48results about How to "Minimize difficulty" patented technology

Endoscopic steering apparatus is provided, including an endoscope (80) having distal (82) and proximal (98) ends thereof. In a preferred embodiment, at least one proximal cylinder (92) is disposed in a vicinity of the proximal end of the endoscope, and at least one proximal piston (94) is slidably coupled to the at least one proximal cylinder. This piston is typically manually driven. A first distal cylinder (88) is disposed at the distal end of the endoscope, and a first distal piston (90) is slidably coupled to the first distal cylinder. A second distal cylinder (88) is disposed at the distal end of the endoscope, and a second distal piston (90) is slidably coupled to the second distal cylinder. A first tube (86) is coupled to the first distal cylinder and to the at least one proximal cylinder, and a second tube (86) is coupled to the second distal cylinder and to the at least one proximal cylinder. A linkage (96) is disposed at the distal end of the endoscope and coupled to the first distal piston and to the second distal piston, such that displacement of at least one of the distal pistons causes displacement of the linkage and steering of the distal end of the endoscope.

Fiber-oriented sails, including a method of manufacture, wherein woven, laminated panels of oriented fibers are of oriented fill yarns, e.g., in a woven cross-cut panel and the fill yarns, from panel to panel define load paths such as from head to clew and head to tack of a sail.

A method and a device for contactless inspection of objects on a substrate, by means of an inspection device during relative motion between the substrate and the inspection device, wherein the following steps are performed by the method;generating a first image comprising object height information by illuminating at least a portion of the substrate comprising one or more objects by means of first radiator and imaging at least one of said one or more objects illuminated by said first radiator onto a two-dimensional matrix sensor having a portionwise addressable matrix of pixel elements;generating a second image comprising object area information by illuminating at least a portion of the substrate comprising one Or more objects by means of second radiator and imaging at least one of said one or more objects illuminated by said second radiator onto said sensor;extracting the object height information, by means of said sensor, from said first image; andextracting the object area information, by means of said sensor, from said second image.

The present invention provides CTL epitope peptides and polyepitope peptides from 14 distinct antigens of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) that are restricted through HLA the most commonly prevalent class I alleles in different ethnic populations of the world. These epitopes provide an important platform for CTL epitope-based vaccines against HCMV. The present invention further provides vaccine composiitons comprising the subject epitope and polyepitope peptides and methods for vaccination of humans and for the adoptive transfer of HCMV-specific T cells to human subjects. The present invention further provides reagents and methods for determining the HCMV status or level of HCMV-specific immunity of a subject.

A combined laser and infra red sensing camera is located beneath the reactor head in the vicinity of the closure head tube welds by manipulating known robotic device handling the laser which is used to heat a line along the surface thereby generating a thermal wave that propagates over the one to two square inch test area where the increased thermal resistance of cracks and anomalies makes the surface temperature profile gradient greater at a crack or anomaly. An IR camera captures the test area image of interest as the thermal wave propagates across the target inspection area and the image is processed and enhanced to show cracks and other anomalies as a sharp drop in the thermal scan at the point of the crack using known Photo Thermal NDE technology to convert the scan into a pictorial representation of the scanned surface clearly showing any cracks therein. This process is repeated sequentially until the entire circumference of the weld is scanned.

The present disclosure relates to a method for managing turret tools for a machine tool, and more particularly, by setting tool information and changing a mounting location of the tool, which is to be mounted or has been mounted, by using visual information about a turret mounted in the machine tool and the tool mounted in the turret, a user may intuitively check information about a tool mounted on the turret and to easily set tool installation information which needs to be set when mounting and detaching the tool, changing a location of the tool, or installing the tool in a machine tool.

The present invention provides a process for the preparation of highly pure 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid in high yield, with improved appearance, by the reaction of acrylonitrile with more than 98% sulfuric acid or oleum and liquefied isobutylene in presence of weak inorganic acids or organic sulfonic acids.

A “balanced scorecard” method is disclosed for determining degrees of impact on business service elements (BSE's) caused by degradations of configuration items (CI's) in an underlying IT system. The formulas are used by an Impact Calculation Engine (ICE) of a Business Services Management (BSM) system. They provide enhanced accuracy by accounting for “service aspects” of alerts (using categories such as performance, availability, security, end user, capacity, and financial) and/or degrees of CI degradation (in some embodiments using OSI Standards). The method eliminates manual assignment of degrees of impact. Preferred embodiments convert alerts to a common alert format, determine a separate degree of impact for each service aspect, and use default formulas when custom formulas are not provided. Some embodiments use a service subscription wizard to at least partly automate the assignment of CI-to-BSE relationships. Different balanced scorecards can apply to the same BSE at different times, dates, usage levels, etc.

A control device applicable to an actuator and including a voltage detection unit and a limit switch control unit. The control device is inbuilt inside the actuator without any additional control circuit for the control of the limit switches and the detection of the input voltage range. The limit switches are used to limit the travel of an actuating member of the actuator so as to avoid collision of the mechanism. The voltage detection unit serves to detect the input voltage range to control the operation of the actuator. Accordingly, the mechanism or the motor is protected from damage due to excessively low or high input voltage. The limit switches are freely adjustable in position and protected from high current. Therefore, the contacts of the limit switches are not liable to damage and the lifetime of the limit switches is prolonged. The control device further has electronic brake effect.

A manifold for a fuel cell system comprises a plurality of first ports for connecting to fuel cell peripherals; a plurality of ports for connecting to a fuel cell stack; and a plurality of fluid passages within the manifold in communication with the said plurality of ports connecting to the fuel cell peripherals and with the first and second ports for providing, communication of fluids between the fuel cell stack and fuel cell peripherals. The manifold provides a higher degree of system integration, considerably reduced piping, fittings and associated hardware and hence generally reduces the size and weight of the fuel cell system. Thermal-fluid related system losses are also minimized.

An IP (Internet Protocol) telephone terminal includes a communication subsection transmitting and receiving data to and from one or more IP telephone terminals on a peer-to-peer connection over an IP network, and a search subsection comparing a telephone number received by the communication subsection with a telephone number allotted to the IP telephone terminal. When the result from comparison indicates a coincidence between both of the telephone numbers under comparison, the communication subsection transmits the IP address assigned thereto. The IP address thus transmitted efficiently allows a call connection to be set up from a calling telephone terminal having transmitted the telephone number.

A fuel supply system for a boat includes a vapor separator tank connected to a fuel tank mounted on a hull of the boat to contain fuel therein, an injector to supply fuel to an engine, and a high-pressure fuel pump to supply fuel that is contained in the vapor separator tank to the injector. The high-pressure fuel pump includes a pump main portion having a fuel path and a pump driving section that are separated from the fuel path of the pump main portion. The fuel supply system minimizes deterioration in engine startability.

Disclosed is a method for forming a plurality of metal structures having different heights on a semiconductor substrate. The disclosed method for manufacturing a metal structure having different heights includes: forming a plurality of seed layers, to have heights corresponding to the metal structure to be formed, on a semiconductor substrate so that those layers can be electrically separated, performing a plating process using a plating mold, and applying different currents to the respective seed layers so that the plating thickness can be adjusted for each of the seed layers. Accordingly, a plurality of metal structures having different heights can be obtained by a plating mold forming process and a plating process that are performed just once, respectively.

A method of measuring mechanical runout including: mounting a work piece on a rotatable mount, wherein the mount is configured to rotate the work piece; placing a displacement sensor at a known position adjacent a surface of the work piece, the displacement sensor being configured to measure a radial dimension of the work piece; attaching a removable angle indicator to the surface of the work piece; rotating the work piece while mounted on the mount and collecting rotational data of the rotational position of the work piece during the rotation; collecting displacement data from the displacement sensor as the work piece rotates, wherein the displacement data indicates a radial distance from a rotational axis of the work piece to the surface of the work piece at points on the surface as the surface rotates with respect to the displacement sensor; analyzing the displacement data to detect data representing the angle indicator on the surface of the work piece; correlating the displacement data with the rotational data, and determining displacements of points on the surface of the work piece based on the correlated displacement data.

The invention is a novel offset conduit body that has T-type, L-type and X-type conduit body variants. The T-style conduit body has an offset port the axis of which is perpendicular to the co-linear axis of the other two ports, but the axis of the offset port does not lie in a common plane with the axis of the other two ports, and this offset eliminates the need for bending conduit connected to the offset port in order for that conduit to pass over or under different conduit that is adjacent to the T-style conduit body and is parallel to the conduit connected to the other two ports. The L-style conduit body has a first and an offset port oriented at right angles to each other and the axis of the two ports are offset from each other so they do not lie in a common plane, and the offset eliminates the need for bending conduit connected to the offset port in order for that conduit to pass over or under adjacent conduit that is parallel to the conduit connected to the first port. The X-type conduit body has two collinear ports in one plane and two collinear ports in an offset plane.

A machining system (10) comprising a machine comprising:

• • real tool (12);
  • actuators (14) for moving the real tool (12);
  • sensors (15) for generating positioning data (16) for the real tool (12);
  • a memory (17) for storing shape correction data (20) for the real tool (12); and
  • a physical controller (18) for executing a machining program (19) and for controlling the actuators (14) as a function of the shape correction data (20), so as to move the real tool (12) relative to the real blank (13).

On the basis of said data (22) representative of the positions of the real tool (12) and of the real blank (13), image display means (24) generate a reconstituted image (25) representative:

• • of the shape of the real blank (13); and
  • of the position of the real tool (12) at a given instant.