446results about How to "Long useful life" patented technology

An apparatus, method and system are provided for power conversion to supply power to a load such as a plurality of light emitting diodes. An exemplary apparatus comprises: a first power converter stage having a first power switch and a first inductive element; a second power converter stage having a second power switch and a second inductive element; a plurality of sensors; and a controller. The second power converter stage provides an output current to the load. The controller is adapted to use a sensed input voltage to determine a switching period, and is further adapted to turn the first and second power switches into an on-state at a frequency substantially corresponding to the switching period while maintaining a switching duty cycle within a predetermined range.

A method of detecting the state of an operator of a vehicle utilizes a low-cost operator state detection system having no more than one camera located preferably in the vehicle and directed toward a driver. A processor of the detection system processes preferably three points of the facial feature of the driver to calculate head pose and thus determine driver state (i.e. distracted, drowsy, etc.). The head pose is generally a three dimensional vector that includes the two angular components of yaw and pitch, but preferably not roll. Preferably, an output signal of the processor is sent to a counter measure system to alert the driver and/or accentuate vehicle safety response.

A wear assembly for attaching wear members to a lip of an excavator includes a wear member, a boss and a lock. The lip includes an inner face, an outer face, a digging edge and a series of through-holes spaced rearward of the digging edge. The bosses are each fixed to a face of the lip at a position rearward of the through-holes. The wear members each include slots to receive the boss adjacent their rear ends, and openings for receiving the locks at a position forward of the bosses. The openings are aligned with the through-holes in the lip. The lock includes a wedge and spool arrangement.

The present invention relates to an abrasive article having a shaped abrasive coating on a shaped backing and to a method of making and using the flexible abrasive article. The flexible abrasive article includes a backing bearing separated, shaped non-abrasive structures having a distal end spaced from the backing which are coated with a shaped abrasive coating. The method comprises providing the backing, applying to one surface of the backing a plurality of separated, shaped non-abrasive structures with distal ends, coating the distal ends with a curable composition containing abrasive particles, imparting a shaped configuration to the uncured coating and curing the coating.

A solid-state relay/breaker that can replace mechanical units to control any type of AC or DC load. Power MOSFETs or other transistors control a load current. A bypass current sensing path monitors MOSFET current and causes a shutdown through signal processing in the event of an over-current condition. This shutdown resembles that of a slow-blow fuse where the rate of shutdown is proportional to the value of the current. This prevents shutdown on momentary spikes or in-rush. In addition, temperature and internal power supply voltages are monitored to determine additional operational conditions where over-temperature or voltages out of range can also cause shutdown. The MOSFET and current sensing path are turned on and off in staggered timing with different slew rates to provide built-in hysteresis. The device can be manufactured in any type of package to match any type of environment or existing replacement requirement.

Improved method and apparatus for interlocking hemmed together edges of inner and outer vehicle body panels with an improved interlock joint. The inner panel blank is draw stamped and provided with PLP holes in a stamping press. A plurality of conventional hardware components are then welded to the inner panel. Then interlock holes are formed by a piercing tool moving through the inner panel border from its outboard to its inboard side while the inner panel is held by clamps and PLP pins. The hole piercing punch thus leaves cold worked upset material slightly raised inboard, rather than outboard, around the pierced interlock hole margin. Then the inner panel subassembly is married to the outer panel and transferred to a hemming station and again precisely clamped and positioned by PLP pins, whereupon hemming press gates are operable for hemming the flange lip of the outer panel over the inner panel border. The final hemming steel of each gate carries staking punches that individually strike a precision registered portion of such hemmed lip to deform it into locking engagement with the associated interlock hole. The upset material is thus flattened and accurately worked into embedment into the interior surface of the hemmed flange lip, rather than into the interior surface of the outer panel, thereby avoiding creating read through problems on the outer panel.

A compact mid-IR laser device utilizes an external cavity to tune the laser. The external cavity may employ a Littrow or Littman cavity arrangement. In the Littrow cavity arrangement, a filter, such as a grating, is rotated to provide wavelength gain medium selectivity. In the Littman cavity arrangement, a reflector is rotated to provide tuning. A quantum cascade laser gain medium provides mid-IR frequencies suitable for use in molecular detection by signature absorption spectra. The compact nature of the device is obtained owing to an efficient heat transfer structure, the use of a small diameter aspheric lens for both the output lens and the external cavity lens and a monolithic assembly structure to hold the optical elements in a fixed position relative to one another. The compact housing size may be approximately 20 cm×20 cm×20 cm or less. Efficient heat transfer is achieved using a thermoelectric cooler TEC combined with a high thermal conductivity heat spreader onto which the quantum cascade laser gain medium is thermally coupled. The heat spreader not only serves to dissipate heat and conduct same to the TEC, but also serves as an optical platform to secure the optical elements within the housing in a fixed relationship relative on one another. The small diameter aspheric output and external cavity lens each may have a diameter of 10 mm or less and each lens is positioned to provided a collimated beam output from the quantum cascade laser gain medium. The housing is hermetically sealed to provide a rugged, light weight portable MIR laser source.

The invention provides a method of making an embossed abrasive article comprising providing a sheet-like foam backing having a first surface and an opposite second surface; providing an abrasive coating comprising abrasive particles and binder over said first surface to provide an abrasive article; and applying under pressure a patterned embossing tool having an embossing surface including at least a pattern of raised areas to the abrasive coating of the abrasive article to provide an embossed pattern at least including depressed areas corresponding to the raised areas of the embossing surface in said abrasive coating and said foam backing to provide an embossed abrasive article.

A fuel system with a fuel tank having at least one opening into an interior of the fuel tank, and an electrically operated vent valve having an inlet communicated with the interior of the fuel tank and an outlet for venting fuel vapor from the fuel tank. The vent valve is movable in response to an electric signal between an open position allowing fuel vapor through the outlet and a closed position to restrict fluid flow through the outlet. A controller is operably communicated with the vent valve to control application of an electric signal to the vent valve and thereby control at least in part the movement of the vent valve between its open and closed positions. In one embodiment the controller is responsive to a fill level in the fuel tank to control the position of the vent valve and thereby the fill level attained within the fuel tank.

An apparatus, system and methods are provided for collecting information on the geographic positions of several moving or immobile objects simultaneously. A plurality of large scale printed circuits having charge transfer capacitance sensing properties are linked by a communication network in order to form a coherent sensing surface for the collection and reconnaissance of positioning and movement information. The positioning and movement information gathered can be used as input information by media control systems.

An electromagnet composed of a coil, a movable iron core adapted to move on the center axis of the coil, and a stationary iron core provided so as to cover the upper and lower surfaces and the outer peripheral surface of the coil, characterized by a permanent magnet arranged in a gap surrounded by the movable iron core and the stationary core, wherein the movable iron core is attracted by the stationary iron core by a magnetic field created by the permanent magnet, thereby it is possible to solve a problem inherent to a conventional electromagnet such that a permanent magnet is directly energized in a reverse direction during release operation so as to cause demagnetization of the permanent magnet. That is, since the permanent magnet is arranged in the gap surrounded by the movable iron core and the stationary iron core, the magnetic filed can be prevented from affecting upon the permanent magnet, thereby it is possible to provide an electromagnet having a long use like and a high degree of reliability with no demagnetization of a permanent magnet.

A tubular heat exchanger preferably of a multi-pass design, has a cylindrical shell with open ends that are releasable covered and sealed by preferably two end caps. Located removably in the shell and axially between the end caps is a core having a plurality of outer tubes and preferably a plurality of inner tubes with each one of the inner tubes extending through a respective one of the outer tubes. A plurality of perforated plates disposed in the shell are sealed releasably to respective ends of the inner and outer tubes thereby forming a plurality of liquid tight chambers for the flow of a plurality of segregated mediums and the transfer of heat therebetween.

An adjusting of environmental conditions of an entity, such as a room, is described, where the entity has desired environmental conditions to be maintained and/or achieved. The environmental conditions may relate to temperature, humidity, CO2 level, lighting, etc. The adjusting is implemented by equipments based on at least one controlling parameter provided by a controlling means. The controlling means is provided with at least one environmental condition measurement data related to the entity and measured by a measuring means. In addition the controlling means is provided with at least one outer paramenter, such as weather conditions information. The controlling parameter is generated by using a neural algorithm having at least the following input: at least one measured environmental condition parameter related to the entity; and at least one outer paramenter.