29701results about "Food shaping" patented technology

The present invention relates to a soft contact lens, and provides a contact lens which shows small and stable contact angle to water at its surface in water as well as in air, little deposition in wearing, high oxygen permeability, no adhesion of lens to a cornea and superior extended-wearing characteristics. The present invention provides a hydrogel soft contact lens which has contact angle at a lens surface in a range of 10-50° by the captive bubble method in water and 30-90° by the sessile drop method in air, oxygen permeability of not less than 30 and water content of not less than 5%, and also a hydrogel soft contact lens consisting of a polymer comprising a hydrophilic siloxanyl monomer shown by a specified general formula.

Provided are methods and devices for transfer printing of semiconductor elements to a receiving surface. In an aspect, the printing is by conformal contact between an elastomeric stamp inked with the semiconductor elements and a receiving surface, and during stamp removal, a shear offset is applied between the stamp and the receiving surface. The shear-offset printing process achieves high printing transfer yields with good placement accuracy. Process parameter selection during transfer printing, including time varying stamp-backing pressure application and vertical displacement, yields substantially constant delamination rates with attendant transfer printing improvement.

A fibrous web having a first surface and a second surface. The fibrous web has a first region and at least one discrete second region, the second region being a discontinuity on the second surface and being a tuft comprising a plurality of tufted fibers extending from the first surface. The tufted fibers define a distal portion, the distal portion comprising portions of the tufted fibers being bonded together. Bonding can be thermal melt-bonding. In another embodiment the second surface of the web can have non-intersecting or substantially continuous bonded regions, which also can be thermal melt-bonding.

The invention discloses chewable soft capsules, which comprise capsule shells and contents sealed in the capsule shells. The chewable soft capsules are characterized by comprising the following raw materials in part by weight: 25 to 65 parts of glutin, 1 to 25 percent of thickening agent, 18 to 65 parts of plasticizer, 4 to 16 parts of water and a mixture containing one or more of 0.005 to 20 parts of sweetening agent, 0.005 to 2 parts of essence, 0.0001 to 10 parts of pigment and 0.0001 to 5 parts of acid additive. The invention also discloses a method for preparing the novel chewable soft capsules. The chewable soft capsules have the advantages of reasonable blending ratio, proper hardness, good temperature resistance, no adhesion, no deformation, stable storage, quick dissolution of effectively components and high chewiness; and when the chewing soft capsules are chewed, tastes of the capsule shells and the contents easily and uniformly spread in the mouth so as to cover up bad taste of raw materials.

Apparatus for producing an object by sequentially forming thin layers of a construction material one on top of the other responsive to data defining the object, the apparatus comprising: a plurality of printing heads each having a surface formed with a plurality of output orifices and controllable to dispense the construction material through each orifice independently of the other orifices; a shuttle to which the printing heads are mounted; a support surface; and a controller adapted to control the shuttle to move back and forth over the support surface and as the shuttle moves to control the printing heads to dispense the construction material through each of their respective orifices responsive to the data to form a first layer on the support surface and thereafter, sequentially the other layers; wherein each printing head is dismountable from the shuttle and replaceable independently of the other printing heads.

An apparatus and method for electrospinning polymer fibers and membranes. The method includes electrospinning a polymer fiber from a conducting fluid in the presence of a first electric field established between a conducting fluid introduction device and a ground source and modifying the first electric field with a second electric field to form a jet stream of the conducting fluid. The method also includes electrically controlling the flow characteristics of the jet stream, forming a plurality of electrospinning jet streams and independently controlling the flow characteristics of at least one of the jet streams. The apparatus for electrospinning includes a conducting fluid introduction device containing a plurality of electrospinning spinnerets, a ground member positioned adjacent to the spinnerets, a support member disposed between the spinnerets and the ground member and movable to receive fibers formed from the conducting fluid, and a component for controlling the flow characteristics of conducting fluid from at least one spinneret independently from another spinneret.

New methods and systems for manufacturing a three-dimensional form, comprising steps of providing a plurality of particulates; contacting the particulates with an activation agent; contacting particulates having the activation agent with a binder material that is activatable by the activation agent; at least partially hardening the binder for forming a layer of the three-dimensional form; and repeating these steps to form the remainder of the three-dimensional form. Following sequential application of all required layers and binder material to make the form, the unbound particles are appropriately removed (and optionally re-used), to result in the desired three-dimensional form. The invention also contemplates a novel method for preparing a form, where unbound particulates free of binder material are re-claimed.

A method for producing three-dimensional bodies of a large number of mutually connected layers of a particle-shaped material such as a powder, and where the information of the appearance of each layer is achieved from a computer's CAD-unit or similar. An essentially even particle layer (7) of building material is applied on a support base (6) and on a masking device (9) is arranged a masking pattern in accordance with the information from the CAD-unit, which masking device is led over said particle layer and close to it. A radiation producer (8) is arranged or is led over the masking device (9), whereby the particles which are not covered by the masking pattern are exposed for radiation and thereby are attached to each other. The masking pattern is removed from the masking device and new sequences in accordance with the above are carried through until the three-dimensional body (19) is produced.

An apparatus which extrudes flowable material from a liquifier includes a system for loading filament supplied in a cassette. The cassette is loaded into a loading bay of the apparatus. A strand of filament from the cassette is engaged and advanced along a path to the liquifier using a drive wheel or roller pair. A conduit having an entrance in the loading bay guides the filament as it is advanced. The filament loading system of the present invention provides a convenient manner of loading and unloading filament in a three-dimensional modeling machine, and can be implemented in a manner that protects the filament from environmental moisture.

A process arrangement for distilling fuel grade ethanol includes a fermentation portion, a distillation portion, a condensation and dehydration portion, a separation and drying portion and an evaporation portion. The fermentation portion produces beer. The distillation portion, the condensation and dehydration portion and the separation and drying portion receives beer from the fermentation portion and produces hot ethanol vapor and thin stillage. In the evaporation portion, a set of first effect evaporators which are heated either by plant steam or hot ethanol vapor, concentrate thin stillage into mid stillage while producing first effect steam. The first effect steam from the first effect evaporators provides heat to a set of second effect evaporators which concentrate the mid stillage into a syrup for further drying. The second effect evaporators produce second effect steam which is used to heat the distillation portion of the process arrangement. The multiple evaporators of the first and second effects of the evaporation portion can be selectively taken off-line for maintenance while the evaporation portion and the remainder of the process arrangement continue to operate at full capacity.

A deposition modeling system incorporates a drive mechanism to feed a strand of filament to create a model. The drive mechanism comprises a pivot block that is rotatably connected to a fixed block and a motor that rotates a drive shaft. A drive roller is connected to the drive shaft and an idler roller is connected to an idler axle that extends from the pivot block in a substantially perpendicular direction to the direction of rotation of the pivot block with respect to the fixed block and in a substantially parallel direction to the drive shaft.

A deposition modeling system incorporates a drive mechanism to feed a strand of filament to create a model. The drive mechanism comprises a pivot block that is rotatably connected to a fixed block and a motor that rotates a drive shaft. A drive roller is connected to the drive shaft and an idler roller is connected to an idler axle that extends from the pivot block in a substantially perpendicular direction to the direction of rotation of the pivot block with respect to the fixed block and in a substantially parallel direction to the drive shaft.

The present invention relates to an article fabrication system having a plurality of material deposition tools containing one or more materials useful in fabricating the article, and a material deposition device having a tool interface for receiving one of the material deposition tools. A system controller is operably connected to the material deposition device to control operation of the material deposition device. Also disclosed is a method of fabricating an article using the system of the invention and a method of fabricating edible foodstuffs.

In a 3D object molding apparatus (10), a tank (18d) holds an uncolored or white resin as a first material for use in interior molding, and tanks (18a to 18c) hold colored resins as second materials for use in surface molding. These resin materials are jetted from injection nozzles (15a to 15d) in the direction of a stage (20). A drive control unit (12) serving as control means moves a nozzle head (15) in the XY plane and controls jets of resin materials from the injection nozzles (15a to 15d). In the interior molding of a 3D molded product (21), at least the first material is jetted, while in the surface molding, at least the second materials are jetted. The injection nozzles (15a to 15c) are coloring nozzles to jet colored resins in molding color portions of the 3D molded product, and the injection nozzle (15d) is a molding nozzle to jet an uncolored molding resin in molding the other portions. The apparatus 10 provided with the coloring nozzles to jet predetermined coloring agents such as colored resins can jet coloring agents from the coloring nozzles in molding the 3D molded product, thereby achieving coloring of the 3D molded product in the molding process. Further, the use of a white resin allows representation of blight colors that are not available only with three colors (Y, M, C), thereby permitting reproduction of the color intensity and gradations in the coloring of the 3D molded product (21) in the molding process.

An apparatus for forming liquid hydrocarbons from solid coal. The coal is pulverized to provide a particulate coal feed, which is then extruded to provide a hollow tube of compressed coal supported inside of a support tube. A clay feed is extruded to provide a hollow tube of compressed clay supported inside of the coal tube and a combustible fuel is burned inside of the clay tube. The temperature of combustion is sufficient to fire the extruded clay and pyrolyze the extruded coal to produce hydrocarbon gases and coal char. The support tube has holes for releasing the hydrocarbon gases, which contain suspended particles formed during combustion. The suspended particles are removed from the hydrocarbon gases to provide clean gases, which are passed through an ionizing chamber to ionize at least a portion thereof. The ionized gases are then passed through a magnetic field to separate them from each other according to their molecular weight. Selected portions of at least some of the separated gases are mixed, and the mixed gases are cooled to provide at least one liquid hydrocarbon product of predetermined composition. Portions of the separated gases may also be mixed with the coal char and other input streams, such as waste plastics, and further treated to provide other hydrocarbon products.

A series of nips (200, 202, 204, 412, 414) formed by intermeshing grooves (22, 24, 26, 28) provides for a higher degree of stretch, particularly for lightweight webs (100) by stretching in stages in multiple grooved nips. The ability to adjust the degree of stretch at each nip can provide a high degree and variability of stretch with reduced web damage compared to a single step application of the same stretch. Improvements to the manufacture of lightweight components of personal care products such as diaper backing components are obtained.

The present invention relates to an edible thermoplastic made from about 30 to 50 wt. % protein comprising a mixture of plant and animal derived protein, about 20 to 50 wt. % starch about 10 to 20 wt. % water, about 1 to 10 wt. % edible fiber, and about 0.5 to 3 wt. % metallic salt hydrate. When molded, the thermoplastic has good strength and stiffness and other physical properties. The edible thermoplastic may be molded in a variety of shapes including a segmented nutritional pet chew with a plurality of segments separated by a plurality of scores. The scores serve to structurally weaken the pet chew so that it may be broken into smaller pieces. When molded the edible thermoplastic has a density of about 1.2 to 1.5 g / cubic centimeters.

The methods of manufacturing molds from shape memory materials and molds made thereby, in accordance with the present invention, provide numerous advantages for molding castable composite parts. The initial mold cost is low enough to accommodate economical production of as few as a single part incorporating high surface definition and intricate three dimensional detail. The preferred methods and molds made thereby are transparent, thereby, curing of the corresponding part by ultra-violet and infra-red light is made possible, as well as, visual inspection during injection and curing of the given resin. Removal of the cured part from within the mold is simplified.

A freeform fabrication method for making a three-dimensional food object from a design created on a computer, including: (a) providing a support member by which the object is supported while being constructed; (b) operating a material dispensing head for dispensing a continuous or intermittent strand of food composition in a fluent state; this food composition including a liquid ingredient and a primary body-building food material and the dispensed food composition having a rigidity and strength sufficient for permitting the food composition to be built up layer by layer into a three-dimensional shape in a non-solid state; and (c) operating control devices for generating control signals in response to coordinates of the object design and controlling the position of the dispensing head relative to the support member in response to the control signals to control dispensing of the food composition to construct a 3-D shape of this object. The method optionally includes an additional step of applying a heat treatment to the 3-D shape after this 3-D shape is constructed. This method can be used to form an intricate shape of a cake mix, which is then baked in an oven. It can also be used to form a custom-designed decorative shape on the top surface of a pre-made cake.

Gelled biopolymer based foams are disclosed. The gelled foams comprise a cross-linked biopolymer, preferably alginate; optionally, a foaming agent such as hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose; and a plasticizer, preferably glycerin sorbitol, or a mixture thereof, that forms the predominant portion of the gelled foam. The foams are soft and pliable and have high absorbency. They are used as wound dressing materials, controlled release delivery systems, cell culture, barrier media for preventing tissue adherence, and bioabsorbable implants. They also have various personal care applications, especially in oral hygiene, and can be used in food applications.

Arrangement for producing a three-dimensional product, which arrangement comprises a work table on which said three-dimensional product is to be built up, a powder dispenser which is arranged so as to distribute a thin layer of powder on the work table for forming a powder bed, a radiation gun for delivering energy to the powder, fusing together of the powder then taking place, means for guiding the beam emitted by the radiation gun over said powder bed for forming a cross section of said three-dimensional product by fusing together parts of said powder bed, and a control computer in which information about successive cross sections of the three-dimensional product is stored, which cross sections build up the three-dimensional product, where the control computer is intended to control said means for guiding the radiation gun over the powder bed according to an operating scheme forming a cross section of said three-dimensional body, said three-dimensional product being formed by successive fusing together of successively formed cross sections from by the powder dispenser, and method for producing three-dimensional product using such an arrangement.

Highly purified Stevioside and Rebaudioside A were prepared from sweet glycoside extracts obtained from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves. The resulting sweeteners are suitable as non-calorie, non-cariogenic, non-bitter, non-lingering sweeteners, which may be advantageously applied in foods, beverages, and milk products.

The present invention relates to an article fabrication system having a plurality of material deposition tools containing one or more materials useful in fabricating the article, and a material deposition device having a tool interface for receiving one of the material deposition tools. A system controller is operably connected to the material deposition device to control operation of the material deposition device. Also disclosed is a method of fabricating an article using the system of the invention and a method of fabricating a living three-dimensional structure.