of the needle holder and that defines a fiber bundle passage, a rotary or stationary hollow spindle, and a guide member associated with the needle holder and projecting toward the inlet of the hollow spindle.
In its preferred embodiment, the fiber bundle passage has a cross sectional area which gradually decreases at a substantially fixed rate toward the front of the passage. The guide surface of the needle holder defining the fiber bundle passage is twisted and has a substantially smooth shape without step-like transitions. Consequently, the swirling air currents are substantially undisturbed and virtually no vortices are generated in the swirling air currents. Hence, a fiber bundle delivered from a drafting unit and drawn into the spinning apparatus by currents of air blown through nozzles is caused to turn smoothly by the swirling air currents without being disheveled. The leading ends of substantially all of the component fibers of the fiber bundle advance around the guide member and are drawn into the hollow spindle by the fibers of the preceding portion of the fiber bundle being twisted into a spun yarn. The trailing ends of the fibers are inverted at the inlet of the hollow spindle, separated from each other, and exposed to the swirling currents of air blown through the nozzles. The trailing ends of the fibers are thereby caused to twist around the portion of the fiber bundle being converted into a spun yarn to form a spun yarn like an actually twisted spun yarn.
A spun yarn produced by a spinning apparatus in accordance with the present invention generally has a relatively large number of binding fibers. Such a spun yarn compares favorably with a spun yarn produced by a ring spinning frame with respect to both appearance and strength. A spun yarn produced by a spinning apparatus in accordance with the present invention tends to have a more uniform appearance, less unevenness, a higher strength and more twists than a spun yarn produced by known spinning apparatus.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
A detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals designate corresponding parts in the several figures.
FIG. 1 shows a side view illustrating an example of a drafting unit, a delivery roller, and a spinning apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows a longitudinal sectional view of an example of a spinning apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 3(a), 3(b), 3(c) and 3(d) show a perspective view, a plan view, a front view and a side view, respectively, of an example of a needle holder that may be included in a spinning apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 shows a perspective view that is of assistance in explaining a mode of movement of a fiber bundle in the vicinity of an inlet of a spinning apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of an inlet of a known spinning apparatus.
FIG. 6 shows a side view of an example of a spindle for use in a spinning apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 shows an end view of the spindle illustrated in FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of an example of a spinning apparatus in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The following detailed description is of the best presently contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention. The scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a drafting device D comprising a front or first roller Rf, a second roller R2 provided with a control apron, a third roller R3 and a back roller Rb. A preferred embodiment of a spinning device S in accordance with the present invention may be disposed between the front roller Rf of the drafting device D and a delivery roller Rd.
Referring to FIG. 2, a preferred embodiment of a spinning device S in accordance with the present invention may comprise a nozzle block 2 disposed within a casing 1 located below the drafting device D. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the casing 1 comprises a lower casing 1a and an upper casing 1b. The nozzle block 2 is provided with nozzles 3. A needle holder 4 is disposed at the inlet end of the nozzle block 2. The needle holder 4 holds a guide member 5. A rotary spindle 6 having an inlet extends into the casing 1.
In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the spindle 6 defines a substantially coaxial fiber bundle passage 7. The inlet end 6a of the spindle 6 has a relatively small diameter. The spindle 6 is preferably tapered toward the inlet end 6a to form a conical portion 6b.
Still referring to FIG. 2, the illustrated preferred embodiment includes a substantially cylindrical cavity 8 having a relatively small diameter formed in a portion of the nozzle block 2 that surrounds the tapered portion of the spindle 6, including the inlet end 6a. The diameter of the back end of the cavity 8 is slightly greater than that of the back end of the spindle 6. An annular chamber 9 formed in the lower casing la communicates with both the cavity 8 and a tangential air outlet 10.
In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, a substantially annular air accumulating chamber 11 is formed between the nozzle block 2 and the upper casing 1b. The nozzle block 2 is provided with four nozzles 3 that are tangential to the cavity 8. The nozzles 3 are slightly inclined in the direction of movement of the fiber bundle and open into the cavity 8 at positions that are slightly spaced from the inlet end 6a of the spindle 6. A pipe (not shown) is connected to an inlet port (not shown) that communicates with the air accumulating chamber 11. The nozzles 3 are directed in the rotating direction of the spindle 6.
In the illustrated embodiment, compressed air is supplied through the pipe into the air accumulating chamber 11. The compressed air is jetted into the cavity 8 to produce rapid swirling air currents in the vicinity of the inlet 6a of the spindle 6. The swirling air currents produced within the cavity 8 whirl in the annular chamber 9 and flow outside through the air outlet 10. The swirling air currents produce suction air currents that flow from the vicinity of the front roller Rf into the casing 1.
Referring to FIG. 3, the illustrated preferred embodiment of the needle holder 4 has a shape substantially resembling a truncated circular cone. The needle holder 4 has a twisted guide surface that gently twists around the longitudinal axis of the needle holder 4 in the swirling direction of the swirling air currents. The needle holder 4 is provided with a center hole 4a in the front end thereof. A pin-like guide member 5 is fixedly disposed in the center hole 4a.
In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the back edge of the twisting guide surface at the back end of the needle holder 4 is indicated at 4b. The front edge of the twisting guide surface at the front end of the needle holder 4 is indicated at 4c. The front edge 4c intersects the central axis of the needle holder 4. The back edge 4b is spaced from the central axis of the needle holder 4. The angle of twist between the back edge 4b and the front edge is preferably in the range of from 30° to 45°. Spinning is possible with the angle of twist being in the range of from 20° to 100°, but 30° to 40° is preferable. A greater twist angle is generally desirable for spinning a spun yarn having a greater yarn count.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the illustrated embodiment the needle holder 4 is plugged into a tapered hole formed in the back end of the nozzle block 2. The extremity of the guide member 5 that projects from the center of the front end of the needle holder 4 is located close to the inlet end 6a of the spindle 6. A twisting fiber bundle passage 13 is formed between the twisting guide surface of the needle holder 4 and the inner circumference of the nozzle block 2.
Still referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the illustrated needle holder 4 has a relatively smooth shape without any step-like transitions. The illustrated twisting fiber bundle passage 13 is relatively longer than that defined by the flat fiber bundle guide surface of a known needle holder. (Compare, for example, the needle holder shown in FIG. 4 and the prior art structure shown in FIG. 5). The cross sectional area of the needle holder 4 decreases at a substantially fixed rate toward the front. Accordingly, virtually no vortices are produced in the swirling currents of air that are generated via the nozzles 3. Consequently, the fiber bundle F advances smoothly together with the swirling air currents without being disheveled, and the component fibers of the fiber bundle F are gathered gradually as the fiber bundle advances (as shown, for example, in FIG. 4). Accordingly, spun yarn produced by a spinning device in accordance with the present invention, as compared with spun yarn produced by a known spinning device, is generally more uniform in appearance and thickness and has less unevenness (IPI) and more strength. The number of twists inserted in a spun yarn produced by a spinning device in accordance with the present invention is generally greater than the number of twists inserted in a spun yarn produced by a known spinning device.
The following is a description of an example of a device which may be used for driving the spindle 6.
Again referring to the preferred embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, the spindle driving device is supported in a pneumatic bearing having a bearing casing 14. The bearing casing 14 defines air inlet ports 14c. The pneumatic bearing is also provided with cylindrical bushings 17. The cylindrical bushings 17 define air chambers 17a and jet nozzles 17b. Compressed air is supplied via the air inlet ports 14c and flows through the air chambers 17a, the jet nozzles 17b, and the small clearance between the spindle 6 and the bushings 17.
In the illustrated preferred embodiment, a cylindrical bushing 16 is disposed in the bearing casing 14. The bushing 16 is provided with a compressed air jetting hole 16a that is tangent to the inner circumference of the bushing 16, and an air discharge hole 16b. The bearing casing 14 is provided with a compressed air inlet port 14a that communicates with the compressed air jetting hole 16a, and an air discharge port 14b that communicates with the air discharge hole 16b.
Referring now to FIGS. 2, 6 and 7, the illustrated spindle 6 is provided with at least one substantially semicircular recess 6c in a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the spindle 6 generally corresponding in position to the compressed air jetting hole 16a. In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 a plurality of recesses 6c are shown. In the illustrated embodiment the substantially semicircular recesses 6c do not extend through the wall of the spindle 6, but instead merely establish a series of substantially spherical or semispherical depressions in the exterior wall of the spindle.
In operation, compressed air supplied via the inlet port 14a is jetted through the compressed air jetting hole 16a against the recesses 6c of the spindle 6 to thereby rotate the spindle 6. As a result primarily of frictional contact between the fibers within the spindle and the inner wall of the spindle, the fibers within the spindle are caused to rotate by the rotation of the spindle. The compressed air is discharged through the air discharge hole 16b and the air discharge port 14b.
The spindle 6 may be rotated for assistance in twisting the fiber bundle. However, the spindle 6 need not necessarily be rotated, and some types of yarn do not require the rotation of the spindle 6.
Referring again to the preferred embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4, the spinning device draws therein the fiber bundle F delivered from the drafting device D by the agency of the air currents jetted through the nozzles 3. Since the sectional area of the fiber bundle guide passage 13 decreases toward the front at a substantially fixed rate and the fiber bundle guide passage 13 is twisted, virtually no vortices are produced in the swirling air currents. Consequently, the fiber bundle F is not disheveled and moves smoothly together with the swirling air currents. The leading ends of virtually all the component fibers of the fiber bundle F are drawn around the guide member 5 into the rotating spindle 6 by the preceding portion of the fiber bundle F being converted into a spun yarn. The trailing portions of the component fibers of the fiber bundle F are inverted at the inlet end of the spindle 6 and are separated from each other by the axial component of the currents of air jetted through the nozzles 3. Then, the separated trailing end portions of the fibers are twisted around the portion of the fiber bundle F being converted into a spun yarn by the swirling currents of air jetted through the nozzles 3. Thus, a spun yarn consisting of core fibers and spiral fibers binding the core fibers like an actually twisted spun yarn can be produced.
Since spun yarn produced by a spinning device in accordance with the present invention generally has a relatively large number of binding fibers, the strength and appearance of the spun yarn compares favorably with spun yarn produced by a ring spinning frame. Since the needle holder has a generally smooth shape without step-like transitions and defines a comparatively longer fiber bundle passage having a sectional area decreasing toward the front at a substantially fixed rate, the production of vortices in the swirling air current is essentially eliminated, the fiber bundle is not disheveled, and the fiber bundle is able to move smoothly together with the swirling air in the spinning device. Consequently, spun yarn produced by a spinning device in accordance with the present invention has a more uniform, less uneven appearance, a higher strength and more twists than that produced by an equivalent known spinning device.
The table below provides a comparison of spinning yarn data between a prior art yarn in which there is no twist and an example of a yarn made in accordance with the present invention:
______________________________________ PRIOR ART INVENTION______________________________________YARN NO TWIST 45° TWISTCHARACTERISTICSSTRENGTH (gr/Tex) 10.97 12.93NUMBER OF TWISTS 884 998IN YARN (T/M)NEP (+200%/Km) 1000 855______________________________________
In the example provided in the above table, the spinning conditions were as follows: Spinning yarn count: Ne 40; Nozzle pressure: 3 Kgf/cm 2 ; Spinning speed 250 m/min.
The presently disclosed embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims, rather than the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.
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A spinning apparatus for producing a spun yarn by using swirling air currents to twist a non-twisted short staple fiber bundle drafted by a drafting unit. A nozzle block having at least one nozzle provides a swirling air current that acts upon the fiber bundle. A fiber bundle passage is defined by the nozzle block and a needle holder having a substantially central, longitudinal axis and a guide surface that twists relative to the longitudinal axis. A guide member associated with the needle holder projects toward the inlet of a hollow spindle.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/223,169 filed on Aug. 19, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,975,244, which is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/794,964 filed on Feb. 27, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,626,253, each of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drilling fluid telemetry systems and, more particularly, to a telemetry system incorporating an oscillating shear valve for modulating the pressure of a drilling fluid circulating in a drill string within a well bore.
2. Description of the Related Art
Drilling fluid telemetry systems, generally referred to as mud pulse systems, are particularly adapted for telemetry of information from the bottom of a borehole to the surface of the earth during oil well drilling operations. The information telemetered often includes, but is not limited to, parameters of pressure, temperature, direction and deviation of the well bore. Other parameter include logging data such as resistivity of the various layers, sonic density, porosity, induction, self potential and pressure gradients. This information is critical to efficiency in the drilling operation.
Mud pulse valves must operate under extremely high static downhole pressures, high temperatures, high flow rates and various erosive flow types. At these conditions, the valve must be able to create pressure pulses of around 100–300 psi.
Different types of valve systems are used to generate downhole pressure pulses. Valves that open and close a bypass from the inside of the drill string to the wellbore annulus create negative pressure pulses, for example see U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,595. Valves that use a controlled restriction placed in the circulating mud stream are commonly referred to as positive pulse systems, for example see U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,217.
The oil drilling industries need is to effectively increase mud pulse data transmission rates to accomodate the ever increasing amount of measured downhole data. The major disadvantage of available mud pulse valves is the low data transmission rate. Increasing the data rate with available valve types leads to unacceptably large power consumption, unacceptable pulse distortion, or may be physically impractical due to erosion, washing, and abrasive wear. Because of their low activation speed, nearly all existing mud pulse valves are only capable of generating discrete pulses. To effectively use carrier waves to send frequency shift (FSK) or phase shift (PSK) coded signals to the surface, the actuation speed must be increased and fully controlled.
Another example for a negative pulsing valve is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,037. This technology includes a downhole valve for venting a portion of the circulating fluid from the interior of the drill string to the annular space between the pipe string and the borehole wall. Drilling fluids are circulated down the inside of the drill string, out through the drill bit and up the annular space to surface. By momentarily venting a portion of the fluid flow out a lateral port, an instantaneous pressure drop is produced and is detectable at the surface to provide an indication of the downhole venting. A downhole instrument is arranged to generate a signal or mechanical action upon the occurrence of a downhole detected event to produce the above described venting. The downhole valve disclosed is defined in part by a valve seat having an inlet and outlet and a valve stem movable to and away from the inlet end of the valve seat in a linear path with the drill string.
All negative pulsing valves need a certain high differential pressure below the valve to create sufficient pressure drop when the valve is open. Because of this high differential pressure, negative pulse valves are more prone to washing. In general, it is not desirable to bypass flow above the bit into the annulus. Therefore it must be ensured, that the valve is able to completely close the bypass. With each actuation, the valve hits against the valve seat. Because of this impact, negative pulsing valves are more prone to mechanical and abrasive wear than positive pulsing valves.
Positive pulsing valves might, but do not need to, fully close the flow path for operation. Positive poppet type valves are less prone to wear out the valve seat. The main forces acting on positive poppet valves are hydraulic forces, because the valves open or close axially against the flow stream. To reduce the actuation power some poppet valves are hydraulically powered as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,217. Hereby the main valve is indirectly operated by a pilot valve. The low power consumption pilot valve closes a flow restriction, which activates the main valve to create the pressure drop. The power consumption of this kind of valve is very small. The disadvantage of this valve is the passive operated main valve. With high actuation rates the passive main valve is not able to follow the active operated pilot valve. The pulse signal generated is highly distorted and hardly detectable at the surface.
Rotating disc valves open and close flow channels perpendicular to the flow stream. Hydraulic forces acting against the valve are smaller than for poppet type valves. With increasing actuation speed, dynamic forces of inertia are the main power consuming forces. U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,968 describes a rotating valve for the purpose to transmit frequency shift key (FSK) or phase shift key (PSK) coded signals. The valve uses a rotating disc and a non-rotating stator with a number of corresponding slots. The rotor is continuously driven by an electrical motor. Depending on the motor speed, a certain frequency of pressure pulses are created in the flow as the rotor intermittently interrupts the fluid flow. Motor speed changes are required to change the pressure pulse frequency to allow FSK or PSK type signals. There are several pulses per rotor revolution, corresponding to the number of slots in the rotor and stator. To change the phase or frequency requires the rotor to increase or decrease in speed. This may take a rotor revolution to overcome the rotational inertia and to achieve the new phase or frequency, thereby requiring several pulse cycles to make the transition. Amplitude coding of the signal is inherently not possible with this kind of continuously rotating device. In order to change the frequency or phase, large moments of inertia, associated with the motor, must be overcome, requiring a substantial amount of power. When continuously rotated at a certain speed, a turbine might be used or a gear might be included to reduce power consumption of the system. On the other hand, both options dramatically increase the inertia and power consumption of the system when changing from one to another speed for signal coding. Another advantage of the oscillating shear valve is the option to use more sophisticated coding schemes than just binary coding. With the fast switching speed and large bandwidth of the oscillating shear valve, multivalent codes are possible (e.g. three different conditions to encode the signal). The large bandwidth also enables the operator to use chirps and sweeps to encode signals.
The aforesaid examples illustrate some of the critical considerations that exist in the application of a fast acting valve for generating a pressure pulse. Other considerations in the use of these systems for borehole operations involve the extreme impact forces, dynamic (vibrational) energies, existing in a moving drill string. The result is excessive wear, fatigue, and failure in operating parts of the system. The particular difficulties encountered in a drill string environment, including the requirement for a long lasting system to prevent premature malfunction and replacement of parts, require a robust and reliable valve system.
The methods and apparatus of the present invention overcome the foregoing disadvantages of the prior art by providing a novel mud pulse telemetry system utilizing a rotational oscillating shear valve.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention contemplates a mud pulse telemetry system utilizing an oscillating shear valve system for generating pressure pulses in the drilling fluid circulating in a drill string in a well bore. In one aspect of the invention, a mud pulse telemetry system comprises a drillstring having a drilling fluid flowing therein, where the drill string extends in a borehole from a drilling rig to a downhole location. A non-rotating stator is disposed in the flowing drilling fluid, the stator having a plurality of flow passages to channel the drilling fluid. A rotor is disposed in the flowing drilling fluid proximate the stator, the rotor having a plurality of flow passages. A motor driven gear system is adapted to drive the rotor in a rotationally oscillating manner for generating pressure fluctuations in the drilling fluid.
In another aspect, a method for providing a high data rate in a mud pulse telemetry system by generating a fast transition in a mud pulse telemetry multivalent encoding scheme, wherein the combination of an amplitude shift key encoding (ASK) scheme and a frequency shift key encoding scheme (FSK) comprises driving a rotor in an oscillatory periodic motion through at least one first predetermined rotational angle at at least one first frequency generating at least one first pulse amplitude at the at least one first frequency. A drive signal is changed to drive the rotor in an oscillatory periodic motion through at least one second predetermined rotational angle at at least one second predetermined frequency according to the multivalent encoding scheme. At least one second pulse amplitude at the at least one second frequency is attained in no more than one rotor oscillatory period.
Examples of the more important features of the invention thus have been summarized rather broadly in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the contributions to the art may be appreciated. There are, of course, additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject of the claims appended hereto.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For detailed understanding of the present invention, references should be made to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like elements have been given like numerals, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a drilling rig engaged in drilling operations;
FIG. 2 is a schematic of an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 a is a schematic of a typical torque signature acting on an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 b is a schematic of a magnetic spring assembly according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 c is a cross section view of the magnetic spring assembly of FIG. 3 b;
FIG. 3 d is a schematic of a shaped torque profile according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is schematic which describes Phase Shift Key encoding using an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a schematic which describes Frequency Shift Key encoding using an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 a illustrates a continuously rotating shear valve;
FIG. 6 b illustrates an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 c illustrates the jamming tendency of a continuously rotating shear valve;
FIG. 6 d illustrates the anti-jamming feature of an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a schematic which describes a combination of a Frequency Shift Key and an Amplitude Shift Key encoding using an oscillating shear valve according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8A is a schematic of an oscillating shear valve incorporating a motor-gear system combination for oscillating the shear valve rotor according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8B is a section view through the gear system of FIG. 8A ;
FIG. 8C is a schematic showing the torque limits for a motor driven—versus a motor-gear driven system;
FIG. 9A is a schematic of an oscillating shear valve incorporating a motor-cam shaft gear combination according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9B is a section view through the gear system section of FIG. 9A ;
FIG. 9C shows a mechanism to change the eccentricity and therefore the resulting oscillation angle of the gear system according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 9D shows an example of a cam shaft gear torque vs. speed ratio according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 10 shows an example of multivalent coding according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 11 shows an example of using chirps to encode a signal according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 12 shows an example of a measured, time-varying frequency signal at the location of a receiver according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 13 shows another example of a measured time varying frequency signal at the location of a receiver at another location different from that of FIG. 12 according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 14 shows discrete signals of different shapes according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a drilling rig 1 engaged in drilling operations. Drilling fluid 31 , also called drilling mud, is circulated by pump 12 through the drill string 9 down through the bottom hole assembly (BHA) 10 , through the drill bit 11 and back to the surface through the annulus 15 between the drill string 9 and the borehole wall 16 . The BHA 10 may comprise any of a number of sensor modules 17 , 20 , 22 which may include formation evaluation sensors and directional sensors. These sensors are well known in the art and are not described further. The BHA 10 also contains a pulser assembly 19 which induces pressure fluctuations in the mud flow. The pressure fluctuations, or pulses, propagate to the surface through the mud flow in the drill string 9 and are detected at the surface by a sensor 18 and a control unit 24 . The sensor 18 is connected to the flow line 13 and may be a pressure transducer, or alternatively, may be a flow transducer.
FIG. 2 a is a schematic view of the pulser, also called an oscillating shear valve, assembly 19 , for mud pulse telemetry. The pulser assembly 19 is located in the inner bore of the tool housing 101 . The housing 101 may be a bored drill collar in the bottom hole assembly 10 , or, alternatively, a separate housing adapted to fit into a drill collar bore. The drilling fluid 31 flows through the stator 102 and rotor 103 and passes through the annulus between the pulser housing 108 and the inner diameter of the tool housing 101 .
The stator 102 , see FIGS. 2 a and 2 b , is fixed with respect to the tool housing 101 and to the pulser housing 108 and has multiple lengthwise flow passages 120 . The rotor 103 , see FIGS. 2 a and 2 c , is disk shaped with notched blades 130 creating flow passages 125 similar in size and shape to the flow passages 120 in the stator 102 . Alternatively, the flow passages 120 and 125 may be holes through the stator 102 and the rotor 103 , respectively. The rotor passages 125 are adapted such that they can be aligned, at one angular position with the stator passages 120 to create a straight through flow path. The rotor 103 is positioned in close proximity to the stator 102 and is adapted to rotationally oscillate. An angular displacement of the rotor 103 with respect to the stator 102 changes the effective flow area creating pressure fluctuations in the circulated mud column. To achieve one pressure cycle it is necessary to open and close the flow channel by changing the angular positioning of the rotor blades 130 with respect to the stator flow passage 120 . This can be done with an oscillating movement of the rotor 103 . Rotor blades 130 are rotated in a first direction until the flow area is fully or partly restricted. This creates a pressure increase. They are then rotated in the opposite direction to open the flow path again. This creates a pressure decrease. The required angular displacement depends on the design of the rotor 103 and stator 102 . The more flow paths the rotor 103 incorporates, the less the angular displacement required to create a pressure fluctuation is. A small actuation angle to create the pressure drop is desirable. The power required to accelerate the rotor 103 is proportional to the angular displacement. The lower the angular displacement is, the lower the required actuation power to accelerate or decelerate the rotor 103 is. As an example, with eight flow openings on the rotor 103 and on the stator 102 , an angular displacement of approximately 22.5° is used to create the pressure drop. This keeps the actuation energy relatively small at high pulse frequencies. Note that it is not necessary to completely block the flow to create a pressure pulse and therefore different amounts of blockage, or angular rotation, create different pulse amplitudes.
The rotor 103 is attached to shaft 106 . Shaft 106 passes through a flexible bellows 107 and fits through bearings 109 which fix the shaft in radial and axial location with respect to housing 108 . The shaft is connected to a electrical motor 104 , which may be a reversible brushless DC motor, a servomotor, or a stepper motor. The motor 104 is electronically controlled, by circuitry in the electronics module 135 , to allow the rotor 103 to be precisely driven in either direction. The precise control of the rotor 103 position provides for specific shaping of the generated pressure pulse. Such motors are commercially available and are not discussed further. The electronics module 135 may contain a programmable processor which can be preprogrammed to transmit data utilizing any of a number of encoding schemes which include, but are not limited to, Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK), Frequency Shift Keying (FSK), or Phase Shift Keying (PSK) or the combination of these techniques.
In one preferred embodiment, the tool housing 101 has pressure sensors, not shown, mounted in locations above and below the pulser assembly, with the sensing surface exposed to the fluid in the drill string bore. These sensors are powered by the electronics module 135 and can be for receiving surface transmitted pressure pulses. The processor in the electronics module 135 may be programmed to alter the data encoding parameters based on surface transmitted pulses. The encoding parameters can include type of encoding scheme, baseline pulse amplitude, baseline frequency, or other parameters affecting the encoding of data.
The entire pulser housing 108 is filled with appropriate lubricant 111 to lubricate the bearings 109 and to pressure compensate the internal pulser housing 108 pressure with the downhole pressure of the drilling mud 31 . The bearings 109 are typical anti-friction bearings known in the art and are not described further. In a preferred embodiment, the seal 107 is a flexible bellows seal directly coupled to the shaft 106 and the pulser housing 108 and hermetically seals the oil filled pulser housing 108 . The angular movement of the shaft 106 causes the flexible material of the bellows seal 107 to twist thereby accommodating the angular motion. The flexible bellows material may be an elastomeric material or, alternatively, a fiber reinforced elastomeric material. It is necessary to keep the angular rotation relatively small so that the bellows material will not be overstressed by the twisting motion. In an alternate preferred embodiment, the seal 107 may be an elastomeric rotating shaft seal or a mechanical face seal.
In a preferred embodiment, the motor 104 is adapted with a double ended shaft or alternatively a hollow shaft. One end of the motor shaft is attached to shaft 106 and the other end of the motor shaft is attached to torsion spring 105 . The other end of torsion spring 105 is anchored to end cap 115 . The torsion spring 105 along with the shaft 106 and the rotor 103 comprise a mechanical spring-mass system. The torsion spring 105 is designed such that this spring-mass system is at its natural frequency at, or near, the desired oscillating pulse frequency of the pulser. The methodology for designing a resonant torsion spring-mass system is well known in the mechanical arts and is not described here. The advantage of a resonant system is that once the system is at resonance, the motor only has to provide power to overcome external forces and system dampening, while the rotational inertia forces are balanced out by the resonating system.
FIG. 3 a shows a typical torque signature acting on an oscillating shear valve. The torque acting on the rotating disc is subdivided into three main parts, the torque due to the fluid force 310 , the dynamic torque caused by the inertia and acceleration 315 , and the counterbalancing spring torque 320 (example is taken for 40 Hz). If the dynamic torque 315 and the spring torque 320 are added, the spring torque 320 will cancell out most of the dynamic torque 315 and essentially only the fluidic torque 310 remains.
In an alternative prefered embodiment, the spring, that is primarily designed to cancell out the dynamic torque at high oscillating frequencies, is also used to cancel a portion of the fluidic torque at low oscillating frequencies. FIG. 3 c shows another example of a the hydraulic torque 330 acting on the valve. In this case the valve is designed in a way that results in a hydraulic torque, that can be compensated with a spring. As shown, the shaped hydraulic valve torque 330 is partly compensated 331 by the spring torque 332 . The maxima 333 of the compensated curve 331 are smaller than the maxima 334 of the orignal hydraulic torque 330 . The spring can therefore serve to balance the inertia forces at higher frequencies and to compensate hydraulic forces at low frequencies.
In an alternative preferred embodiment, the spring used in the spring-mass system is a magnetic spring assembly 300 , as shown in FIG. 3 b . The magnetic spring assembly 300 comprises an inner magnet carrier 303 being rigidly coupled to the shaft 106 , inner magnets 301 fixed to the inner magnet carrier 303 , and an outer magnet carrier 304 , carrying the outer magnets 302 . The outer magnet carrier 304 is mounted to the pulser housing 108 . The outer magnet carrier 304 is adapted to be moved in the axial direction with respect to the tool axes, while remaining in a constant angular position with respect to the pulser housing 108 . The magnetic spring assembly 300 creates a magnetic torque when the inner magnet carrier 303 is rotated with respect to the outer magnet carrier 304 . Using an appropriate number of poles (number of magnet pairs) it is possible to create a magnetic spring torque which counterbalances the dynamic torques of the rotor 103 , the shaft 106 , the bearings 108 , the inner magnet carrier 303 , and the motor 104 . With axial displacement of the outer magnet carrier 304 with respect to the inner magnet carrier 303 , the magnetic spring rate and, therefore, the spring-mass natural frequency can be adjusted such that this spring-mass system is at its natural frequency at, or near, the desired oscillating pulse frequency of the pulser.
The above described rotor drive system provides precise control of the angular position of the rotor 103 with respect to the position of the stator 102 . Such precise control allows the improved use of several encoding schemes common to the art of mud pulse telemetry.
In contrast to an axial reciprocating flow restrictor, the torque to drive a flow shear valve is not as dependent on the pressure drop being created. Hence the power to drive a shear valve at the same frequency and the same pressure drop is lower. Commonly used rotational shear valves that rotate at a constant speed consume relatively low power when operating at a constant frequency. A high power peak is required when those devices switch from one frequency to a second frequency, for example in an FSK system. With the oscillating spring mass system, the encoding or switching between phase/frequency/amplitude does not require a high actuation power, because the speed is always zero when the valve is fully closed or open. Starting from the zero speed level a phase/frequency/amplitude change does not substantially affect the overall power consumption. In a preferred embodiment of the shear valve, the main power is used to drive the system at a high frequency level. Once it is capable of creating a high frequency it can switch to another one almost immediately. This quick change gives a very high degree of freedom for encoding of telemetry data. The characteristic used for the encoding (frequency, phase or amplitude change) can be switched from one state to a second state, thereby transmitting information, within one period or less. No transition zone is needed between the different levels of encoded information. Hence there will be more information content per time frame in the pressure pulse signal of the oscillating shear valve than with a conventional shear valve system.
In another embodiment, the encoding characteristic change is initiated at any rotor position, with the new state of phase, frequency, or amplitude still achieved within one oscillating period.
FIG. 4 displays a graph which shows Phase Shift Key encoding of the oscillating shear valve as compared to a continuously rotating shear valve. The continuous phase shift signal 400 requires 1½ signal periods of the reference signal 405 to achieve a full 180° phase shift. In the transition time between 0.5 s and 0.9 s the information of the continuous phase shift signal 400 can not be used because it contains multiple frequencies. With the oscillating shear valve, the DC motor allows the rotor to be started at essentially any time thereby effectively providing an essentially instant phase shift. As shown in FIG. 4 , the oscillating shear valve phase shift signal 410 starts at 0.5 s already in the proper phase shifted relationship with the reference signal 400 such that the following signal period can already be used for encoding purposes. Thus, there is more information per time frame with a phase shift keying signal generated with an angular oscillating shear valve than with a continuously rotating shear valve.
FIG. 5 displays a graph showing a Frequency Shift Keying signal of the angular oscillating shear valve compared to a signal of a continuously rotating shear valves using the same encoding scheme. This example shows a frequency shift from 40 Hz to 20 Hz and back to 40 Hz. At 0.10 s the frequency is shifted from 40 Hz to 20 Hz, with the signal 500 from the continuously rotating shear valve, shifting only one full amplitude 500 a of the low frequency at 0,16 s before it must shift back to the high frequency signal at 500 b . Only the peaks at 500 a and 500 b are suitable for encoding information. The transition periods before and after the frequency shift contain multiple frequencies which can not be used for coding purposes. With the signal 505 from the angular oscillating shear valve, there are still two fully usable amplitudes 505 a and 505 b at the lower frequency and two usable peaks at the higher frequency 505 c and 505 d . As with phase shift keying, there is more information content per time frame with the angular oscillating shear valve than with a continuously rotating shear valve. This can provide higher detection reliability by providing more cycles to lock onto, or alternatively the frequency changes can be more rapid, thereby increasing the data rate, or a combination of these.
An Amplitude Shift Key (ASK) signal can be easily generated with the oscillating shear valve of the present invention. The signal amplitude is proportional to the amount of flow restriction and thus is proportional to the amount of angular rotation of the rotor 103 . The rotor rotation angle can be continuously controlled and, therefore, the amplitude of each cycle can be different as the motor 104 can accurately rotate the rotor 103 through a different angular rotation on each cycle according to programmed control from the electronics module 135 .
In addition, because the rotor can be continuously and accurately controlled, combinations of ASK and FSK or ASK and PSK may be used to encode and transmit multiple signals at the same time, greatly increasing the effective data rate. FIG. 7 is a schematic showing one scheme for combining an ASK and an FSK encoded signal. Both signals are carried out in a constant phase relationship with an amplitude shift from A 1 to A 2 or from A 2 to A 1 representing data bits of a first encoded signal and the frequency shifts from F 1 to F 2 or from F 2 to F 1 representing data bits of a second encoded signal. This type of signal is generated by changing both the oscillating frequency of the rotor and simultaneously changing the rotor oscillation angle, as previously described. Similarly, a signal combining ASK and PSK encoding (not shown) can be generated by changing the phase relationship of a constant frequency signal while simultaneously changing the amplitude by changing the rotor oscillation angle. Here, the amplitude shifts represent a first encoded signal and the phase shifts represent a second encoded signal.
One problem for rotating valves used in a drill string is plugging the valve during operation, for example, with either lost circulation materials or foreign bodies in the flow stream. FIG. 6 a – 6 d illustrates the anti-plugging feature of the angular oscillating shear valve as contrasted to a continuously rotating shear valve. FIG. 6 a and 6 b show a continuously rotating shear valve and an oscillating shear valve, respectively. A rotor 603 rotates below a stator 602 . Rotor 603 and stator 602 have a plurality of openings 607 and 606 , respectively serving as a flow channels. Because of the rotor rotation, the flow channel is open when the flow channels 606 and 607 are aligned and the flow channel is closed when the both flow channels 606 and 607 are not aligned. A continuously rotating shear valve opens and closes the flow passage only in one rotational direction as seen in FIG. 6 a . An angular oscillating valve opens and closes the flow passage by alternating the rotational direction as illustrated in FIG. 6 b . A foreign body 605 enters and traverses a flow passage in both the stator 602 and the rotor 603 . FIG. 6 c demonstrates that the continuously rotating shear valve jams the foreign body between the rotor 603 and the stator 602 , and fails to continue to rotate, possibly requiring the downhole tool to be retrieved to the surface for maintenance. However, an oscillating shear valve, as illustrated in FIG. 6 d , opens the valve again in the opposite direction during its standard operation. The flow channel recovers to its full cross section area and the foreign body 605 is freed, and the valve continues to operate.
FIG. 8 A,B show another preferred embodiment, similar to that of FIG. 2 but incorporating a commonly known type of gear system 210 between the shaft 206 and the motor 204 . Preferably the gear system 210 is a planetary gear arrangement. The motor 204 is connected to the sun wheel 219 (high speed) of the gear system 210 . The shaft 206 is connected to multiple satellite wheels 217 (low speed) of the gear system 210 . The torsion spring 205 is connected to shaft 206 and end cap (not shown). Alternatively, the torsion spring 205 may be connected to motor 204 . If the spring 205 is connected to shaft 206 , smaller spring torsion angles are required than connecting the spring to the motor 204 . Depending on the selected gear ratio, the high speed—and low speed driven side can also be reversed. The annular gear 218 of the gear system 210 is fixed to the pulser housing 208 .
FIG. 8B is a section view through the gear system 210 of FIG. 8A , showing a planetary gear arrangement with 4 satellites 217 . It is obvious to one skilled in the art, that also other gear systems arrangements are possible. The gear ratio of such a planetary gear arrangement is given by Speed rotor =Speed Motor /1(Radius Annulargear /Radius Sungear ) where the rotor 203 is directly coupled to the shaft 206 . The gear system 210 allows more precise control of rotor 203 rotation. The motor shaft rotates more than the rotor 203 as determined by the gear ratio. By controlling the motor shaft angular position, the rotor 203 position can be controlled to a higher precision as related by the gear ratio. To keep the power demands of the pulser as small as possible, the gear ratio is optimized in regards to the spring-mass system and the inertias of the drive- and load side.
FIG. 8C shows a 3-dimensional plot based on a spring-mass system driven by a motor/gear combination. The plot is based on keeping the natural frequency of the spring-mass system constant for all shown combinations. Gear inertia and friction are neglected to simplify the model and to ease understanding. The plot shows the relation β=T M /T MO (motor torque with gear/motor torque without gear) versus gear ratio “n” (motor speed/rotor speed) and inertia ratio α=J M /J L (motor inertia to load inertia). The line, which separates the dark- and bright gray areas, is the line of equal motor torque. Using a gear above this line (dark grey area) will result in an unfavorably large motor torque, when the spring-mass system is oscillating. The plot shows, that for the given system only a certain gear ratio is advantageous. An example is shown by following the arrow on the chart. If the load-inertia is three times bigger than the motor-inertia, the gear ratio should not exceed 3 to avoid higher power consumption of the pulser due to using a gear system as compared to a pulser without the gear system.
FIG. 9A shows another preferred embodiment similar to that described in FIG. 8A incorporating a cam, or crank, shaft system 220 between the shaft 206 and the motor 204 . Two preferred operating modes are possible with such a system. In one preferred embodiment, the gear system transmits oscillating(rotating back and forth) motor 204 movements into oscillating rotor 203 movements. Alternatively, continuous motor 204 rotation may be converted into oscillating rotor 203 movements.
The system 220 features two gears 229 , 231 and crank shaft 226 . Crank shaft 226 is fixed to shaft 206 . Drive gear 229 is positioned on motor shaft 204 and drives the secondary gear 231 fixed on drive shaft 230 . Bearings (not shown) to keep the drive shaft 230 in position are incorporated into support plate 228 . Support plate 228 is fixed to pulser housing 208 . Drive shaft 230 features on it's opposite end an eccentric displaced drive pin 227 . Drive pin 227 reaches into a slot of crank shaft 226 .
FIG. 9B shows an example of the crank shaft gear system 220 movement. Driven by the electrical motor 204 , drive shaft 230 and drive pin 227 are continuously rotated. Drive pin 227 rotates eccentrically around the axes of drive shaft 230 . Due to the eccentric movement of drive pin 227 , crank shaft 226 is forced to the left and to the right hand side, oscillating around the axes of shaft 206 . The oscillation angle of shaft 206 is related to the eccentricity and diameter of drive pin 227 and the distance between the axes of drive shaft 230 and shaft 206 . Alternatively, for an oscillating motor 204 movement (instead of rotating motor movement), the oscillation angle of shaft 206 is, in addition to above mentioned geometrical parameters, also related to the oscillation angle of motor 204 . While the system is moving, the effective gear ratio is continuously changing depending on selected drive pin eccentricity, distance between axes of shaft 206 to drive pin 226 , and the gear ratio between drive gear 229 and secondary gear 231 . Practically a gear ratio of 1 to 6 may be realized in the design space of a common tool size. It is obvious to someone skilled in the art that other common cam shaft gears or crank shaft gears might be used to transmit a continuous motor rotation into an oscillating rotor movement.
FIG. 9C serves as an example to show how to adjust the eccentricity of drive pin 227 . Drive shaft 230 has an bore, placed eccentric from its axes. Adjustment shaft 235 is placed inside the bore of drive shaft 230 . Drive pin 227 is eccentrically fixed onto adjustment shaft 235 . The eccentricity 231 of drive pin 227 to the axes of adjustment shaft 235 is the same as the eccentricity of adjustment shaft 235 to axes of drive shaft 230 . To change the resulting eccentricity 237 of drive pin 227 to drive shaft 230 , the adjustment pin 235 must be turned. Between a 0–180° turn, the resulting eccentricity 237 changes from zero to the maximum eccentricity, which equals two times the original eccentricity.
FIG. 9D shows an example of the gear ratio across the oscillation angle of motor 204 . The abscissa 401 shows the motor oscillation angle from 0–360°. The ordinate 403 shows the torque ratio and ordinate 402 shows the speed ratio (the reverse of the torque ratio). At position 407 and 406 , the rotor 203 reaches it maximum displacement and reverses the direction of movement. If hydraulic disturbances or loads are acting on the rotor shaft 206 the resulting torque at the motor shaft 204 is zero. Close to these positions, extremely large loads of valve shaft 206 can easily be supported by the motor 204 .
FIG. 10 shows an example of multivalent coding. Instead of using a binary code with only two different conditions (on/off condition) advanced coding schemes can be used with the novel shear valve pulser of the present invention. In one preferred embodiment, in FIG. 10 , three different frequencies f 1 , f 2 , f 3 are used to explain multivalent coding. Using the change from one frequency into another one, six different conditions can be defined by using three frequencies. Changing from f 1 to f 2 is one condition 501 . Other conditions are f 2 -f 1 502 , f 1 -f 3 503 , f 3 -f 1 504 , f 3 -f 2 505 , f 2 -f 3 (not shown). Instead of frequency changes, phase shift changes, amplitude shift changes, or combinations thereof can be used for multivalent coding.
FIG. 11 shows an example how a chirp, or sweep (means a time dependent change in frequency), can be used to encode signals. Advantage of using a chirp is the larger bandwidth of the signal. Signal distortion and attenuation, due to e.g. reflections, is less critical than in a signal using just one- (e.g. Phase shift keying) or two frequencies to modulate/encode the data. In a binary code (on/off), as shown in FIG. 11 , the presence of a chirp pattern signifies an “on” 601 , and absence of a chirp pattern signifies an “off” 602 . The bandwidth and the chirp pattern may be adjusted according to operational conditions.
The envelope curve of the chirp can also be considered as a discrete signal or discrete pulse. The chirp or any other frequency pattern inside the envelope curve gives an additional information to enhance detection of a single pulse at a receiver station.
FIG. 12 shows the measured signal of different frequencies at the location of a receiver. Due to reflections and interactions of the signal with the system boundaries, commonly used frequencies may be substantially attenuated. With the oscillating shear valve it is possible to choose frequencies exhibiting low attenuation to send and encode signals. As an example given in FIG. 12 , for a frequency dependent binary code, the optimum frequencies might be the strong signal at 25 Hz 702 which is easy to detect and the weak signal at 20 Hz 701 which is nearly fully attenuated. Other frequencies of interest might be two low attenuated frequencies 703 , 704 at 30 Hz and 35 Hz.
FIG. 13 shows, that in a different application, the frequency transmission characteristics may change and other frequencies might be better suited to send a binary signal. In FIG. 13 , 20 Hz 802 and 35 Hz 804 could be selected for a binary coding scheme.
FIG. 14 shows two different shapes of a discrete square type signal. Both signals are generated by using the same rotor shape. Signal 901 features a sinusoidal increase in signal amplitude, followed by a plateau and a sinusoidal decrease in amplitude. Signal 902 is a true square signal. To generate signal 901 requires substantially less power, because less acceleration and deceleration of rotor masses is required to create the signal. Signal 902 requires very fast acceleration and deceleration of the rotor masses. Further more, the high frequency content of the sharp edges of signal 902 will suffer strong attenuation. At a far receiver station both signals will therefore look the same.
The foregoing description is directed to particular embodiments of the present invention for the purpose of illustration and explanation. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that many modifications and changes to the embodiment set forth above are possible without departing from the scope and the spirit of the invention. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such modifications and changes.
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An oscillating shear valve system for generating pressure fluctuations in a flowing drilling fluid comprising a stationary stator and an oscillating rotor, both with axial flow passages. The rotor oscillates in close proximity to the stator, at least partially blocking the flow through the stator and generating oscillating pressure pulses. The rotor passes through two zero speed positions during each cycle, facilitating rapid changes in signal phase, frequency, and/or amplitude facilitating enhanced, multivalent data encoding. The rotor is driven by a motorized gear drive. In one embodiment, a torsional spring is attached to the motor and the resulting spring mass system is designed to be near resonance at the desired pulse frequency. The system enables the use of multivalent encoding schemes for increasing data rates.
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This is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 775,229 filed Mar. 7, 1977 now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new and improved method of reducing the activation energy of chemical reactions, and furthermore, pertains to apparatus for the performance of the aforesaid method.
Notwithstanding different advantages of organic electrochemistry such has heretofore remained more or less a stepchild of classical organic chemistry. This probably can be explained in terms of the drawbacks which are present, such as complicated cell construction, decomposition or degradation of the electrodes, expensive conducting salts and solvents, high current consumption and oftentimes complicated conditioning or working of the product. Additionally, classical electrochemistry is limited to oxidation- and reduction reactions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Hence, it is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved method of, and apparatus for, reducing the activation energy of chemical reactions.
Another important object of the present invention aims at providing a method for the reduction of the activation energy of chemical reactions which is suitable for all other types of reactions for which there is not yet available any optimum catalysts and for which, as a general rule, there is required a considerable expenditure.
Now in order to implement these and still further objects of the invention, which will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, the method of the present invention for the reduction of the activation energy of chemical reactions is manifested by the features that an electrical field is produced by means of a capacitor arrangement in the phase containing the educt.
With this method, and in contrast to classical electrochemistry, there does not flow any current apart from possible mini-currents. It is possible to term the method and the resultant reaction an electro-catalytic polarization reaction. The advantages of the inventive method should be apparent. There is obtained a catalytic effect without the use of expensive catalysts, possibly of the type which are consumed or poisonous and without great expenditure, since it is possible to work with the most simple process conditions. In the case of exothermic reactions, for instance, the activation energy is generally reduced to such an extent that such can take place at room temperature and at standard pressure. As a general rule, there is observed outstanding selectivity and a minimum of side reactions. The expenditure in energy is minimum, since for the reduction of the activation energy it is only necessary to produce the electrical field, however no current consumption occurs apart from possible inconsequential losses in the field system. Further advantages generally reside in simple processing or working of the product, for instance by distillation or filtration as well as lower waste.
The educts can be present in a random aggregate state, preferably however in a liquid phase. The educts can be, for instance, themselves in a liquid state or can be present in solution or as a dispersion.
To ensure maintenance of the capacitor arrangement of the method aspects of the invention, it is of course necessary that either the phase of the educt is electrically non-conductive or at least an electrode must be insulated, which can be accomplished for instance with glass.
It has been observed that the reactions take place at the electrode surface. The products which are formed can thus cover the surface of the electrodes and retard the reaction speed. In order to prevent this, it is possible to reverse the polarity of the field, so that the products, at the time that the field intensity reaches the value null, can detach from the electrodes and thus can be reclaimed.
Not only is the invention concerned with the aforementioned method aspects, but as already indicated relates to a new and improved construction of apparatus for the performance thereof which is manifested by the features that there is provided a reaction vessel in which there is mounted a capacitor arrangement for the purpose of producing an electrical field in the reaction medium, preferably at the phase boundary, electrode surface-educt.
A substance can be applied to the electrodes which, under the influence of the electrical field, exhibits catalytic properties. The electrodes themselves also can be formed of such a material or substance. As a general rule, this substance forms an insulating layer about the electrode which consists of a conductive material. The insulating layer also can be, for instance, the oxide layer of the relevant electrode material. The electrode material can be metallic or non-metallic, a mixture, an alloy, a semiconductor, an organo-metallic complex and so forth.
In order to generate the electrical field there is advantageously generally employed a direct-current voltage. This can attain values in the order of, for instance, 40 kV. By reversing the polarity, there also appear alternating-current voltages. The electrical field can also be indirectly applied, for instance ferroelectrically.
The method of the invention can also be combined with further reaction parameters, such as, for instance, temperature, pressure, electrode additives, gasification of the electrodes, additives applied to the reaction mixture, magnetic fields, electromagnetic radiation, for instance ultraviolet radiation, high-energy particle acceleration and so forth.
Also, the inventive method can be carried out continuously.
The method is preferably applicable with molecules having polarisable reactive groups, especially also with double- and multiple bonds, and it is possible to achieve dimerization or polymerization. The reaction participants also can exhibit a random aggregate condition.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above, will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawing wherein the single FIGURE schematically illustrates a circuit diagram of apparatus useful in the practice of the method of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The invention will be now further described in conjunction with certain examples and experiments on the basis of the accompanying illustration.
Construction of the Apparatus
As will be seen from the drawing the therein depicted apparatus comprises a reaction vessel 1 formed of glass in which there are located the electrodes 6 which are threadably connected or otherwise appropriately attached to the associated stainless steel pins or rods 7. The region of entry of the lower electrode 6 is provided with a cork plug 8 surrounding the rod 7, in order to thereby compensate without any problem possibly occurring from differences in expansion of the metal and glass materials. The electrical conductors or lines lead from the electrodes 6 and their associated support rods 7 to a suitable current source 10 by means of the polarity reversal switch 5, the capacitor 3, the rectifier 4, the high-voltage transformer 9, and the regulator transformer 2.
The quality of the glass of the reaction vessel 1 does not play any role, since the reaction takes place at room temperature and standard pressure. Since the electrodes 6 are threaded onto the steel pins or rods 7, it is very easy to exchange such electrodes. The spacing of the electrodes 6 from one another is adjusted to be as small as possible, but without there occurring any sparking voltage. Of course, this is a function of the desired high voltage and the nature of the educt.
The not particularly illustrated cover of the reaction vessel 1 is usually loosely placed thereon, so that there are no problems in the presence of possible deflagrations. The polarity reversal switch 5 renders possible the detachment of the formed, adhering covering layers of the product from the surfaces of the electrodes 6. This polarity reversal switch 5 can be controlled automatically at a frequency of, for instance, 0 to 50 Hz. Consequently, the installation can be operated both with DC-voltage as well as also with AC-voltage of desired frequency.
The capacitor 3 serves for smoothing the pulsating direct-current voltage. The voltage across the electrodes 6 can be adjusted by means of the regulator or regulating transformer 2. As the current source there can be used a 220 volt alternating-current.
Manufacture of the Electrodes
The electrodes 6 preferably consist of a conductive metal or a metal alloy. The electrode surface generally designated by reference character 6a, is thereafter coated with a thin insulating layer in that, for instance, such electrode surface 6a is oxidated, chlorinated, or there is vapor deposited thereon a thin insulating layer.
Hereinafter there will be described the production of a number of electrode constructions:
(a) aluminum sheet (round discs having a central threading or threaded portion) are polished at both sides or faces and oxidized in an oxygen environment in the presence of high temperatures.
(b) aluminum sheet is polished and treated for about 30 seconds to 1 minute with concentrated acid salt.
(c) aluminum sheet is treated in the manner of the above-described paragraph (b), however with the use of nitric acid.
(d) Al 2 O 3 is vapor deposited upon sheet copper or copper plating.
(e) the same procedures as described in paragraphs (a) and (c) are employed, however, while utilizing different metals or alloys, such as, for instance, nickel, lead, etc.
Classification of the Reaction Product
After the electro-polarization treatment the product is usually isolated by distillation, sometimes however also by filtration, sedimentation or by means of another separation process. The yield can be determined by weighing.
In order to classify the reaction product there are obtained IR-spectrums of the substrate and reaction products by means of a "Beckmann IR 8" instrument.
To examine the dependency of the inventive method upon different parameters there was examined the polymerization of vinyl acetate.
When vinyl acetate is treated with electro-polarisation (EP), then initially there was not detected any product. If following this treatment there was undertaken distillation (at standard pressure) and the EP-distillation procedure repeated two to three times, then there was obtained polyvinyl acetate. Upon each further repetition the yield increased. If, however, the distillation was carried out under vacuum conditions at low temperature then no reaction took place. In order to be certain that there did not occur any thermal polymerization there was thus carried out a reference test. The above procedures, resulting in a polymerization, were repeated without electrical voltage. The results were clearly negative.
During tests with other educts this behavior was not observed.
Examination of the Dependendy of an Electro-Polarization upon the Parameters based upon Polymerization of Vinyl Acitate
The following parameters were examined
(a) Electrode material
(b) Electrode size
(c) Voltage
(d) Current-dependency
(e) Influence of the polarity reversal and the polarity reversal time
(f) Test duration
(g) Temperature
(a) Electrode Material
The greatest yield was observed with an aluminum/aluminumoxide electrode. Poorer yields were obtained with Ni/Ni-oxide-electrodes, whereas other electrodes did not produce any polymerization.
With other educts there could be produced clearly qualitatively different products (e.g. propionaldehyde with Pb/Pb-oxide and Ni/Ni-oxide.)
(b) Electrode Size
Within the reproducibility of the experiment the yield increased as a function of the electrode surface.
(c) Voltage
The polymerization yield was examined as a function of the voltage in a range of 0.5 to 40 kV. Every 5 minutes the polarity was reversed and the test duration amounted to 2 hours. Between 5 and 40 kV there could not be determined any great differences. However, upon decrease of the voltage from 5 kV to 1 kV there was a significant reduction in the yield.
(d) Current Dependency
With a measuring instrument, where the smallest measurable current magnitude amounted to 10 -9 amperes, there could not be detected any current flow. It was in fact possible to fuze one of both electrodes in glass, and nonetheless there was obtained a good yield of polyvinyl acetate.
(e) Influence of the Polarity Reversal and the Polarity Reversal Time
The polarity reversal switch 5 has the function of reversing the polarity of the rectified voltage which is applied to the electrodes 6. If this polarity reversal is omitted, then oftentimes the formed reaction products remain adhering to the surface of the electrodes and the yield decreases. A polymerization series was again carried out with vinyl acetate. Experiments were carried out with alternating-current voltage (50 Hz) with a polarity reversal time of 2,4,8, and 12 minutes up to constant direct-current voltage, with the same test duration (2 hours). As expected, the yield decreased with increasing polarity reversal times. With a polarity reversal time amounting to 12 minutes it was only extremely small and when using direct-current a major portion of the product remained adhering to the surfaces of the electrodes 6.
(f) Test Duration
The normal test duration amounted to 2 hours. In the case of vinyl acetate it was found that the quantity of polymer increased with the test duration. With a number of reactions there was observed a saturation effect, so that a prolonged test duration did not produce any increase in the yield. With other reactions there was obtained a complete reaction of the educt, such as for instance styrene and vinylidene chloride.
(g) Temperature
The polymerization can be carried out at room temperature. This is associated with the advantage that there occur very few side reactions. If there is carried out a EP-reaction at elevated temperature (e.g. boiled at the reflux), then no polymerization could be observed. This was in contrast to styrene where the elevated temperature had a favorable effect.
Other Examples of Electro-Polymerization Reactions
(a) Polystyrene
In contrast to vinyl acetate the procedure need not be repeated and products were obtained already after the first treatment. The entire starting material could be converted into polymers. The most vehement reaction was observed with two Al/Al 2 O 3 -electrodes at elevated temperature. The next best was the same reaction carried out at room temperature.
A still weaker reaction was observed when the one electrode was fuzed in glass, and here also the temperature dependency is the same.
(b) Cyclohexine:
During the EP-treatment of cyclohexine there was again used the Al/Al 2 O 3 -electrode at 30 kV for 2 hours.
(c) Isoprene:
The reaction was carried out under the same conditions as in the immediately discussed paragraph (b), however with a Pb/PbO-electrode.
(d) Benzaldehyde and Acetophenone:
During the treatment of benzaldehyde and acetophenone with an Al/Al 2 O 3 -and a glass-electrode at 30 kV for a period of 2 hours there was formed a precipitate.
(e) Propionaldehyde:
With the known test arrangement, however when using two respective Pb/PbO-and Ni/NiO-electrodes, there was obtained in the first instance a flock-like product and in a second instance an oily product.
The yield of the inventive chemical reaction can be promoted by repeated build-up and decay of the electrical field, there thus also being intended to be included the reversal of the field.
Certain additives, such as, for instance, water in small quantities also could influence the chemical reaction.
The present invention is not compelled to rely upon peak discharges, as such, for instance, occur between a point-shaped and surface electrode. With a capacitor arrangement there do not occur such peak discharges between neighboring electrodes. With the invention, all of the electrodes forming the capacitor arrangement are preferably constructed to be of large surface area, and the educt and/or the surface layer of at least the one electrode forming the capacitor arrangement forms a type of dielectric.
It is important with the present invention that at least one of the electrodes or at least its surface layer is neither formed of a pure metal nor a pure metal alloy, rather, for instance, from an oxide of the corresponding metal or from an oxide of the corresponding metal alloy.
While there are shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims. ACCORDINGLY.
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A method of, and apparatus for, the reduction of the activation energy of chemical reactions, wherein an electrical field is generated by a capacitor arrangement in the phase containing the educt.
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PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/426,175, filed Dec. 22, 2010 and entitled “Pelvic Tissue Plication System,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates generally to surgical methods and apparatus and, more specifically, to a bladder plication device system adapted to treat intrinsic sphincteric deficiency.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Pelvic health for men and women is a medical area of increasing importance, at least in part due to an aging population. Examples of common pelvic ailments include incontinence (e.g., fecal and urinary), pelvic tissue prolapse (e.g., female vaginal prolapse), and conditions of the pelvic floor.
[0004] Urinary incontinence can further be classified as including different types, such as stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge urinary incontinence, mixed urinary incontinence, among others. Other pelvic floor disorders include cystocele, rectocele, enterocele, and prolapse such as anal, uterine and vaginal vault prolapse. A cystocele is a hernia of the bladder, usually into the vagina and introitus. Pelvic disorders such as these can result from weakness or damage to normal pelvic support systems.
[0005] Urinary incontinence can be characterized by the loss or diminution in the ability to maintain the urethral sphincter closed as the bladder fills with urine. Male or female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) generally occurs when the patient is physically stressed.
[0006] In its severest forms, vaginal vault prolapse can result in the distension of the vaginal apex outside of the vagina. An enterocele is a vaginal hernia in which the peritoneal sac containing a portion of the small bowel extends into the rectovaginal space. Vaginal vault prolapse and enterocele represent challenging forms of pelvic disorders for surgeons. These procedures often involve lengthy surgical procedure times.
[0007] Urinary incontinence can be characterized by the loss or diminution in the ability to maintain the urethral sphincter closed as the bladder fills with urine. Male or female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) occurs when the patient is physically stressed.
[0008] Intrinsic Sphincteric Deficiency (ISD) is a condition resulting from an intrinsic defect in the sphincteric mechanism that results in an open bladder neck. This, along with urethral mobility, can be caused by damage to the pelvic floor and urethral ligaments, which can result in SUI.
[0009] There is a need for a device and surgical procedure designed to treat such pelvic orders, including ISD in a patient.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The present invention describes various embodiments of a bladder plication system to treat ISD in a patient. The system can include a needle introducer device, and a plication device. The needle introducer device is advanced into the bladder, via the urethra, with the plication device deployable from within the needle introducer device. Once inserted in the bladder and positioned, the needle is passed through a portion of the bladder wall at a first location and then back again into the bladder through a second location of the bladder wall proximate the first location. The distance between the first location and the second location generally defined the size of the plication, e.g., the size of the bladder wall fold brought together. The plication device is then deployed through a distal end of the introducer device, wherein the bladder wall is folded near the inner sphincter to reduce forces on the bladder and resolve the patient's SUI.
[0011] The plication device can be constructed in a generally rivet-shaped configuration to define a first head portion, an intermediate body member, and a second head portion. The head portions and/or the intermediate body member can be constructed of a polymer metal material such the head portions are hingedly or pivotally displaceable or movable relative to the body member. Such a hingable configuration facilitates substantial collapse of the plication device onto itself to facilitate deployment and placement.
[0012] In certain embodiments, the plication device can include one or more adjustment features, enabling a user (e.g., physician) to adjust the spacing between the respective head portions to correspondingly adjust the compression on the tissue trapped therebetween during the plication folding process, and to allow for various sized tissue or bladder wall folds during the procedure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates the bladder and associated anatomy.
[0014] FIGS. 2-6 show plication devices and corresponding features or structures in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
[0015] FIG. 7 shows a needle introducer and deployment device in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
[0016] FIGS. 8-11 show a plication or folding procedure of the bladder wall using a plication device in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0017] Referring generally to FIG. 1 , a diagram is shown of the human bladder and associated anatomy, including the inner or internal urethral sphincter S. The internal sphincter muscle is located at the junction of the urethra with the urinary bladder and when functioning properly is the primary muscle for prohibiting the release of urine. The sphincter is made up of a ring-like band of muscle fibers that are under involuntary or autonomic control, with the sphincter normally in a closed position and needing stimulation to open. An intrinsic defect in the sphincteric mechanism can result in an open bladder neck and, thus, SUI.
[0018] Referring generally FIGS. 2-11 , various embodiments of a bladder plication system 10 are disclosed. In general, the plication system 10 can include at least one needle introducer device 12 and at least one plication device 14 . Various portions of the systems 10 can be constructed of metal or polymer materials, such as polypropylene, polyethylene, fluoropolymers, Nitinol or like compatible materials. The plication device 14 is generally deployed into the bladder via the urethra to plicate or fold one or more portions of the bladder wall W as described herein.
[0019] As shown in FIGS. 2-6 , the plication device 14 can be constructed in a generally rivet-shaped configuration to define a first head portion 20 , an intermediate body member 22 , and a second head portion 24 . The head portions 20 , 24 and/or the intermediate body member 22 can be constructed of a polymer metal material such the head portions 20 , 24 are hingedly or pivotally displaceable or movable relative to the body member 22 . Such a hingable configuration facilitates substantial collapse of the plication device 14 onto itself to facilitate deployment and placement. In certain embodiments, this movement or adjustment is made possible by the material construction itself. For instance, the body member 22 , or a region or juncture 25 at which the head portions 20 , 24 connect to the body member 22 , can be generally flexible or constructed of a thin material (polymer or metal), thereby providing a level of “give” or hinging action at the juncture, or a portion of the body member 22 .
[0020] In other embodiments, the body member 22 can include a living hinge portion 22 a at or proximate the junctures 25 where the body member 22 meets the head portions 20 , 24 . Further, various embodiments of the plication device 14 can include movable ball, or ball and socket, mechanisms or features 22 b to facilitate hinging of the head portions 20 , 24 relative to the body member 22 .
[0021] Various other embodiments can include an attachment feature 23 adapted to selectively receive an elongate member 27 , such as a wire, rod or like member, to facilitate control over the plication device 14 during deployment and positioning. The member 27 can be generally rigid, partially flexible, partially rigid, or take on like constructs and characteristics to facilitate use as the means of controlling and moving the plication device 14 .
[0022] The plication device 14 and its components can take on a variety of shapes and sizes, and can be constructed of any compatible metal, polymer or like material having generally flexible or rigid characteristics. Various sized plication devices 14 can be used to provide different spacing options between the head portions 20 , 24 , thereby allowing for larger or smaller tissue or bladder wall folds therebetween.
[0023] In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 6 , the plication device 14 can include one or more adjustment features 30 , enabling a user (e.g., physician) to adjust the spacing between the respective head portions 20 , 24 to correspondingly adjust the compression on the tissue trapped therebetween during the plication folding process, and to allow for various sized tissue or bladder wall folds during the procedure. This may be important to ensure that the plicated tissue is secure, and to ensure that there is no leaking from the bladder through any tissue puncture created during the procedure. In one embodiment, the adjustment feature 30 can include a plurality of teeth or angled portions 32 provided along all or a portion of the body member 22 . These teeth portions 32 are adapted to engage with corresponding or matingly compatible portions or like features in an aperture 34 of one or both of the head portions 20 , 24 (e.g., head portion 24 ). In general, this mating teeth configuration will enable sliding or otherwise moving one of the head portions (e.g., head portion 24 ) closer to the other head portion (e.g., head portion 20 ) along the body member 22 to reduce the space therebetween (and with tissue therebetween as well), but the moving head portion (e.g., head portion 24 ) will not move back in the opposite direction to increase the distance between the heads or loosen the compression on the trapped fold of tissue.
[0024] Various embodiments can include other adjustment features 30 to permit adjustment of the distance between the head portions 20 , 24 , before or during the procedure. For instance, the body member 22 can include a threaded portion adapted to threadably engage with one or both of the head portions 20 , 24 such that a screw or like interface (or one of the head portions 20 , 24 itself) can be turned to selectively move the respective head portion 20 , 24 (e.g., head portion 24 ) closer to or farther from the opposing head portion (e.g., head portion 20 ). Other embodiments can include one or more biasing members, such as a spring, along a portion of the body member 22 to provide selective biasing adjustment of the distance between the head portions 20 , 24 . Various fasteners, linear adjustment devices and mechanisms, and like mechanisms, devices and techniques known to those of skill in the art can be employed to provide the disclosed distance adjustment between the head portions 20 , 24 .
[0025] As shown in FIGS. 7-11 , embodiments of a procedure and devices of the system 10 can be utilized to treat defects in the described internal sphincteric mechanism to resolve SUI in the patient. For instance, as shown in FIG. 8 , the introducer needle device 12 can include a needle portion 40 having an internal lumen 41 adapted to receive and facilitate deployment of the plication device 14 . The needle device 12 can include a handle portion 42 having an actuator 44 . The actuator 44 can be in operable communication with the elongated member 27 , controlling extension and retraction of the member 27 . The needle device 12 can include blunt or piercing tips, and other features and mechanisms to facilitate device deployment and use.
[0026] In use, the plication device 14 is received in the lumen 41 of the needle portion 40 of the device 12 (e.g., generally collapsed) for use during the plication procedure. The member 27 is attached to one of the head portions 20 , 24 , or another portion of the plication device 14 , to facilitate movement of and control of the device 14 . The distal end or tip 46 of the needle device 12 can be advanced or pierced through a first bladder wall portion B 1 , traverse through a length of the bladder (within the interior of the bladder), and out through a second bladder wall portion B 2 , as shown in FIG. 8 .
[0027] As shown in FIG. 9 , the plication device 14 can then be deployed out the distal end 46 of the needle device 12 . The first head portion 20 can be extended out (pushed by member 27 ) from the second bladder wall portion B 2 to rest or engage against the outside surface of the bladder wall W. Various protrusions, anchors, or material constructs can be employed to facilitate engagement with the bladder wall.
[0028] Upon deploying the first head portion 20 , the needle device 12 can be backed out such that the second head portion 24 remains secured within the needle lumen 41 until the distal end 46 exists out through the first bladder wall portion B 1 , as shown in FIGS. 9-10 . At this point, the second head portion 24 can be deployed from the distal end 16 for securement or engagement against the outside surface of the bladder proximate the first bladder wall portion B 1 . The member 27 can be removed from the second head portion 24 , e.g., via a pulling force, cutting, snap disengagement, unlatching, twisting, and the like. As such, the bladder wall, between bladder wall portions B 1 and B 2 , can be cinched or folded onto itself to define the plicated or folded tissue T to reduce slack and tighten up the target bladder wall region. This procedure can be repeated for multiple target sites or bladder wall portions, including those at or proximate the internal sphincter mechanism, using additional plication devices 14 .
[0029] This system 10 and surgical procedure has many advantages, including not requiring an incision (surgical entry through the urethra), reduced invasiveness, direct treatment of ISD, and less anesthesia and recovery time requirements for the patient than other surgical procedures.
[0030] While embodiments of the system 10 are described in relation to treating ISD and SUI, other applications for treating other pelvic or applicable tissue areas are envisioned as well.
[0031] The various systems, devices, tools, features and methods disclosed hereinbelow and directed to pelvic implant and repair systems (e.g., for male and female), are envisioned for use with the present invention, including those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,500,945, 7,407,480, 7,351,197, 7,347,812, 7,303,525, 7,025,063, 6,691,711, 6,648,921, and 6,612,977, International Patent Publication Nos. WO 2008/057261 and WO 2007/097994, and U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2010/0105979, 2002/151762 and 2002/147382. Accordingly, the above-identified disclosures are fully incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
[0032] The systems 10 , their various components, structures, features, materials and methods may have a number of suitable configurations as shown and described in the previously-incorporated references. Various methods and tools for introducing, deploying, anchoring and manipulating devices to treat incontinence and prolapse as disclosed in the previously-incorporated references are envisioned for use with the present invention as well. Further, the system and its components or structures can be constructed of known and compatible materials know to those skilled in the art, including metals, polymers, and the like.
[0033] All patents, patent applications, and publications cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety as if individually incorporated, and include those references incorporated within the identified patents, patent applications and publications.
[0034] Obviously, numerous modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the teachings herein. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
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A bladder plication system to treat ISD in a patient is provided. The device can include a needle introducer device, and a plication device. The needle introducer device is advanced through the bladder, with the plication device contained and deployable within the needle introducer device. Once inserted in the bladder and positioned, the needle is passed through portions of the bladder wall. The plication device is then deployed through a distal end of the introducer device, wherein the bladder wall is folded near the inner sphincter to reduce forces on the bladder and resolve the patient's SUI.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 09/020,830 filed Feb. 9, 1998.
The present invention relates to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/789,416 filed Jan. 29, 1997 and entitled, Flat Braid With Web Core, and also relates to copending U.S. application Ser. No.: 08/414,185 entitled Hollow Braid Net and Method of Making, filed Mar. 31, 1995 and further relates to copending U.S. application Ser. No. 08/557,851, entitled Net With Flattened Surface Members Connected At Sewn Intersections, and to copending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/012,472, entitled Method of Using Barrier Material and System, filed Jan. 22, 1998 under EXPRESS MAIL No. EM174706093US, which applications being commonly owned and being hereby incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a barrier which is usable as a decorative finish in a construction project, such as will be conducted on the Washington Monument in Washington D.C., wherein mesh panels are connected to scaffolding or other structure in a manner which presents the mesh outwardly to a viewer in a flat sheet form.
When a scaffolding is erected around a structure, such as around the Washington Monument, and work operations conducted on it, it is often necessary to enshroud the work environment so as to make the exterior appearance of the structure aesthetically pleasing to the viewers, especially in a landscape where an object stands out relative to the remainder of the environment. Prior art systems all include a secondary member, such as a cable, which needed to be used suspended between two vertical members so that tarpons could hang from the cable. Such a system does not provide a mesh which can be made taut and given a flat face appearance, which is part of a desired architectural effect.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a decorative and/or debris inhibiting mesh panel which can be readily fastened to existing scaffolding erected around a structure so as to provide a more aesthetically pleasing view of the structure during construction and renovation, and provide ease of installation, maintenance and removal.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a mesh panel system whereby each panel is capable of being separately adjusted relative to the support to which it is attached such that a self-supporting system can be effected.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a system of the aforementioned type which uses a hollow border member in which a slidable web or support member is housed in order to reduce secondary support systems which otherwise would be necessary in the installation of a mesh panel system.
Still a further object of the invention is to provide a system of the aforementioned type which uses a border member on which a plurality of loops are sewn in order to secure discrete sections of the mesh to vertically extending members.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a material of the aforementioned type which is capable of having a given color which is coordinated with the color scheme of a given environment.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The file of this patent contains at least one drawing executed in color.
FIG. 1 is an elevation view of a structure which is enshrouded by scaffolding and covered by the panels of the present invention to create a desired appearance, and debris protection.
FIG. 2 is a partially fragmentary elevation view of a panel mounted in place on a scaffolding system.
FIG. 3 illustrates a partially fragmentary elevational view of a first embodiment of a panel of the present invention showing the free end corner which is adapted to be received within a ratchet device.
FIG. 4 illustrates a partially fragmentary elevational view of a second embodiment of a panel of the present invention showing the free end corner which is adapted to be received within a ratchet device.
FIG. 5 illustrates a partially fragmentary elevational view of a third embodiment of a panel of the present invention showing the free end corner which is adapted to be received by a ratchet device.
FIG. 6 illustrates the reverse side of the panel shown in FIG. 7 using a panel of the type illustrated in FIG. 5 as connected to a scaffolding system.
FIG. 7 is a partially fragmentary view of the panel illustrated in FIG. 5 in an assembled condition, and attached to a structural member, such as a column.
FIG. 8 is a partially fragmentary view illustrating a ratchet device with a panel web received therein.
FIG. 9 illustrates in side elevation view the ratchet of FIG. 8 usable with the mesh of the types illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.
FIG. 10 illustrates a side elevation view of a ratchet device adapted for use with the panel illustrated in FIG. 5.
FIGS. 11a, 11b 11c and 11d illustrate hooks which connects the panel illustrated in FIG. 5 with the ratchet illustrated in FIG. 10.
FIG. 12 is a partially fragmentary perspective view of the vertical horizontal panel system of the present invention.
FIG. 13 is a horizontal sectional view showing a corner connection of the system.
FIG. 14 is a detailed view between a vertical and horizontal panel section as seen from the front.
FIG. 15a is a view of the connection shown in FIG. 14 as seen from the rear.
FIG. 15b is a view of an alternative form of the panels.
FIG. 16 shows the connection between panel members in a T-connection.
FIG. 17 shows a connection at a scaffolding member to the mesh border.
FIG. 18 shows a typical tie wrap used for the connection of FIG. 16.
FIG. 19 shows a tie wrap within the border of a horizontally disposed panel member for the connection of FIG. 17.
FIGS. 20a, 20b and 20c show a corner vertical panel connection.
FIG. 21 shows the corner piece of FIG. 20c as seen from the front.
FIG. 22 shows the corner piece of FIG. 20c as seen from the rear.
FIG. 23 shows a ratchet and scaffolding connection for tensioning the vertical corner panel shown in FIG. 22 as seen from the back side of the panel system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention resides in a system for connecting a panel to a support and comprises a mesh panel defined by at least one length portion and has a border connected to the length portion of the mesh panel. The border and has a first end capable of being connected to a support and a second end adjustably connectable to an opposite support. A tensioning means is associated with the border second end for pulling the border in tension between the supports. The second end of the web is connectable to the tensioning means for tensioning the mesh panel material.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to FIG. 1 therein shown is a system 2 for mounting a mesh 1 onto a scaffolding system 7 which is erected around a structure 3, or to other structures, such as concrete columns in a construction project.
As seen in FIG. 2, the mesh 1 is adapted to be secured between two upstanding support members 5,5 of the scaffolding system. Each mesh panel 1 connects to the upstanding support members 5,5 and four given points a,b,c,d which gives the panels a highly stable and flat face appearance effect.
The system illustrated generally as 2 is disclosed for use in a new and unobvious application for a decorative pr debris barrier material on a scaffolding system. Each mesh panel is highly simplified having the mesh material 1,1, at least two ratchets, 36 or 60, and a border 20,20' which is connected to the mesh panel in a manner as will be discussed herein.
Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, and to the methods by which the webbing is attached to the panel, it should be seen that in FIG. 3, the mesh panel 1 is connected to the border through a flat braided rope 20 which is sewn to the mesh thereby allowing the webbing to slide within the flat braid rope, while in FIG. 4, the webbing is connected directly to the mesh.
At the support members 5,5 are mounting connections 4,4 which connect the mesh to the structural members. The mounting connections 4,4 as illustrated in FIGS. 9, 10 and 11 can be integrally formed with a ratchet device, or alternatively can be separate members which connect the mesh with the scaffold as a separate element, such as by using a threaded member which pierces the mesh panel and thereafter threads into the transverse side of the scaffolding member. Alternatively, such separate connecting member may take the form of a tie wrap. The number of such mounting connections 4,4 are numerous along the length of each support member, and therefore as between successive such mounting connections, the mesh panels 1,1 are attached in regular or irregular patterns, depending on the desired effect.
As seen in FIG. 1, the mesh is a panel of fine-mesh fabric which takes on an opaque appearance when viewed from a distance to give a desired flat panel solid form when viewed from the outside and from afar. The mesh 1 is made from a color-fast material giving it color capability which can be coordinated with the environment it is being used in. Also, as seen in FIG. 1, each panel may be connected at spaced intervals to the scaffolding 7 to create a desired geometric pattern which goes with the architectural design of the structure. It should be noted here that the more open the mesh is, such as found with the debris mesh 11 in FIG. 1, the less visible the mesh is, but does reduce wind loads.
In the preferred embodiment, the mesh material 1 is desirably manufactured from 9×8, #18K flexible foamed PVC 1000 denier polyester, with minimum fabric weight of 9-10 oz. Per square yard, meet a minimum tensile strength, warp: 170 lbs/inch, fill: 155 lbs/inch minimum. Minimum tear strength, warp: 58 lbs., Fill: 55 lbs. (ASTM D2261-96). Fabric stretch, 27 lbs/inch; warp, 4 percent maximum; fill, 4 percent maximum; caliper, 45-50 mils. UV resistance, 1000 hours QUV exposure (ASTM G53096). Minimum fire retardancy: Federal Standards 191, method 5903.2 vertical 55 lbs/inch minimum. Color: Grayblue 18MW.
The 9×8 mesh 1 is a commercially available product which is sold by BO-Tex Sales Corporation, 175 Industrial Road, Hogansville, Ga. 30250. The mesh fabric is comprised of 22% high tenacity polyester yarn and 78% flexible foamed PVC. The yarns are intimately bonded at the crossover points and the degree of openness is dependent on the fabric construction. Known mesh applications are for windscreens, horticultural shading in greenhouses and outside areas, personal sunscreen, and in the fabrication of outdoor stage sets. The following are more specific characteristics of the mesh which is used in the preferred embodiment.
______________________________________Construction: 9 × 8 ends/inchCoating: Flexible Foamed PVCCore Yarn: 1000 denier PolyesterFabric Weight: 9-10 oz/sq. ydTensile Strength:(ASTM D-1682) Warp: 170 lbs/inch minimumGrab Fill: 155 lbs/inch minimumTear Strength:(ASTM D-3786) 58 lbs minimum warpTongue-single rip 55 lbs minimum fillMullen Burst Strength:(ASTM D-3786) 265 lbs/sq. in minimumCaliper:(Fabric thickness) 45-50 milsFire Retardancy: As required. Mill run fabric is self extinguished in horizontal burning mode. Increased fire retardancy can be special order to meet specified tests.Cold Crack: No cracking after 24 hours @ 40° F.2° mandrelFabric Stretch: Warp 4% maximum(ASRM D-1628, 27 lbs/inch) Fill 4% maximumUV Resistance:(ASTM G-53) 1000 hours QUV exposure- slight color deteriorationShade Factor: 80% (78-82%)______________________________________
The mesh 1 in another embodiment can be comprised of yarn of 1,000 denier polyester running in a vertical direction as illustrated by elements and two 500 denier yarns running in a horizontal direction. The yarns are similarly coated by using a highly flexible foam PVC. It is the coating of the yarns which allows the material to be highly supple and flexible and soft to the touch. The below Table A illustrates the specific characteristics of the material. Also, the material is also sold by BO-Tex Sales Corporation, 175 Industrial Road, Hogansville, Ga. 80250, under part number BO-LOC7X5.
TABLE A______________________________________Construction: 7 × 5 ends/inchCoating: Flexible Foamed PVCCore Yarn: 100 denier PolyesterFabric Weight: 6.5-7.5 oz/sq. yd.Tensile Strength:(ASTM D-2261) 45 lbs. minimum warpTongue-single rip 35 lbs. minimum fillMullen Burst Strength: 257 lbs/sq in minimum(ASTM D-3786)Fire Retardancy: Afterflame: Less than 3 seconds (typical)(Fed. Std. 191,Method 5903.2, Vertical) Char Length: Less than 4 inches (typical)Cold Crack: No crackinq after 24 hours @ -40° F., 2" mandrelUV Resistance:(ASTM G53) 1000 hours QUV exposure - slight color deterioration (Not applicable for fluorescent colors)Specific Gravity: 0.60Colors Available Upon Request______________________________________
Referring now to FIGS. 2-4, 8 and 9, it should be seen that the mesh panel shown in this embodiment includes a border member 20 which in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 includes an upper and a lower pocket member 22 which are attached to the upper and lower edges of the mesh 1 by folding over a length of the mesh on itself and stitching it along line 21. The pocket member 22 is a tubular member having an internal chamber 32 into which is received a web 30 which is somewhat free to slide therein, but is dimensioned so that it is tightly fitted within the internal chamber 32. The pocket member 22 takes the form of a hollow flat braid rope, such as disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/789,416 filed Jan. 29, 1997 and Entitled Flat Braid With Web Core, which is hereby incorporated by reference and the webbing 30 is of the type disclosed in same application as well. Thus, the mesh can be pulled tautly horizontally in the direction of the free ends of the web 30, when the web is pulled tautly itself.
It should be understood that the above types of materials are those which are disclosed by way of the preferred embodiment, but numerous substitutions may be had; such substitutions for the mesh material 1 may further be found with reference to the fine mesh material disclosed in the aforementioned copending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/012,472, entitled, Method of Using Barrier Material and System, filed Jan. 22, 1998 under EXPRESS MAIL No. EM174706093US.
Referring now to FIG. 4, it should be seen that the mesh panel shown in this embodiment is essentially the same as that disclosed in FIG. 3 above, except that the border member 20 is comprised solely of a web length 30 which is serge stitched at 35 substantially along its length. It should be appreciated from the illustrations in FIGS. 3 and 4 that the rightmost edge 33 of the mesh panel 1 extending inwardly therefrom a distance of about the length L is left unattached to the web 30. While in the embodiment of FIG. 4, the mesh stitching 35 is simply stopped along length L, it should be understood that in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the web 30 at point 33 is caused to pierce through the pocket member 22 and through the folded over sheet of mesh 1 in order to orient the web outside the panel in a side-by-side orientation with it. In this way, the distal ends of the web are allowed to be fed directly into a ratchet 36 in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 9 without interference from the corresponding length of mesh material. As illustrated in FIG. 9, each ratchet may have an integrally formed clamp 39 allowing it to be connected in a perpendicular relationship with the elongate extent of the scaffolding columns 5,5 to thereby receive the horizontally extending web 30 therein. Alternatively, as seen in FIG. 8 a strap 39 may be used to secured the ratchet to the support 5.
The length L of mesh material which is left unattached to the terminal ends of the web 30 may therefore be wrapped around the scaffolding columns to render a desired on the scaffolding, and thereby maintaining a flat form of the mesh across two scaffolding members 5,5.
Referring now to FIGS. 5, 6 7, 10 and 11a -11d, it should be seen that as an alterative to using a border member which is sewn substantially along the entire length of the mesh as depicted by element 20 in FIGS. 3 and 4, the mesh panel 1' in FIGS 5-7 employs a border 20' which is formed from a strip of webbing which is doubled back on itself at intervals, S,S to create a series of loops 50,50. The loops 50,50 are box stitched to the mesh panel material 1' at the intervals S,S such that the web material 20' which extends therebetween, e.g. along interval S,S, remains unattached to the mesh panel. In this way mesh material which is cut from a roll of stock material transversely of its length, i.e. of the borders 20', between the loops 50,50, will automatically be provided with a means for connecting the panel to a ratchet at one end and at the other end thereof to the scaffolding or concrete column, as illustrated in FIG. 6 or 7.
As illustrated in FIGS. 6 10, and 11, to each of the scaffolding columns 5,5 is attached a hook 52 such as shown in FIGS. 11a -11d. These hooks may connect to a threaded eye bolt 56 which threads into the transverse side of the columns 5,5. when the stock mesh material is cut adjacent to a loop 50 it allows one end of the panel to be fit closely adjacent the leftmost column 5. However a certain amount of excess can be allowed to extended beyond the loop 50 end in order to wrap around the column if desired. Thus using a hook 52, the loops 50 connect the panel to the support 5 at one side, which in the illustrated example is the left side.
On the opposite side of the panel it is desirable to cut the panel such that a length of the border 20' is left so that it may be fed through a ratchet such as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. However, it is also possible to use the loop 50 which is immediately adjacent the rightmost column as a fastening point for connecting directly to a ratchet such as shown in FIG. 10 at 60. The ratchet 60 has a curved arm 62 which is displaced by the ratchet mechanism to take in the border 20' when it is actuated. Thus, the curved arm 62 may be inserted into the loop 50 to make the connection between the support 5 and the mesh, or a hook 52 can make a splice connection between loops 52,52 in order to overlap the mesh of two panels and eliminate an opening therebetween.
Referring again back to FIG. 1, it should be seen that the mesh panel 1 is comprised of a series of interconnected vertically and horizontally extending individual mesh panels which are connected in an end to side manner. The vertical and horizontal panels are referenced hereinafter as designated respectively by as members 1V and 1H.
As illustrated in FIG. 12, the vertical scaffolding members 7 extend parallel to the vertical panel members 1V and perpendicular to the horizontal panel members 1H. As can be seen from the generally schematic view of FIG. 1, the panel system is created through the intermediary of a seam 70 which connects panels 1V and 1H to one another. The seam 70 is best illustrated in FIG. 14a wherein it can be seen that the seam 70 is generally imperceivable as viewed from afar giving the panel system a desired uniform and continuous look.
The mesh panels shown in FIG. 14a are generally of the type such as disclosed and discussed with reference to FIG. 4 above. That is, each panel has piercible web 30 that is surge stitched at 35. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13, the serge stitching can be seen on the outside face of the panels, leaving the webs 20,20 to be internally disposed. More specifically, from FIG. 14a it can be seen that the surge stitch 35 extends along the vertical sides of the panel 1V while serge stitch 35' is shown extending horizontally along panel 1H. Thus, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the side on which the webs 20,20 are contained is the inside face of the panel system 1, leaving each panel outside face as a generally smooth exterior surface.
As illustrated in FIG. 15a, the vertically extending panel 1V has a lower horizontal border 20 stitched completely to the edge E. Thus at the edge E is disposed a sewn serge stitched border 72 which, in the illustrated embodiment, takes the form of a sewn bead-like stitch extending along its length. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 15b, the panel may have an unbordered length 74 which is sufficient to be rolled about itself in a cylindrical manner to create an elongated bead-like form which is capable of running lengthwise in coincidence with the border 20'/35' of the horizontally extending panel 1H.
Referring now for the moment to FIGS. 18 and 19, it should be seen that the border/web 20' which is carried by the panel 1H is capable of being readily pierced by a standard plastic tie wrap which is readily commercially available and is illustrated generally as numeral 76. In the embodiment illustrated the tie wraps are sold by PANDUIT at 17301 Ridgeland Av. Tinley, Ill. 60471. Each tie wrap 76 creates a loop which can be threaded through the mesh of the adjoined panel and about either the beaded sewn border 72, or the rolled border length 74, or through side by side laid ones of the webs 20, 20 at the spatially uniform locations as best illustrated in FIGS. 15a and 16.
As illustrated in FIG. 12, it should be seen that the horizontal panel member 1H which extends between several of the vertically extending scaffolding members 7,7, is further capable of being connected to it through the intermediary of a plastic tie wrap 76. This is best illustrated in FIGS. 17 and 19 wherein a tie wrap is threaded in a parallel orientation to the length of the panel and relative to the border 35' such that it can form a loop which will receive the perpendicularly extending scaffolding member 7.
Referring now to FIG. 13, and to a corner connection 100, it should be seen that a corner connection of the present invention involves a scaffolding post 7' incorporating a clamp and ratchet assembly such as discussed in FIG. 9 with respect to the clamp 39. Here it should be seen that the vertically extending panel 1V' has its borders 35,35 juxtaposed relative to the side edge of a horizontal panel 1H' which is of the type shown in FIG. 4.
As previously discussed, the type of connection shown in FIG. 4 allows for a length L unattached mesh to extend coextensively generally with the border 20. The unattached length L is rolled in the embodiment of FIG. 13 to form a vertical column or tube RL which is placed side-by-side with the border 35 of the vertical panel 1V' and thereafter a tie wrap 76 is pushed through the border 35 of the vertically extending panel 1V' and through the roll RL of the length L of the panel 1H to effect a connection. Through a successive number of such connections, a tight end to end seam is created. However, as illustrated in FIG. 21, the flap portion L of the panel 1H can be simple tucked behind the vertically extending corner panel 1V' rather than being rolled and tie wrapped.
Referring now to FIGS. 20a-c, 21 and 22, it should be seen that a corner between two a vertically extending panels 1V', 1V', which may or may not include a horizontally extending panel 1H and the connection 100 shown in FIG. 13, can be effected at the corner scaffolding 7' as illustrated schematically in FIGS. 20a -20c.
As shown in FIGS. 20a-20c, at least two vertically extending panels 1V', 1V' with their webs 20/20 or 20/72 can be placed side-by-side with one another and connected via the clips 76,76 to create a corner piece with a symmetrical seam illustrated as 80 in FIGS. 20a and 22. The remaining borders 82, 84 as seen in FIG. 20a, may connect in a manner similar to that discussed in FIG. 13 with respect to the connection of a horizontally extending panel 1H'. Alternatively, as illustrated in FIGS. 20c, 21, and 22, the vertically extending corner piece can be made up of a plurality of short width vertically extending panels 1V',1V' which can be connected side by side via ties 76,76 or the like. Further, a single panel can be used with webs 20,20 sewn thereon in a parallel fashion as shown in FIG. 22.
Referring finally to FIG. 23, it should be seen that the vertically extending corner panel 1V', similarly has a webbing or strap 30 which can clamp to a horizontally extending scaffolding member 7'' through the intermediary of a clamp ratchet 36 as discussed above.
The invention has been described by way of illustration rather than limitation. For example the reference to right left orientations has only been made for purposes of discussion and not limitation. Also, as seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the border member and the mesh 1 cease to be connected along a length, L, associated with the free end portions of the panel. These free end portions of the panel act as a flap which may be independently secured to the column by wrapping around the column and connecting to itself. However, structurally, the panel connects to the columns via the border members which are sewn in place to the majority of the length of the panel. Additionally, as seen in FIGS. 6 and 7, the mesh panels 1, 1' may be oversized in length to allow for a horizontally disposed flap 70 to exist where needed, such as at the juncture of a deck.
Accordingly the invention has been described by way of illustration rather than limitation.
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A system for connecting a panel to a support comprises a mesh panel defined by at least one length portion and has a border connected to the length portion of the mesh panel. The border has a first end capable of being connected to a support and a second end adjustably connectable to an opposite support. A tensioning means is associated with the border second end for pulling the border in tension between the supports. The second end of the web is connectable to the tensioning means for tensioning the mesh panel material.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a probe for measuring pressure oscillations, and in particular to probes for measuring pressure oscillations in combustors of gas turbines. The invention also relates to the use of probes according to the invention.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pressure oscillations occurring in the combustors of modern gas turbines, so-called combustor pulsations or combustion pulsations, often also simply called pulsations, provide important indications of the quality of the combustion, especially when employing premix burner technology. Under unfavorable conditions, the combustor pulsations may reach amplitudes at which the mechanical integrity of gas turbine components is at risk. This means that a permanent monitoring of combustor pressure oscillations basically is now indispensable. Because of the high temperatures, a direct detection of occurring pressure oscillations requires high-temperature-resistant pressure sensors, which on the one hand are very expensive, and on the other hand are confronted with usage conditions that are so extreme that a significant probability of failure exists during continuous operation. It is also known that the sensor characteristic of such sensors is temperature-dependent, which also makes the quantification of the measured pressure oscillations harder or allows it only with limited accuracy. In order to not expose the sensors to excessive temperatures, they are set back from the combustor wall a distance by means of an adapter. However, such an adapter has a resonance behavior that influences the acoustic signal. Similar tasks for identical problems encountered in the realization of a measuring device naturally exist also in other combustors and hot gas flows.
For this reason, the use of so-called long-line probes is known. In these, the actual measuring point within the gas turbine combustor is connected by means of a line, basically by means of a small tube, with a pressure transmitter positioned outside of the combustor. This makes it possible that the transmitter can be used at substantially lower temperatures. For this reason, substantially cheaper pressure transmitters or microphones, whose useful life and measuring accuracy is not limited by extreme usage conditions, can be used. In such a configuration, it is important to ensure an echo-free termination of the measuring line formed in this manner, and, if possible, to also avoid any type of reflections within the measuring line.
The termination of the measuring tube with a semi-infinite tube is known. This is realized with a line having a long length. The line or semi-infinite tube is connected at a first end with the end of the measuring tube opposite from the end that faces the measuring point. With sufficient length, the pressure oscillations are attenuated inside the semi-infinite tube as a result of internal dissipation in such a way that no significant amplitude reflections remain at the second end of the semi-infinite tube. According to the state of the art, the second end of the semi-infinite tube is simply closed off in order to prevent hot gas leaks. The disadvantage of this is that the entire measuring device is filled with hot and aggressive combustion gases, and the transmitter is again exposed to elevated loads. Furthermore, conventional long-line probes with coupled semi-infinite lines are difficult to handle in practice, since the current state of the art does not offer any solution as to how to include the semi-infinite tube as an integral component of the probe. This means that the state of the art does not offer any solution, in which an easily manageable, robust, and compact probe is available for measuring pressure oscillations in combustors, in which probe the pressure transmitter is positioned at a distance from the actual, thermally loaded measuring point.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above-disadvantages with the prior art, an embodiment of the invention provides a so-called long-line probe for measuring pressure oscillations in combustors, with the long-line probe being easily manageable, compact, and robust. The probe according to the invention can be used in a frequency range from 0 Hz to 10 kHz without any significant falsification of the signals due to resonances that may occur. In the interest of better handling, the probe is preferably a compact embodiment. Any potentially necessary supply lines are integrally embodied in this probe in order to prevent a risk of damaging external connection lines as much as possible. The probe must be suitable for maintenance-free continuous operation of several tens of thousands of operating hours. Should any damage occur, a simple, quick replacement of the entire probe module must be possible.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the probe includes the following elements:
an inner tube functioning as a measuring tube, with one end of the inner measuring tube being positioned on the measuring point side of the probe, and the opposite end of the measuring tube being positioned on the transmitter side of the probe;
an outer tube, which is positioned so as to envelop the measuring tube at least partially, and an outer wall of the measuring tube and an inner wall of the outer tube defining therebetween a toroidal space open to one side;
a pressure transmitter, which is in connection with the interior of the inner measuring tube in the area of the transmitter-side end of the measuring tube; and
a semi-infinite tube, which is connected at a first end to the transmitter-side end of the measuring tube, and which is connected at a second end to the toroidal space, the semi-infinite tube being constructed as a winding positioned around at least one of the measuring tube and the outer tube.
In one preferred embodiment, the inner measuring tube is provided at its outer wall with a thermal insulation. With the help of this measure, temperature gradients within the measuring tube that would influence the measuring result are avoided as much as possible.
The formation of the semi-infinite tube as a winding around an actual probe tube ensures a compact design. Furthermore, a robust connector for a flushing gas can be provided via the outer tube. This makes it possible to flush the semi-infinite tube and the measuring tube with a flushing gas, so that a penetration of combustion gases into the actual measuring technology is prevented. The flushing gas furthermore helps in preventing the occurrence of temperature gradients in the measuring tube.
In order to avoid undesired reflections, within the measuring tube, the length of the semi-infinite tube is preferably more than 7000 times its diameter. Advantageous embodiments of the invention have semi-infinite tube lengths of more than 40 meters, and even more preferably equal to or greater than 50 meters. In order to avoid interfering seams that again would result in reflections with echo effects, it is also advantageous in this connection that the semi-infinite tube has the same internal diameter as the measuring tube. These internal diameters are selected to be preferably in the range from 4 to 10 mm, even more preferably approximately 6 mm.
An echo-free, or at least, low-echo termination of the measuring device additionally can be improved, if so required, by providing an orifice at the second end of the semi-infinite tube. The diameter of the orifice is preferably selected in the range from 1.5 to 2 mm.
As already mentioned, it is advantageous to connect the toroidal space with a flushing gas supply. A permanent flushing gas supply is preferred. The flow of the flushing is preferably adjusted so that the flow velocity in the measuring tube is below 3 m/s.
The probe according to the invention is particularly suitable for use in gas turbines, wherein the measuring-point end of the measuring tube is open towards a combustor of the gas turbine. The toroidal space is preferably connected with the combustor plenum of the gas turbine. This ensures the flushing air supply as long as the gas turbine is operating, and the pressure of the flushing air is about 1 bar higher than the combustor pressure at the measuring-point end of the probe. This results in an inherently safe system, and the penetration of hot combustion gases into the probe, and thus any contact of hot gas with the pressure transmitter is reliably prevented. The flushing air is provided in this embodiment in a modern gas turbine at a temperature of about 350-400° C. or even higher. It is especially advantageous that the entire configuration is then designed so that the flushing air is cooled when flowing through the semi-infinite tube to a range of slightly above 100° C., for example, 120° C. to about 200° C. In a preferred embodiment, the flushing gas is at temperatures in the range from 150° C. to 180° C. by the time the flushing gas enters the measuring tube. This temperature range has the advantage that, on the one hand, condensation is prevented, but, on the other hand, a pressure transmitter, whose upper acceptable usage temperature is specified, for example, as 200° C., can be easily used. For this purpose, the winding carrier can be provided with ventilation openings. These openings ensure that atmospheric air is able to flow through the winding and around the semi-infinite tube, so that medium flowing within the semi-infinite tube is cooled.
When used in gas turbines, it is known that the pulsation values measured with the probe are used for regulating and protection actions. This means that when an acceptable upper value is exceeded, an emergency shutdown or protective relief of the machine can be initiated, or, adjustments of certain combustion parameters, such as the control of premix burners or water injection, can be made in relationship to measured combustor pulsations. Naturally, the probe according to the invention also can be used very well for other combustion chambers and hot gas flows.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
The invention is described in more detail below in reference to the drawings. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 shows a probe constructed according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 shows an exemplary use of a probe according to an embodiment of the invention with a gas turbine.
FIG. 3 shows a detailed illustration of an echo-free termination of the semi-infinite tube.
All figures should be understood as being solely instructional, and in no way restrict the scope of the invention as characterized in the claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The probe illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a measuring tube 1 with an end 2 at the measuring point side of the probe and an end 3 at the transmitter side of the probe. A cone seat 4 as illustrated may be used to achieve a gas-tight seal at the measuring point side of the probe. Other gas-tight types of the seat, e.g., a ball seat, familiar to the expert can be used. The opening of the measuring tube towards the combustor is constructed with a sharp edge and an abrupt and unsteady transition. This embodiment offers better acoustics than a rounded or conical transition. During the probe's installation, described in an exemplary manner in greater detail below with reference to FIG. 2, the seat 4 is pressed with a force against a tube branch of the measuring chamber 5 , and in this way seals the seat 4 on the measuring point end of the measuring tube against the measuring point opening so as to be gas-tight. On the transmitter end 3 of the measuring tube 1 , a pressure transmitter 6 is positioned, which measures the pressure in the measuring tube. The pressure transmitter preferably should be selected with the smallest possible dimensions, and is preferably positioned in such a manner on a radial, outer wall of the measuring tube that the smooth wall surface inside the measuring tube is interrupted as little as possible by steps. As a transmitter, for example, a piezoelectric transmitter or a sample microphone can be used. The pressure transmitter itself is preferably constructed with AC-coupling, i.e., does not emit a signal at a constant pressure. This has the advantage that measuring signals triggered by pressure fluctuations with amplitudes in the mbar range are not lost in the noise or high bias of the signal in the presence of absolute pressures of, for example, 30 bar.
According to an embodiment of the invention, a pressure present in a chamber 5 , at which the measuring point end of the measuring tube terminates, is impressed on the inside of the measuring tube. This means that the pressure fluctuations in the measuring chamber 5 are also impressed on the measuring tube inside and are picked up by the pressure transmitter 6 . Preferably pressure fluctuations with frequencies of several Hz to several kHz, roughly in the acoustic range, are converted into electric signals. The amplitude of the pressure fluctuations to be measured range from a magnitude of several 10 −3 to several 10 −2 of the absolute pressure, which emphasizes the advantage of a suppression of the bias of the pressure during the signal conversion. The electrical signal generated by the transmitter is passed on via a signal cable 7 —whereby specially shielded cables are used—to data acquisition electronics, and is further processed there by means of different methods that are known per se. The function of this probe would be significantly hampered by any echoes resulting from the termination of the measuring tube. In order to prevent this, a semi-infinite tube is provided at the transmitter end of the measuring tube.
The semi-infinite tube is a seamlessly constructed line having a long length, preferably more than 40 m, for example 50 m, or even longer. The internal diameter of the tube is preferably identical as closely as possible with as little tolerance as possible, to the internal diameter of the measuring tube. The internal diameter of the measuring tube is preferably in the range from 4 to 8 mm, even more preferably approximately 6 mm. The dimensional precision in the manufacturing of the measuring tube and semi-infinite tube ensures a practically seamless transition from the measuring tube into the semi-infinite tube. This prevents the creation of reflection effects at the transition site. The semi-infinite tube is designated as semi-infinite because with the mentioned internal diameters, the pressure fluctuations to be measured—basically sound waves—are dissipated over this long length, and therefore can no longer be reflected at the end of the semi-infinite tube. This means that acoustically, the semi-infinite tube really acts in this direction as an infinite tube.
In practical use of the installation, the handling of the long tube was found to be extremely problematic in the long-line probes used up to now. Experience shows that components that are not very compact units are taken out of the way or stepped on, and that during continuous use a rather rough treatment must be expected. However, this is a very critical issue for a line designed as a semi-infinite tube. Such a line with an internal diameter of, for example, 6 mm, and an appropriate wall thickness is easily kinked or otherwise damaged at the inside wall, which consequently results in undesired reflections of pressure oscillations.
According to the invention, the probe is therefore provided with a winding carrier 9 that represents an integral component of the probe. The semi-infinite tube 8 is positioned as a winding on this winding carrier. This winding is additionally covered by a protective sleeve 10 . This ensures the integrity of the semi-infinite tube even when assembly and maintenance staff step on the installed probe.
At a second end 11 , the semi-infinite tube is connected to a flushing gas supply. The constructive design of the flushing gas supply poses very similar problems as the semi-infinite tube in practical use: In order to ensure its mechanical integrity, the flushing gas supply must not be installed “freely floating” but must be integrated into a compact unit. According to the invention, this is achieved by placing an outer tube 12 around the measuring tube. A toroidal space 14 is defined between the measuring tube 1 or an insulation material 13 enveloping the measuring tube and the outer pipe 12 . Flushing gas can be introduced into this toroidal space. The flushing gas then flows through the semi-infinite tube and the measuring tube in the direction toward the measuring point end of the measuring tube. This prevents the penetration of hot and aggressive combustion gases into the measuring tube and the contact of the transmitter with the combustion gases. As a result, requirements on the temperature and corrosion resistance of the transmitter are more easily met. The permanent flow of the flushing gas furthermore ensures a substantially constant temperature inside the measuring tube over its length.
The winding carrier 9 fulfills another function in connection with the flushing gas supply. As already described above, it may easily occur in practical use that flushing gas is provided with a starting temperature of, for example, about 400° C. In this context, the winding carrier 9 is provided with openings that ensure free circulation of air around the windings of the semi-infinite tube 8 . This air circulation is used specifically for cooling the flushing gas flowing inside the semi-infinite tube to a desired temperature of, for example, 150° C. to 200° C., more preferably approximately 180° C. In principle, it would also be conceivable to design the size of the ventilation openings so as to be adjustable in order to implement a regulation of the flushing gas temperature on entering the measuring tube in this manner.
Referring to FIG. 2, a longitudinal section of part of a gas turbine is illustrated. Only those details necessary for directly understanding the structure and function of the probe are shown. The man of ordinary skill in the art is perfectly familiar with the function of the rotor 101 and its rotating vanes. From a compressor section 102 of the gas turbine, compressed air flows into a combustor plenum 103 that is enclosed in an outer sleeve 104 of the gas turbine. The air flows through burner 105 into a combustor 5 of the gas turbine, said combustor being divided from the plenum by the burner hood 106 . When flowing through the burner 105 , the air typically undergoes a pressure drop in a magnitude of 0.5 to 1 bar. In the burner 105 , the compressed air is mixed in a manner not shown here, and known per se, with an amount of fuel that is combusted in the combustor 5 . The hot gas produced in this manner finally flows out of the combustor 5 through a turbine section 107 , where the gases are expanded, producing mechanical power. Inhomogeneities occurring during the combustion result in pressure pulsations in the combustor, which under unfavorable conditions may reach critical amplitudes that also could threaten the mechanical integrity of the structures.
For this reason, the combustor of a gas turbine preferably should be provided with a measuring point that permits a continuous monitoring of the pressure pulsations. FIG. 2 shows the possible positioning of a probe according to the invention at a gas turbine for this purpose. For this purpose, an opening is provided in the hood 106 . The measuring point end 2 of the measuring tube 1 of the probe is positioned at this opening. A through-opening in the outer sleeve 104 of the gas turbine is produced with a size suitable to also accept the outer tube 12 . The toroidal space defined between the inner measuring tube and the outer tube is open towards the plenum. Because of the pressure drop across the burner(s), the pressure in the toroidal space is greater than that in the measuring tube, ensuring a flow of compressed air through the semi-infinite tube into the measuring tube. By connecting the flushing gas supply to the plenum, the flushing gas supply is inherently safe. As long as the gas turbine is operating, and combustion gases could potentially penetrate into the measuring tube and threaten the sensors, flushing gas that prevents this penetration of hot gas also will be present.
FIG. 1 illustrates the installation of the probe into a thermal machine, such as, for example, a gas turbine. The outer tube 12 is provided at a front end with an outer thread 15 , with which it is screwed into the outer sleeve 104 . The outer tube is screwed into the outer sleeve tightly and provided with a sealing ring or a sealing cord 17 in order to ensure a reliable sealing of the plenum pressure against external pressure. Naturally other devices known to the skilled person, for example, a flange joint, can be used for the attachment of the outer tube 12 to the outer sleeve 104 while achieving the desired sealing arrangement.
The measuring tube also forms a gas-tight termination at the hood 106 with a cone seat 4 , and otherwise is passed through the hood 106 at the measuring point end 2 , thereby forming a connection with the combustor 5 . On a front side of the outer tube 12 facing away from the measuring point, a plate 18 is mounted. This plate 18 serves as a first support for a pressure spring 19 . A second support 20 for the spring 19 is fixed to the measuring tube 1 and positioned in an axially movable manner in the outer tube 12 . In this way, the pressure spring 19 is able to exert an axial force onto the measuring tube 1 . The axial dimensions have been selected so that in the installed state an axial force is always exerted onto the measuring tube in such a way that a gas-tight seat of the cone seat 4 is ensured. In addition, the spring-loaded, axially movable positioning of the measuring tube in the outer tube ensures a compensation for differential expansions between the outer sleeve 104 and the hood 106 on the one hand, and between the measuring tube 1 and the outer tube 12 on the other hand. The tightness of the cone seat 4 on the hood 106 is thereby ensured.
The plate 18 is provided with an opening whose diameter is greater than that of the measuring tube. This prevents binding of the measuring tube in the outer tube. On the other hand, no gas-tight seat can be achieved between the axially movable support 20 and the outer tube, either. During operation, plenum pressure that still must be sealed off towards the atmosphere without hindering the axial movement between measuring tube and outer tube still exists at the through-opening of the plate 18 . For this reason, the through-opening is followed in a gas-tight manner by a bellow 26 that is also attached to a bushing 21 in a gas-tight manner at a second end. This bushing is again provided with means 22 for a gas-tight tube connection, for example a swagelock connection, which provides a gas-tight seal with respect to the measuring tube. The bushing 21 is positioned axially movable with a close sliding fit in a sheath 23 and in this way also fixes the measuring tube radially. The sheath 23 is connected in a fixed manner via the plate 18 with the outer tube. A second sheath 24 also extends axially movable over sheath 23 . This sheath radially supports the transmitter carrier 25 wherein, on the one hand, the transmitter 6 is held, and, on the other hand, the measuring tube is positioned in a fixed manner.
The robust, radial support of the measuring tube at 3 positioning points in the rear part, and the preload through the spring in the front part increase the natural vibration frequency of the actually thin and soft measuring tube. This prevents vibration damage during continuous operation over several 10 4 operating hours. Additionally, vibrations of the entire measuring device, including the transmitter, that could potentially falsify the measurement are essentially prevented.
A probe according to the invention need not have all of the characteristics illustrated in the exemplary embodiment, or may be provided with other, different or additional structural characteristics or advantageous details, without deviating from the concept of the invention. Such a detail is shown in FIG. 3 . Here, an enlarged detail shows the connection of the semi-infinite tube to the outer tube. A connecting branch 30 is screwed into the outer tube 12 , whereby a sealing ring 27 is placed between the connecting branch and the outer tube. The tube 8 is passed through this connecting branch and is thus in fluid connection with the toroidal space 14 . The nut 28 is positioned over the tube 8 and screwed onto the connecting branch 30 and in this manner produces a gas-tight connection at this point. The tube 8 is terminated by means of an orifice 29 , which is, for example, welded on. Given a suitable design of the diameter of the orifice, the orifice also contributes to an echo-free termination of the semi-infinite tube. The internal diameter of the orifice is preferably selected in the range from 1.5 to 2 mm. The orifice also can be used for adjusting the flushing air flow.
Other embodiments and applications of the probe according to the invention will be obvious to the expert without deviating from the concept of the invention or exceeding the claimed scope of the invention.
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A probe for measuring pressure oscillations includes an inner tube functioning as a measuring tube, an outer tube positioned so as to envelop the measuring tube, a toroidal space open to one side being defined between an outer wall of the measuring tube and an inner wall of the outer tube, a pressure transmitter, which is in connection with the interior of the measuring tube in the area of a transmitter end of the measuring tube, and a semi-infinite tube, which is connected at a first end to the transmitter end of the measuring tube, and which is connected at a second end to the toroidal space. The semi-infinite tube is constructed as a winding positioned around at least one of the measuring tube and the outer tube, thereby providing a compact and robust construction of a probe module, which is suitable especially for continuous use in the measuring of combustor pulsations in gas turbines.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The current invention relates to the field of document searching and particularly searching numerical documentation stored in a distributed information system, connected by a network of the Internet type.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Document searching is traditionally carried out by search engines using a centralized index which continually explores numeric resources and can be queried to retrieve a list corresponding to a keyword search and provide access to listed documents as hypertext links.
[0003] This solution has drawbacks. In particular, it requires extensive mass storage to stock the centralized index and involves a long processing time. The solution aims for an exhaustive exploration and does not take into account users' judgment.
[0004] Another existing solution aims to facilitate document access through accessing the favorites of multiple users who share the same interests. This solution set out in the patent US2002/16786 involves keyword search to identify documents belonging to the group of users corresponding to the keyword. The query is carries out on the common profile of a group, and allows access to the documents of the subset of the favorites of the group members.
[0005] This solution is not totally satisfactory because the result is very dependent on the pertinence of the search criteria and possible confusion of the target keyword, due to synonym issues, polysemy, language and spelling.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] Responding to these drawbacks this invention concerns broadly speaking a document search procedure over a distributed information system, made up of steps to construct a thematic representation consisting of:
[0007] Constructing on the user's platform, thematic categories each containing at least one link to a document resource Ui, each category being associated with a descriptor Ci, the resources Ui of a category being considered by the user as homogenous by their thematic content and associated with at least one descriptor Ki;
[0008] Constructing at least one grouping index,
A first grouping includes the entries Ei made up of all the links Ui to the documentation resources, each entry Ei being associated with at least one category Ci of this access link Ui, A second grouping index includes the entries Ei formed from the descriptors Ki of the categories Ci made up of these access links Ui of the documentary resources, each entry Ei being associated with at lest one category Ci of the access links Ui, and the search steps consist of extracting from the aforementioned grouping indexes the categories Cj associated with at lest one entry Ej corresponding to the search criteria Qj and to establish a list of suggestions Sj made up of the access links Uj ordered using a score representing the importance and/or number of occurrences of the link Uj in the aforementioned categories Cj.
[0012] In one embodiment of the invention, the description of the category Ci is made up of the identification of the user originating the category Ci.
[0013] In another embodiment, the descriptor of the category Ci is made up of a coefficient representing the degree of pertinence of the category.
[0014] In a third embodiment, the descriptor of the category Ci is made up of an identifier of at least one set to which the category Ci belongs to.
[0015] In a fourth embodiment, the category description Ci is made up of at least one identifier of a link Ui belonging to the category ci.
[0016] In addition, the search criteria Qj corresponds to at least one address saved in at least one category Cj.
[0017] In one embodiment, the search criteria Qj corresponds to the address of the page currently being consulted.
[0018] In another embodiment, the search criteria Qj corresponds to at least one address present in the contents of the page being consulted.
[0019] In another embodiment, the search criteria Qj corresponds to at least one keyword present in a form or a page being consulted.
[0020] In a particular implementation, access to certain of these grouping indexes is restricted to a specific group of users.
[0021] Preferably, for each entry Ei, each link Ui is associated with a weighting P 1 i determined as a function of the profile of the user originating the categories Ci associated with Ei.
[0022] In one embodiment, for each entry Ei, each link Ui is associated with a weighting P 2 i determined as a function of the position in the arborescence of the category Ci associated with Ei.
[0023] In addition, the description Ki is made up of at least one keyword attributed by reference to the name of the folder Ci.
[0024] According to one implementation method, the description Ki is made up of at least one keyword attributed by reference to the content of the links Ui grouped in the same category Ci.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0025] The invention will be better understood by reading the following description, which concerns a non-limited implementation method, referring to the diagrams in the annex where:
[0026] FIG. 1 represents a global view of the system;
[0027] FIG. 2 represents the steps in the construction of the index;
[0028] FIG. 3 represents storing an arborescence;
[0029] FIG. 4 represents the distribution of the index over several computers; and
[0030] FIG. 5 represents the steps in querying the index
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0031] The current patent describes a social search engine based on the collecting and sharing of personal tree structures of users' links (social bookmarking) and the use of classification structures to determine the proximity relationship between the links.
[0032] The current invention belongs to a category of services known as social bookmarking. These services have a principle characteristic of facilitating the exchange between users the mechanism of serendipity. Certain services, like the current invention, add possibilities of collaborative search which are based on data collected by users of the system as opposed to “classical” search engines which index documents on the Internet network independently of the its users. The current invention differs from other bookmark management systems in that it is not based on the association of tags with links. Systems based on tagging suffer from the same difficulties as all search systems based on keywords: language problems, spelling and polysemy. Unlike systems based on tagging, the current invention is not based on the words associated with categories and links to calculate the proximity between links but on the hierarchical grouping of the links. This structural approach allows us to compensate for the set of problems mentioned above.
[0033] FIG. 1 represents a schematic view of a system implementing the invention.
[0034] It is made up of personal computers ( 1 , 2 ) connected to a network, for example the Internet. Each personal computer ( 1 , 2 ) is equipped with web navigation software ( 3 ) as well as software to watch and update favorites ( 4 ) communicate with a system of storage and indexation ( 5 ). This indexing system ( 5 ) explores a subset of the network ( 11 ) to analyze the resources referenced in the index and to collect associated meta-information.
[0035] The users use a computer ( 1 , 2 ) equipped with browsing software ( 3 ) to access web sites. From this browser, the users can record and classify web sites which attract their attention. A synchronization agent ( 4 ) detects in real time the changes made by the user to his personal web site arborescence. This agent communicates the changes to the favorites to the server platform ( 5 ) (creation, deletion, update). The font-end servers ( 6 ) handle the interface between synchronization agents ( 4 ) and the platform ( 5 ). A copy of the user arborescence is stored in the data base ( 7 ). The data bases ( 7 ) and the synchronization agents ( 4 ) also perform the function of synchronizing the user's favorites over several personal computers. Indexes ( 8 ) are created from the data bases ( 7 ). The construction of these indexes and searches therein are described in later chapters. The construction of the indexes can be associated with exploring a subset of the network ( 11 ), for example the Internet. Certain data of the index (title, activity, RSS . . . ) are determined from analysis of the sites ( 12 ) referenced by the users. These data extractions are carried out by the extraction robots or web crawlers ( 9 ) which query the web sites ( 12 ) at regular intervals. These robots are indispensable to determine the meta-information associated with the indexed links, for example: the “real” title of a page and not that given by a user, the availability of a page, the presence of one or more RSS feeds associated with the page. Another type of robot extraction ( 10 ) is used to supply the index by other sources ( 13 ). These sources all have in common that they are sufficiently structured to infer arborescence of the links which supply the index in an analogous way to the users' personal arborescence. Link directories (e.g. dmoz), blogs, RSS feeds . . . are examples of sources explored by the extraction robots ( 10 ).
[0036] Frontal servers and the storage data bases are not described in this document because their implementation does not present any difficulty in relation to the current state of the art.
Construction of the Index (FIGS. 2 and 3 )
[0037] The construction of the index follows a complex process which is distributed over several computers in a network (pipeline) of processing and transformations described in FIG. 2 . The personnel arborescences are stored in data bases ( 1 , 2 ). A differential extraction of user data ( 3 ) is carried out at regular intervals for each data base ( 1 , 2 ). These extractions are carried out based on the update dates of the user data, all data modified after the previous extraction will be integrated into the differential extraction file. The files ( 3 ) are organized in a line, each line is a tuple containing: a user identifier, a (hierarchical) referencing path, a URL link identifier and perhaps a title and a weighting which defines the importance of the link, a sharing flag. The content of the extracted files is sorted by increasing order of the user identification. This sort is used to facilitate and optimize the subsequent treatment in the pipeline. For each extracted file ( 3 ), a filtering process ( 4 ) is applied. The final objective of this filtering process is to improve the quality of the recommendations given by the engine and minimize the effect of spamming inherent in all search engines. Several techniques are put in place to carry out the filtering
Using a set of filtering rules based the referencing level in the hierarchy, the size of the categories, the reputation of the user, the frequency of referencing of sites, the accessibility of referenced links, user votes for a folder or a link, detection of folders predefined in web browsers, the frequency of updating of categories. Use of existing indexes to determine the quality of user folders which are judged suspicious by applying the previous rules. This method of filtering uses a “retro-action” loop ( 5 ) linking the filtering processes to the previous version of the index to compare the suspect data and the community data. For example, for a group of links, (e.g. a category) it is possible to determine the level of correlation of the links one to another based on the number of common points of the neighbors of each link in the group. If the correlation level is near zero, then the folder will not be taken into account.
[0040] The filtering process ( 4 ) associates a weighting to each link depending on certain parameters: the source of the links, the user audience, and the reputation of the user. The data thus filtered are then associated with the data associated with the construction of the previous index ( 6 ). The association is carried out by a merge operation ( 7 ) user by user which uses the age of the data in case of conflict. The most recent data are given priority. The entries of the operator ( 7 ) are all ordered in the same way to simplify the implementation of this merge. The output of this merge operation ( 7 ), an ordered data stream is generated representing the current state of the data of a group of data bases ( 1 , 2 ). This stream is then distributed to three files. The first file ( 9 ) corresponds to the list of unique URLs referenced in the stream. Processing ( 8 ) then groups and parallel sorts to generate the file ( 9 ) from the output ( 7 ). The uniqueness and the order of the urls are not based directly on the urls themselves but on the normalized form of the urls. The normalization process transforms urls which are equivalent but written differently to a unique form (e.g. the urls http://www.site.com/index.html et http://www.site.com are normalized as a single representation http:site.com/). The normalization consists of applying transformation rules on the original url. The rules are:
Only http and https urls are recognized The url is converted to lower case Spaces before and after the url are removed (‘ ’ and ‘\t’) Default ports are removed (:80 for http and :443 for https) Anchors are removed A slash is added to the end of a url if it does not contain one (e.g. http://www.google.com-->http://www.google.com/) and if it does not explicitly reference a document (e.g. http://www.site.com/doc.html-->http://www.site.com/doc.html) Simplification of // and /./ to / Resolve the relative addresses / ../, / .../ ... Remove the // after the protocol (e.g. http://www.google.com/-->http:www.google.com/) Remove the files index.* and default.* (eg: http://www.google.com/index.html-->http://www.google.com/) Removed the prefix www. Remove the session identifiers: PHPSESSID, sessionKey, P2CSESSID, jsessionid . . .
[0053] The second file ( 11 ) corresponds to the list of words used in the arborescence coming from the stream ( 5 ). The process ( 10 ) is used to create this file from:
The hierarchy category titles The titles of the pages pointed to by the links The words or a subset of the words from the content of the referenced links. The subset of words is obtained by classical methods of summarizing or extracting the most significant terms (e.g. statistical methods).
[0057] The processing ( 10 ) breaks down by words then carries out groupings and parallel sort to generate the file ( 11 ). The uniqueness and the word sort are based on word normalization. The transformation rules are:
The word is converted to lower case Accents are replaced by non-accented equivalent if they exist. Punctuation and non-numeric characters are replaced by spaces.
[0061] The third file ( 12 ) corresponds directly to the content of the output stream from the merge operator ( 7 ). The output from the construction of the index files ( 9 ), ( 11 ) and ( 12 ) replace (link 13 ) the equivalent files from the construction of the previous index ( 14 ).
[0062] The file ( 9 ) is then used to construct a binary structure ( 15 , 16 ) optimized and compressed which allows:
1. Storing the urls and their meta-data as compressed data. 2. Rapidly converting a normalized url to a numeric identification (url-id). 3. Rapidly converting a url-id to a url an its associated meta data.
[0066] The url compression ( 15 ) is based on the recurring presence of prefixes common to urls. The algorithms like Front Coded, Digital Trie or Judy Array can be used to carry out this compression. The conversion from url→url-id ( 16 ) is based on the algorithms of the type Minimal Perfect Hash, Digital Trie, HAMT or Judy Array.
[0067] In an analogous way, the system constructs an optimized and compressed binary structure ( 17 , 18 ) of the file ( 11 ). The conversion from keyword→keyword-id ( 18 ) preferably uses the algorithms of the type Digital Trie or the like to support searches on the prefixes.
[0068] The file ( 12 ) is used to construct a binary structure ( 19 , 20 ) optimized and compressed representing the user arborescence (category arborescence). Each category is associated with a unique numeric identification cat-id, the tree-like character is conserved. The categories are stored in a linear structure according to the composite ordering of user identification then the category path. FIG. 3 presents a synthetic view of this structure. This structure is composed of two linear sub-structures. The tabular structure ( 3 . 1 ) represents a succession of pointers to a tabular structure ( 3 . 3 ). The index of each element ( 3 . 2 ) corresponds to the identification of the category cat-id mentioned above. The content of ( 3 . 2 ) is a pointer or an offset in the structure ( 3 . 3 ). The input to the structure ( 3 . 1 ) follows the order defined (user id, path). The tabular structure ( 3 . 3 ) continually stores a binary representation of the arborescence of each indexed user. The element ( 3 . 4 ) codified over a series of bytes of the size of the following element ( 3 . 5 ) and a possible offset ( 3 . 6 ) on an element of type ( 3 . 4 ) corresponds to a parent category. This element of type ( 3 . 4 ) can be extended to codify supplementary information of type: user identification, shared category, weighting . . . . The element ( 3 . 5 ) represents the list of url-id presents in the current category ( 3 . 2 ). This list is compressed using arithmetic compression or Huffman. Links ( 3 . 6 ) are used to determine the relationship parent/child and child/parent which will be used in the case of the search at a level higher than one. To obtain the upper category of any category simply use the offset coded in ( 3 . 4 ). To obtain the list of sub-categories of a category, it is necessary to go up to the parent category P and then navigate the categories with a higher index which point to the category P, stopping at the first category with no higher category (change of user) limiting to possible sub-categories of P (use of a local map to detect the end of the sub-tree).
[0069] In FIG. 2 , the file ( 12 ) and the index ( 16 ) are used together ( 21 ) to construct an inverse index ( 22 ) which means the correspondence url-id→list of cat-id can be rapidly obtained. The list of cat-id corresponds to the list of categories which contain the url identified by url-id. The list of the cat-id is compressed using the equivalent of the algorithms at point ( 3 . 5 ).
[0070] The file ( 12 ) and the index ( 18 ) are used jointly ( 23 ) to construct an inverse index ( 24 ) which enables us to rapidly obtain a correspondence keyword-id→list of cat-id. The list of cat-id corresponds to the list of categories which contain the word identified by url-id. The list of cat-id is compressed using the algorithms equivalents to point ( 3 . 5 ).
Distribution of the Index (FIG. 4 )
[0071] The distribution of the index allows the data and the queries to be distributed over several computers to obtain a progressive scalability. FIG. 4 presents the distribution mode used. The storage data bases ( 1 , 2 ) are associated by group (cluster) of fixed size. Independently, an index ( 4 ) is constructed for each group using construction steps described in the previous chapter. This construction phase is represented by the element ( 3 ) of FIG. 4 . The distribution procedure is completed by a replication process which allows it to construct several instances of the same index group ( 5 , 6 , 7 ). To each instance, ( 5 , 6 , 7 ) a multicast post is associated to facilitate simultaneous querying of indexes present in the group. This distribution principle and the replication means that large indexes can be exploited.
[0072] In the index-querying phase (a phase described in detail in a later chapter), a process ( 8 ) is used to carry out a query on a group of indexes ( 6 , 6 or 7 ). The choice ( 8 ) of group depends on a classical distribution algorithm. The process ( 8 ) carries out a multicast query ( 9 ) on the selected group index. The process ( 8 ) collects the results and carries out an operation to merge the results by applying a function f taking as parameters the various ranks of a same url and producing as an output a new ranking value for the url. The simplest function in this context is the addition k-ary. After the merge, a reordering of the links is carried out by decreasing order of rank.
Querying of the Index (FIG. 5 )
[0073] FIG. 5 described the querying process of an index which allows us to obtain a final list of recommended links Sj classed by decreasing order of their rank. The search can be carried out starting from various criteria Qj ( 1 ). A search can use criteria of type keyword Kj ( 2 ), criteria of type Uj ( 3 ) or a combination of the two. It is possible to specify several Kj ( 2 ) and several Uj ( 3 ).
[0074] If there is at least Kj in Qj then the branch Kj is used. For each Kj, the index ( 2 . 18 ) is used to convert the normalization of Kj ( 4 ) and its corresponding numerical identification. Subsequently, if there is a corresponding keyword-id, the structure ( 2 . 24 ) is used to determine the list of categories Cj which are targets of Kj ( 5 ).
[0075] If there is at least one Uj in Qj then the branch Uj is used. For each Uj, the index ( 2 . 16 ) is used to convert the normalization of Uj ( 6 ) to its corresponding numeric identification. Subsequently, if there is a corresponding url-id, the structure ( 2 . 22 ) is used to determine the list of categories Cj which are target of Uj ( 7 ).
[0076] The sets Cj from the multiples branches Kj and Cj are collected at the level of the processes ( 8 ) which performs an intersection of the sets of Cj. Output from the process ( 8 ) is obtained a set of Cj common to all the Kj/Uj or an empty set. If the result is an empty set this means that there is no response to the query, in this case the system changes to approximate search mode if it is not already (described below). The search process stops if it is already in approximate search mode.
[0077] If the set of Cj is not empty the process continues at stage ( 9 ). This step consists for each Cj of determining the set of couples Ui,Wi contained in the category Cj. The parameter Wi represents the weight of Ui in Cj. This weight is a function of the weight of the category Cj, the depth of Ui in Cj, the global popularity of Ui in the system, the reputation of the user who owns Cj. The transformation Cj→(Ui,Wi) is carried out from the structure ( 2 . 19 , 2 . 20 ). A simple case of the calculation of Wi can be given by the following principle:
dist(Cj,Ui)=1 iff Ui is in the category Cj dist(Cj,Ui)=2 iff Ui is in the category parent(Cj) or in one of the categories directly lower than Cj (child (Cj)). dist(U 1 ,Ui)=3 iff Ui is in the parent category (parent(Cj)) or in one of the child categories (child(Cj)). Recursively applying the previous distance calculation for the upper distances. Wi(Ui,Cj)=1/dist(Cj,Ui)
[0083] The step ( 10 ) performs a union of the sets of the couplets Ui,Wi based on the key Ui to carry out the connection. A function f is used to make up the different Wi of a same Ui. We finally obtain a set of pairs (Ui,f(Wi)). By default the function f is a simple addition, it can be replaced by a function of type bayesienne average or any other function judged relevant in this context.
[0084] The step ( 11 ) sorts the pairs (Ui,f(Wi)) according to f(Wi) in decreasing order. The system only saves the first n results from the list. The parameter n being defined by the system or by the querying user.
[0085] The last step ( 12 ) consists of converting the Ui (numerical identification) into information useable by users. The Ui are thus converted into urls, title and associated meta data using the index described in ( 3 . 15 , 3 . 16 ).
[0086] The step ( 13 ) is carried out only if the search goes to approximate search mode (the case where ( 8 ) returns an empty set). The point of this mode is to extend the search perimeter and so find the results when the classical mode has failed. Its drawback is to diminish the pertinence of the results. The entries Qj undergo a transformation to extend the search perimeter:
The criteria Kj are extended using a search by prefix (of the type words starting with). Indexes of the type Digital Trie are used in this case. The criteria Uj are transformed by applying the interlinked functions norm(reduce(url)). The function norm has already been presented. The reduce function consists of returning the more general url by progressively going back up the paths or folders which make it up (e.g. reduce(http://www.site.com/dossier/doc.html)=http://www.site.com).
[0089] After transforming the entries Qj, the search process picks up again at (4) and (6).
[0090] This chapter has described the basic principle of the search technique of the current patent. The following chapters describe the extensions or possible peripheral uses of this technique.
Secondary Search Criteria
[0091] The criteria Kj and/or Uj are called primary because they are indispensable to launch a search. The system can nevertheless take into account the secondary search criteria as well as one or more primary criteria. There follows a few examples of secondary criteria which can be integrated into the index:
Date of discovery of the suggested links, information obtained when the url is added to the index for the first time. The user group to restrict the search to a subset of categories Cj. By declaring membership of a group or community, a user shares his link arborescence with a group. The language used in the document pointed to by the url, information obtained by the webcrawler ( 1 . 12 ). The country associated with the domain name of the url, information obtained by analyzing the domain name or by querying a data base of IP localization. Presence of one or several RSS feeds for a given url, information obtained by the webcrawler ( 1 . 12 ).
Search Users or Groups of Users
[0097] Each user in the system can voluntarily join a group of users. The groups are created by the users themselves. A user can contribute to the group by referencing certain of his categories Cj in the group. Other functions are associated with this notion of a group, but they are not described in this patent.
[0098] The indexing and search system described above returns results made up of suggestions of links classified by decreasing order of rank. Based on the indexing principle presented it is possible to set out the searches which return other types of result:
[0099] From criteria Uj or Kj or a combination of these, it is possible to return the identifiers for the users associated with the categories issuing from the process ( 8 ) described in FIG. 5 . This list of users corresponds to users which have referenced links related to the search criteria. The users are then classified by decreasing order of relevance. The relevance of a user is calculated from the number of subscriptions to his topics Cj. A more developed calculation of the relevance takes into consideration: the number of topics Cj, the number of shared links, the frequency of update of the topics Cj, the general profile of the user.
From criteria Uj or Kj or a combination of these criteria, it is possible to return identifiers for the groups of users associated with the categories Cj issuing from the process ( 8 ) described in FIG. 5 . This list of groups of users corresponds to groups or communities which have referenced links in relation to the search criteria. The groups are then classified by decreasing order of the umber of subscribers.
Use of the Index with Other Types of Sources
[0101] The indexation principle presented in this patent can apply to other types of content sources than the personal arborescence of the type favorites. In fact it is possible to apply this indexing principle to all sources where a categorization of links can be extracted with or without hierarchy. Depending on the type of source, the processing steps to extract the link categories are more or less direct. Here are a few examples of transformation:
The directories of centralized links built up by an organization or community of people (e.g. yahoo directory, dmoz) can be directly indexed by our technique. Blogs or RSS information feeds are made up of articles or items which each contain a text and sometimes one or more links. Statistically the links contained in a blog article or an RSS item are generally linked thematically. The transformation consists of considering an article or an item as a category containing links. Only articles/items containing at least 2 links are retained. Other parameters can be taken into account to improve the indexing quality: size of the article, type of the link (internal/external). Certain blogs/rss support the notion of categories; in this case it is possible to exploit this information to construct a more detailed hierarchy of the links.
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The current invention concerns a document search procedure in a distributed information system, containing construction steps of a thematic representation made up of: constructing, on user computers, the thematic categories; constructing at least one grouping index, a first grouping index containing the entries Ei made up of all the access links Ui of the documentary resources, a second grouping index containing the entries Ei made up of all the descriptors Ki of the categories Ci, and the search steps consisting of extracting the grouping index of the categories to establish a suggestion list Sj made up of the access links Uj ordered as a function of a representative score of importance and/or of number of occurrences of the link Uj in the categories Cj.
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[0001] This application is base on Japanese Patent Application No. Hei 2002-18201 filed in Japan on Jan. 28, 2002, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to a digital camera, and more particularly, to the disposition of components used in a digital camera including a lens barrel unit having refracting means for refracting the subject light and imaging the light on an image sensing device.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
[0003] In digital cameras electronically recording image signals converted by the image sensing device, since no film is used unlike film-based cameras, no film driving system is required, and since there is little limitation on the position of the image sensing device for this reason, the taking optical axis can be refracted on the way. Therefore, it is proposed to form an optical system having refracting means such as a mirror or a prism in the middle of the taking optical system to thereby reduce the thickness of the digital camera.
[0004] For example, in an electronic camera disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-10165, an optical system is disposed in an upright position in a notch of an in-body electric circuit board disposed in the center of a flat body so as to be parallel to the front wall of the body, and a battery cavity is disposed in the vertical direction at a side of the optical system. Behind the lens barrel unit, an image display is disposed.
[0005] However, in the camera disclosed in the laid-open patent application, while a notch is formed in a member in order that the optical system does not interfere with other members, the thickness of the camera is not sufficiently reduced in disposing the optical system in combination with other parts provided inside.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object thereof is to provide a very thin digital camera by optimizing the circuit board disposition in a relationship with other parts when an optical system having refracting means for refracting the subject light is adopted. Another object of the present invention is to inexpensively provide a very thin digital camera as described above.
[0007] The above-mentioned objects are attained by providing digital cameras having the following structures:
[0008] An image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises: a body having a shape being flat in a subject direction when photographing; a refracting optical system having refracting means for refracting incident light from a subject in a direction vertical to the subject direction of the body; a power source portion supplying power to the image forming apparatus; and a circuit board disposed so as not to overlap with the refracting optical system and the power source portion in a direction of a thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0009] As described above, according to the present embodiment, the circuit board can be disposed in a space other than the space occupied by the lens barrel unit and the battery cavity which are large parts in the body, so that the thickness of the camera can be reduced.
[0010] In the above-described structure, the refracting optical system is disposed at an end of the body.
[0011] In the above-described structure, the power source portion is disposed at an end of the body.
[0012] In the above-described structure, a display portion is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the circuit board in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0013] In the above-described structure, a flash capacitor is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the circuit board in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0014] In the above-described structure, a recording medium housing portion is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the circuit board in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0015] Moreover, an image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises: a body having a shape being flat in a subject direction when photographing; a refracting optical system disposed at an end of the body, and having refracting means for refracting incident light from a subject in a direction vertical to the subject direction of the body; and a power source portion supplying power to the image forming apparatus, and disposed at an end adjoining the end where the refracting optical system is disposed.
[0016] As described above, according to the present embodiment, the lens barrel unit and the battery cavity are disposed in an L shape along the left end and the lower end of the body, so that a large space surrounded thereby can be secured. Consequently, a comparatively large member can be disposed in this space, and since the space is rectangular, facilitation of circuit board formation and reduction in cost can be attained.
[0017] In the above-described structure, a circuit board is provided that is disposed so as not to overlap with the refracting optical system and the power source portion in the direction of a thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0018] In the above-described structure, a display portion is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the circuit board in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0019] In the above-described structure, a flash capacitor is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the circuit board in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0020] In the above-described structure, a recording medium housing portion is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the circuit board in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0021] Further, an image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises: a body having a shape being flat in a subject direction when photographing; a refracting optical system having refracting means for refracting incident light from a subject in a direction vertical to the subject direction of the body; and a display portion displaying a taken image, and disposed so as not to overlap with the refracting optical system in the direction of a thickness in the subject direction of the body and to overlap with the refracting optical system in a direction vertical to the subject direction.
[0022] As described above, according to the present embodiment, a LCD is disposed within the thickness of the lens barrel unit in the body, so that the thickness of the camera can be reduced.
[0023] In the above-described structure, the refracting optical system is disposed at an end of the body.
[0024] In the above-described structure, a power source portion is provided that supplies power to the image forming apparatus and is disposed so as not to overlap with the refracting optical system and the display portion in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0025] In the above-described structure, a circuit board is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the display portion in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0026] In the above-described structure, a second circuit board is disposed in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
[0027] In the above-described structure, a third circuit board is provided that is disposed in a direction substantially orthogonal to the circuit boards.
[0028] In the above-described structure, a recording medium housing portion is provided that is disposed so as to overlap with the display portion in the direction of the thickness in the subject direction of the body.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0029] These and other objects and features of the present invention will become clear from the following description taken in conjunction with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
[0030] [0030]FIG. 1 is a front cross-sectional view of a digital camera according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
[0031] [0031]FIG. 2 is a rear cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 1;
[0032] [0032]FIG. 3 is a top cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 1;
[0033] [0033]FIG. 4 is a right side cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 1;
[0034] [0034]FIG. 5 is a left side cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 1;
[0035] [0035]FIG. 6 is a front cross-sectional view of a digital camera according to a second embodiment of the present invention;
[0036] [0036]FIG. 7 is a top cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 6;
[0037] [0037]FIG. 8 is a left side cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 6;
[0038] [0038]FIG. 9 is a front cross-sectional view of a digital camera according to a third embodiment of the present invention;
[0039] [0039]FIG. 10 is a top cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 9;
[0040] [0040]FIG. 11 is a right side cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 9; and
[0041] [0041]FIG. 12 is a left side cross-sectional view of the digital camera of FIG. 9.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0042] Hereinafter, digital cameras according to embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0043] First, a digital camera according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5 .
[0044] As shown in the front cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, the digital camera 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention has a lens barrel unit 2 in the body 3 at the right end viewed from the front wall of the body. The lens barrel unit 2 comprises taking lens units 21 , 22 , 23 and 24 taking in the subject light, a lens barrel 25 , an image sensing device 26 outputting a subject image sensing signal and a zoom driver 27 driving the zoom lens unit 22 for adjusting the focal length of the lens barrel unit. At a side of the lens barrel unit 2 , a battery cavity 4 for housing batteries 5 is disposed along the bottom wall 3 c of a body 3 so that the direction of the length thereof coincides with the lateral direction. In a large space formed by disposing the lens barrel unit 2 and the battery cavity 4 on one side in an L shape, a liquid crystal display 6 and a circuit board 7 are disposed so as not to overlap with the lens barrel unit 2 in the direction of the thickness.
[0045] First, the external structure of the digital camera 1 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 , the body 3 has a flat shape having a front wall 3 b and a rear wall 3 a and being smaller in thickness than in height and in width. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 which is a top cross-sectional view, the body 3 has an opening 2 a for the lens barrel unit 2 in an upper right part of the front wall 3 b which is opposed to the subject at the time of photographing. At the left side of the opening 2 a , a finder 11 and a flash 13 are provided.
[0046] As shown in the rear cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, the top cross-sectional view of FIG. 3 and the left side cross-sectional view of FIG. 5, the liquid crystal display 6 for displaying images and zoom buttons 12 a and 12 b are provided on the rear wall 3 a of the body 3 . The zoom buttons 12 a and 12 b comprise a telephoto-side button 12 a and a wide-angle button 12 b . By depressing one of these buttons, the zoom driver 27 is driven to move the zoom lens unit 23 .
[0047] As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 which is a top cross-sectional view, a release button 15 for photographing instruction operation and a main switch 16 are provided on the top wall of the body 3 .
[0048] Next, the internal structure will be described. The subject light is incident on the lens barrel unit 2 through the opening 2 a . As mentioned above, the lens barrel unit 2 is provided in the vertical direction at the right end of the body 3 . Light incident vertically to the front wall 3 b of the body passes through the first lens unit 21 , and is refracted downward by a prism 20 . In the lens barrel 25 , the second to the fourth lens units are housed. The second lens unit 22 serving as a focusing lens unit performs focusing by varying its position in the direction of the optical axis. Below the second lens unit 22 , the third lens unit 23 serving as the zoom lens unit moved by the zoom driver 27 is provided. The light refracted by the prism 20 is incident on the image sensing device 26 through the second to the fourth lens units 22 to 24 .
[0049] Below the image sensing device 26 , the zoom driver 27 for driving the third lens unit 23 serving as the zoom lens unit is provided. Below the zoom driver 27 , a tripod screw 14 is provided on the bottom surface of the body 3 . This disposition enables effective use of a small dead space formed below the lens barrel unit 2 .
[0050] At the left side of the lens barrel unit 2 , the battery cavity 4 is provided. The battery cavity 4 is disposed on the bottom wall of the body 3 so that the direction of the length thereof coincides with the horizontal direction and so as not to overlap with the lens barrel unit 2 in the direction of the thickness of the body. In the battery cavity 4 , two batteries 5 are placed one on the other in the vertical direction so as not to overlap with each other in the direction of the thickness of the camera. The batteries 5 are horizontally taken in and out from the left side surface of the body, and a battery cover 19 is attached to the left side surface of the body so as to be openable and closable.
[0051] Above the battery cavity, the liquid crystal display 6 and the circuit board 7 are disposed. The liquid crystal display 6 may be disposed so as to overlap with the battery cavity 4 in the direction of the height. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, when the battery cavity 4 is for housing cylindrical batteries, the peripheral wall of the battery cavity 4 curves along the arc of the batteries 5 , and the liquid crystal display 6 is disposed so that its lower end is inserted in a substantially triangular space formed between the battery cavity 4 and the rear wall 3 b of the body 3 so as to make a close contact with the upper end of the peripheral wall. This disposition enables the size of the liquid crystal display 6 to be increased.
[0052] In front of the liquid crystal display 6 , a memory slot 8 for inserting a memory card 9 is provided so as to overlap with the liquid crystal display 6 in the direction of the thickness. The circuit board 7 is disposed so as to be sandwiched between the liquid crystal display 6 and the memory slot 8 . On the circuit board, wiring for connecting units such as the liquid crystal display 6 , the flash 13 and the zoom driver 27 , and controllers and devices for controlling the parts are disposed. Since the members disposed so as to overlap with one another are each a thin member, even though they are disposed so as to overlap with one another in the direction of the thickness of the body, the overall thickness thereof can be made smaller than the thickness of the lens barrel unit 2 .
[0053] Between the memory slot 8 and the lens barrel unit 2 , a main capacitor 10 for the flash 13 is provided. The main capacitor 10 is disposed in front of the liquid crystal display 6 so as to overlap with the liquid crystal display 6 in the direction of the thickness. Moreover, a USB terminal 17 for transmitting and receiving data of taken images and the like is provided on the left side surface of the body so as to overlap with the memory slot 8 in the direction of the thickness. The memory slot 8 and the USB terminal 17 are normally covered with a cover 50 , and taking in and out of the memory card and USB connection to another apparatus are possible with the cover opened.
[0054] As described above, according to the present embodiment, the lens barrel unit 2 and the battery cavity 4 are disposed in an L shape along the left end and the lower end of the internal cavity of the body, and a large space surrounded thereby can be secured. By disposing thin members such as the circuit board and the LCD in the large space, the memory card slot 8 which is also a thin member and other parts can be disposed so as to overlap with one another in the direction of the thickness. Even though disposed in this manner, these members can be housed without the overall thickness thereof exceeding the thickness of the lens barrel unit 2 , so that the thickness of the camera can be reduced.
[0055] Next, a digital camera according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8 .
[0056] A digital camera 1 a has a lens barrel unit 2 in a body 3 at the right end viewed from the front wall 3 b of the body. The lens barrel unit 2 is a bending optical system similar to the first embodiment, and comprises taking lens units taking in the subject light, a lens barrel, an image sensing device outputting a subject image sensing signal and a zoom driver 27 driving the zoom lens unit. In the present embodiment, as shown in the front cross-sectional view of FIG. 6, at the left side of the lens barrel unit 2 , a liquid crystal display 6 is disposed so as not to overlap with the lens barrel unit 2 in the direction of the thickness and to be in contact with the rear wall 3 a of the body 3 . Moreover, a memory slot 8 for inserting a memory card 9 is provided so as to overlap with the liquid crystal display 6 in the direction of the thickness of the camera. Moreover, a circuit board 7 is provided so as to be sandwiched between the liquid crystal display 6 and the memory slot 8 . Since these members are each small in thickness, even though they are disposed so as to overlap with one another in the direction of the thickness of the body, the overall thickness thereof can be made smaller than the thickness of the lens barrel unit 2 . The circuit board 7 occupies, when viewed from the side of the front wall 3 b , substantially all the space other than the space occupied by the lens barrel unit 2 and the zoom driver 27 .
[0057] The memory card 9 is inserted into the memory slot 8 from the left side of the camera 1 a . On the left side surface of the body, a USB terminal 17 for transmitting and receiving image data and sound data is provided. As shown in the top cross-sectional view of FIG. 7, on the left side surface of the camera 1 a , a recording medium cover 32 for protecting the memory slot 8 and the USB terminal 17 is provided so as to be openable and closable.
[0058] As shown in FIG. 6, at the lowermost part of the lens barrel unit 2 b , the zoom driver 27 including a motor 18 is situated, and below the zoom driver 27 , a microphone 33 is disposed. At a side of the microphone 33 , a tripod screw 14 is provided.
[0059] Moreover, as shown in FIG. 7, a release button 15 is provided on the top wall of the camera.
[0060] At the lower left of the lens barrel unit 2 , a battery cavity 4 is disposed on the bottom wall of the body 13 so as not to overlap with the lens barrel unit 2 in the direction of the thickness and that the direction of the length thereof coincides with the lateral direction. In this embodiment, a rechargeable flat secondary battery is used as a battery 5 a . Since the battery is flat as mentioned above, as shown in the left side cross-sectional view of FIG. 8, a space 3 c is present between the battery cavity 4 and the rear wall 3 a of the body. The battery 5 a is inserted into the battery cavity from the left side surface of the camera, and to protect the slot, a battery cover 19 is provided on the left side surface of the body 3 .
[0061] The liquid crystal display 6 is disposed so that at least part thereof is inserted in the space 3 c formed between the battery cavity 4 and the rear wall 3 a of the body. This disposition enables reduction in the size of the camera in the direction of the height. Moreover, in the space 3 c , a speaker 34 is disposed below the liquid crystal display 6 .
[0062] A flash 13 is provided above the liquid crystal display 6 . The flash 13 is disposed so as to overlap with the memory slot 8 and the liquid crystal display 6 in the direction of the thickness.
[0063] As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, at the left side of the lens barrel unit 2 , a main capacitor 10 for the flash 13 is provided. The main capacitor 10 is disposed so as to overlap with the liquid crystal display 6 in the direction of the thickness. A finder 11 is disposed above the liquid crystal display 6 and the main capacitor 10 . Since the finder 11 does not overlap with the liquid crystal display 6 and the main capacitor 10 in the direction of the width, the size of the camera in the direction of the width can be reduced.
[0064] According to the present embodiment, since the circuit board is disposed in the space other than the space occupied by the lens barrel unit, by determining the thickness of the body with the lens barrel unit as the reference, the thickness of the camera can be reduced. In that case, since substantially all the space other than the space occupied by the lens barrel unit is used, a maximum circuit board size for a single-circuit-board structure can be obtained.
[0065] Next, a digital camera according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 12 .
[0066] A digital camera 1 b has a lens barrel unit 2 in a body 3 at the right end viewed from the front wall of the body. The lens barrel unit 2 comprises, like in the above-described embodiments, taking lens units taking in the subject light, a lens barrel, an image sensing device outputting a subject image sensing signal and a zoom driver driving the zoom lens unit. Below the lens barrel unit, a tripod screw 14 is provided.
[0067] As shown in the front cross-sectional view of FIG. 9, a liquid crystal display 6 is disposed on the rear wall 3 a of the body 3 . The liquid crystal display 6 is disposed so as to make a close contact with the rear wall 3 a of the body.
[0068] At a side of the lens barrel unit 2 , a battery cavity 4 for housing batteries 5 and a memory slot 8 for inserting a memory card 9 are provided so as to overlap with each other in the direction of the thickness. The memory slot is fixed onto an A circuit board 7 A, and is disposed at a side of the lens barrel unit and behind the battery cavity. The A circuit board 7 A is disposed so as to be substantially parallel to the front wall of the camera body.
[0069] Above the battery cavity, a flash capacitor 10 is provided so that the direction of the length thereof coincides with the horizontal direction. Behind the flash capacitor 10 and above the battery cavity, a B circuit board 7 B is provided. The B circuit board 7 B is provided substantially parallel to the A circuit board 7 A, and is disposed so as to sandwich the memory slot 8 provided on the A circuit board 7 A. The memory card 9 is inserted into the memory slot 8 from below the camera 1 c.
[0070] Above the flash capacitor 10 , a C circuit board 7 C to which the flash capacitor 10 is connected is provided so as to be parallel to the A circuit board 7 A and the B circuit board 7 B. The C circuit board 7 C has a notch so as not to interfere with the flash capacitor 10 . On the C circuit board 7 C, a flash 13 is mounted.
[0071] Since the A to C circuit boards 7 A to 7 C are each small in thickness, even though they are disposed so as to overlap with one another in the direction of the thickness of the body, the overall thickness thereof can be made smaller than the thickness of the lens barrel unit 2 .
[0072] Above the A to C circuit boards 7 A to 7 C, a D circuit board 7 D is provided so as to be vertical to the circuit boards 7 A to 7 C and parallel to the top wall 3 d of the camera. On the D circuit board 7 D, a control device for operation members such as a release button 15 and a main switch 16 is mounted, and the D circuit boards 7 D and the buttons such as the release button 15 are connected in the shortest distance and the dead space at the upper end of the body can be effectively used.
[0073] At the right side of the D circuit board 7 D, a finder 11 is provided. The finder is of a Porro type, and has a finder prism 35 for refracting the subject light from the front surface 3 a of the body. The finder prism 35 is structured so as to be capable of directing the incident light to an eyepiece window 11 a provided at the upper right end of the rear wall 3 a of the body by refracting the light substantially in a hook shape. As shown in FIG. 11, one slanting surface 35 a of the finder prism is provided so as to be opposed to a prism slanting surface 2 b of the lens barrel unit 2 , so that the dead space above the lens barrel unit 2 can be effectively used.
[0074] According to the present embodiment, a plurality of circuit boards can be disposed within the range of the camera thickness depending on the lens barrel unit. Consequently, the camera thickness can be reduced while a large circuit board area is secured. Moreover, the circuit boards are disposed so that the portion of connection with the function portion such as the capacitor is shortest, so that the obtained structure is resistant to noise.
[0075] As described above, in the digital cameras according to the embodiments, the lens barrel unit having the prism refracting the subject image is disposed on one side at the right end of the body, and in the large space at a side thereof, the circuit boards which are thin members are disposed so as to overlap with one another. Consequently, the thickness can be reduced by determining the thickness of the body with reference to the lens barrel unit and rectangular circuit boards can be disposed, so that facilitation of circuit board formation and reduction in cost can be attained.
[0076] Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included with in the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart therefrom.
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A digital camera capable of optimizing the circuit board disposition in a relationship with other parts when an optical system having refracting means for refracting the subject light is adopted, comprising: a body having a shape being flat in a subject direction when photographing; a refracting optical system having refracting means for refracting incident light from a subject in a direction vertical to the subject direction of the body; a power source portion supplying power to the image forming apparatus; and a circuit board disposed so as not to overlap with the refracting optical system and the power source portion in a direction of a thickness in the subject direction of the body.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a composition of matter suitable for treating hose and other knitted articles to prevent runs, and run resistant hose and other knitted fabric articles of clothing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general, women's sheer full fashioned hosiery, in particular, and other knitted clothing generally is subject to runs and tears. Runs from minor punctures or small holes in the hosiery and are at least unsightly and frequently destroy the article. The prior art has provided a sizing composition for yarns derived from synthetic fiber forming polymeric amides, which substantially reduces the percentage of imperfect and defective stocking, See, U.S. Pat. No. 2,565,962 issued on Aug. 28, 1951, but has not eliminated the problems of runs which appears to be an inherent characteristic of many fine yarns for women's hose.
Manufacturers have attempted to prevent runs due to punctures in the hose from toenails, by reenforcing the toenail area of the hosiery with more fibers, but this has not eliminated runs in other areas of the stocking. Furthermore, the thicker fibers may be aesthetically displeasing or uncomfortable to the user. A method at stopping the runs after they begin by applying compositions to the run area in the hose, such as nail polish, does not solve the initial problem nor is such a method practical as it can cost more than purchasing new hosiery.
A composition and method are provided within the scope of this invention for preventing runs from occurring. A treated pair of hose, or other knitted clothing, is also contemplated within the scope of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method of run-proofing completed articles of clothing formed of knitted fine fibers is disclosed, comprising the steps of saturating the article of clothing to be run-proofed in an aqueous solution of from about 1 to about 10 weight percent polyvinyl alcohol and from about 1 to about 30 weight percent glycol plasticizer, and thereafter drying the article in a configuration in which fabric layers of the article do not dry adjacent one another in sufficient proximity to stick the layers of fabric of which the article is formed together.
The preferred polyvinyl alcohols are substantially fully hydrolyzed.
It is highly advantageous that the polyvinyl alcohol be soluble in hot water but substantially insoluble in cold water and, in a preferred embodiment, the solution comprises from about 2 to about 6 weight percent polyvinyl alcohol and from about 6 to about 18 weight percent glycol plasticizer, the preferred plasticizers comprising glycerol, ethylene glycol or mixtures of glycerol and ethylene glycol.
In another facet, the invention is embodied in an article of clothing manufactured of knitted fibers which normally runs when fibers thereof are cut or broken, the article being improved in that the article is coated with a layer of glycol plasticized polyvinyl alcohol, the coating being so disposed as to coat the individual fibers and the intersections of the fibers but not the openings between fibers. As in the method, the glycol plasticizer is preferably glycerol, ethylene glycol or mixtures of glycerol and ethylene glycol, and is present in a ratio of from 1 to four times the amount of polyvinyl alcohol, and 1:1 to 2:1 ethylene glycol:glycerol ratio in the glycol is preferred.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The specific formulations, methods, and compositions described herein are intended to exemplify the invention, to provide adequate information to permit those skilled in the art to carry out the best mode known to the inventor, and to provide guidance in applying the invention, and not in any way to limit the scope of the invention.
In general, the method of the invention comprises saturating the article to be treated, for example, hose knitted of fine textile fibers, in an aqueous solution of polyvinyl alcohol, and drying the article in a configuration which will prevent sticking of the portions of the article one to another.
A typical, non-limiting example of a suitable solution for carrying out the invention comprises:
TABLE I______________________________________Water (preferably deionized) 80-95%*Polyvinyl alcohol 2-6%Glycol Plasticizer 4-16%______________________________________ *Percentages are by weight.
The composition may, optionally, include traces (usually less than 1%) of preservatives, flatting agents, dyes and other minor constituents.
For example, a preservative such as, by way of example only, calcium or sodium propionate, Dowicide A (trademark of Dow Chemical Co.), Mitrol (trademark of Chapman Chemical Co.), or any other physiologically acceptable mold and bacteria inhibitor may be used. Flatting agents such as silica and, quite surprisingly, potassium acid tartrate (cream of tartar) may also be included if desired; however, flatting agents are not required in most applications.
Generally, formulations within the following ranges will be quite satisfactory for use in carrying out the invention:
TABLE II______________________________________Water 70 to 95%Polyvinyl alcohol 1 to 10%Glycol 1 to 30%Preservatives, 0 to 5%flatting agents, etc.______________________________________
The glycol plasticizer is preferably glycerol, ethylene glycol or mixtures of glycerol and ethylene glycol, and is present in a ratio of from 1 to four times the amount of polyvinyl alcohol. Mixtures of these glycols generally comprise from 1 to 2 parts of ethylene glycol for each part of glycerol.
It has been found that a particular blend of polyvinyl alcohols is especially advantageous. This blend comprises from about 0.5 to 2 parts of a fully hydrolyzed, hot water soluble, cold water insoluble polyvinyl alcohol having a high viscosity of 55-65 cps in 4% aqueous solution (Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. "VINOL 165" [Trademark]) and from 0.5 to 2 parts of a fully hydrolyzed, hot water soluble, cold water insoluble polyvinyl alcohol having a medium viscosity of 27-33 cps in 4% aqueous solution (DuPont Company "Elvanol 71-30" [Trademark]) in a solution of from about 1 to 2% to about 6%, typically about 4% in water, with about three times as much glycol, i.e. from about 3 to about 18% glycol, preferably a blend of about 1.25 parts of ethylene glycol to each part of glycerol.
A mixture, as indicated above, is formed as a slurry and is then boiled (100 degrees C. at one (1) atmosphere), stirred to complete dissolution, and allowed to cool. The solution may be reboiled just prior to packaging or packaged in an air tight container and then heated to sterilize the solution. In most instances, sterile packaging is sufficient and no preservative is required, but a preservative as suggested above may be added.
In use, the method is carried out by saturating the hose, or other knitted article, and drying the article in a suitable configuration to prevent large areas of the fabric of which the article is constructed from lying sufficiently close that sticking of one layer to another occurs. In the case where the article is hosiery, the hose may be dried over a loosely rolled tube of suitable material such as, for example, Saran Wrap (Trademark of Dow Chemical Company) polyvinylidine chloride film), polyethylene film, wax paper, etc. The article may, however, be hung appropriately or arranged by any other means to prevent sticking of the layers of fabric one to another.
In another aspect of the process of this invention, the hosiery is saturated with the plasticized polyvinyl alcohol and the placed over the nozzle of a hair dryer, or any source of a stream of air, preferably warm or hot air, such as emanates from a conventional hair dryer. This expands and inflates the hosiery to prevent layers from contacting each other and contributes to the drying step. This approach is considered ideal for the production line application of the present process.
The plasticized polyvinyl alcohol is believed to form a film which coats the individual fibers and bonds the intersection of the fibers with each other but does not form a film covering the openings between the fibers. The film on the intersection of the fibers is believed to prevent the formation of runs. Whatever the mechanism of the phenomenon, the results are striking, Very sheer hose which is highly susceptible to running become totally run-proof!
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION
This invention finds practical utility in the garment industry and, most importantly, by individuals who desire to protect their knitted hosiery and other articles from runs.
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Articles of clothing formed of knitted fibers in which the article of clothing is substantially saturated with an aqueous solution containing to 10 percent polyvinyl alcohol and 1 to 30 percent glycol plasticizer; configuring the article and thereafter drying.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to compression springs and more particularly to tubular elastomeric compression springs that are designed for absorbing shock in vehicle bumper assemblies and other equipment subject to impacts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Tubular compression springs made of thermoplastic elastomeric materials have become very popular in recent years, because of their high energy absorption properties. They have proven to be particularly useful in vehicle bumper assemblies, as well as in other equipment that is subject to sudden impacts or jolts. One favorite material for these compression springs is a copolymer elastomer made by E. I. duPont de Nemours under the trademark Hytrel®. Examples of compression springs made of this material are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,198,037 and 4,566,678 to Anderson and U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,083 to Wydra et al.
One problem that has limited the kinds of applications for these elastomeric compression springs is the rebound force they have exhibited after the compression force is removed. Technically, these springs have not really absorbed energy. They simply store it temporarily while they remain under compression. When the force that compresses them is released, they "bounce back" or "rebound," directing almost as much energy in the opposite direction as they initially absorbed. Therefore, these elastomeric compression springs have not been used very much in situations where permanent shock absorption is required. Instead, hydraulic shock absorbers and other sophisticated energy absorption devices have been used. Such shock absorbers are very expensive because they employ complicated mechanical dampening devices, such as multiple high-pressure fluid chambers with orifices.
Another problem with elastomeric compression springs has been the tendency of their parts to misalign while under compression. This misalignment can damage the machinery in which they are mounted or cause it to malfunction. Also, repeated misalignment causes the compression springs to wear out prematurely.
Still another problem with thermoplastic elastomeric compression springs has been their inconsistent performance during their initial use. They have often required a break-in period before the elastomer becomes fully set, so that they will perform according to a consistent force-displacement curve. When an elastomeric spring is compressed before it becomes fully set, it will not spring back to the length that it had before it was compressed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a thermoplastic elastomeric compression spring body that will not only protect machine parts from shocks, but will absorb much of the energy that it receives, thereby reducing or eliminating rebound forces after the compressive forces have been removed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermoplastic elastomeric compression spring that is not prone to misalignment during compression.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a thermoplastic elastomeric compression spring that performs consistently even during its initial use.
These and other objects are accomplished by providing a compression spring body made of a thermoplastic elastomeric material that has a tubular shape with an inside wall surface having a first inside length portion of a relatively large diameter, a second inside length portion of a smaller diameter than the diameter of said first inside length portion and an inside step surface connecting these inside length portions. The compression spring body also has an outside wall surface having a first outside length portion located radially outwardly from the first inside length portion of the inside wall surface and an outside step surface extending inwardly from the first outside length portion and located between the inside step surface and the end portion closest to the second inside length portion of the inside wall surface. When this compression spring body is compressed along its lengthwise axis, the first inside length portion and the inside step surface of the inside wall surface become folded toward one another. The telescoping motion of these parts results in a compression spring body that remains in alignment and permanently absorbs energy and reduces or eliminates rebound forces.
The objects of the present invention are also accomplished by a method of making an energy absorbing compression spring body that comprises the step of making a tubular preform of a thermoplastic elastomeric material with an inside wall surface having a first inside length portion of a relatively large diameter, a second inside wall portion of a smaller diameter than said first inside length portion and an inside step surface connecting said inside length portions. The tubular preform also has an outside length portion of a substantially conical shape with a larger diameter portion of the conical shape being located radially outwardly from said first inside length portion and a smaller diameter portion of the conical shape being located radially outwardly from said second inside length portion. The method also comprises the step of compressing the preform along its lengthwise axis an amount equal to at least 25 percent of its original length, as well as the step of allowing the compressed preform to spring back to a finished shape to form a compression spring body.
Other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description and attached drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a top elevation of a preform for a compression spring body showing one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the preform of FIG. 1, taken along line II--II of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a compression spring body made from the preform of FIGS. 1 and 2;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the compression spring body of FIG. 3 while the body is in use and in a compressed condition;
FIG. 5 is a graph showing the force-displacement performance of the compression spring body of FIGS. 3 and 4;
FIG. 6 is a top elevation of a preform for a compression spring body showing a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the preform of FIG. 6, taken along line VII--VII of FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a compression spring body made from the preform of FIGS. 6 and 7;
FIG. 9 is a side elevation of the compression spring body of FIG. 8 while the body is in use and in a compressed condition;
FIG. 10 is a graph showing the force-displacement performance of the compression spring body of FIGS. 8 and 9;
FIG. 11 is a top elevation of a preform for a compression spring body showing a third embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the preform of FIG. 11, taken along line XII--XII of FIG. 11;
FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a compression spring body made from the preform of FIGS. 11 and 12;
FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the compression spring body of FIG. 13 while the body is in use and in a compressed condition;
FIG. 15 is a graph showing the force-displacement performance of the compression spring body of FIGS. 13 and 14, when subjected to first, second and third compressive strokes after being manufactured.
FIG. 16 is a top elevation of a preform for a compression spring body showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the preform of FIG. 16, taken along line XVII--XVII of FIG. 16;
FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional side elevation of a compression spring body made from the preform of FIGS. 16 and 17;
FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional side elevation of the compression spring body of FIG. 18 while the body is in use and in a compressed condition; and
FIG. 20 is a graph showing the force-displacement performance of the compression spring body of FIGS. 18 and 19.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
One embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. The compression spring preform 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is designed to be compressed along a lengthwise axis X 1 and then allowed to rebound to form a finished compression spring body 21, shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.
The preform 1 is made of a thermoplastic elastomeric material, preferably one that has excellent energy absorbing properties. The preferred material for this purpose is a copolymer elastomer manufactured by E. I. duPont de Nemours under the trademark Hytrel®. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the preform 1 is made of a 55 durometer Hytrel® elastomer and has a tubular shape with a central hole 2, inside wall surface 3 and outside wall surface 4. The preform 1 is preferably molded in the shape shown in FIG. 2. However, the central hole 2 may be machined to form the inside wall surface 3 after the part has been molded in the form of outside wall surface 4. Alternatively, both the inside and outside wall surfaces may be machined.
The preform 1 has a free end portion 5 and a base portion 6 with a flange 7. The inside wall surface 3 has a first inside length portion 8 of a relatively large diameter PA 1 and a second inside length portion 9 of a smaller diameter PB 1 . An inside step surface 10 connects the inside length portions 8 and 9. Both inside length portions 8 and 9 have cylindrical shapes. In the base portion 6, the inside wall surface 3 has a third inside length portion 11 of a diameter PC 1 . A second inside step surface 12 connects the inside length portions 9 and 11.
The outside wall surface 4 of the preform 1 has a conical shape with a larger diameter portion 13 located radially outwardly from the first inside length portion 8 and a smaller diameter portion 14 located radially outwardly from the second inside length portion 9.
The preform 1 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is made to the following dimensions, according to the labels shown in FIG. 2:
______________________________________PA.sup.1 = 0.6875 inch PE.sup.1 = 0.980 inch PJ.sup.1 = 0.870 inchPB.sup.1 = 0.500 inch PF.sup.1 = 0.525 inch PL.sup.1 = 1.125 inchesPC.sup.1 = 0.270 inch PG.sup.1 = 0.815 inchPD.sup.1 = 0.980 inch PH.sup.1 = 0.668 inch______________________________________
To form the finished compression spring body 21 of FIGS. 3 and 4, the preform 1 of FIGS. 1 and 2 is put in a press that applies a compressive force along the axis X 1 . While in this press, the ends of the preform 1 are held in a fixture so that the preform diameters PD 1 and PE 1 of 0.980 inch (FIG. 2) remain the same dimension as the diameters D 1 and E 1 of the spring body 21 (FIG. 3). The force applied by the press is raised to a level sufficient to reduce the axial length of the preform 1 by at least 25 percent. In this case, the initial length PL 1 of 1.125 inches is reduced to a length of 0.642 inch, representing a 42.9 percent axial reduction. The force applied by the press is then withdrawn, allowing the preform 1 to spring back part of the distance by which it was compressed, thus forming the finished compression spring body 21 of FIGS. 3 and 4. The compression spring body 21 formed by this process is not only shorter than the preform 1, having a new length L 1 of 1.050 inches, but it also has a substantially different shape. The conical outside wall surface 4 of the preform 1 has now become divided into two substantially cylindrical length portions, specifically a large diameter length portion 24a and a small diameter length portion 24b, connected by a rounded outside step surface 24c. The length portion 24a bulges slightly outwardly near the outside step surface 24c, having a diameter D 4 of 0.980 inch at the end portion 5 and 1.020 inches near the step surface 24c. Also, the first inside length portion 8 of the preform 1 has been formed into an inside length portion 28 that is coned slightly inwardly at the top, so that its original diameter PA 1 of 0.6875 inch has a finished diameter A 1 of 0.675 inch. The compression spring body 21 has the following dimensions:
______________________________________A.sup.1 = 0.675 inch D.sup.1 = 0.980 inch to H.sup.1 = 0.698 inchB.sup.1 = 0.480 inch 1.020 inch L.sup.1 = 1.050 inchesC.sup.1 = 0.270 inch E.sup.1 = 0.980 inch.______________________________________
The compression spring body 21 has a third inside wall surface 31 and a second inside step surface 32 that are designed to hold a bolt or other fastening member. Such a fastening member can be used to secure the compression spring to another machine part.
FIG. 4 shows the shape of the compression spring body 21 when compressed in a 30-ton press exerting a force of approximately 90 pounds. The graph of FIG. 5 shows the force-displacement characteristics of the spring body 21. The curve of this graph, as well as the curves of FIGS. 10, 15 and 20, was generated while the press was moving at 40 in./min., using electric displacement and force sensors with proportional voltage outputs.
The main advantage of the spring body 21 is that it absorbs all of the energy that is applied to it and exerts no rebound force after the compressive force is released. In fact, after the body 21 has been compressed by about 0.1 inch under a force of 90 pounds, it collapses another 0.088 inch to a length CL 1 of 0.862 inch (FIG. 4), as long as the force applied to it remains only slightly above 30 pounds. The body 21 may remain in this compressed state for as long as several hours, after which it springs back to its original shape of FIG. 3.
The body 21 may be further compressed to a length CL 1 shorter than 0.862 inch. However, a substantially higher force would be needed and some rebound force would be experienced when this high compression force is released.
The compression spring body 21 remains in very good alignment during the compression stroke, because its top portion folds over its bottom portion like the sections of a telescope.
The compression spring body 21 has a relatively short compression stroke, but this compression stroke may be lengthened by using several spring bodies 21 in tandem.
Another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated by the compression spring preform 101 and spring body 121, shown in FIGS. 6 through 9. The spring body 121 exhibits a small amount of rebound force, but has the advantage of moving back to its original shape immediately after the compression force on it is released. Also, the spring body 121 has a longer compression stroke than the spring body 21 of FIGS. 3 and 4.
Referring to FIG. 7, the preform 101 is made of a 40 durometer Hytrel® elastomer and has a tubular shape with a central hole 102, inside wall surface 103, outside wall surface 104, a free end portion 105 and a base portion 106 with a tapered flange 107. The inside wall surface 103 has a first inside length portion 108 of a relatively large diameter PA 2 and a second inside length portion 109 of a smaller diameter PB 2 . An inside step surface 110 connects the inside length portions 108 and 109. Both inside length portions 108 and 109 have cylindrical shapes. In the base portion 106, the inside wall surface 103 has a third inside length portion 111 of a diameter PC 2 . A second inside step surface 112 connects the inside length portions 109 and 111.
The outside wall surface 104 of the preform 1 has a generally conical shape, but it also has a short cylindrical portion 113 near its free end portion 105. The smallest diameter of the outside wall surface is at the neck 114. The outside wall surface 104 is conical between the neck 114 and the bottom edge 115 of the cylindrical portion 113.
The preform 101 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 is made to the following dimensions, according to the labels shown in FIG. 7:
______________________________________PA.sup.2 = 0.6875 inch PE.sup.2 = 0.994 inch PJ.sup.2 = 1.000 inchPB.sup.2 = 0.468 inch PF.sup.2 = 0.650 inch PK.sup.2 = 0.335 inchPC.sup.2 = 0.270 inch PG.sup.2 = 0.910 inch PL.sup.2 = 1.125 inchesPD.sup.2 = 0.994 inch PH.sup.2 = 0.710 inch PM.sup.2 = 0.865 inch______________________________________
To form the finished compression spring body 121 of FIGS. 8 and 9, the preform 101 is put in a press and its ends are held in a fixture to prevent their expansion. The press compresses the preform 101 from a initial axial length PL 2 of 1.125 inches to 0.642 inch, representing a 42.9 percent axial reduction. The force applied by the press is then withdrawn, allowing the preform 101 to spring back part of the distance by which it was compressed, thus forming the finished compression spring body 121 of FIGS. 8 and 9. The compression spring body 121 formed by this process has a length L 2 of 1.040 inches. Its outside wall surface has a large diameter length portion 124a and a small diameter length portion 124c, connected by a rounded outside step surface 124b. The large diameter length portion 124a expands slightly outwardly after being released from the fixture, from a diameter PD 2 of 0.994 inch (FIG. 7) to a diameter D 2 of 1.020 inch (FIG. 8). On the other hand, the inside length portion 128 is coned inwardly at the top. Also, the inside step surface 130 is coned outwardly in the opposite direction and has a rounded channel 130a where it meets the inside length portion 128. The inside length portions 129 and 131 are substantially cylindrical. The compression spring body 121 has the following dimensions:
______________________________________A.sup.2 = 0.656 inch D.sup.2 = 1.020 inches H.sup.2 = 0.742 inchB.sup.2 = 0.468 inch E.sup.2 = 0.994 inch L.sup.2 = 1.040 inchesC.sup.2 = 0.270 inch______________________________________
FIG. 9 shows the shape of the compression spring body 121 when compressed in the 30-ton press exerting a force of approximately 960 pounds. The graph of FIG. 10 shows the force-displacement performance of the spring body 121 during this compression. The main advantage of the spring body 121 is that it absorbs a large amount energy when compressed but gives back very little rebound energy when the compressive force is removed. It also has a relatively long compressive stroke, collapsing a distance of about 0.7 inch to a length CL 2 of only 0.34 inch, as shown in FIG. 9.
Like the spring body 21, the compression spring body 121 remains in very good alignment during the compression stroke, because its top portion folds over its bottom portion like sections of a telescope.
Another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated by the compression spring preform 201 and spring body 221, shown in FIGS. 11 through 14. The preform 201 is made of a 55 durometer Hytrel® elastomer and has a tubular shape with a central hole 202, inside wall surface 203, outside wall surface 204, a free end portion 205 and a base portion 206 with a rounded flange 207. The inside wall surface 203 has a first inside length portion 208 of a relatively large diameter PA 3 and a second inside length portion 209 of a smaller diameter PB 3 . An inside step surface 210 connects the inside length portions 208 and 209. Both inside length portions 208 and 209 have cylindrical shapes. In the base portion 206, the inside wall surface 203 has a third inside length portion 211 of a diameter PC 3 . A second inside step surface 212 connects the inside length portions 209 and 211.
The outside wall surface 204 of the preform 201 has a conical portion 213, located between a small diameter neck portion 214 and a large diameter beveled corner portion 215. The preform 201 is made to the following dimensions, according to the labels shown in FIG. 12:
______________________________________PA.sup.3 = 0.750 inch PE.sup.3 = 1.222 inches PJ.sup.3 = 0.800 inchPB.sup.3 = 0.562 inch PF.sup.3 = 0.532 inch PL.sup.3 = 1.090 inchesPC.sup.3 = 0.391 inch PG.sup.3 = 0.880 inchPD.sup.3 = 1.150 inch PH.sup.3 = 0.884 inch______________________________________
To form the finished compression spring body 221 of FIGS. 13 and 14, the preform 201 is put in a press and its axial length is reduced from its initial length PL 3 of 1.090 inches to a length of 0.545 inch, representing a 50.0 percent axial reduction. In this case, no fixture is used to control the end diameters of the product. When the force applied by the press is withdrawn, the preform 201 springs back part of the distance by which it was compressed, thus forming the finished compression spring body 221. The compression spring body 221 formed by this process has a length L 3 of 0.975 inch. Its outside wall surface has a length portion 224a and a conical portion 224b. The inside length portion 228 is coned inwardly at the top and the inside step surface 230 is coned inwardly in the same direction. The inside length portion 229 is cylindrical near the inside step surface 232 but flares outwardly near its junction with the inside step surface 230. The compression spring body 221 has the following dimensions:
______________________________________A.sup.3 = 0.700 inch D.sup.3 = 1.210 inches H.sup.3 = 0.898 inchB.sup.3 = 0.562 inch E.sup.3 = 1.222 inches L.sup.3 = 0.980 inchC.sup.3 = 0.391 inch______________________________________
FIG. 14 shows the shape of the compression spring body 221 when compressed by the 30-ton press exerting a force of approximately 1400 pounds. The length CL 3 of the compressed body 221 is approximately 0.6 inch. The graph of FIG. 15 shows the force-displacement performance of the spring body 221 during compression. The main advantage of the spring body 221 is that it absorbs a very large amount energy when compressed and remains in good alignment during the compressive stroke, due to its compact folding action as the inner length portion 223 closes against the inner step portion 230.
Another advantage of the compression spring body 221 is the excellent repeatability of its force-displacement performance during its initial compression strokes after manufacture. FIG. 15 shows the three compression curves for the body 221 during its first three strokes after manufacture. There is only one curve for the rebound portions of the strokes, because those portions are nearly identical. The three compression curves show that the body 221 loses only a small amount of stiffness between the first and second strokes and an even smaller amount of stiffness between the second and third strokes. Therefore, the compression spring body 221 requires substantially no break-in period.
Another embodiment of the present invention is illustrated by the compression spring preform 301 and spring body 321, shown in FIGS. 16 through 19. The preform 301 is made of a 55 durometer Hytrel® elastomer and has a tubular shape with a central hole 302, inside wall surface 303, outside wall surface 304, a free end portion 305 and a base portion 306 with a flange 307. The inside wall surface 303 has a first inside length portion 308 of a relatively large diameter PA 4 and a second inside length portion 309 of a smaller diameter PB 4 . An inside step surface 310 connects the inside length portions 308 and 309. Both inside length portions 308 and 309 have cylindrical shapes. In the base portion 306, the inside wall surface 303 has a third inside length portion 311 of a diameter PC 4 . A second inside step surface 312 connects the inside length portions 309 and 311.
The outside wall surface 304 of the preform 301 has a conical shape, with a larger diameter portion being located radially outwardly of the first inside length portion 308 and a smaller diameter portion being located radially outwardly of the second inside length portion 309. The preform 301 is made to the following dimensions, according to the labels shown in FIG. 17:
______________________________________PA.sup.4 = 0.625 inch PE.sup.4 = 0.998 inch PJ.sup.4 = 1.010 inchesPB.sup.4 = 0.437 inch PF.sup.4 = 0.494 inch PL.sup.4 = 1.195 inchesPC.sup.4 = 0.275 inch PG.sup.4 = 0.810 inchPD.sup.4 = 0.998 inch PH.sup.4 = 0.640 inch______________________________________
To form the finished compression spring body 321 of FIGS. 18 and 19, the preform 301 is put in a press and its end surfaces are held in a fixture to prevent their expansion during compression. The press reduces the axial length of the preform 301 from its initial length PL 4 of 1.195 inches to a length of 0.642 inch, representing a 46.3 percent axial reduction. The force applied by the press is then withdrawn, allowing the preform 301 to spring back part of the distance by which it was compressed, thus forming the finished compression spring body 321. The compression spring body 321 formed by this process has a length L 4 of 1.085 inches. Its outside wall surface has length portions 324a and 324b that are substantially cylindrical and a rounded outside step surface 324c. The length portion 324a expands slightly after it is released from the fixture. It also bulges slightly outwardly near the outside step surface 324c, so that the diameter D 4 increases from 1.020 inch at the end portion 325 to 1.040 inch at near the step surface 324c. Also, the length portion 324b bulges slightly outwardly near the flange 327, so that the diameter H 4 increases from 0.622 inch near the step surface 324c to 0.640 inch at the junction with the flange 327. The inside length portion 328 is coned slightly inwardly at the top. The inside length portion 329 is cylindrical near the inside step surface 332 and merges into a rounded inside step surface 330. The step surface 330 has a small groove 333 where it joins the inside length portion 328. The compression spring body 321 has the following dimensions:
______________________________________A.sup.4 = 0.656 inch D.sup.4 = 1.020 inches H.sup.4 = 0.622 inch toB.sup.4 = 0.425 inch to 1.040 inches 0.640 inchC.sup.4 = 0.275 inch E.sup.4 = 0.998 inch L.sup.4 = 1.100 inches______________________________________
FIG. 19 shows the shape of the compression spring body 321 when compressed in the 30-ton press exerting a force of approximately 135 pounds. The graph of FIG. 20 shows the force-displacement performance of the spring body 321. The main advantage of the spring body 321 is that it absorbs substantially all of the energy that is applied to it and exerts substantially no rebound force after the compressive force is released. As the curve of FIG. 20 shows, after the body 321 has been compressed by about 0.125 inch under a force of about 100 pounds, it collapses another 0.20 inch as long as the remaining force is above 60 pounds. Then, a force of about 135 pounds is required to reduce the body 321 to a length CL 4 of about 0.60 inch, shown in FIG. 19. When the compression force is released, the compression spring body 321 may remain in its compressed condition of FIG. 19 for as long as several minutes. For that time interval or perhaps immediately upon removal of the compression force, the body 321 will return to its original shape of FIG. 18. During this return, the body 321 will exert little or no rebound force.
The compression spring body 321 remains in very good alignment during the compression stroke, because its top portion folds over its bottom portion like the sections of a telescope. Also, the spring body 321 exhibits excellent repeatability of its force-displacement performance, thus reducing inconsistent stopping forces during successive compression strokes. The spring body 321 requires substantially no break-in period.
The forgoing embodiments of the present invention show that a tubular thermoplastic elastomeric compression spring body can be made to exhibit a variety of force-displacement performance curves, by the appropriate shaping of its inside and outside wall surfaces. Using the techniques shown in these embodiments, these compression spring bodies can be made to absorb large amounts of energy while producing little or no rebound force. Also, the bodies can be made so that they are less likely to become misaligned when they are compressed and also so that they repeat the same force-displacement curve consistently during successive compressive strokes.
While several embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, other embodiments, modifications and additions will of course be apparent to those skilled in the art, while remaining within the scope of the appended claims.
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A tubular compression spring body made of a thermoplastic elastomeric material has stepped internal and external wall surfaces that are designed so that when the body is compressed, it absorbs a large amount of the compression energy and has a low rebound force. Also, when compressed again after rebound, the compression spring body exhibits excellent repeatability in its force-displacement performance. In different embodiments, the compression spring body may be designed to exhibit various force-displacement performance curves in order to meet various criteria desired by the user, such as maximum energy absorption and/or minimum rebound force.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to countershaft driven power take-off (PTO) units and in particular such a unit providing a forward and reverse drive and neutralizing of the input to the PTO unit with a minimum of gears, shafts and a chain drive.
2. Description of Prior Art
PTO units using input clutches to the PTO unit are well known in the art. Also PTO units and gear boxes utilizing a gear train and a chain drive for obtaining forward and reverse drive between the input and output of the PTO unit are well known in the art; however, none of these latter units is a countershaft driven PTO unit and uses a member of the gear train, carried by the PTO input shaft as a shiftable member to engage and disengage the PTO from a driving relationship with the transmission countershaft which is adapted to drive the input shaft of the PTO unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a countershaft driven PTO unit wherein the input shaft of the PTO is adapted to be piloted in the end of a transmission countershaft which is operative to selectively drive the PTO. The PTO includes parallel input and output shafts with two alternate drives connecting the same. An input gear on the PTO input shaft is meshed with an output gear on the PTO output shaft. A chain drive sprocket gear is carried by the input shaft and a mating output sprocket gear is carried by the output shaft with a chain drive therebetween. A clutch mechanism is operative to alternately clutch the output gear or the output sprocket to the output shaft for providing reverse or forward drive between the PTO input and output shafts, while the PTO input gear is also slidably mounted on the input shaft and clutchingly engageable and disengageable with another clutch member carried by the countershaft to thereby drivingly connect or disconnect the PTO from the countershaft. Thus, with a very nominal number of parts, a forward and reversing PTO which is capable of input shaft neutralization has been provided.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The FIGURE is a vertical sectional view through the longitudinal axes of the input and ouput shafts of a PTO unit embodying the invention, with a fragment of a transmission case and countershaft being shown attached thereto.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
A PTO unit is shown generally at 10 and includes a PTO housing or case 12. In the upper portion of the case 12 is a pair of axially aligned bores 14 and 16; the bore 14 being in the forward end wall 15 of the case 12 while the bore 16 is in the rearward end wall 17 of the case.
The bore 14 is surrounded by an annular shoulder 18 which is adapted to abuttingly engage a mating annular shoulder 20 of a transmission case shown fragmentarily at 22. The shoulders 18 and 20 are securely bolted together in a conventional manner as by a plurality of circumferentially spaced bolts, one of which is shown at 21. The bolt 21 is shown rotated from its proper position for illustration purposes; that is, it would be located clockwise or counter clockwise from the position shown in the drawings.
The shoulder 20 has a bore 24 therein which is coaxial with the bore 14 and has pressed therein the outer race 26 of a ball bearing assembly 28. A snap ring 30 in a peripheral groove in the outer race of the bearing 28 is received in a groove 32 in the right side of the shoulder 20 to axially position the bearing 28 relative to the transmission case 22. An annular spacer 34, received in the bore 14 and abutting on its right side a counterbore shoulder 36, abuts on its left side the bearing 28 to thereby position the bearing relative to the PTO case 12.
The bearing 28 has an inner race 38, and pressed in and supported by the inner race 38 is the right or outer end 40 of the transmission countershaft 42. A snap ring 44 disposed in a groove in the outer surface of the countershaft 42 engages the right side of the inner race 38 to position the race relative to the countershaft. The outer end of the countershaft 42 has a pilot bore 46 therein which contains a caged roller bearing assembly 47; the latter in turn receives a reduced pilot end 48 formed on the forward end of a PTO input shaft 50. The roller bearing assembly 47 mounts the input shaft 50 in the countershaft for relative rotation. At the right end of the pilot end 48 is a shoulder 52 and between the shoulder 52 and the right end of the countershaft 42 is a flat washer 54.
The periphery of the countershaft adjacent to its right end is splined as shown at 56, and mounted on the spline 56 is a clutch collar 58 by means of an internal splined bore 59 of the clutch collar. The clutch collar 58 has an annulus of face coupling clutch teeth 60 on the right face thereof, which teeth are adjacent to the periphery of the collar 58. The right face of the collar 58 radially inwardly of the coupling teeth 60 abuts the left side of the flat washer 54, while the left face 62 of the clutch collar engages a compression coil spring 64 compressed between the left face 62 and the snap ring 44. The spring 64 acts to cushion clutching engagement of the collar 58 as hereinafter described.
The PTO input shaft extends axially in the case 12 and the right end thereof is received in the bore 66 of a ball bearing assembly 68, while the outer race of the bearing assembly is pressed into the bore 16 in the PTO case 12. A bearing cap 70 is conventionally secured to the case 12 surrounding the bore 16, as by a plurality of bolts 72, to seal the bore 16 and to engage and position the right side of the bearing assembly 68.
The input shaft 50, to the right of the shoulder 52 has a peripheral spline 74. An input gear 76, having internal splines 78, is splined on the splines 74 of the input shaft for unitary rotation and relative axial movement. The left face of the input gear 76 has face coupling clutch teeth 80 formed thereon which can mate with the face coupling teeth 60 on the clutch collar 58 to thereby form an input clutch to the PTO 10. When the gear 76 is shifted to the left, as seen in the drawing, the coupling teeth 60 and 80 are engaged and the countershaft 40 can drive the input gear 76 and through the latter, the input shaft 50.
The input gear 76 has peripheral teeth 188 more fully described hereinafter, and an annular shifter groove 84 formed in the right side of the gear 76 in a shoulder 86 immediately to the right of the teeth 188.
Shifting means shown generally at 88 are provided to shift the gear 76 between its engaged or forward position as seen in the drawings, to its disengaged position, which is to the right or rearward of the position shown in the drawings. In the disengaged position, the face coupling teeth 60 and 80 are axially spaced from each other and the collar 58 cannot drive the gear 76. At this time, the PTO is effectively neutralized and no portion of the PTO is being driven by the countershaft 40 except for the clutch collar 58.
The shifter means 88 includes a housing 90 bolted to the PTO case 12 by a plurality of bolts 92; the bolts 92 and the bolts 21 being positioned so that they do not interfere with each other and the bolts 21 are displaced circumferentially from the housing 90 in a well known manner.
The housing 90 has a central axially extending bore 94, which bore has counter bores 96--96' at the opposed ends thereof. A left end plate 98 is sealingly disposed in the counterbore 96 and secured therein by a snap ring 100 received in a snap ring groove 102 in the counterbore 96, while a right end plate 104 is sealingly received in the counterbore 96' and secured therein by a snap ring 106 received in a snap ring groove 108 in the counterbore 96'. Disposed in the central bore 94 is a piston 110 having conventional O-rings in periphery thereof adjacent the ends of the piston, which O-rings sealingly engage the bore 94. Mounted on the piston 110 is a shift fork 112 which is conventionally secured to the piston by a bolt (not shown) threaded in an opening 113 in the fork 112 and engaging the piston 110. The shift fork 112 has a front shoulder 114 adapted to engage the left or rearward facing face 116 of an opening 118 in the housing 90 superimposed on an opening 120 in the housing 12, which engagement limits the forward movement of the shift fork 112 and piston 110. The fork 112 has a rear shoulder 122 adapted to engage the right or forwardly facing face 124 of the opening 118 which engagement limits the rearward travel of the fork 112 and piston 110. The fork 112 has a depending portion 126 extending into and engaging the groove 84 in the gear 76. When the fork 112 is moved forwardly and rearwardly the gear 76 moves unitarily therewith.
A tapped opening 90' is formed in the housing 90 immediately to the right of the end plate 98, while a tapped opening 90" is formed in the housing 90 immediately to the left of the end plate 104. The openings 90' and 90" communicate with the bore 94 in the housing 90. A shifter control system (not shown) supplies pressure fluid to the opening 90' while venting opening 90" to force piston 110 to the right and, alternatively, supplies pressure fluid to opening 90" while venting opening 90' to force piston 110 to the left.
The right end of the input shaft 50, to the left of the bearing 68, has spliced thereon for unitary rotation, a driving sprocket 128. A snap ring 130 secured in the periphery of the shaft 50, abuts the left side of the sprocket 128, while an annular shoulder 132 on the right side of the sprocket engages the bearing 68, so that the sprocket 128 is fixed against axial movement relative to the shaft 50.
A PTO output shaft 134 is rotatably mounted in the PTO case 112 directly below the input shaft 50. More particularly, a pair of axially aligned bores 136 in the forward end wall 15 and 138 in the rearward end wall 17, rotatably receive the output shaft 134. In the bore 136 is disposed a self contained roller bearing 140 which includes a cup shaped cage 142 pressed in the bore 136 which cage has an enclosed left end so that the cage 142 seals the bore 136. Rotatably mounted in the bearing 142 is the left end of the shaft 134. Adjacent the right bore 138 is disposed a bearing cap 144 which has an annular forwardly extending shoulder 146; the periphery of the shoulder being snugly received in the bore 138. An annular flange 148 of the bearing cap 144 extends outwardly of the shoulder 146 and is secured to the PTO case 12 by a plurality of bolts 150. A ball bearing assembly 152 is pressed into the annular shoulder 146 and secured therein in a conventional manner by a snap ring 154 carried in a groove in the shoulder 146.
The right end of the output shaft 134 is pressed through the bearing assembly 152 and projects beyond the right side of the PTO case 12 in a spaced relationship to the central opening 156 of the bearing cap 144. The right end of the output shaft 134 is peripherally splined at 158, and received thereon are the internal splines of a conventional output flange 162. A bolt and washer assembly 164 engage the right side of the flange 162; the bolt being threaded into a threaded opening 166 in the end of the output shaft 134. A lip seal 167 is pressed into the bearing cap 144 and engages the flange 162 to seal the opening therebetween.
Formed centrally and integrally on the shaft 134 is a raised portion 168 which has peripheral splines 170 thereon. To the right of the portion 168, a driven sprocket member 172 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 134. The left side of the sprocket 172 abutts the right side of the raised portion 168, while the right side of the sprocket 172 auts a bushing 174, which bushing, in turn, abuts a snap ring 176 carried in a groove in the periphery of the shaft 134. An annular spacer 178 is disposed about the periphery of the shaft 134 and abuts the right side of the snap ring 176 while the right side of the spacer 178 abuts the left side of the inner race of the ball bearing assembly 152. It is thus seen that when the bearing cap 144 is secured to the case 12 and the flange 162 is bolted to the end of the output shaft 134, the various members to the right of the raised portion 168 of the output shaft cooperate to rotatably mount and axially position the output shaft.
The periphery of the driving sprocket 128 and the periphery of the driven sprocket 172 are conventionally toothed to drivingly receive a chain drive 180, so that the sprockets 128 and 172 rotate in the same direction. The left peripheral face of the sprocket 172 has peripheral clutch tooth splines 182 thereon which are of a cooperating diameter relative to the peripheral splines 170 on the raised portion 168.
To the left or forward of the raised portion 168 is rotatably mounted on the output shaft 134 a driven gear 184 which has peripheral gear teeth 186 thereon meshed with the peripheral gear teeth 188 on the input gear 76, so that the gear 184 is driven by the gear 76 but rotates in the opposite direction. To the left of and engaging the gear 184 is a bushing 190 which, in turn, on its left engages a snap ring 192 secured in a snap ring groove in the periphery of the shaft 134. The right peripheral surface of the drive gear 184 has formed thereon peripheral clutch teeth splines 194 which are of a cooperating diameter relative to the peripheral splines 170 on the raised portion 168.
A clutch collar 196, having internal splines 198, is splined on the peripheral splines 170 and is of a width substantially the same as the raised portion 168. When the clutch collar 196 is moved to the left or forwardly, the internal splines 198 thereof simultaneously engage the clutch splines 194 on the driven gear 184 and the splines 170 on the output shaft 134 to drivingly connect the gear 184 to the shaft 134, the shafts 50 and 134 will rotate in opposite directions. When the clutch collar 196 is moved to the right or rearwardly, the internal splines 198 thereof simultaneously engage the clutch splines 182 on the driven sprocket 172 and the splines 170 on the output shaft 134 to drivingly connect the sprocket 172 to the shaft 134 and the shafts 50 and 134 will rotate in the same direction.
Shifting means shown generally at 200 are provided to shift the clutch collar 196 between its leftward and rightward positions and includes a housing 202 bolted to the PTO case 12 by a plurality of bolts, one of which is shown at 204. The housing 202 has a central axially extending bore 206 which central bore has counter bores 208--208' at the opposite ends thereof. A left end plate 210 is sealingly disposed in the counterbore 208 and secured therein by a snap ring 212 secured in a groove in bore 208 to the left of the plate, while a right end plate 214 is sealingly received in the counterbore 208' and secured therein by a snap ring 216 secured in a groove in the bore 208' to the right of the plate 214. Disposed in the central bore 206 is a piston 218 having conventional O-rings in the opposite ends thereof to sealingly engage the bore 206.
Mounted on the piston 218 is a shift fork 220 conventionally secured thereto by a bolt (not shown) threaded in an opening 222 in the fork 220 and engaging the piston 110. The shift fork 220 has a forward shoulder 224 adapted to engage the rearwardly facing face 226 of an opening 228 in the housing 202, which engagement limits the forward travel of the shift fork 220. The fork 220 has a rear shoulder 230 adapted to engage the forwardly facing face 232 of the opening 228 which abutting limits the rearward travel of the fork 220. The fork 220 has an upwardly extending portion 234 extending into and engaging a peripheral groove 236 in the clutch collar 196.
When the fork 220 is moved forwardly, it moves the clutch collar 196 to engage gear 184, while when the fork 220 is moved rearwardly, the clutch collar engages the sprocket 172.
A tapped opening 238 is formed through the housing 202 immediately to the right of the end plate 210, while a tapped opening 240 is formed through the housing 202 immediately to the left of the end plate 214. A shifter control system (not shown) supplies pressure fluid to the opening 238 while venting the opening 240 to force the piston 218 rearwardly and, alternatively, supplies pressure fluid to the opening 240 while venting the opening 238 to force piston 218 to the left.
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A power take-off (PTO) unit with parallel input and output shafts mounted in a PTO case with the input shaft adapted to be piloted in the countershaft of a transmission and the PTO case adapted to be secured to the transmission case. An input gear is slidably splined on the input shaft adjacent its piloted end, and the input shaft also carries an input sprocket. On the output shaft is rotatably mounted an output gear which is geared to the input gear and an output sprocket drivingly connected to the input sprocket by a chain drive. A clutch carried by the output shaft alternately clutches the output gear or output sprocket to the output shaft while the input gear has a clutch portion thereon and is slidable to engage a clutching member carried by the countershaft to drivingly connect the countershaft to the PTO input shaft.
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RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/643,634 titled Motion Detection System and Associated Methods filed May 7, 2012, the content of which is incorporated in its entirety herein.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to the field of lighting systems and, more specifically, to lighting systems that can emit and sense light within a wavelength range, and associated methods.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.
[0004] Lighting systems have been used to illuminate spaces since the invention of fire. Over the years, technology has brought us the incandescent light, which produces light by heating a metal filament, causing it to radiate heat. Although the incandescent light is capable of illuminating an area, it does so with little efficiency.
[0005] Lighting systems that include a conversion material may conveniently allow the conversion of a source light emitted from a light source into light of a different wavelength range. Often, such a conversion may be performed by using a luminescent, fluorescent, or phosphorescent material. The wavelength conversion materials may sometimes be included in the bulk of another material, applied to a lens or optic, or otherwise located in line with the light emitted from light source. In some instances the conversion material may be applied to the light source itself. A number of disclosed inventions exist that describe lighting devices that utilize a conversion material applied to an LED to convert light with a source wavelength range into light with a converted wavelength range.
[0006] Sensors may additionally be included in lighting systems to control operation upon the sensed compliance with a desired event. As an example, sensors may detect the presence of movement in a space to control illumination. However, including sensors may increase the number of parts and complexity required to build the lighting system, thereby increasing its manufacturing cost.
[0007] There exists a need for a wavelength lighting system that can emit an illuminating light and sense an object within a field of view of the wavelength lighting system by altering its operational state between various portions of the duty cycle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] With the foregoing in mind, embodiments of the present invention are related to a wavelength sensing lighting system that can emit illuminating light and sense environmental light during portions of the duty cycle. Additionally, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the lighting system may advantageously analyze the sensed environmental light to determine the presence or absence of an object within the field of view of the wavelength sensing lighting system.
[0009] The present invention may provide a lighting system which, in one embodiment, may include a light source to emit illuminating light and sense environmental light from an environment and a wavelength conversion material between the light source and the environment to absorb at least part of a source light and emit a converted light. The source light may be received and absorbed by the wavelength conversion material, and the converted light may be emitted by the wavelength conversion material.
[0010] The light source may be included in an array to be selectively enabled and disabled by the controller. The array may include a plurality of light sources. A plurality of light sources may be included within an array, each of which may be sensitive to a wavelength respective to each light source, thus providing the array sensitivity to one or more wavelength. The plurality of light sources may be selectively operable substantially simultaneously, as well as individually. The plurality of light sources may selectively emit the illuminating light in a plurality of directions and may selectively receive the environmental light from the plurality of directions.
[0011] Each of the plurality of light sources in the array may be selectively operable between a sensing operation and an emitting operation. The sensing operation may be defined by the light source sensing the environmental light, and the emitting operation being defined by the light source emitting the illuminating light. The controller may selectively operate the light source between the passive operation and the active operation.
[0012] Some embodiments of the invention may provide a lighting system for detecting movement. The lighting system may include a first set of light emitting diodes (LEDs), a second set of LEDs, a voltage sensor coupled to an LED of the second set of LEDs defining a coupled LED, and a controller functionally coupled to each of the first and second sets of LEDs. The controller may be configured to continuously operate the first set of LEDs to emit light within a field of view of the first and second sets of LEDs. Furthermore, the controller may be configured to operate the second set of LEDs in alternating active and passive states. Additionally, the controller may be configured to operate the second set of LEDs to emit light in the active state. Yet further, the controller may be configured to operate the second set of LEDs to not emit light in the passive state and maintain a baseline voltage. The voltage sensor may be configured to monitor the voltage of the coupled light emitting element during the passive state. Additionally, the coupled light emitting element may be configured to vary the voltage there across upon incidence of light reflected by a target. A change of voltage from the baseline voltage in the coupled light emitting element during the passive state may indicate the detection of a target within the field of view of the first and second sets of LEDs.
[0013] A method of the present invention may include detecting an object within the field of view of a lighting system comprising a first set of lighting element, a second set of lighting elements, a controller functionally coupled to each of the first and second sets of LEDs, and a voltage sensor coupled to at least one of the second set of LEDs, wherein the light emitting element that the voltage meter is coupled to is configured to vary its voltage, when in a non-emitting state, proportionally to light that is incident thereupon. The method may include operating the first set of LEDs to continuously emit light, operating the second set of LEDs to alternate between an active state and a passive state. And determining a voltage across the coupled light emitting element. The second set of LEDs may be emitting during the active state, and the controller may operate the second set of LEDs to not emit light in the passive state and maintain a baseline voltage. A change of voltage from the baseline voltage in the coupled light emitting element during the passive state may indicate the detection of a target within the field of view of the first and second sets of LEDs.
[0014] The controller may be operatively connected to a voltage sensor to sense an open circuit voltage across the light emitting diode sensing the environmental light. The controller may analyze information received from the voltage sensor to determine characteristics about the background light. The controller may maintain a running baseline for the background light being received by the LED. Furthermore, the controller may detect a change in the information received from the voltage sensor that may indicate the presence of an object within the field of view of the lighting system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] FIG. 1 is a side view of a lighting system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0016] FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the operation of the lighting system of FIG. 1 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0017] The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. 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 so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Those of ordinary skill in the art realize that the following descriptions of the embodiments of the present invention are illustrative and are not intended to be limiting in any way. Other embodiments of the present invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
[0018] Although the following detailed description contains many specifics for the purposes of illustration, anyone of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that many variations and alterations to the following details are within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following embodiments of the invention are set forth without any loss of generality to, and without imposing limitations upon, the claimed invention.
[0019] In this detailed description of the present invention, a person skilled in the art should note that directional terms, such as “above,” “below,” “upper,” “lower,” and other like terms are used for the convenience of the reader in reference to the drawings. Also, a person skilled in the art should notice this description may contain other terminology to convey position, orientation, and direction without departing from the principles of the present invention.
[0020] An embodiment of the invention, as shown and described by the various figures and accompanying text, provides a wavelength sensing lighting system substantially as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/269,222, entitled Wavelength Sensing Light Emitting Semiconductor and Associated Methods, filed Oct. 7, 2011, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
[0021] According to one embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1 , a lighting system 10 is provided. The lighting system 10 may include an array of light emitting elements, such as light emitting semiconductors. More specifically, the light emitting elements may be light emitting diodes 100 (LEDs). The array of LEDs may be configured according to any shape or configuration desired. In the present embodiment, the array of light emitting elements includes a series of one-foot sections 102 , 104 of LEDs. The number and arrangement of sections of LEDs may be configured to accommodate the space and desired outcomes of a given implementation. In the present embodiment, the sections 102 , 104 of LEDs are arranged end-on-end.
[0022] Each section of LEDs may include any number of LEDs. In the present embodiment, each section of LEDs includes 5 LEDs. Furthermore, each section of LEDs may include two sets of LEDs. A first set of LEDs 106 may be LEDs that are continuously driven by a controller. Continuously driven LEDs are those whose sole function are to provide light and do not sense environmental light. In the present embodiment, the first set of LEDs 106 includes 18 LEDs.
[0023] A second set of LEDs 108 may be LEDs that have a switched operation. In switched operation, each LED of the second set of LEDs 108 is switched between an active and a passive operating mode. In the active operating mode, each of the LEDs emits light substantially as the LEDs of the first set of LEDs 106 . In the passive operating mode, the LEDs are turned off, which is to say the voltage being applied to them is reduced below an operational threshold, thus de-illuminating the LED. The length of each operating mode and the frequency with which the operating mode is switched may vary. For example, and not by way of limiting, the LEDs of the second set of LEDs 108 may be in the active operating mode for 98% of a duty cycle, in the passive mode for 2% of the duty cycle, and the duty cycle may be repeated at a rate of 25 cycles per seconds. Duty cycles of greater or lesser length, and differing lengths of passive and active operating modes are contemplated and within the scope of the invention.
[0024] A controller 110 (or microcontroller) may be functionally coupled to each LED of each section of LEDs. Specifically, the controller 110 may be functionally coupled to each of the first and second sets of LEDs. The controller 110 may control the operation of the second set of LEDs, switching the constituent LEDs between active and passive operating modes. More specifically, a plurality of the LEDs in each array may be switched between an on position and an off position under control of the microcontroller. When in the off position, the LED may be electronically connected to an analog to digital converter which is used to sense the voltage across the momentarily inactive LED. This voltage is dependent on the incident light on the LED, and it increases in a non-linear fashion as the magnitude of the incident light increases.
[0025] Accordingly, the lighting system may further include at least one voltage sensor 112 . Each LED of the second set of LEDs may have a voltage sensor 112 functionally coupled thereto, such that the voltage sensor 112 may detect changes in voltage across the coupled LED. There may optionally be one voltage sensor functionally coupled with all the LEDs of the second set of LEDs, or each LED of the second set of LEDs may have a dedicated voltage sensor coupled thereto. Furthermore, each voltage sensor 112 may be functionally coupled with the controller 110 of each section of LEDs.
[0026] As data is collected (in real time in some embodiments), the microcontroller maintains a running baseline of the background light being received by the LED. This may be done to be able to compensate for variations in the light received by the sensing LEDs during the course of the observation period. Although movement in front of the sensing LEDs may cause reflections that may affect the light sensed by the sensing LEDs and thus the voltage developed across the LEDs, other factors can also have an effect on the voltage. These factors may, for example, include temperature changes in the environment and light intensity changes due to external factors such as day/night conditions or cloudy/sunny cycles.
[0027] The instantaneous voltage measured across a sensing LED may be compared to the baseline, and if a predetermined threshold between the voltages is exceeded, a determination may be made that an object or person has moved within the field of view of the LED array. A counter may be increased every time a new movement is detected. To prevent multiple and incorrect counts from objects whose reflections generate a voltage across the sensing LEDs that is close to the threshold voltage, a hysteresis section may be included in the algorithm. For example, a 1% change in voltage across an LED diode (compared to the baseline voltage) could be construed as occurring as a result of movement. The algorithm will continue to consider the reflection to be present until the voltage drops below 0.5% of the baseline voltage.
[0028] The signal detection algorithm may produce a series of ones and zeros, corresponding to instances when reflections beyond the threshold are detected or not respectively. The length of each sequence of ‘ones’ can be used to measure the duration of the event that resulted in the voltage across the LED exceeding the threshold. Thus, the algorithm can determine if a person walked in front of the LED array without stopping, or is a person stopped for a certain time.
[0029] The results of the analysis may be displayed in real time, and include a count of the number of events (i.e. the number of people walking in front of the array), and a histogram that can show how long each person stayed in front of the array. For example, in one possible embodiment, the histogram can separate events into four categories:
[0030] 1. Less than 1 second
[0031] 2. Between 1 and 3 seconds
[0032] 3. Between 3 and 6 seconds
[0033] 4. More than 6 seconds
[0034] Turning now to FIG. 2 , as each LED of the second set of LEDs is switched into the passive operating mode, the voltage sensor may measure the voltage across the LED, as indicated at block 200 . Because external sources of voltage have been removed from the LED, any measured voltage will be a function of background light that is incident upon the LED. More specifically, there is directly proportional relationship between the background light incident upon the LED and the voltage measured by the voltage sensor across the LED.
[0035] The controller may analyze measurements received from the voltage sensor. As indicated above, one method of analyzing the measurements received from the voltage sensor includes determining a running baseline voltage. The running baseline voltage may indicate a baseline background light that is incident upon the LED. By determining a baseline voltage, the controller may be able to identify when there is a sudden change in the measured voltage, indicating a corresponding change in the background light. Additionally, because the baseline voltage is a running baseline voltage, gradual changes to the background light, such as, for instance, transitions between day and night, or cloud coverage.
[0036] Each voltage measurement taken during each passive operating mode of an LED may be compared to the running baseline voltage by the controller. When an object moves into the field of view of the lighting fixture, background light will reflect off the object. The reflection of the background light will cause a change in the background light that is incident upon the LED. The change in background light incident upon the LED will cause a corresponding change in the voltage measured across that LED. The controller may analyze the change in voltage to determine whether an object has been detected.
[0037] Determination of whether an object has entered the field of view of an LED may be based upon a change in the voltage across the LED during a passive operating mode above a certain threshold, as indicated at block 210 . For example, and not by means of limiting, a voltage increase of 0.5% of the running baseline voltage may be interpreted as indicating the presence of an object within the field of view of the LED. If the controller determines there has not been a change exceeding the threshold voltage change, the controller may wait for the next passive operating mode, according to block 220 , before the next voltage measurement may be taken, according to block 200 .
[0038] The controller may maintain a running count of the number of objects detected within the field of view of the LEDs of each section of LEDs. Each time an object has been detected within the field of view of at least one of the LEDs functionally coupled to the controller, the controller may increase the count, according to block 230 .
[0039] To prevent multiple and incorrect detections of objects within the field of view that is at or near the threshold voltage, the controller may include a hysteresis function. For example, during a first passive operating mode, a 1.0% increase in voltage may be detected across an LED, where the threshold voltage increase is 0.5%. The controller will increase the count by one, as the measured voltage change exceeds the threshold. The controller may then wait for the next passive operating mode, according to block 240 , before measuring the voltage, according to block 250 . At the next passive operating mode, a 1.0% change in voltage may again be detected. Most likely, this is not an indication of a second object moving into the field of view, but is instead the same object remaining in the field of view. Therefore, the controller should not increase the count, according with block 260 .
[0040] The controller may determine the length of time an object remains in the field of view of the section of LEDs. As described hereinabove, an object remaining in the field of view of an LED will cause a continuous change in the voltage measured across the LED during its passive operating mode. So long as the change in voltage does not fall below the hysteresis threshold, the controller will determine that the object previously detected remains within the field of view. For each sequential cycle that the controller indicates the presence of the same object, the controller may determine the length of time an object remained within the field of view of the LED, according to block 270 . This determination may be used to characterize the movement of the detected object, i.e. did the object move continuously through the field of view, or did it come to a rest.
[0041] The controller may wait for the next passive operating mode, according to block 240 , to determine whether the object still remains within the field of view. Accordingly, the hysteresis function will require that the measured voltage must be measured at no more than a hysteresis threshold of a 0.5% change of the baseline voltage must be measured before a second object may be determined to be detected. It is contemplated and included within the scope of the invention that different values for the threshold voltage change and hysteresis threshold voltage change may be employed.
[0042] If, at block 260 , it is determined that the measured voltage does not exceed the hysteresis voltage, the controller may wait for the next passive operating mode according to block 220 .
[0043] The controller may be in communication with a computing device external the array. For example, the controller may be in communication with a personal computer or a server. Either the controller or the computing device may categorize the objects detected according to the length of time each object remained within the field of view. For example, in one possible embodiment, the objects may be grouped into those that remained in the field of view for less than one second, between one and three seconds, between three and six second, and more than six second. Furthermore, the results of the analysis may be displayed in real time on the computing device. The results displayed may include, without limitation, the count of objects, and a histogram of the duration of each object.
[0044] Some of the illustrative aspects of the present invention may be advantageous in solving the problems herein described and other problems not discussed which are discoverable by a skilled artisan.
[0045] While the above description contains much specificity, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any embodiment, but as exemplifications of the presented embodiments thereof. Many other ramifications and variations are possible within the teachings of the various embodiments. While the invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings of the invention without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best or only mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims. Also, in the drawings and the description, there have been disclosed exemplary embodiments of the invention and, although specific terms may have been employed, they are unless otherwise stated used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention therefore not being so limited. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another. Furthermore, the use of the terms a, an, etc. do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one of the referenced item.
[0046] Thus the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, and not by the examples given.
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A lighting system which includes a light source to emit illuminating light and sense reflected light from an environment. The light source may be included in an array to be selectively enabled and disabled by the controller. The array may include a plurality of light sources, each of which may be sensitive to a wavelength respective to each light source, thus providing the array sensitivity to one or more wavelength. Each of the plurality of light sources in the array may be selectively operable between a sensing operation and an emitting operation. The sensing operation may be defined by the light source sensing the environmental light, and the emitting operation being defined by the light source emitting the illuminating light. The controller may selectively operate the light source between the passive operation and the active operation.
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BACKGROUND
[0001] A baseball or softball batter typically swings a bat several times during a game or in practice or training. During a batter's swing, rapid acceleration and deceleration of the barrel, along with vibrations from impact with a ball, result in strong forces that can damage the fibrous connective tissues, muscles, tendons, and ligaments of the batter's hands, and can cause blisters, callouses, bruises, open wounds, and even broken bones in the hand.
[0002] Many batters wear a thin batting glove on one or both hands to try to reduce damage to their hands during a swing. But motion of the bat is still transferred through the glove into the user's hand because the hand, the glove, and the bat are all directly connected. As a result, standard thin batting gloves do not always provide adequate protection for a batter's hands.
[0003] Other batters choose to wear a thick or padded batting glove on one or both hands. The thickness or padding of the glove acts as more of a barrier or damper to forces from each swing. But the hand, the glove, and the bat remain directly connected. And the thickness or padding reduces a player's tactile gnosis, which is a cognizance-by-touch form of sensory perception. Successful athletes use tactile gnosis to relate to their equipment as an extension of their own bodies. Thick or padded gloves distance the user from the bat and reduce a batter's ability to accurately feel and control a swing. Because of these disadvantages, professional and elite batters rarely use thick or padded gloves.
SUMMARY
[0004] A batting glove or sports glove includes a glove base configured to accommodate a user's hand. In some embodiments, the glove base has an opening in a palmar region of the glove. Multiple palmar layers are attached to the glove base and positioned over the opening. In some embodiments, the palmar layers include a first layer of material positioned between a second layer of material and a third layer of material. The first layer of material has a lower coefficient of friction than one or both of the second and third layers of material such that the layers may slide relative to one another. Other features and advantages will appear hereinafter. The features described above may be used separately or together, or in various combinations of one or more of them.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] In the drawings, wherein the same reference number indicates the same element throughout the views:
[0006] FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a glove assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the technology.
[0007] FIG. 2 is an exploded schematic view of the glove illustrated in FIG. 1 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0008] The present technology is directed to a batting glove with an internal slip layer. Various embodiments of the technology will now be described. The following description provides specific details for a thorough understanding and enabling description of these embodiments. One skilled in the art will understand, however, that the invention may be practiced without many of these details. Additionally, some well-known structures or functions may not be shown or described in detail so as to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the relevant description of the various embodiments. Accordingly, the technology may include other embodiments with additional elements or without several of the elements described below with reference to FIGS. 1-2 , which illustrate examples of the technology.
[0009] The terminology used in the description presented below is intended to be interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it is being used in conjunction with a detailed description of certain specific embodiments of the technology. Certain terms may even be emphasized below; however, any terminology intended to be interpreted in any restricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such in this detailed description section.
[0010] Where the context permits, singular or plural terms may also include the plural or singular term, respectively. Moreover, unless the word “or” is expressly limited to mean only a single item exclusive from the other items in a list of two or more items, then the use of “or” in such a list is to be interpreted as including (a) any single item in the list, (b) all of the items in the list, or (c) any combination of items in the list. Further, unless otherwise specified, terms such as “attached” or “connected” are intended to include integral connections, as well as connections between physically separate components.
[0011] Specific details of several embodiments of the present technology are described herein with reference to baseball or softball. The technology may also be used in other sports or industries in which hand protection and a high level of tactile gnosis is advantageous or desirable.
[0012] FIG. 1 illustrates a glove assembly 100 in accordance with an embodiment of the technology. A palmar component 110 is stitched, glued, or otherwise suitably secured to or integrated with a glove base 120 . The palmar component 110 may be shaped to generally correspond with the palmar surface of a user's hand, including the surfaces of a user's fingers, or it may be otherwise suitably shaped to provide protection to other desired regions of the user's hand. For example, the palmar component 110 may be shaped to correspond with areas of the glove assembly 100 that contact sports equipment (for example, a ball bat) when in use. The glove base 120 may be shaped to accommodate a user's left or right hand. The glove base 120 may be formed from natural leather, synthetic leather, sheepskin, goatskin, microfiber, or other materials suitable for athletic use. The palmar component 110 may be formed from a stack of layers, as described below with reference to FIG. 2 .
[0013] FIG. 2 illustrates a stack of layers forming the palmar component 110 , according to one embodiment. The palmar component 110 includes an inner layer 200 , a release ply layer 210 , and an outer layer 220 . The layers 200 , 210 , 220 of the palmar component 110 may be stitched, glued, or otherwise connected together around their respective perimeters to form the palmar component 110 , which is mounted in the glove base 120 . In some embodiments, the assembled palmar component 110 may be stitched, glued, or otherwise secured into a correspondingly-shaped opening 230 or receiving area in the glove base 120 .
[0014] In other embodiments, the inner layer 200 may be formed as an integral part of the glove base 120 . In other words, in some embodiments, the glove base 120 need not have an opening 230 , and the inner layer 200 need not be a discrete part of the palmar component 110 . In such embodiments, the release ply layer 210 and the outer layer 220 are stitched, glued, or otherwise connected along their respective perimeters to the glove base 120 .
[0015] In some embodiments, the layers 200 , 210 , 220 may include stitching, glue, or another attachment along their respective perimeters, while lacking attachment in some interior regions of the layers. For example, in some embodiments, there may be an absence of attachment adjacent to a proximal portion of the palmar surface, a distal portion of the palmar surface, a lateral portion of the palmar surface (for example, a thenar or thenar eminence region of the palmar surface), a medial portion of the palmar surface (for example, a hypothenar or hypothenar eminence region of the palmar surface), or some or all of a digital region (i.e., fingers). In some embodiments, in addition to stitching or another attachment in perimeter regions of the layers 200 , 210 , 220 , there may be stitching or another attachment at the base of one or more finger regions.
[0016] The inner layer 200 and the outer layer 220 may be formed from various materials, including materials generally used in sports or batting gloves. For example, the inner layer 200 and the outer layer 220 may be formed from natural leather, synthetic leather, sheepskin, goatskin, microfiber, or other materials suitable for athletic or industrial use. In some embodiments, the inner layer 200 and the outer layer 220 may be formed from the same material, or in other embodiments, they may be formed from different materials.
[0017] The release ply layer 210 may be formed from a thin film or other material having low friction or a low coefficient of friction. In particular embodiments, the release ply layer 210 has a lower coefficient of friction than either or both of the inner layer 200 and the outer layer 220 . For example, in some embodiments, the release ply layer 210 may be 0.002 inches thick and formed from polyethylene film. In other embodiments, other suitable thicknesses and materials may be used, such as polyester film (for example, MYLAR) or fiberglass cloth coated or impregnated with a polymer such as PTFE (for example, TEFLON).
[0018] In use, a ball bat or other implement tends to frictionally engage the outer layer 220 , while the skin of the user's hand tends to frictionally engage the inner layer 200 . The release ply layer 210 allows all of the layers 200 , 210 , 220 to slide with respect to one another, thus providing a slip plane to divert energy and forces from the bat handle. The layers 200 , 210 , 220 decouple the bat from the hand along the slip plane so that short forceful impulses and motions of the bat handle and knob are prevented, or substantially prevented, from passing through the glove into the hand.
[0019] In some embodiments of the present technology, the layers 200 , 210 , 220 may be generally similar in size. In other embodiments, the layers 200 , 210 , 220 may have relatively different sizes among themselves in order to resist bunching or wrinkling of the layers when a user grasps a bat. For example, the outer layer 220 may be smaller (for example, proportionally smaller) than the release ply layer 210 , and the release ply layer 210 may be smaller (for example, proportionally smaller) than the inner layer 200 . In such embodiments, the layers 200 , 210 , 220 may still be stitched or otherwise attached around their respective perimeters or in other areas as described above. And in such embodiments, the inner layer 200 may be sized such that a degree of looseness or slack exists in the inner layer 200 when the user's palm is open, but the looseness or slack tightens when the user grips the round handle of a bat.
[0020] In contrast with existing gloves that absorb energy through padding or increased thickness, the current technology uses thin slipping layers to divert energy along the slip plane without unduly limiting feel or tactile gnosis. Thus, when a user grasps the bat, the palmar component 110 generally feels like one thin layer. Accordingly, the present technology provides a safe batting glove without unduly limiting feel.
[0021] From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that specific embodiments of the disclosed technology have been described for purposes of illustration, but that various modifications may be made without deviating from the technology, and elements of certain embodiments may be interchanged with those of other embodiments. For example, in some alternative embodiments, there may be more than one release ply layer (for example, 210 ). In some embodiments, the stitching, gluing, or other attachment between the layers 200 , 210 , 220 or the glove base 120 may be located in areas other than the perimeters of the layers.
[0022] Further, while advantages associated with certain embodiments of the disclosed technology have been described in the context of those embodiments, other embodiments may also exhibit such advantages, and not all embodiments need necessarily exhibit such advantages to fall within the scope of the technology. Accordingly, the disclosure and associated technology may encompass other embodiments not expressly shown or described herein, and the invention is not limited except as by the appended claims.
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A batting glove or sports glove includes a glove base configured to accommodate a users hand. In some embodiments, the glove base has an opening in a palmar region of the glove. Multiple palmar layers are attached to the glove base and positioned over the opening. In some embodiments, the palmar layers include a first layer of material positioned between a second layer of material and a third layer of material. The first layer of material has a lower coefficient of friction than one or both of the second and third layers of material such that the layers may slide relative to one another.
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FIELD OF USE
[0001] This application relates to devices useful for the assembly or construction of decks or similar structures. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to devices useful in achieving uniformity of the spacing of components of a structure.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Decks, and like structures, are often common in the housing, construction, and building industries. During construction a builder is often concerned with following steps to assemble a safe and appealing finished product. To accomplish this a builder may employ techniques to achieve goals such as ensuring an acceptable life span for the structure, promoting the structural integrity of the structure, and/or increasing the aesthetic appeal of the structure.
[0003] One objective, which when achieved advances these goals, is maximizing the uniformity of the spacing between the components of the structure, for example but not limited to, maximizing the spacing between the flooring or decking boards of a deck, as well as the spacing between the fasteners used to affix the components to the underlying structure. Improperly spaced components may not align properly and therefore become out of square, which may compromise the integrity of the structure. Improperly spaced components may also trap liquids, which may damage the component and therefore also compromise the integrity of the structure. Further, improperly spaced components are aesthetically unappealing.
[0004] Another goal, which when achieved, promotes life span, as well as, structural integrity, is establishing solid contact between the fasteners and the substrate to which they are affixed. With a deck, for example, it is critical that the deck fasteners align with the joists below. If the fasteners do not make contact, or make only partial contact, with the substrate below, the component will not be sufficiently affixed to the underlying structure. This misalignment may cause failure, which may result in an unsafe structure. Further, if the component is not properly affixed to the underlying structure, the component may buckle or deform due to use, weathering, or other forces, and become unsafe, which may compromise the underlying structure.
[0005] The diligence required to make certain that these goals are met when constructing these structures can be both time consuming and tedious. Decreasing the time to perform and assure these specifications are met can increase construction efficiency, reduce labor and overall cost, help increase structural longevity, as well as increase the consistency and reproducibility of construction methods.
SUMMARY
[0006] In some embodiments, a spacing and affixing guide for use in construction, includes two or more components, which optionally may be integrally formed. A spacing member helps users to achieve consistent and uniform distance between two components, while a guiding member helps to allow alignment of fasteners at consistent and uniform positions. The spacing and affixing guide is a tool that can allow for the quick and consistent spacing of decking boards, while also providing for consistently aligned and uniformly spaced fasteners, and simultaneously indicating the location of the joist below the decking board which is being affixed. In some embodiments, the spacing and affixing guide could be utilized to affix the decking boards without any gap between the boards, while still allowing for consistently aligned and uniformly spaced fasteners.
[0007] In other embodiments, the spacing and affixing guide may include none, one, or any number, of the following components. The spacing and affixing guide may include a second spacing member. The spacing and affixing guide may include a handle, for increased manageability of the spacing and affixing guide. The spacing and affixing guide may include a rear pressure tab to apply further pressure to the spacing and affixing guide. The spacing and affixing guide may have a slide mechanism connecting one or both of the spacing members to the guiding member, to make the distance between the spacing members of the spacing affixing guide adjustable. The spacing and affixing guide may include a rear guiding hole to guide a fastener at an angle. The spacing and affixing guide may include a front guiding hole to guide a fastener at an angle. The spacing and affixing guide may include a guiding member of adjustable length, which would permit the spacing and affixing guide greater versatility on various dimensions of lumber. The spacing and affixing guide may include a spacing tab on the end of the guiding member to space secondary pieces or reverse the spacing and affixing guide. The spacing and affixing guide may further include one or more spacing sleeves to allow for the variability of the spacing dimension of the spacing and affixing guide.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1 is a right side view of an exemplary embodiment of the spacing and affixing guide.
[0009] FIG. 2 is a top view of the guide of FIG. 1 .
[0010] FIG. 3 is a rear view of the guide of FIG. 1 .
[0011] FIG. 4 is an isometric view of the guide of FIG. 1 .
[0012] FIG. 5 is a right side view of another exemplary embodiment of the spacing and affixing guide.
[0013] FIG. 6 is a top view of the guide of FIG. 5 .
[0014] FIG. 7 is a rear view of the guide of FIG. 5 .
[0015] FIG. 8 is an isometric view of the guide of FIG. 5 .
[0016] FIG. 9 shows an exemplary embodiment of a spacing sleeve of the spacing and affixing guide as viewed from an isometric perspective.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0017] As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the present disclosure may be embodied as a composition of matter, an apparatus, or a method of using the same.
[0018] Referring to FIGS. 1-4 , one of the preferred embodiments of the spacing and affixing guide 10 includes a spacing member 11 , which is positioned perpendicular, or substantially perpendicular to a guiding member 12 .
[0019] Any two or more components of the spacing and affixing guide 10 may be integrally formed or they may be removably connectable to on or more adjacent components. When components are integrally formed, such integral formation may be achieved, for example, by molding or machining them from a larger piece of material. The substrate used to construct the spacing and affixing guide 10 may be a formable material such as, but not limited to, plastic or metal. Alternatively, the spacing member 11 and guiding member 12 may be created independently and the spacing and affixing guide 10 may be constructed of these individual smaller components at a later time.
[0020] The spacing member 11 can long enough to extend from the top plane of a deck board down vertically to below the plane of the top edge of the joist below the deck board. Thus, the spacing member 11 can be preferably long enough to be positionable such that it spans the distance from the top plane of the deck board to the mid point of the vertical dimension of the side of the joist below. The spacing member 11 can be deep enough to allow sufficient distance between the deck boards between which it is placed. This distance is preferably one-eighth of one inch (⅛″), but may be a smaller or larger dimension (e.g. depending an the requirements of the structure or building authority). The width of the spacing member 11 is preferably one and one-half inch (1.5″), but may be a smaller or larger dimension depending on the requirements of the structure or building authority (e.g. but should be less than the dimension of distance between the joists of the structure it is to be used on). The spacing member 11 has an inner edge 13 , which contacts the vertical side of the joist below. The inner edge 13 may be flat as depicted, but also may be curved. The spacing member 11 may also have an portion of the member removed from lower corner closest to the inner edge 13 , which will help to guide the spacing and affixing guide 10 into place during use.
[0021] The guiding member 12 is connected to the spacing member 11 which can be configured to contact the top of the decking boards. The guiding member 12 has a guiding edge 14 defined as the edge of the guiding member 12 which is located on the same side of the spacing and affixing guide 10 as the inner edge 13 . The guiding edge can provide a consistent axis for the user to place a fastener along and affix the deck board to joist below. The guiding member 12 is oriented perpendicular, or substantially perpendicular, to the length of the spacing member 11 in a direction that is parallel, or substantially parallel to the surface of inner edge 13 of the spacing member 11 . The guiding edge 14 of the guiding member 12 extends past the inner edge 13 . This configuration allows for the guiding edge 14 to provide a reference axis and a consistent guide to indicate the joist below, thus allowing the user to easily visualize the placement of a fastener, which is used to affix the material to the substrate below when the inner edge 13 contacts the vertical face of the joist below. In some embodiments the extent to which the guiding edge 14 extends past the inner edge 13 is preferably three-quarters of one inch (0.75″), a dimension which will sufficiently allow for full contact between a fastener and the joist below. However, it is to be understood that this extension is not limited to being three-quarters of one inch (0.75″), and therefore it may be greater or less than three-quarters of one inch (0.75″). The inner edge 13 may, for example, extend slightly less to compensate for the width of the fastener to by used, thereby positioning the center of the fastener on the centerline of a joist. Further, the guiding member 12 or the guiding edge 14 may have one or more notches, or other indicating marks or features, added to guiding edge 14 or guiding member 12 . These indicating marks assist in locating consistent and uniform positions for the fasteners. The indicators may be, for example, “tick marks”, a ruler, spaced notches or holes, or protrusions from the guiding edge 14 or guiding member 12 . Further, the guiding member 12 may be configured to have points at which the guiding member may accept one or more various tools, these points could be static on the guiding member 12 or could be located on a sliding mechanism which would allow for continuous variability of the points. These configurations could manifest in notches created to accept the nozzle of a nail gun, screw gun, staple gun, caulking gun, and/or other construction devices. By following this procedure where each joist meets each board the fasteners are arranged in a continuous uniform line, which also align with the joists below. While the guide can create an aesthetically pleasing appearance, it also can also help to ensure that the fasteners have complete contact with the joist ensuring a maximal mechanical bond (e.g. as compared with situations when the fastener were to only partially contact the joist below).
[0022] When the spacing and affixing guide 10 is oriented such that inner edge 13 of the spacing member 11 contacts the vertical dimension of the joist and the guiding member 12 is positioned in a direction substantially parallel to the length of the joist resting on the material to be affixed to the joist, the guiding edge 14 can substantially indicate the midline of the joist below. For example, marks, notches, or other indication marks or protrusions on the guiding edge 14 or guiding member 12 can indicate reference points to position fasteners thereby giving uniformity of spacing and alignment with the midline of the joist below, as well as promote full contact between the fastener and the substrate. When used to attach decking boards to joists, the spacing and affixing guide 10 is oriented as above, with the spacing member 11 positioned between the two components to be spaced. The depth dimension of the spacing member 11 will provide the dimension of the space between the deck boards. In some examples two decking boards are consecutively affixed decking boards. In other examples the first board to be affixed may be spaced by positioning the spacing and affixing guide 10 between the board and any reference structure.
[0023] In some embodiments the spacing and affixing guide 10 includes a swivel mechanism connecting its parts. In this configuration the spacing and affixing guide 10 can permit the decking boards to be oriented at an angle to the joists below at angles of both 90° as well as angles greater and less than 90°. This can allow for use in less common applications of decking where, for example the decking is applied at a 45° angle to the joists.
[0024] Referring to FIG. 2 , there is shown the embodiment of FIG. 1 of the spacing and affixing guide 10 as viewed from an aerial position, an overhead perspective or top view. A guiding member 12 and a guiding edge 14 are visible whereas the spacing member 11 and inner edge 13 of the apparatus are hidden from view, as compared to FIG. 1 , positioned under the guiding member 12 and extending away from the viewpoint.
[0025] Referring to FIG. 3 , there is shown the embodiment of FIG. 1 of the spacing and affixing guide 10 as viewed from a rear perspective. A spacing member 11 with an inner edge 13 is displayed vertically positioned under a guiding member 12 with a guiding edge 14 , which is extending substantially perpendicular to the spacing member 11 in a direction away from the viewpoint.
[0026] Referring to FIG. 4 , there is shown the embodiment of FIG. 1 of the spacing and affixing guide 10 as viewed from an isometric perspective, or off-axis view. As shown in FIG. 1 , a spacing member 11 with an inner edge 13 shown connected to a guiding member 12 with a guiding edge 14 .
[0027] Referring to FIG. 5 , another exemplary embodiment of the spacing and affixing guide 110 includes a first spacing member 11 and a second spacing member 111 , both of which are positioned perpendicular, or substantially perpendicular to a guiding member 112 . The spacing members 11 and 111 are attached at a distance sufficient to allow the spacing and affixing guide to straddle a component (e.g. a decking joist) as described above, with the first spacing member 11 and the second spacing member 111 on different sides. This distance could be any distance, but is preferably one and one-half inches (1.5″), which is the common depth of a common 2× (“two by”) joist. Common dimensional lumber is often used in the construction of decks. Dimensional lumber is a term used for lumber that is finished/planed and cut to standardized width and depth specified in, commonly but not limited to inches. Examples of common sizes are 2×4, 2×6, and 2×8, the numbers denoting the width and depth in inches. The length of a piece of lumber may be specified in a different unit of measurement such as, but not limited to, feet. It is thus possible to find 2×4's that are, for example but not limited to, eight (8), ten (10), or sixteen (16) feet in length. Therefore, a piece of dimensional lumber by the name 2×4×8, which would be the “nominal dimensions,” would denote a piece of wood 2 inches deep, 4 inches wide, and 8 feet in length. However, the nominal dimensions will vary from the “actual dimensions” of the lumber because of various factors during the manufacturing process such as, but not limited to, the drying of the lumber, which can cause it to shrink, or in some instances expand. This is evidenced where a joist of nominal dimensions of 2×8 has actual dimensions of 1.5″×7.25″. While the nominal and actual dimensions vary, both sets of dimensions are well known in the art. Lumber Sizes, [online] 2010 [retrieved on Sep. 28, 2011] Retrieved from http://www.advantagelumber.com/sizes.htm; Dimensional Lumber [online] 2011 [retrieved on Sep. 28, 2011] Retrieved from http://homerenovations.about.com/od/glossary/g/dimlumber.htm. For a reference of common lumber used in building structures, the International Building Code, International Code Council (2009); the International Residential Code, International Code Council (2009); Lumber Sizes, [online] 2010 [retrieved on Sep. 28, 2011] Retrieved from http://www.advantagelumber.com/sizes.htm; or Dimensional Lumber [online] 2011 [retrieved on Sep. 28, 2011] Retrieved from http://homerenovations.about.com/od/glossary/g/dimlumber.htm., can be referenced and all are incorporated by reference in their entirety herein.
[0028] The guiding member 112 shown includes a spacing tab 115 . The spacing tab 115 is located at the front of the guiding member 112 , and is oriented substantially perpendicular to the guiding member extending down and running parallel to the first spacing member 11 and second spacing member 111 . The spacing tab 115 is similar to the first spacing member 11 and second spacing member 111 , in that it can serve to space the abutting course of decking boards. The spacing tab 115 shown further includes a front guiding hole 116 , which functions to correctly position a fastener at an angle. This angle allows a fastener to enter the side of a deck board, exit the bottom of a deck board, and further enter a joist below. The front guiding hole 116 is angled down from the front of the spacing and affixing guide 110 traveling at a downward trajectory through the spacing tab 115 and exiting through the rear of the spacing tab 115 at a location lower than the entry point at the front of the spacing and affixing guide 110 .
[0029] In some examples the spacing and affixing guide 110 includes a sliding mechanism to facilitate the adjustment of the distance between the spacing member 11 and spacing member 111 . This can allow the spacing member 11 and spacing member 111 to fit over more than one joist (e.g. should the joist be doubled up next to one another, or placed along side one another in multiples, or larger, or smaller, cuts of lumber). This can be advantageous in instances where, for example, more, and/or less, structural support is required than can be accomplished by a single “two by” joist, or where, for example, the layout of the joists causes joists to abut, or be positioned closely together. Such an adjustable joint would also allow for the space between the spacing member 11 and spacing member 111 to accommodate non-traditional lumber dimensions. The spacing member 111 may be removably connectable to the spacing and affixing guide 110 .
[0030] The sliding mechanism can be positioned laterally or medially. The sliding mechanism can operate to move only one of either spacing member 11 or spacing member 111 closer or further from the guiding edge 14 ; or, the sliding mechanism can operate to move both of spacing member 11 and spacing member 111 closer or further from the guiding edge 14 . Further, there may be two sliding mechanisms that independently operate to move each of spacing member 11 and spacing member 111 . The sliding mechanism may also operate to move both of spacing member 11 and spacing member 111 contemporaneously either closer or further from the guiding edge 14 .
[0031] In some examples of the spacing and affixing guide 110 a pressure tab 113 can be attached to the rear and extend in a direction substantially parallel and opposite to the guiding member 112 . The pressure tab 113 can allow for force to be applied to the spacing and affixing guide 110 from the rear of the spacing and affixing guide 110 , it also can allow for force to be applied in a uniform manner to the spacing and affixing guide 110 , by for example a hand or foot applying pressure to both the guiding member 112 and the pressure tab 113 simultaneously. The base of the pressure tab 113 can lie in the same plane as the base of the guiding member 112 which can facilitate the even placement of the spacing and affixing guide 110 on the decking boards. The pressure tab 113 may be removably connectable to the spacing and affixing guide 110 .
[0032] In some examples of the spacing and affixing guide 110 a handle 114 can be attached to the spacing and affixing guide 110 . The handle 114 can be attached to the spacing and affixing guide 110 near or at the point of connection between the first spacing member 11 , the second spacing member 111 , and the guiding member 112 . The handle 114 can allow for easy gripping and positioning of the spacing and affixing guide 110 . The handle 114 can take for example, but not limited to, the form of a tab, a “T” grip, a grip as depicted in FIG. 5 or any other form commonly employed in the art of handles. The handle 114 may be removably connectable to the spacing and affixing guide 110 .
[0033] In some examples the spacing and affixing guide 110 can include a rear guiding hole 117 , which can function to correctly position and angle a fastener in a similar fashion as the front guiding hole 116 . This angle can allow a fastener to enter the side of a deck board and exit the bottom of a deck board where the fastener can further enter a joist below. The rear guiding hole 117 can be angled down from the rear of the spacing and affixing guide 110 , can travel at a downward trajectory through spacing and affixing guide 110 and can exit through the front of either the first spacing member 11 , the second spacing member 111 , or at a point between the first spacing member 11 and the second spacing member 111 , at a point lower than the entry point at the rear of the spacing and affixing guide 110 . The rear guiding hole 117 can start in the rear of the first spacing member 11 , second spacing member 111 , or at a position located in between the first spacing member 11 and the second spacing member 111 , alternatively the rear guiding hole 117 may start at the top of the pressure tab 113 .
[0034] Referring to FIG. 6 , there is shown the embodiment of FIG. 5 of the spacing and affixing guide 110 as viewed from an overhead perspective or top view. A guiding member 112 and second spacing member 111 are visible, whereas the first spacing member 11 of the apparatus is hidden from view, positioned under the guiding member 112 and extending away from the viewpoint. There is shown the handle 114 , pictured horizontally, connected to the guiding member 112 and the pressure tab 113 , extending towards the point of view.
[0035] Referring to FIG. 7 , there is shown the embodiment of FIG. 5 of the spacing and affixing guide 110 as viewed from a rear perspective. The handle 114 is depicted above a pressure tab 113 , which is extending towards the point of view. The first spacing member 11 and the second spacing member 111 are depicted under the pressure tab 113 and handle 114 . The guiding member 112 is hidden from view, located behind the pressure tab 113 , extending away from the point of view.
[0036] Referring to FIG. 8 , there is shown the embodiment of FIG. 5 of the spacing and affixing guide 110 as viewed from an isometric perspective. The first spacing member 11 and the second spacing member 111 are shown extending downward, connected to the pressure tab 113 , which is extending towards the viewpoint. The first spacing member 11 , the second spacing member 111 , and the pressure tab 113 are shown connected to the handle 114 , which is extending upward. The first spacing member 11 , second spacing member 111 , pressure tab 113 , and handle 114 are shown connected to the guiding member 112 , which is extending away from the viewpoint.
[0037] Referring to FIG. 9 , there is shown a spacing sleeve 311 . The spacing sleeve 311 is formed to fit over spacing member 11 or spacing member 111 . The spacing sleeve 311 functions to increase the depth of the spacing dimension of the spacing and affixing guide 310 without changing or swapping the first spacing member 11 or the second spacing member 111 . The spacing sleeve 311 has inner dimensions, which will match the outer dimensions of the spacing member 11 or spacing member 111 , while the outer dimensions of the spacing sleeve 311 may be a variety of depths, which will function to allow for the selection of different spacing dimensions. The spacing sleeve 311 may be a closed sleeve with a sealed bottom, but may also be open and not cover the entire first spacing member 11 or second spacing member 111 . The spacing sleeve 311 only need be long enough to be placed over the first spacing member 11 or the second spacing member 111 and increase the spacing dimension between the decking boards or decking board and reference structure. The spacing sleeve 311 can also be envisioned to be piece of material that is able to be snapped on, or added to the first spacing member 11 or the second spacing member 111 to increase the dimension which spaces the component to be affixed.
[0038] The first spacing member 11 , second spacing member 111 , guiding member 112 , spacing tab 115 , pressure tab 113 , handle 114 , front guiding hole 116 , or rear guiding hole 117 , may also be formed as one piece. Any combination of the first spacing member 11 , second spacing member 111 , guiding member 112 , spacing tab 15 , pressure tab 113 , handle 114 , front guiding hole 116 , or rear guiding hole 117 , may be formed as on piece with any other component of the spacing or affixing guide 110 . For example, the first spacing member 11 may be formed as one piece with the guiding member 112 , or as one piece with the pressure tab 113 or as one piece with the handle 114 , or individually, or as any sub-combination of the component parts.
[0039] Any of the previously mentioned components of this disclosure may be either permanently attached to one another or removably connectable to one another, meaning that the components may be temporarily, or transiently attached to one another. They may be attached to one another by a hinge, push tabs, spring loaded tabs, screw mechanism, swivel mechanism, sliding mechanism, weld, glue, epoxy, or any further method, either permanently or temporarily, or transiently attached for use. Even though it may be advantageous to have the components be separable, so that the two components may be separated or replaced in the event that one component fails, the components may be one piece, or permanently attached to one another.
[0040] Any and all patents, patent applications, publications, and references cited by this application are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. A plurality of embodiments of the present disclosure have been described; nevertheless, it will be understood by a person of skill in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims.
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A guide for uniform spacing and affixing of construction materials, comprising a guiding member and at least one spacing member.
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CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/488,868, filed Jan. 21, 2000, entitled “Continuous Composite Coextrusion Methods, Apparatuses, and Compositions” which is a non-provisional application claiming the benefit of provisional application serial No. 60/116,771 entitled “Continuous Composite Coextrusion Methods, Apparatuses, and Compositions” filed Jan. 22, 1999 all of which are incorporated herewith by reference in their entireties.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
[0002] This invention was made with U.S. Government support under SBIR grant Number N0022-C-4120 awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command. Further description of the present invention is provided in the Report (dated Feb. 27, 1998), under contract N00024-97-C-4130, sponsored by the Naval Sea Systems Command. The Government has certain rights in the invention described herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] 1. Field of the Invention
[0004] The present invention relates to continuous composite coextrusion methods, apparatus for coextrusion, and compositions for preparing composites, such as continuous fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composites, using dense fibers and green matrices as well as to methods for the preparation of composites having interfaces between dense fibers and green matrices.
[0005] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0006] Composites are combinations of two or more materials present as separate phases and combined to form desired structures so as to take advantage of certain desirable properties of each component. The materials can be organic, inorganic, or metallic, and in various forms, including but not limited to particles, rods, fibers, plates and foams. Thus, a composite, as defined herein, although made up of other materials, can be considered to be a new material have characteristic properties that are derived from its constituents, from its processing, and from its microstructure.
[0007] Composites are made up of the continuous matrix phase in which are embedded: (1) a three-dimensional distribution of randomly oriented reinforcing elements, e.g., a particulate-filled composite; (2) a two-dimensional distribution of randomly oriented elements, e.g., a chopped fiber mat; (3) an ordered two-dimensional structure of high symmetry in the plane of the structure, e.g., an impregnated cloth structure; or (4) a highly-aligned array of parallel fibers randomly distributed normal to the fiber directions, e.g., a filament-wound structure, or a prepreg sheet consisting of parallel rows of fibers impregnated with a matrix.
[0008] Monolithic ceramic materials are known to exhibit certain desirable properties, including high strength and high stiffness at elevated temperatures, resistance to chemical and environmental attack, and low density. However, monolithic ceramics have one property that limits their use in stressed environments, namely their low fracture toughness. While significant advances have been made to improve the fracture toughness of monolithic ceramics, mostly through the additions of whisker and particulate reinforcements or through careful control of the microstructural morphology, they still remain extremely damage intolerant. More specifically, they are susceptible to thermal shock and will fail catastrophically when placed in severe stress applications. Even a small processing flaw or crack that develops in a stressed ceramic cannot redistribute or shed its load on a local scale. Under high stress or even mild fatigue, the crack will propagate rapidly resulting in catastrophic failure of the part in which it resides. It is this inherently brittle characteristic which can be even more pronounced at elevated temperatures, that has not allowed monolithic ceramics to be utilized in any safety-critical designs.
[0009] Research and development for these high temperature and high stress applications have focused on the development of continuous fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composites, hereafter referred to as CFCCs. The use of fiber reinforcements in the processing of ceramic and metal matrix composites is known in the prior art, and has essentially provided the fracture toughness necessary for ceramic materials to be developed for high stress, high temperature applications. See J. J. Brennan and K. M. Prewo, “High Strength Silicon Carbide Fiber Reinforced Glass-Matrix Composites,” J. Mater. Sci., 15 463-68 (1980); J. J. Brennan and K. M. Prewo, “Silicon Carbide Fiber Reinforced Glass-Ceramic Matrix Composites Exhibiting High Strength Toughness,” J. Mater. Sci., 17 2371-83 (1982); P. Lamicq, G. A. Gernhart, M. M. Danchier, and J. G. Mace, “SiC/SiC Composite Ceramics,” Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 65 [2]336-38 (1986); T. I. Mah, M. G. Mendiratta, A. P. Katz, and K. S. Mazdiyasni, “Recent Developments in Fiber-Reinforced High Temperature Ceramic Composites,” Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 66 [2]304-08 (1987).; K. M. Prewo, “Fiber-Reinforced Ceramics: New Opportunities for Composite Materials,” Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 68 [2]395-400 (1989); H. Kodama, H. Sakamoto, and T. Miyoshi, “Silicon Carbide Monofilament-Reinforced Silicon Nitride or Silicon Carbide Matrix Composites,” J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 72 [4]551-58 (1989); and J. R. Strife, J. J. Brennan, and K. M. Prewo, “Status of Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Ceramic Matrix Composite Processing Technology,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 11 [7-8]871-919 (1990).
[0010] Under high stress conditions, the fibers are strong enough to bridge the cracks which form in the ceramic matrix allowing the fibers to ultimately carry the load, and catastrophic failure can be avoided. This type of behavior has led to a resurgence of CFCCs as potential materials for gas turbine components, such as combustors, first-stage vanes, and exhaust flaps. See D. R. Dryell and C. W. Freeman, “Trends in Design in Turbines for Aero Engines,” pp. 38-45 in Materials Development in Turbo - Machinery Design; 2nd Parsons International Turbine Conference, Edited by D. M. R. Taplin, J. F. Knott, and M. H. Lewis, The Institute of Metals, Parsons Press, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, 1989. CFCCs have also been given serious consideration for heat exchangers, rocket nozzles, and the leading edges of next-generation aircraft and reentry vehicles. See M. A. Karnitz, D. F. Craig, and S. L. Richlin, “Continuous Fiber Ceramic Composite Program,” Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 70 [3]430-35 (1991), and Flight Vehicle Materials, Structures and Dynamics—Assessment and Future Directions , Vol. 3, edited by S. R. Levine, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, 1992. In addition, CFCCs with a high level of open porosity are currently being utilized as filters for hot-gas cleanup in electrical power generation systems, metal refining, chemical processing, and diesel exhaust applications. See L. R. White, T. L. Tompkins, K. C. Hsieh, and D. D. Johnson, “Ceramic Filters for Hot Gas Cleanup,” J. Eng. for Gas Turbines and Power , Vol. 115, 665-69 (1993).
[0011] CFCCs are currently fabricated by a number of techniques. The simplest and most common method for their fabricating has been the slurry infiltration technique whereby a fiber or fiber tow is passed through a slurry containing the matrix powder; the coated fiber is then filament wound to create a “prepreg”; the prepreg is removed, cut, oriented, and laminated into a component shape; and the part undergoes binder pyrolysis and a subsequent firing cycle to densify the matrix. See J. J. Brennan and K. M. Prewo, “High Strength Silicon Carbide Fibre Reinforced Glass-Matrix Composites,” J. Mater. Sci., 15 463-68 (1980); D. C. Phillips, “Fiber Reinforced Ceramics,” Chapter 7 in Fabrication of Composites , edited by A. Kelly and S. T. Mileiko, North-Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1983; and K. M. Prewo and J. J. Brennan, “Silicon Carbide Yam Reinforced Glass Matrix Composites,” J. Mater. Sci., 17 1201-06 (1982).
[0012] Other techniques for fabricating CFCCs also typically involve an infiltration process in order to incorporate matrix material within and around the fiber architecture, e.g. a fiber tow, a preformed fiber mat, a stack of a plurality of fiber mats, or other two dimensional (2D) or three dimensional (3D) preformed fiber architecture. These techniques include the infiltration of sol-gels. See J. J. Lannutti and D. E. Clark, “Long Fiber Reinforced Sol-Gel Derived Alumina Composites”, pp. 375-81 in Better Ceramics Through Chemistry , Material Research Society Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 32, North-Holland, N.Y., 1984; E. Fitzer and R. Gadow, “Fiber Reinforced Composites Via the Sol-Gel Route”, pp. 571-608 in Tailoring Multiphase and Composite Ceramics, Materials Science Research Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 20, edited by R. E. Tressler et al., Plenum Press, New York, 1986. Other techniques include polymeric precursors which are converted to the desired ceramic matrix material through a post-processing heat treatment. See J. Jamet, J. R. Spann, R. W. Rice, D. Lewis, and W. S. Coblenz, “Ceramic-Fiber Composite Processing via Polymer-Filler Matrices,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 5 [7-8]677-94 (1984); and K. Sato, T. Suzuki, O. Funayama, T. Isoda, “Preparation of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composite by Impregnation with Perhydropolysilazane Followed by Pressureless Firing,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 13 [9-10]614-21 (1992).
[0013] Other research and development has involved molten metals that are later nitrided or oxidized. See M. S. Newkirk, A. W. Urquhart, H. R. Zwicker, and E. Breval, “Formation of Lanxide Ceramic Composite Materials,” J. Mater. Res., 1 81-89 (1986); and M. K. Aghajanian, M. A. Rocazella, J. T. Burke, and S. D. Keck, “The Fabrication of Metal Matrix Composites by a Pressureless Infiltration Technique,” J. Mater. Sci., 26 447-54 (1991). Other research and development has involved molten materials that are later carbided to form a ceramic matrix. See R. L. Mehan, W. B. Hillig, and C. R. Morelock, “Si/SiC Ceramic Composites: Properties and Applications,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 1 405 (1980). Still other research and development has involved molten silicates that cool to form a glass or glass-ceramic matrix (see M. K. Brun, W. B. Hillig, and H. C. McGuigan, “High Temperature Mechanical Properties of a Continuous Fiber-Reinforced Composite Made by Melt Infiltration,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 10 [7-8]611-21 (1989)), and chemical vapors which decompose and condense to form the ceramic matrix (See A. J. Caputo and W. J. Lackey, “Fabrication of Fiber-Reinforced Ceramic Composites by Chemical Vapor Infiltration,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 5 [7-8]654-67 (1984); and A. J. Caputo, W. J. Lackey, and D. P. Stinton, “Development of a New, Faster, Process for the Fabrication of Ceramic Fiber-Reinforced Ceramic Composites by Chemical Vapor Infiltration,” Ceram. Eng. Sci. Proc., 6 [7-8]694-706 (1985).
[0014] Two U.S. patents have issued which involve a method for the fabrication of a fiber reinforced composite by combining an inorganic reinforcing fiber with dispersions of powdered ceramic matrix in organic vehicles, such as thermoplastics. The first patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,978, discloses a method for making an organic thermoplastic vehicle containing ceramic powder that can form the matrix of a fiber reinforced composite. This patent also discloses that to the ceramic powder/thermoplastic mixtures can be heated to above the melt transition temperature of the thermoplastic and then applied as a heated melt to an inorganic fiber. This patent further discloses that the process may be used to make composite ceramic articles. The second patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,243, discloses a method for applying a dispersion of ceramic powder in a wax-containing thermoplastic vehicle to an inorganic fiber reinforcement material to form a prepreg material such as a prepreg tow. This patent further discloses that the prepreg tow may be subjected to a binder pyrolysis step to partially remove the wax binder vehicle prior to consolidation of the prepreg tow into the preform of a composite ceramic article.
[0015] To summarize, the continuous fiber reinforced ceramic composites (“CFCCs”) prior to the present invention have traditionally been fabricated using methods and apparatuses to infiltrate the matrix or matrix-forming material around a preformed architecture of dense fibers or fiber tows or by passing the fibers through a powder/melt slurry. While these methods and apparatuses provide a fiber reinforced composite structure, there is no control over the thickness of the matrix forming vehicle, and rarely will the matrix uniformly surround the fibers. In such methods, the fibers often contact each other which is detrimental to the mechanical behavior of such composites. In addition, these infiltration processes are quite slow, sometimes requiring weeks or months to fabricate components, and are severely limited in the matrix/fiber combinations that can be produced.
[0016] Thus, there exists a need for more efficient methods and apparatuses for applying the matrix to the fiber reinforcement. There exists a further need for methods and apparatuses that are versatile enough to allow almost limitless combinations of matrix and fiber reinforcement.
[0017] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and apparatuses for efficient fabrication of ceramic composites that exhibit non-catastrophic behavior when used as a fiber reinforcement for a green ceramic matrix.
[0018] Another object of the present invention is to provide relatively efficient methods and apparatuses for applying the green matrix material to the fiber reinforcement such that it completely surrounds the fiber reinforcement prior to composite layup.
[0019] A further object of the present invention is to provide relatively efficient methods and apparatuses for preparing and applying the green matrix material to the fiber reinforcement regardless of the composition from which the matrix is prepared or the composition of the fiber reinforcement.
[0020] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide relatively efficient methods and apparatuses for preparing both a green ceramic matrix and a green matrix/fiber interfacial layer that can be applied to the fiber reinforcement regardless of the composition of the matrix, interface, or fiber reinforcement.
[0021] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent to those of skill in the art from the description of the invention provided herein.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0022] The present invention comprises novel continuous composite coextrusion methods and apparatus for fabricating fiber reinforced composite materials. Specifically, the present invention comprises novel methods and apparatus to fabricate composite materials via an economical, versatile, and controlled continuous composite coextrusion processes. In a particular preferred embodiment of the present invention, a dense fiber or dense fiber tow (bundles of fibers) is introduced during melt extrusion of a ceramic (or metal)/binder feed-rod. The result of this coextrusion process is a coextruded “green” filament containing an in-situ dense fiber or tow of fibers.
[0023] More specifically, the present invention relates to processes for the fabrication of a fiber reinforced composite, i.e., a composite which is comprised of a matrix of a material, such as a ceramic or metallic material, and having fibers of a ceramic material dispersed within the matrix as a reinforcement. A preferred method of the present invention comprises: (a) forming a material-laden composition comprising a thermoplastic polymer and at least about 40 volume % of a ceramic or metallic particulate in a manner such that the composition has a substantially cylindrical geometry and thus can be used as a substantially cylindrical feed rod; (b) forming a hole down the symmetrical axis of the feed rod; (c) inserting the start of a continuous spool of ceramic fiber, metal fiber or carbon fiber through the hole in the feed rod; (d) extruding the feed rod and fiber reinforcement simultaneously to form a continuous filament consisting of a “green” matrix material completely surrounding a dense fiber reinforcement and said filament having an average diameter that is less than the average diameter of the feed rod; and (e) arranging the continuous filament into a desired architecture to provide a green fiber reinforced composite. The green matrix may be subsequently fired, i.e., heated, to provide a fiber reinforced composite with non-brittle failure characteristics.
[0024] The present invention also provides a process for the fabrication of a fiber reinforced composite having an interlayer, i.e., a composite that is comprised of a matrix of material, such as a ceramic or metallic material, having fibers of a ceramic material dispersed within the matrix as a reinforcement, and having an interlayer that is between the matrix and fiber reinforcement. This method is the same as that described in the preceding paragraph, but further comprises forming a feed rod that contains two dissimilar particulate-laden compositions wherein during the extrusion process the second particulate-laden composition forms a green interlayer between the fiber reinforcement and the green matrix in a continuous filament. This filament can be arranged as described in the previous paragraph and both the green interlayer and the green matrix may be subsequently fired to provide a fiber reinforced composite having substantially improved non-brittle failure characteristics compared to a fiber reinforced composite in the absence of an interlayer.
[0025] The present invention further provides methods for the fabrication of continuous filaments used in preparing fiber reinforced composites wherein the architecture of the filaments can be readily controlled.
[0026] Yet another aspect of the present invention is the ability to take the continuous filaments and form a shaped green-body. Typically, the extruded filament is molded by pressing into an appropriate mold at temperature of at least about 80° C. The molding operation joins the fiber reinforced green filaments together, creating a solid, shaped green body. Any shape that can be compression molded or otherwise formed by plastic deformation can be obtained with extruded filament. The green body so molded has the desired texture created by the arrangement of the extruded filaments. For example, a uniaxially aligned fiber reinforced composite can be obtained by a uniaxial lay-up of the extruded filaments prior to molding, or a woven architecture can be obtained by molding a shape from previously woven extruded filaments. The extruded filament product permits a wide variety of composite architectures to be fabricated in a molded green body.
[0027] In a preferred method of the present invention, a co-axial filament is produced with a fiber tow surrounded by a “green” ceramic. In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, the process has been demonstrated utilizing carbon fiber tows in a hafnium carbide (“HfC”) matrix and the resulting product can be used in extreme high temperature environments. The fiber imparts the necessary thermal shock resistance and toughness that HfC lacks as a monolithic ceramic.
[0028] The processing techniques of the invention readily allows for control of the fiber volume fraction and changes to the matrix composition. This technology is readily applicable to other matrix/fiber combinations and will significantly enhance manufacturing capability for low cost, high-performance and high temperature ceramic composites.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0029] [0029]FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-section of a preferred apparatus of the present invention.
[0030] [0030]FIG. 2 illustrates a cross-section of another preferred apparatus of the present invention.
[0031] [0031]FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic illustrations respectively of the matrix feedrod with and without the graphite interface feedrod in accordance with the present invention.
[0032] [0032]FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a preferred method of the present invention.
[0033] [0033]FIG. 5B is a schematic illustration of a “green” coaxial filament with a graphite interface layer and FIG. 5A is a schematic illustration of a “green” coaxial filament without a graphite interface layer in accordance with the present invention.
[0034] [0034]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a guide tube that may be used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 2.
[0035] [0035]FIG. 7 illustrates the self-propagating, high temperature synthesis for producing hafnium carbide matrix.
[0036] [0036]FIG. 8 further illustrates the self-propagating, high temperature synthesis method using poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene), i.e., “PAB”, for producing hafnium carbide matrix.
[0037] [0037]FIG. 9 illustrates the x-ray diffraction of the reaction of hafnium and carbon using PAB.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0038] [0038]FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-section of a preferred apparatus of the present invention. The apparatus 40 is an extrusion die comprising an extrusion barrel 41 , an extrusion ram 42 , a heating jacket 43 , a transition block 44 , a spinnerette 45 , an extrusion orifice 46 , and a motor driven winding spool 47 , a motor driven ram screw 48 , and an inlet 49 .
[0039] [0039]FIG. 4 depicts a flow chart of a preferred method of the present invention. In accordance with a preferred method and apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIGS. 1 - 3 , a graphite rod or graphite interface layer 50 can be prepared by blending graphite material and pressing the graphite material into a rod shape. In addition, a matrix feedrod 60 can be prepared by blending a suitable matrix feedrod material, pressing the matrix feedrod material into a rod shape, and drilling a core hole 61 through the longitudinal axis of the matrix feedrod 60 . The core hole 61 should have a diameter just large enough for the insertion of the graphite rod 50 there through.
[0040] The blending steps for the matrix feedrod 60 and graphite rod 50 as shown in FIGS. 1 - 3 can comprise milling and batching of matrix feedrod and graphite powders individually with thermoplastic binders and additives in a mixer, e.g., a Brabender Plasticorder high shear mixer. In a preferred embodiment, the matrix feedrod material comprises hafnium carbide (“HfC”) or zirconium carbide (“ZrC”). Preferably the carbide powder/thermoplastic blend is pressed into a “green” rod having a diameter of about 0.885 inches, i.e., about 2.248 cm.
[0041] After preparation of the matrix feedrod 60 and the graphite rod 50 , graphite rod 50 can then be inserted into and through core hole 61 of matrix feedrod 60 . If desired, graphite rod 50 and surrounding matrix feedrod 60 can then be repressed to maintain their rod shapes. A cylindrical hole 80 can next be drilled through the longitudinal axis of graphite rod 50 . In a preferred embodiment, cylindrical hole 80 has a diameter of about 0.125 inches, i.e., 0.318 cm.
[0042] The resulting combination of graphite rod 50 and surrounding matrix feedrod 60 can then be inserted into inlet 49 and extrusion barrel 41 , until it stops at location 54 . If desired, a guide tube 20 , an example of which is shown in detail in FIG. 6, can be inserted through cylindrical hole 80 , as shown in FIG. 3B.
[0043] Extrusion ram 42 can next be placed on top of the combination of graphite rod 50 and surrounding matrix feedrod 60 . Extrusion ram 42 has a bore 52 having a diameter of sufficient size to receive the carbon fiber tow 51 and slide over the guide tube 20 , if such guide tube is used (as shown in FIG. 6).
[0044] Carbon fiber tow 51 can then be inserted through bore 52 of extrusion ram 42 and cylindrical hole 80 of graphite rod 50 , until the inserted end reaches extrusion orifice 46 .
[0045] As shown in FIGS. 1 - 2 , heating jacket 43 heats the matrix feedrod 60 to melt the matrix feedrod material. Extrusion ram 42 pushes the matrix feedrod 60 through heating jacket 43 to the soften zone 56 . Preferably, soften zone 56 has a frusto-conical shape, with the extrusion orifice 46 located at the bottom of soften zone 56 .
[0046] Co-axial filament 70 is extruded from extrusion orifice 46 and wound on the motor driven spinnerette or winding spool 47 . As shown in FIG. 1, co-axial filament 70 thus comprises carbon fiber tow 51 , surrounded by graphite rod or graphite interface layer 50 and matrix feedrod 60 . Co-axial filament 70 can also be called a green ZrC/C f filament, if ZrC is used as the matrix feedrod material, and the tow comprises a carbon fiber material.
[0047] The graphite interface layer 50 surrounding the carbon fiber tow 51 as shown in FIG. 5B has been found to reduce and eliminate matrix cracking in composites caused by the large CTE mismatch between the matrix feedrod and the fiber materials. By pressing the graphite rods to different diameters, the graphite interface layer 50 can be varied as desired.
[0048] Notably, the carbon fiber tow 51 is centered in the green co-axial filament 70 . Design choices to achieve the desired product include varying the viscosities of ZrC powder/thermoplastic and graphite powder/thermoplastic blends, eliminating the guide tube 20 , and changing the composite fiber extrusion conditions. These choices can lead to a uniform interfacial coating.
[0049] [0049]FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a preferred method of the present invention.
[0050] [0050]FIG. 5B is a schematic illustration of a coaxial filament with a graphite interface layer and FIG. 5A is a schematic illustration of a “green” coaxial filament with out a graphite interface layer in accordance with the present invention.
[0051] [0051]FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a guide tube that may be used in the apparatus shown in FIG. 2.
[0052] [0052]FIG. 7 illustrates the self-propagating, high temperature synthesis for producing hafnium carbide matrix.
[0053] [0053]FIG. 8 further illustrates the self-propagating, high temperature synthesis method using poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene), i.e., “PAB”, for producing hafnium carbide matrix.
[0054] [0054]FIG. 9 illustrates the x-ray diffraction of the reaction of hafnium and carbon using PAB.
[0055] A wide variety of fibers can be used in accordance with the present invention. The type of fiber to use is a design choice, as are types of fiber tows. For example, ceramic fibers can comprise silicon carbide, and metal fibers can comprise tungsten, tantalum, steel, aluminum, and copper fibers. In choosing a fiber tow, factors to consider include fiber tow diameter, tow strength, tow elastic modulus, and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Three examples of fibers that can be used in accordance with the present invention are as follows in Table 1:
TABLE 1 Carbon Fiber Tow Properties Tensile Tow Tensile Modulus Axial Diameter Strength Gpa Gpa CTE Supplier Fiber Type (mm) (ksi) (Msi) ppm/K Hexcel AS4 3K 0.387 5.93 (570) 221 (32) −0.7 Hexcel UHMS-G 3K 0.242 3.48 (500) 441 (64) −0.5 Amoco T-300 3K 0.393 3.65 (530) 231 (33.5) −0.6
[0056] The above fibers from Hexcel comprise polyacrylonitrile (“PAN”). The above fiber from Amoco comprises a petroleum extract, referred to as “pitch.”
[0057] The starting carbon fiber tow diameter is a factor in determining the fiber volume fraction of final composite parts. The tow strength and tow stiffness governs mechanical properties such as flexural and tensile strength in the final composite. The CTE of the fiber will determine the compatibility of the fiber/matrix and the size/type of interface. The reported CTE value of the ZrC matrix is 6.9 ppm/K, while axial CTE of carbon fiber is less than 0 ppm/K. In order to minimize this CTE mismatch, a graphite interfacial coating is placed between the carbon fiber and ZrC matrix during co-extrusion.
[0058] The wound up co-axial filament can be weaved and/or laid up into a part. The part can then be laminated by heating and/or squeezing out the thermoplastic. The part can then be placed into a furnace and subjected to heat to burn out any remaining thermoplastic. The resulting product of these steps is a co-axial filament having a carbon fiber tow, a graphite interface, and a matrix, and thus comprises a fiber reinforced matrix composite.
[0059] The fiber reinforced matrix composite can be further consolidated using any suitable method, including but not limited to, hot pressing, hot isostatic pressing, pressureless sintering, and self propagating high temperature synthesis, all of which are known to those skilled in the art. The consolidation step is to form a fully dense fiber reinforced composite.
[0060] Pressureless sintering can be an alternative to the consolidation of composites by hot pressing. In a typical uniaxial hot-pressing process, the monolithic ceramic or composite is consolidated in a graphite die at high temperatures and pressures. While this process is amenable to the production of two-dimensional parts, it is often difficult to produce complicated three-dimensional parts. Also, the uniaxial hot-pressing process is typically not a high volume manufacturing process since only few samples can be pressed in a single run.
[0061] In pressureless sintering processes, samples are heated to high temperatures without high pressure in a large volume, high temperature furnace. This allows the production of complex three-dimensional parts in large quantities. Thus, the development of a pressureless sintering process can lead to low cost, fully dense composite parts.
[0062] ZrC may be pressureless sintered using sintering additives, for example, zirconium metal. The following examples show the density and flexural strength of composites wherein the consolidation was accomplished by pressureless sintering.
EXAMPLE 1
[0063] NCE-BR01
[0064] Description: Core Material
[0065] Brabender Size: small
[0066] Batch Size: 42 cc
[0067] Batch Temperature: 150° C.
[0068] Batch Speed: 60 rpm
[0069] Ingredients:
Material Density (g/cc) Volume % Volume (cc) Weight (g) ZrC (10% SiC) 6.35 53.65% 22.53 143.08 EEA 0.93 30.00% 12.60 11.72 Wax 0.92 3.75% 1.58 1.45 B-67 1.06 5.27% 2.23 2.35 Butyl Oleate 0.87 7.33% 3.09 2.69
[0070] NCE-BR02
[0071] Description: Graphite Interlayer Material
[0072] Brabender Size: small
[0073] Batch Size: 42 cc
[0074] Batch Temperature: 150° C.
[0075] Batch Speed: 60 rpm
[0076] Ingredients:
Material Density (g/cc) Volume % Volume (cc) Weight (g) Graphite 1.80 53.65% 22.53 37.04 EEA 0.93 30.00% 12.60 11.72 Wax 0.92 6.75% 2.84 2.61 B-67 1.06 5.27% 2.23 2.35 Butyl Oleate 0.87 8.98% 3.78 3.29
[0077] Thermal stresses and associated fractures were reduced in the production of relatively crack-free ZrC composites. Further reduction of thermal stresses and degradation of the carbon fibers was achieved during consolidation. This was accomplished by using Hexcel UHMS-G carbon fiber tow. It is believed that the higher elastic modulus of this fiber would help reduce the clamping forces on the fibers produced by the CTE mismatch and thereby eliminate microcracks. In addition, the fiber architecture was varied to better distribute the residual stresses. Two billets were prepared using ZrC (10 vol % SiC) powder.
[0078] In preparing the material-laden compounds used in the inventive methods, the raw material powders are typically blended with an organic polymer and, advantageously, one or more processing aids. Most thermoplastic polymers can be used in the compositions of the present invention, but preferred polymer systems are the highly flexible polymers and copolymers, advantageously ethylene polymers and copolymers, and preferably polyethylene, ethylene-ethyl acetate copolymers (“EEA”) e.g., ELVAX 470, from E.I. Dupont Co., and acryloid resin, e.g., B-67, from Rohm and Haas.
[0079] A wide variety of powder ceramics may also be used in the material-laden compositions, affording a wide flexibility in the composition of the final fiber reinforced composite. Advantageously, powders which may be used in the first material-laden composition to provide the feed rod include ceramic oxides, ceramic carbides, ceramic nitrides, ceramic borides, ceramic silicides, metals, and intermetallics. Preferred powders for use in that composition include aluminum oxides, barium oxides, beryllium oxides, calcium oxides, cobalt oxides, chromium oxides, dysprosium oxides and other rare earth oxides, lanthanum oxides, magnesium oxides, manganese oxides, niobium oxides, nickel oxides, aluminum phosphate, yttrium phosphate, lead oxides, lead titanate, lead zirconate, silicon oxides and silicates, thorium oxides, titanium oxides and titanates, uranium oxides, yttrium oxides, yttrium aluminate, zirconium oxides and their alloys; boron carbides, iron carbides, hafnium carbides, molybdenum carbides, silicon carbides, tantalum carbides, titanium carbides, uranium carbides, tungsten carbides, zirconium carbides; aluminum nitrides, cubic boron nitrides, silicon nitrides, titanium nitrides, uranium nitrides, yttrium nitrides, zirconium nitrides; aluminum boride, hafnium boride, molybdenum boride, titanium boride, zirconium boride; molybdenum disilicide; magnesium and other alkali earth metals and their alloys; titanium, iron, nickel and other transition metals and their alloys; cerium, ytterbium and other rare earth metals and their alloys; aluminum; carbon; and silicon.
[0080] The process of the present invention can be accomplished using various suitable materials, such as ceramic powders (having different particle sizes), thermoplastics, and plasticizers. The present invention can also incorporate various modifications to various steps, including the steps of compounding, making feed rods, passing the fiber/fiber tow through the feed rod, and using spinnerettes for extrusion. Further, the present invention can be used to achieve more than one coating on a fiber/fiber tow (interlayers), and that the coated fibers/fiber tows of the present invention can be used to form fiber reinforced ceramic articles.
[0081] Among the materials that can be used in the present invention for a source of carbon in the self propagating high temperature synthesis process are:
[0082] Poly(arylacetylene) (PAA)
[0083] Phenolic Resin
[0084] Furfuryl Resin
[0085] Mesophase Pitch
[0086] Petroleum Pitch
[0087] Acrylonitrile
[0088] Poly(acrylonitril-co-butadiene)
[0089] Self-propagating, high temperature synthesis (“SHS”) has been used in test batches of Al 2 O 3 with:
[0090] Poly(acrylonitril-co-butadiene) (“PAB”)
[0091] A-240 Petroleum pitch
[0092] After the tests showing suitable blending between Al 2 O 3 and PAB, Hf/C was then blended with PAB as follows.
[0093] 1. Hf/C with PAB, air stabilized
[0094] 2. HF/C with PAB, air stabilized
[0095] 3. HF/C with PAB, nitrogen pyrolysis, slow ramp
[0096] 4. Hf/C with PAB, air stabilized, slow ramp
[0097] wherein Hf/C is hafnium carbide matrix.
[0098] The continuous composite coextrusion process of the present invention has been used to make a hafnium carbide matrix/no interface/carbon fiber reinforcement, and to make a hafnium carbide matrix/graphite interface/carbon fiber reinforcement, as well as zirconium carbide and silicon carbide matrices with graphite interfaces and carbon fiber reinforcement.
[0099] The following examples further illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention but are not be construed as in any way limiting the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.
EXAMPLE 1
Hafnium Carbide Matrix/No Interface/Carbon Fiber Reinforcement
[0100] VPCA-BR00
[0101] Description: Core Material
[0102] Brabender Size: small
[0103] Batch Size: 42 cc
[0104] Batch Temperature: 150° C.
[0105] Batch Speed: 60 rpm
[0106] Ingredients:
Material Density (g/cc) Volume % Volume (cc) Weight (g) HfC 12.67 54.0% 22.66 287.36 EEA 0.93 32.4% 13.608 12.66 B-67 0.94 3.6% 1.512 1.42 HMO 0.881 10.0% 4.2 3.70
[0107] In the above-cited formulation, HfC is hafnium carbide powder from Cerac, Inc., designated as H-1004, B-67 is acryloid resin from Rohm and Haas, EEA is ethylene-ethyl acetate copolymers, and HMO is heavy mineral oil which is a plasticizer. A “Brabender” mixing machine (from C.W. Brabender of South Hackensack, N.J.) was used to mix the above-cited materials. The mixture of materials can then be formed into a feed rod with a hole through the symmetrical axis of the feed rod. After mixing, the mixture was formed into a feed rod-like shape like that shown in FIG. 1 and in detail in FIG. 3. The carbon fiber reinforcement can be inserted into the hole of the matrix as desired. Following coextrusion, the result is a “green” material that still contains binder, like that shown in FIG. 5. This green material can now be formed in a desired manner, such as a billet. The billet can then be subjected to lamination in a warm pressing operation to fill remaining voids, and the result is a green billet. The green billet can then be subjected to pyrolysis and then the resulting part can be hot pressed, hot isostatic pressed, or pressureless sintered to densify the matrix.
EXAMPLE 2
Hafnium Carbide Matrix/Graphite Interface/Carbon Fiber Reinforcement
[0108] The hafnium carbide matrix made in accordance with Example 1 is the same matrix for Example 2. The only difference in Example 2 is that the hole through the symmetrical axis of the feed rod is made larger so that a graphite interface can be inserted through the hole of the feed rod. The graphite interface defines a hole through its symmetrical axis, and the carbon fiber reinforcement can be inserted into the hole of the graphite interface, resulting in the product illustrated in FIG. 3. Following coextrusion, desired formation (such as a billet), lamination, pyrolysis, and firing as described in Example 1 and 2 the result is a fully dense composite formation. The formulation for the graphite interface is as follows.
[0109] VPCA-BR06
[0110] Description: Core Material
[0111] Brabender Size: small
[0112] Batch Size: 42 cc
[0113] Batch Temperature: 150° C.
[0114] Batch Speed: 60 rpm
[0115] Ingredients:
Material Density (g/cc) Volume % Volume (cc) Weight (g) Graphite-4929 2.25 49.0% 113.19 254.68 EEA 0.93 49.0% 113.19 105.27 MPEG-550 1.104 2.0% 4.62 5.10
[0116] In the above formation, MPEG-550 is methoxy polyethylene glycol 550 (i.e., having an average molecular weight of 550). As previously noted, graphite interface has a hole through its symmetrical axis so that the carbon fiber reinforcement can be inserted through that axis as desired.
[0117] Various grades of materials can be used in accordance with the present invention, including various grades of HfC and graphite.
[0118] The present invention can be used to make other reinforcements, including but not limited to:
[0119] Zirconium Carbide Matrix/Graphite Interface/Carbon Fiber Reinforcement;
[0120] Zirconium Carbide Matrix/No Interface/Carbon Fiber Reinforcement or Silicon Carbide Reinforcement;
[0121] Silicon Carbide Matrix/No Interface/Carbon Fiber Reinforcement;
[0122] Hafnium Diboride Matrix/Graphite Interface/Carbon Fiber Reinforcement;
[0123] Silicon Carbide Matrix/Boron Nitride Interface/Silicon Carbide Reinforcement; and
[0124] Silicon Nitride Matrix/Boron Nitride Interface/Silicon Carbide Reinforcement.
[0125] The continuous composite coextrusion process of the present invention can be used to make a wide range of hafnium carbide matrix (“HfC”) and C f (“carbon fiber reinforcement”) products, including:
[0126] 5. HfC/C f (25 vol. %), 18 μm carbon black interlayer
[0127] 6. HfC/C f (25 vol. %), 32 μm carbon black interlayer.
[0128] 7. HfC/C f (12.5 vol. %), 45 μm carbon black interlayer.
Material CTE(× 10 −6 K −1 ) C f −0.1 (axial) HfC 7.2-8.2* TaC 7.3 HfB 2 7.9 ZrB 2 8.2 SiC 5.8
[0129] To summarize, the continuous composite coextrusion process of the present invention can be used for ceramic matrix composites (“CMCs”) and metal matrix composites (“MMCs”). Further, the use of interlayers helps to control stresses due to mismatches among the coefficients of thermal expansion (“CTE”), including those set forth above. Further, the present invention reduces microcracking. In addition, the self-propagating, high temperature synthesis is versatile, although it requires an additional densification step.
[0130] The present invention can be used for HfC/C f (“carbon fiber reinforced hafnium carbide matrix”) continuous composite coextrusion process cylinders and processes; quantitative fiber volume loading effects; combinations of self-propagating, high temperature synthesis with continuous composite coextrusion process; and HfC CVD (“chemical vapor deposition”) coatings.
[0131] Many modifications and variations may be made in the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the techniques and structures described and illustrated herein should be understood to be illustrative only and not limiting upon the scope of the present invention.
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A process for continuous composite coextrusion comprising: (a) forming first a material-laden composition comprising a thermoplastic polymer and at least about 40 volume % of a ceramic or metallic particulate in a manner such that the composition has a substantially cylindrical geometry and thus can be used as a substantially cylindrical feed rod; (b) forming a hole down the symmetrical axis of the feed rod; (c) inserting the start of a continuous spool of ceramic fiber, metal fiber or carbon fiber through the hole in the feed rod; (d) extruding the feed rod and spool simultaneously to form a continuous filament consisting of a green matrix material completely surrounding a dense fiber reinforcement and said filament having an average diameter that is less than the average diameter of the feed rod; and (e) arranging the continuous filament into a desired architecture to provide a green fiber reinforced composite.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to ground fault detectors for direct current power supplies and more particularly, it relates to a ground fault detector which senses the possibility of direct current leakage or other possible d.c. fault currents by continuously measuring the a.c. electrical impedance between a high voltage d.c. circuit and chassis ground. This ground fault detector has particular applications in "floating" power supplies in which neither the positive nor the negative high voltage output terminal is referenced to chassis ground.
It is generally known in the art that ground fault detectors are utilized in high voltage apparatus to detect or measure leakage currents to ground. Once the leakage current reaches a pre-determined value, there is usually an alarm or warning system which is activated or else the high voltage apparatus is automatically disconnected to prevent a possible hazardous condition to personnel in the area of the apparatus. However, in many situations it would be undesirable to have the high voltage apparatus disconnected. For example, there are numerous laboratory experiments or tests requiring high voltage apparatus in which the voltage may rise during the test. In the ground fault detectors of the prior art, there is sensed the d.c. leakage current instead of an a.c. leakage impedance. Therefore, the alarm system would become activated in the middle of the experiment or test and thus not provide any advance warning at the beginning of the test. An automatic disruption would destroy the results of such experiments or tests. Under these circumstances, it would be more desirable to provide a ground fault detector which can supply a visual warning indication of a potentially dangerous or unsafe condition to personnel in the area at an operating voltage lower than that which could cause a hazardous condition.
Since these prior art d.c. ground fault detectors sense or measure only leakage current, they suffer another disadvantage in that they cannot provide a warning indication due to a dangerously large electrical capacitance which is capable of producing a lethal shock between a d.c. high voltage circuit and earth ground. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a ground fault detector which can detect a condition representing the presence of a potentially dangerous fault current or electrical charge by measuring continuously the a.c. electrical impedance between the d.c. high voltage circuit and earth ground. Once the a.c. electrical impedance decreases to a pre-selected low value, a visual warning indication will become activated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved ground fault detector, but yet overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a ground fault detector for a d.c. power supply which operates independently of the output voltage of the power supply.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a d.c. ground fault detector which can supply a visual warning indication of a potentially dangerous or unsafe condition to personnel in the area, even at d.c. voltage levels which are too low to produce a hazardous condition at the time of the ground fault measurement.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a d.c. ground fault detector which can detect a condition representing the presence of a potentially dangerous ground fault current or electrical charge by measuring continuously the a.c. electrical impedance between a high voltage circuit and earth ground.
In accordance with these aims and objectives, the present invention is concerned with the provision of a d.c. ground fault detector which detects the existence of a ground fault current by measuring continuously the a.c. electrical impedance between a secondary circuit of a high voltage d.c. power supply and earth or chassis ground. Upon the occurrence of an a.c. current representing a ground fault impedance, an alternating voltage is generated which is fed to a rectification circuit. A warning indicator is operatively connected to the rectification circuit for indicating visually the presence of the ground fault current.
Thus, it can be seen that the present invention may be utilized in connection with d.c. high voltage apparatus wherein a visual warning indication is provided upon the occurrence of a ground fault current but the high voltage apparatus is not disconnected. This is particularly effective when it is undesirable to disconnect the high voltage apparatus merely because of a momentary ground fault current since it may ruin, for example, laboratory experiments requiring such high voltage.
The above-stated and other objectives and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken with the accompanying drawing. It will be understood, however, that the drawing is for the purposes of illustration and is not to be construed as defining the scope or limits of the invention, reference being had for the latter purpose to the claims appended hereto.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
There is shown in the drawing an electrical schematic diagram of the ground fault detector of the instant invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The present invention of a ground fault detector has particular applications in connection with "floating" direct current high voltage power supplies. A floating power supply is one in which neither the positive nor the negative voltage output terminal is referenced to chassis or earth ground. The present ground fault detector can be utilized in the secondary circuit of such power supplies to prevent the existence of leakage current between a point in any part of the secondary circuit of the power supply and the chassis ground which would create a potentially dangerous condition.
Referring now to the schematic diagram, there is shown a ground fault detector designated generally by reference numeral 10 comprising a secondary output of transformer 12 of an alternating voltage power source (not shown), an RC filter circuit 14, an electrical impedance bridge 16, a voltage doubler 18, and a warning indicator network 20. The ground fault detector 10 is utilized in conjunction with a switching-mode power supply 100 which provides a high d.c. voltage output. The switching-mode power supply may be of the type described in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,758 issued on June 5, 1973 and entitled "Switching-Mode Voltage and Current Regulator."
The secondary output represents a high alternating voltage from a secondary winding of the power transformer. One end of the power source is fed to a capacitor 22 of the filter circuit 14, and the other end of the power source 12 is connected to circuit ground. The filter circuit 14 consists of the capacitor 22 and a resistor 24 having one side coupled to the capacitor 22. The other side of the resistor 24 is coupled to a point "a" of the electrical impedance bridge 16 composed of resistors 26, 28 and capacitors 30, 32. A variable capacitor 34 is connected in parallel with the capacitor 30 for nulling out any initial unbalance in the impedance bridge 16. The point "b" of the electrical impedance bridge 16 is tied to the circuit ground. The capacitor 32 may be largely the unavoidable distributed capacitance naturally existing between the circuit ground and earth ground.
The alternating voltage output of the bridge 16 is provided between the points "c" and "d". The point "d" is also tied to earth or chassis ground via a relatively large capacitor 36. The output of the impedance bridge 16 is coupled to the input points "e" and "f" of the voltage doubler 18 which is comprised of diodes 38, 40; capacitors 42, 44; and resistors 46, 48. The output of the electrical impedance bridge 16 is rectified by the diodes 38, 40 for charging capacitors 42, 44. The output points "g" and "h" of the voltage doubler 18 is connected to an opto-isolator 50 in the warning indicator network 20. The opto-isolator 50 is comprised of a lamp 52 and light-sensitive device 54. The lamp 52 may, for example, be a neon lamp which emits light when current is passed through it. The light-sensitive device 54 may be a photo-cell which conducts current through it when light is received.
The warning indicator network 20 further comprises a pair of transistors 56, 58; resistors 60, 62, 64, 66 associated with the respective transistor 56, 58; and a warning indicator lamp 68. One end of the light-sensitive device 54 is connected to one side of the resistors 60 and 62. The other side of the light-sensitive device 54 is connected to a negative dc power source and one side of the resistor 64. The other side of the resistor 62 is tied to the base of the transistor 56, and the other side of the resistor 64 is tied to the collector of the transistor 56 and the base of transistor 58. The other side of the resistor 60, the emitter of transistor 56, and the emitter of transistor 58 are all coupled to the circuit ground. The resistor 66 is joined between the collector of the transistor 58 and one side of the lamp 68. The other side of the lamp 68 is connected to the negative dc power source.
Under normal operating conditions, there will be no ground fault condition in existence and thus no current will be flowing between points "c" and "d" of the electrical impedance bridge 16. In other words, the impedance bridge will be in a balanced state with alternating-current voltages on the capacitors 30, 34 being equal to the alternating-current voltages on the capacitor 32. In this situation, the voltage doubler 18 does not operate and the lamp 52 of the opto-isolator 50 does not illuminate. Consequently, the light-sensitive device 54 is in the open or non-conducting state thereby maintaining transistor 56 turned off and the transistor 58 turned on. The lamp 68 will thus be conducting continuously through the transistor 58 and remain lighted.
On the other hand, assume that a capacitance greater than a pre-determined value or a resistance less than a pre-determined value is delivered between the chassis ground and a point in the "floating" secondary circuit of the high voltage power supply. For example, a low electrical impedance, which can be either resistive or capacitive, could be connected between a joint "j" shown in phantom representing the circuit ground and a point "k" shown in phantom representing the chassis ground. This creates a condition representing the existence of ground fault current which causes the electrical impedance bridge 16 to become unbalanced. The alternating voltage appearing between the output point "c" and "d" of the impedance bridge will be rectified by the diodes 38, 40, of the voltage doubler 18 to charge the capacitor 42, 44 for flashing the lamp 52 of the opto-isolator 50. This will permit the light-sensitive device 54 to conduct thereby turning off the transistor 56 which, in turn, switches the transistor 58 off to extinguish the lamp 68. Once the voltages on the capacitors 42, 44 have been partially dissipated through the neon lamp 52, the lamp will go off and the light-sensitive device 54 will revert to its non-conducting state thus turning on again transistor 56. This will cause transistor 58 to be turned back on again to illuminate the lamp 68. The cycle of charging and discharging the capacitors 42, 44 is continuously repeated to turn off and on the lamp 68 to give a flashing effect until the ground fault current can be eliminated.
From the above description, it can be seen that the ground fault detector of this invention has the advantages of detecting a condition representing the existence of a ground fault current by continuously measuring the a.c. electrical impedance between a point in the secondary circuit of a direct current high voltage apparatus and chassis ground. Further, upon the detection of such leakage current a visual warning indication is provided but the high voltage apparatus if not disconnected.
Although the preferred embodiment has been described with some particularity, many modifications and variations in this preferred embodiment is possible without deviating from the invention. Accordingly, it is understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention can be practiced otherwise than specifically described.
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A ground fault detector for use in combination with a floating secondary circuit of a direct current high voltage power supply comprising a detector circuit for sensing a relatively low electrical impedance. The existence of a low impedance represents a ground fault current between a part of the secondary circuit of the high voltage power supply and chassis ground to generate an alternating voltage. A rectifying circuit is operatively connected to the detector circuit for rectifying the alternating voltage. A warning indication network is responsive to the rectified alternating voltage for visually indicating the presence of the ground fault current.
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