2249results about How to "Inhibit wear" patented technology

Systems, assemblies and methods for assembling a sheath member with respect to a spinal stabilization device are provided. The disclosed sheath assembly includes at least one connector ring mounted with respect to a sheath member. The connector ring defines an inner wall that shields the sheath member from elements positioned therewithin, e.g., spring members, and generally includes a plurality of radially-spaced notches. The connector ring receives the sheath member within an internal cavity and is secured thereto by crimping, compression or swaging. The sheath assembly may be mounted with respect to a spinal stabilization device by crimping, compressing or swaging the connector ring to an underlying structure, e.g., an end cap or associated flange. The internal cavity of the connector ring is generally defined by an inner face, an outer wall and an intermediate apex region. Methods for assembly are also disclosed.

A prosthetic disc for insertion between adjacent vertebrae includes a core having upper and lower curved surfaces and upper and lower plates. At least one of the curved surfaces of the core is metallic, and in some embodiments the entire core is metallic. Each plate has an outer surface which engages a vertebra and a metallic inner curved surface which is shaped to slide over one of the curved surfaces of the core. In some embodiments, the center of rotation of the core is free to move relative to the upper and lower metallic plates. In some embodiments, one or more channels extend across one or both of the curved surfaces of the core for allowing passage of bodily fluid to promote lubrication between the core and at least one of the plates.

A surgical instrument for use with a robotic surgical system is described. The instrument includes an elongate shaft having a proximal end and a distal end. An electrically live wrist member is disposed at the distal end of the shaft. An electrocautery end effector is mounted to the wrist member. An interface is disposed at the proximal end of the shaft. The interface is removably connectable to the robotic surgical system. A conductor extends from the interface to the end effector so as to deliver electrical energy to tissue engaged by the end effector. A tip cover is disposed over the wrist member so that electrical current can only be conducted to tissues through the exposed end effector (e.g., to promote blood coagulation during usage) and not to other parts of the patient's body.

A capsule for the preparation of a coffee extract from coffee contained therein and hot water injected under pressure in the capsule by a water injection device. The capsule has a frusto-conical body with a rim, sidewall, and an inlet wall and a lower delivery wall sealed to the rim and contains a predosed amount of coffee. The inlet wall may have a flat or convex portion and a structure in relief or in recess arranged for facilitating penetration of blades belonging to the injection device and extending on a substantially circular path of predetermined radius R1 equal to the radius R2 of the circular path along which the blades of the injection device extend.

A motion restoring prosthesis to be interposed between the ends of two bones adjoining a mammalian appendage or spinal joint is formed of two components with the components having inner cooperating articulating surfaces and outer bone engaging surfaces. At least one of the components has an inner section made of relatively hard, stiff material defining one or the articulating surfaces and an outer section made of a softer material defining the bone engaging surface. The softer material having a hardness / stiffness characteristic compatible with the bone to reduce stress shielding and more evenly distribute the forces from the articulating surfaces to the associate bone interface.

A rotary drill bit for drilling subterranean formations configured with at least one protective structure proximate to the rotationally leading and trailing edges of a gage trimmer, wherein the at least one protective structure is positioned at substantially the same exposure as its associated gage trimmer. Particularly, the apparatus of the present invention may provide protection for gage trimmers during drilling, tripping, and / or rotation within a casing; i.e., when changing a drilling fluid. Protective structures may be configured and located according to anticipated drilling conditions including helix angles. In addition, a protective structure may be proximate to more than one gage trimmer while having a substantially equal exposure to each associated gage trimmer. Methods of use and a method of rotary bit design are also disclosed.

A fixing device includes a pressing member pressed against a fixing member to form a nip between the pressing member and the fixing member through which a recording medium bearing a toner image passes. A heater support provided inside the fixing member supports a laminated heater. The laminated heater is provided between the fixing member and the heater support and includes a flexible, first heat generation sheet that includes an insulating base layer, at least one resistant heat generation layer provided on the base layer to generate heat, and at least one electrode layer provided on the base layer to supply power to the at least one resistant heat generation layer.

A blowing mechanism for a column type electric fan comprises an impeller, a driving motor, a tube-like air ducting assembly, and a swing mechanism. The driving motor is mounted onto a supporting plate which is attached to a housing of the fan. A micromotor of the swing mechanism is fixed onto a connecting disc-like part of the housing. The air ducting assembly at least partly encloses the impeller from outside. The air ducting assembly comprises a top part, a bottom part and a flow guiding plate and a flow deflecting plate connected between the top part and the bottom part, and is provided with an air inlet and an air outlet. An upper supporting shaft for the impeller is rotatably attached to the housing through a bearing, and a lower supporting shaft for the impeller is connected to an output shaft of the driving motor. A guiding lattice is arranged at the air outlet of the air ducting assembly. Bearing rollers are disposed on the supporting plate. The air ducting assembly is movably carried on the bearing rollers, the air ducting assembly is equipped with retainers for preventing the air ducting assembly from moving beyond desired limit angular positions during its swing motion. A link rod of the swing mechanism is movably connected to a rocker which extends from the air ducting assembly.

A tire monitoring system providing tire status and notifying or warning the vehicle operator of early detection of imminent tire failure and performance degradation; thus improving safety by preventing blowouts from occurring, lengthening tire life by encouraging preventive maintenance, and improving fuel mileage by encouraging the operator to fill the tire to its proper pressure or repair it. The system monitors temperature of the rim of the wheel to which the tire is attached, such temperature being transmitted to the vehicle operator or other interested parties via means such as radio frequency.

A sintered sprocket is formed with protrusions on both sides, arranged along a tooth gap bottom circle and centered on every second tooth. These protrusions engage the outer plates of a roller chain and maintain the chain in centered relationship with the sprocket.

A spine stabilization device is provided, the spine stabilization device including an interbody spacer shaped to be inserted between a vertebral body of an upper vertebra and a vertebral body of a lower vertebra, and including a top surface oriented towards the lower endplate of the vertebral body of the upper vertebra and a bottom surface oriented towards the upper endplate of the vertebral body of the lower vertebra; and a fixation device to be inserted after placement of the interbody spacer, the fixation device including a support portion securing the interbody spacer against escaping from between the vertebral bodies of the upper and lower vertebra into a ventral direction, the support portion shaped to rest against a portion of an anterior surface of the interbody spacer, and further including an anchor, the anchor including an anchoring material portion that is configured to be inserted, in a liquid state, into cancellous bone tissue of at least one of the vertebral body of the upper vertebra and of the vertebral body of the lower vertebra, to thereby infiltrate the cancellous bone tissue, and to harden thereafter so as to fix the support portion to the vertebral body.

The disclosure is directed to a resilient implant for implantation into human or animal joints to act as a cushion allowing for renewed joint motion. The implant endures variable joint forces and cyclic loads while reducing pain and improving function after injury or disease to repair, reconstruct, and regenerate joint integrity. The implant is deployed in a prepared debrided joint space, secured to at least one of the joint bones and expanded in the space, molding to surrounding structures with sufficient stability to avoid extrusion or dislocation. The implant has opposing walls that move in varied directions, and an inner space filled with suitable filler to accommodate motions which mimic or approximate normal joint motion. The implant pads the damaged joint surfaces, restores cushioning immediately and may be employed to restore cartilage to normal by delivering regenerative cells.

The invention is directed to a brush head, in particular a toothbrush head, having a bristle carrier and bristles attached thereto, which are seated in the form of tufts in holes in the bristle carrier and fastened by their ends close to the bristle carrier to the bristle carrier without anchoring, in particular by welding and / or adhesive bonding to a rear side of the bristle carrier using the method referred to as anchor-free tufting. According to the invention, at least one hole (2) in the bristle carrier (1) is divided by means of at least one transverse wall (4) into several segments and said at least one transverse wall is constructed such that the bristles seated in the segments form a common tuft (3) with a smooth and closed outer contour corresponding to the contour of the hole and are supported by the transverse wall.

A roller grill divider assembly includes a frame adapted to rest upon on a roller grill and one or more dividers securable to the frame. The roller grill includes multiple tubes having outer surfaces adapted to transfer heat to a pre-cooked food product. The one or more dividers are in contact with the multiple tubes and are adapted to adjust along a length of the frame to multiple positions such that the pre-cooked food product is substantially prevented from passing beneath the one or more dividers.

An electric lock includes a manual operation mechanism and an electric control mechanism. The manual operation mechanism includes a rotary knob unit, a first attracting member mounted fixedly to the rotary knob unit, a key-operated lockset, and a lock-connecting rod connected to and rotatable by the rotary knob unit and the key-operated lockset. The electric control mechanism includes a power source unit, a clutch gear driven by the power source unit to rotate in two directions, and a second attracting member mounted fixedly to the clutch gear. When the clutch gear is driven by the power source unit to rotate to align the first and second attracting members with each other, a magnetic attraction force is generated between the first and second attracting members to allow for co-rotation of the rotary knob unit with the clutch gear.

A device for controlling an HVAC system in which opening a door or window for more than a shutdown delay period causes the fan and compressor to be deactivated, but opening and closing the door or window for less than the shutdown delay period does not affect the fan and compressor. Reactivation of the compressor is delayed for a startup delay, in order to avoid overcycling of the compressor and the additional wear and tear and maintenance that would be caused thereby. Preferably, the door / window sensors are wireless for ease of installation and maintenance. Optionally, an occupancy sensor and occupancy timer are provided to turn off the system if the room is unoccupied for an unoccupied delay time. Optionally, a secondary thermostat with energy saving settings is provided so that if the room is unoccupied for the occupancy delay, then instead of being shut off, the HVAC system will be operated at energy saving settings.

A turbomachine has inner and outer annular shells of metal material containing, in a gas flow direction F, a fuel injector assembly, an annular combustion chamber of composite material, and an annular nozzle of metal material forming the fixed-blade inlet stage of a high pressure turbine. Provision is made for the combustion chamber to be held in position between the inner and outer metal annular shells by a plurality of flexible metal tabs having first ends interconnected by a metal ring fixed securely to each of the annular shells by first fixing means, and second ends fixed by second fixing means on a ring of composite material fixed securely to said composite material combustion chamber, the flexibility of said metal fixing tongues allowing expansion to take place freely in a radial direction at high temperatures between said composite material combustion chamber and said metal annular shells.

A gear made of a resin includes a substantially cylindrical rim having a plurality of teeth formed around an outer periphery thereof, a boss formed about a rotational center of the rim, and a web connecting the boss and the rim to each other. At least one groove is defined along outer surface of each tooth to divide the tooth in a widthwise direction of the tooth. As a result, a portion of the gear, in which the grooves are defined, is deformed in a reduced amount, leading to a reduced amount of deformation such as a warpage or sink in the entire gear, thereby providing an enhancement in tooth flank accuracy. Since the grooves are defined along the outer surfaces of the teeth, a lubricant such as grease can be supplied effectively to tooth flanks by previously applying the lubricant in the grooves.

An absorbent article that prevents a discharged matter from leaking out, and also prevents a wearer's sensation of wearing a sanitary napkin from worsening is provided. The absorbent article of the present invention includes a liquid-permeable surface sheet, a liquid-permeable back sheet, an absorbent body disposed between the surface sheet and the back sheet, and an intermediate portion disposed between the surface sheet and the absorbent body. The absorbent part 4 includes an absorbent body center portion and an absorbent body posterior portion continuously formed on a posterior side in the longitudinal direction D of the absorbent body center portion. The intermediate portion includes a first intermediate sheet disposed between the surface sheet and the absorbent body center portion and a second intermediate sheet disposed between the surface sheet and at least the absorbent body posterior portion. The liquid-transport property of the second intermediate sheet is different from that of the first intermediate sheet.

Systems and methods are disclosed that may be implemented to manage operation and tracking memory wear of flash devices, such as relatively large mixed use embedded NAND flash devices or other non-volatile memory (NVM) devices employed in information handling systems such as servers. The disclosed systems and methods may advantageously be implemented to perform tasks such as tracking and / or predicting actual wear for NVM devices, and optionally controlling write operations to a NVM device. The disclosed systems and methods may also be optionally implemented to generate wear alerts based on tracked or predicted wear of such NVM devices.

The invention relates to a metal substrate coated at least partially with a layered structure. The layered structure comprises an intermediate layer deposited on the metal substrate and an amorphous carbon layer deposited on the intermediate layer. The amorphous carbon layer has a Young's modulus lower than 200 GPa. The intermediate layer comprises a tetrahedral carbon layer having a Young's modulus higher than 200 GPa. The invention further relates to a method to reduce the wear on a counterbody of a metal substrate coated with a tetrahedral carbon coating.

An cylindrical convex portion of which opposite ends are open is integrally formed onto a fuel tank made of RDPE therewith so as to inwardly extend in the fuel tank, to provide an opening thereon. A press-fit portion of a filler hose connecting pipe made of PA as a tubular member is press-fitted in the cylindrical convex portion to connecting the tubular member to the fuel tank. At least one annular projection is provided on the outer peripheral surface of the press-fit portion of the tubular member so as to bite in the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical connvex portion. A face of the annular projection in direction axially of one end of tubular member is formed so as to extend outwardly and inclinedly with respect to the axial direction of the tubular member form one end toward the other end thereof.