256results about How to "Lower life cycle costs" patented technology

A method and apparatus is provided for a multiple light-source illuminating device, the design and construction of which is derived from the lighting requirements of a specific lighting application. The resulting illuminating device (16) provides illumination according to the principles of lighting practice for the optimal performance of visual tasks. Coupling with sensors (21) and logical control (20) allows illumination intensity and spectrum to be varied according to changing user needs. The illuminating device includes multiple discrete light emitting components of different spatial intensity distribution and color spectrum mounted in specific orientations such that the application oriented combined lighting effect is created. The control is provided via a differentiated power supply (19) capable of affecting the current, voltage and duty cycle determining the relative contribution of each light source effecting a different spatial intensity distribution and color spectrum.

Dynamic power controller apparatus, systems and methods are provided which utilize system and user data to control power to components. The present invention employs dynamically controlled idle timeout values which are based, in part, on the historical use of the component. It can also employ user settings, event occurrences and available resources of a system to dynamically control the power to one of the system's components or a remote component. In an instance of the present invention related to hard disk power control, it is employed in an operating system's kernel where disk idleness is monitored. When the hard disk's idle time meets a dynamically computed power control idle timeout, the disk driver is commanded to power down the device.

A composition is described that includes at least one polyolefin, at least one thermoplastic bio-resin derived from starch or soy or both, and at least one compatibilizer having at least one polyolefin and at least one polar group. Surface coverings and floor coverings, such as laminated floor coverings, having the composition, are also described.

An unmanned air vehicle designed for reconnaissance, surveillance, data acquisition, and general research. The vehicle is a monoplane that is comprised of several pieces that can easily be assembled using a minimal amount of tools. The aircraft consists of a forward and aft fuselage section, two identical horizontal stabilizers, and four identical wing sections. The aircraft can fly with all four wing sections, or with just two wing sections (the short wing configuration). This makes the aircraft usable for missions requiring short takeoff and landing and high endurance (long wing), or missions requiring higher speed and range (short wing). No other UAV (or other aircraft) has this unique feature. Another novel aspect of the present invention is the wing control can be specially designed to increase the effectiveness of the wing control surface while minimizing the effect the control surface has on the overall aerodynamics of the wing, namely drag.

A fast line maintenance repair process for damaged composite structures includes the application of a pre-cured patch that uses a quick curing paste adhesive to bond the patch to the structure. The adhesive is cured at relatively low elevated temperatures provided by a chemical heat pack. The low temperature cure eliminates the need to dry out the part and permits the application of the repair in a hazardous environment. In a typical commercial airline application, airline maintenance personnel can install the repair at the flight gate. The repair is intended to restore the structure to a desired load capability in approximately one hour. The repair can be removed if need be with less overall damage than would occur upon removal of typical mechanically fastened repairs. All or some of the repair materials and tools can be provided in a portable kit.

The invention relates to an intelligent substation inspection system which comprises a data acquisition subsystem, a data communication subsystem, a server subsystem and a client subsystem, wherein the data acquisition subsystem is connected with the server subsystem through the data communication subsystem; the server subsystem is connected with the client subsystem; the data acquisition subsystem acquires the image and state information of the substation equipment and uploads the information to the server subsystem through the data communication subsystem; the server subsystem stores and displays the received data and remotely controls the data acquisition subsystem; and the client subsystem acquires the historical information of unmanned substation equipment from the server subsystem at any time and is used for remotely and intelligently inspecting the historical information. Compared with the prior art, the system has the advantages that the operating state information and the video image information of the equipment are integrated, and the visual and intelligent inspection of the substation is realized.

A composition is described that includes at least one compatibilizer having at least one polyolefin and at least one polar group. The composition can include a blend of polymers. Surface coverings and floor coverings, such as laminated floor coverings, having the composition, are also described.

The present invention is an unmanned air vehicle designed for reconnaissance, surveillance, data acquisition, and general research. The air vehicle is a monoplane that consists of several pieces that can easily be assembled using a minimal amount of tools. The air vehicle consists of a forward and aft fuselage section, two identical horizontal stabilizers, and four identical wing sections. The aircraft can fly with all four wing sections, or with just two wing sections (the short wing configuration). Each of the four wing sections of the air vehicle can be interchanged with any of the other wing sections for the purpose of minimizing assembly time and spare parts.

Normally hydroelectric dam powerhouses use river flow once before discharging it as turbulent tailwater, ineffective to spin turbines. The present invention uses tapered channels to confine and constrict turbulent tailwater into laminar flow that drives turbines both submersible and floatable utilizing the same water three times concurrently to generate new electricity. Channels originate adjacent to draft tube outlets, constrict in the downstream direction to create narrow necks where turbine / generators benefit from debris free, increased velocity and laminar flows to generate electricity. Hydroelectricity uses zero fuel, creates zero waste and has zero carbon dioxide emissions. Structures are uncomplicated, construction is within project boundaries minimizing environmental impacts and speeding projects coming online. New facilities are protected by existing dam security. Hydroelectricity replaces less dependable renewable energy systems.

A moored buoy floating at the ocean surface and anchored to the seafloor precisely measures acceleration, pitch, roll, and Earth's magnetic flux field of the buoy over a limited sampling period. The system includes: 1) A buoy, 2) A mooring system, 3) An electronic data logger controlling communications between the system and the on-board remote telecommunications system, 4) an embedded computer for data input / output, temporary or permanent data storage, and algorithms to convert the measured time series data into surface ocean wave spectra and quality assurance statistics and encode the results for transfer to the data logger, 5) Sensors include one or three acceleration sensors, three orthogonal angular rate sensors, and three orthogonal magnetometers to measure the Earth's magnetic flux field, 6) A telecommunications system that links the buoy data logger and a shoreside processing system, and 7) A shoreside processing system that decodes the transmitted data, performs, quality control, and computes derived wave parameters.

The invention relates to an asset life information integrated control method and a device suitable for a power system. The method comprises the following steps: an asset strategy auxiliary decision module is used for controlling a power grid planning module according to life cycle cost evaluation results of the existing equipment to select a corresponding planning scheme from a database server and sending the life cycle cost evaluation results to a project control module. The asset life information integrated control device suitable for the power system comprises the database server, a PSP (Python Server Pagers) application server, a BW (Band Width) application server, a BPS (Basic Programming System) application server, an SRM (Storage Resource Management) application server, a PMS (Purchase Management System) application server, a WRP (Wireless Routing Protocol) application server, an internal client, an external client, an internal bus and an Internet. Compared with the prior art, the asset life information integrated control method and the device suitable for the power system have the advantages of forming the evaluation decision of closed-loop linkage, optimizing the life cycle cost of the equipment and the like.

The invention relates to a comprehensive automation integrated protecting method and a system which adopt an integrated IED to carry out automation functions such as protection, measurement and control, computation and the like of all bay units in a substation; state quantity, analog quantity and digital quantity which are output in interval by primary equipment on a process layer of the substation are respectively uploaded to the integrated IED through an ethernet switcher by a dual Ethernet (100mega / 1000mega), and the protection and automation function of the substation are realized by calculating and processing the state quantity, analog quantity and digital quantity which are output in interval respectively by the integrated IED, therefore, a spacing layer and a substation layer of the substation are unified into one layer according to IEC61850 standard, and a plurality of IEDs are integrated into one integrated protecting IED, and two same integrated IEDs are provided for hot spare for improving the reliability. The comprehensive automation integrated protecting system leads the substation integrated protecting functions to share a uniform information platform, and communication network is used for replacing control cables, thus improving the reliability of the signal transmission, further improving automation and management level and reducing comprehensive construction cost.

The invention discloses a prestress assembly frame structure which comprises floor beams, a floor post and a foundation, wherein the floor post is formed by connecting a plurality of floor post units in sequence from top to bottom, one floor post unit connected with the floor beams is a top post, one floor post unit connected with the foundation is a bottom post, a connecting point between the top post and the floor beams is a beam-post node, a connecting point between two adjacent floor post units is a post-post node, and the connecting point between the bottom post and the foundation is a post-foundation node. Through the improvement on the beam-post node, the post-post node and the post-foundation node, the problems that in a conventional prestress assembly frame structure, the beam-post node and the post-foundation node cannot consume energy effectively under major earthquake, and cannot provide pressed protection for concrete on a pressed area of an interface, and the tendon distribution method is unreasonable are solved, and meanwhile, the problems that the post-post node is inconvenient to accomplish, and an anti-shearing weak part is formed on a connection interface are solved.

The present disclosure is a novel utility of a software defined radio (SDR) based Distributed Antenna System (DAS) that is field reconfigurable and support multi-modulation schemes (modulation-independent), multi-carriers, multi-frequency bands and multi-channels. More specifically, the present invention relates to a DAS utilizing one or more Daisy-Chained Rings of Remote Units. The present invention enables a high degree of flexibility to manage, control, enhance, facilitate the usage and performance of a distributed wireless network such as Flexible Simulcast, automatic traffic load-balancing, network and radio resource optimization, network calibration, autonomous / assisted commissioning, carrier pooling, automatic frequency selection, frequency carrier placement, traffic monitoring, traffic tagging, pilot beacon, etc. As a result, a DAS in accordance with the present invention can increase the efficiency and traffic capacity of the operators' wireless network.

In an electrical connector for an electric vehicle, the spring latch is not sealed; instead, the connector body has holes allowing water entering the spring latch mechanism to drain harmlessly out of the connector. A forward-facing LED or other light source acts as a flashlight. Once the connector is connected, the forward-facing LED is switched off, and a rear-facing LED or other light source is switched on to confirm that the connector is connected and capable of charging the vehicle. The connector is produced by overmolding in a three-layer configuration, where each layer is formed of a material having advantageous materials for that layer's position in the connector.

A preparation method for UV-curing self-healing polyurethane based on a furan-maleimide structure adopts furan, maleic anhydride, ethanolamine, furfuryl alcohol, diisocyanate, divalent alcohol, a mono-hydroxy unsaturated monomer and the like as raw materials to synthesize bifunctional UV-curing polyurethane comprising a furan-maleimide addition product. The polyurethane provided by the invention is synthesized through a conventional way, is practical, low in cost and suitable for industrial production, and can be applied to a UV curing system; energy conservation and emission reduction are realized; moreover, a cured film of the polyurethane is excellent in physical property, mechanical property, medium resistance and thermal performance; through the furan-maleimide addition product in resin, the UV curing system is endowed with the self-healing performance, so that the material safety is improved, the service life is prolonged, and the material life cycle cost is reduced.

The present invention's composite-to-metal attachment methodology—bolt-free and adhesive-free—features the implementation of an intermediary structure containing metallic fibrous material. The intermediary structure couples a first adherend (which contains nonmetallic fibrous material) with a second adherend (which contains metallic nonfibrous material). The intermediary structure's fibrous attribute is availed of for effecting its co-cure attachment to the first adherend. The intermediary structure's metallic attribute is availed of for effecting its weld attachment to the second adherend. According to typical inventive practice, respective panels of the first adherend and the intermediary structure are arranged and connected so as to describe a stepped configuration at the interface between the first adherend and the intermediary structure. The first adherend and a first portion of the intermediary structure are co-impregnated with a uniform resinous system and are co-cured. A second portion of the intermediary structure is welded with respect to the second adherend.

The invention relates to an active phased array weather radar system based on a full-digital array. The system comprises a signal processing machine which is used for emitting a wave beam, receiving the wave beam and processing echo data; the signal processing machine is in bidirectional communication with a monitoring terminal and a product terminal through network; the signal processing machine is connected with a first high-speed large-capacity wavelength division multiplexing optical fiber communication machine through first optical fibers; the first high-speed large-capacity wavelength division multiplexing optical fiber communication machine is connected with a second high-speed large-capacity wavelength division multiplexing optical fiber communication machine through second optical fibers; a collector ring sleeves the second optical fibers; the second high-speed large-capacity wavelength division multiplexing optical fiber communication machine is in bidirectional communication with a correcting branch and a full-digital array module; the full-digital array module is connected with an antenna array through a correction network. According to the system, a distributive receiving-transmitting assembly is adopted to improve the working reliability of a radar; the electric scanning is performed for the wave beam, so that the flexibility and variation are ensured, a plurality of wave beams can be received at the same time, and the scanning is fast; the system can work in a plurality of working modes, and the temporal-spatial resolution is high.

Firearms where the bolt catch, magazine, or both, can be released from either side using the same or a substantially similar motion using contact features that look, feel, or operate similarly on both sides, that are located within the firearm rather than externally, that can be used more easily or reliably, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, a bolt catch engagement feature is similarly ambidextrous. In many embodiments, a user action on one side of the firearm is substantially similar to, but in the opposite direction from, a user action on the other side that performs the same function. In various embodiments, a left button, pad, or feature is directly opposite and in line with a right button, pad, or feature. Bolt catches can use two levers and magazine release mechanisms can use two parallel elongated members that are perpendicular to the barrel with a catch actuator located between.

The invention relates to a virtual-axis millimeter-wave human body security check system. The system comprises a virtual-axis guide rail unit, a scanning unit, a scanning driving unit, a data processing unit and a display unit, wherein the virtual-axis guide rail unit comprises a first circular-arc-shaped guide rail; the scanning unit comprises a first group of millimeter-wave antenna arrays and a first millimeter-wave transceiver; the scanning driving unit is used for driving the first group of millimeter-wave antenna arrays to scan in a reciprocating virtual-axis circular-arc-shaped locus on the first circular-arc-shaped guide rail; the data processing unit is used for processing a detection signal from the scanning unit to form a human body image to be detected; the display unit is used for displaying the at least one human body image to be detected. In the human body security check system disclosed by the invention, a virtual-axis scanning way is used, the motion load does not need to be reduced, and the rotational inertia is reduced, so that the scanning speed is increased. The system is small in occupied space, and a single / double-module security check system can be assembled more flexibly according to the size of a practical space and the checked amount.

A varus-valgus alignment instrument includes a body having a bone contact surface for contacting a distal femur and an opening extending through the body and bone contact surface. The opening is sized to receive an elongate shaft therein. An alignment member is moveably attached to the body and has first and second openings therethrough. The first and second openings are sized to receive the elongate shaft and are interchangeably positioned in alignment with the opening of the body.

The present invention relates to plug-in hybrid propulsion systems in which the energy storage elements of the hybrid drivetrain can be charged with externally supplied electrical power as well as energy from the engine or regenerative braking. The present invention is a plug-in hybrid system with a rapid energy storage and delivery system. In a preferred embodiment, the invention includes a fuel powered engine, battery, fast energy storage system, power converter, controller, drive motor, power distribution system and transmission system. Additionally, the present invention relates to plug-in hybrid systems that provide service to electrical utilities when the vehicle is connected to the utility grid.

A device for use in detecting an event in a structure comprises a sensor encapsulation, the encapsulation containing a sensor, an actuator positioned substantially in-plane to the sensor within the housing and a printed circuit board in communication with at least one of the sensor and the actuator. the printed circuit board includes a microprocessor constructed and arranged to collect data from at least one of the sensor and the actuator, a signal generator constructed and arranged to provide excitation to at least one of the sensor and the actuator, and an amplifier to condition the excitation.

In a method for in service support for a vehicle fleet wherein the improvement comprises providing Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM), Conditioned Based Maintenance (CBM), Fleet Management (FM), Vehicle / Component Asset Tracking, Stores / Consumable Inventory, and maintenance management.

A coolant liner for a carbonaceous fuel (coal or petcoke) gasification vessel including a ceramic composite panel and a method of cooling a vessel. The panel includes at least two layers of woven yarns of fibrous material and walls extending between the layers. Accordingly, the layers and the walls define coolant channels that extend in a warp direction. Moreover, one of the layers may be less than about 0.08 inches thick. Materials used to create the composite panel may include alumina, chromia, silicon carbide, and carbon. Additionally, the liners may be shaped in an arc or have coolant channels which vary in diameter in the warp direction. Additionally, the liner may abut a structural closeout of the vessel. The coolant liner provides a significantly more durable component than previously employed liners and is especially well suited to demanding service environments.

An improved radiation shielding material and storage systems for radioactive materials incorporating the same. The PYRolytic Uranium Compound (“PYRUC”) shielding material is preferably formed by heat and / or pressure treatment of a precursor material comprising microspheres of a uranium compound, such as uranium dioxide or uranium carbide, and a suitable binder. The PYRUC shielding material provides improved radiation shielding, thermal characteristic, cost and ease of use in comparison with other shielding materials. The shielding material can be used to form containment systems, container vessels, shielding structures, and containment storage areas, all of which can be used to house radioactive waste. The preferred shielding system is in the form of a container for storage, transportation, and disposal of radioactive waste. In addition, improved methods for preparing uranium dioxide and uranium carbide microspheres for use in the radiation shielding materials are also provided.

In an electrical connector for an electric vehicle, the spring latch is not sealed; instead, the connector body has holes allowing water entering the spring latch mechanism to drain harmlessly out of the connector. A forward-facing LED or other light source acts as a flashlight. Once the connector is connected, the forward-facing LED is switched off, and a rear-facing LED or other light source is switched on to confirm that the connector is connected and capable of charging the vehicle. The connector is produced by overmolding in a three-layer configuration, where each layer is formed of a material having advantageous materials for that layer's position in the connector.