56results about How to "Minimal downtime" patented technology

High availability (HA) protection is provided for an executing virtual machine. A standby server provides a disk buffer that stores disk writes associated with a virtual machine executing on an active server. At a checkpoint in the HA process, the active server suspends the virtual machine; the standby server creates a checkpoint barrier at the last disk write received in the disk buffer; and the active server copies dirty memory pages to a buffer. After the completion of these steps, the active server resumes execution of the virtual machine; the buffered dirty memory pages are sent to and stored by the standby server. Then, the standby server flushes the disk writes up to the checkpoint barrier into disk storage and writes newly received disk writes into the disk buffer after the checkpoint barrier.

A first embodiment of this invention is a cleaning apparatus for a commercial conveyor belt that is mounted on a conveyor table. The cleaning apparatus is a housing that includes a spraying tube for dispensing a cleaning solution and a novel wiping device. The wiping device is constructed to apply a disposable towel, such as a paper towel, to the conveyor belt to remove the solvent including any contaminants while the conveyor belt is in motion. The used disposable towels are deposited into a waste container thereby requiring very little cleaning maintenance. By a second embodiment the spraying tube is eliminated and the disposable paper towels include a solvent (wet wipes) for removing the contaminants. The cleaning apparatus is preferably mounted on the underside of the conveyor belt next to a crumb tray so that the cashier can easily operate the cleaning apparatus.

Batch pasteurizers are disclosed for processing milk, colostrum and other dairy products. The pasteurizers comprise inner drums to contain the processed liquid, an outer drum surrounding same and providing an annular space for retaining a heating fluid (heated by an electrical heater), a helical coil to carry cooling fluid through the heating fluid, a motorized pump or impeller to agitate the treated liquid to optimize heat transfer, and a control system to switch the heater on and off, actuate cooling liquid flow and optionally, at least partially drain the heating fluid to provide a temperature / time profile and close temperature tolerance, all of which produce pasteurized products with adequate levels of immunoglobulins to provide newborn animals with sufficient immune function.

High availability (HA) protection is provided for an executing virtual machine. A standby server provides a disk buffer that stores disk writes associated with a virtual machine executing on an active server. At a checkpoint in the HA process, the active server suspends the virtual machine; the standby server creates a checkpoint barrier at the last disk write received in the disk buffer; and the active server copies dirty memory pages to a buffer. After the completion of these steps, the active server resumes execution of the virtual machine; the buffered dirty memory pages are sent to and stored by the standby server. Then, the standby server flushes the disk writes up to the checkpoint barrier into disk storage and writes newly received disk writes into the disk buffer after the checkpoint barrier.

A first embodiment of this invention is a cleaning apparatus for a commercial conveyor belt that is mounted on a conveyor table. The cleaning apparatus is a housing that includes a spraying tube for dispensing a cleaning solution and a novel wiping device. The wiping device is constructed to apply a disposable towel, such as a paper towel, to the conveyor belt to remove the solvent including any contaminants while the conveyor belt is in motion. The used disposable towels are deposited into a waste container thereby requiring very little cleaning maintenance. By a second embodiment the spraying tube is eliminated and the disposable paper towels include a solvent (wet wipes) for removing the contaminants. The cleaning apparatus is preferably mounted on the underside of the conveyor belt next to a crumb tray so that the cashier can easily operate the cleaning apparatus.

An improved separator for desalting petroleum crude oils which may be operated in a continuous manner under automatic control; the improved desalter is therefore well suited to modern refinery operation with minimal downtime. A portion of the emulsion layer is withdrawn from the desalter through external withdrawal ports according to the thickness and position of the emulsion layer with the selected withdrawal header(s) being controlled by sensors monitoring the position and thickness of the emulsion layer. The withdrawn emulsion layer can be routed as such or with the desalter water effluent to a settling tank or directly to another unit for separation and reprocessing.

A shimless aligner for insertion between a machine foot and base to align the foot relative to the base, which foot and base are secured together by a hold-down bolt extending between the foot and base. The aligner includes, a top plate having a slanted bottom surface, a taper wedge having a slanted top surface slidably engaging the slanted bottom surface of the top plate and further having a vertical alignment rod extending substantially laterally, a bottom plate below the taper wedge, and a back plate attached substantially perpendicularly at one end of the bottom plate. For receiving the hold-down bolt, the top and bottom plates have a corresponding hole, while the taper wedge has a slot. Said back plate has a hole for the vertical alignment rod to slidably engage the hole thereby preventing rotation of the taper wedge during vertical alignment operations and preserving bent foot corrections.

A management fabric for a server cluster may receive an indication of a failover condition in the server cluster for a virtual machine executing in the server cluster, where a first database program executing at the virtual machine communicates with one or more data storage devices that is attached to the virtual machine, and where a hostname is associated with the virtual machine. In response to receiving the indication of the failover condition, the server cluster may perform failover, including attaching the one or more data storage devices to a backup virtual machine associated with the one or more data storage devices, so that a second database program executing at the backup virtual machine is able to communicate with the one or more data storage devices, where the backup virtual machine is already executing in the server cluster, and associating the hostname with the backup virtual machine.

A method of repairing a thermal barrier coating (16) on a component (10) designed for use in a hostile thermal environment, such as turbine, combustor and augmentor components of a gas turbine engine. The method more particularly involves repairing a thermal barrier coating (16) on a component (10) that has suffered localized spallation (20) of the thermal barrier coating (16). After cleaning the surface area (22) of the component (10) exposed by the localized spallation (20), a ceramic paste (24) comprising a ceramic powder in a binder is applied to the surface area (22) of the component (10). The binder is then reacted to yield a ceramic-containing repair coating (26) that covers the surface area of the component and comprises the ceramic powder in a matrix of a material formed when the binder was reacted. The binder is preferably a ceramic precursor material that can be converted immediately to a ceramic or allowed to thermally decompose over time to form a ceramic, such that the repair coating (26) has a ceramic matrix. The repair method can be performed while the component (10) remains installed, e.g., in a gas turbine engine. Immediately after the reaction step, the gas turbine engine can resume operation during which the binder is further reacted / converted and the strength of the repair coating increases.

A robot cover made of a film of polyvinyl alcohol in which the film is dimensioned to fit around at least a portion of an industrial robot. A fastening mechanism, such as a snap, attaches the film around that portion of the robot. After use and when presumably covered with a layer of paint, the robot cover is placed in warm water which dissolves the polyvinyl alcohol and separates the paint for subsequent disposal.

An article aligning apparatus for aligning a plurality article tiers to be loaded into a carton. Each article tier comprises an article array delivered from an in-feed stream at an in-feed end of a packaging machine. The apparatus comprises an article conveyor for conveying a lower article tier, a first article conveying means including one or more lugs mounted on an endless track for selecting an upper article tear and for conveying the upper article tier to a point of vertical alignment with the lower article tier, thereafter to be stacked and conveyed to the out feed end of the apparatus.

The invention is directed a rotary molding machine having a wheel mounted for rotation on a pair of shafts positioned along the rotational axis of the wheel. A first shaft cooperates with a first turntable of the wheel and a second shaft cooperates with a second turntable. The first and second turntables extend transversely to the rotational axis. A plurality of modular mold clamp assemblies are positioned on the wheel, with each modular mold clamp assembly being moveable between an open and a closed position. Each modular mold clamp assembly has mounting areas which are mounted with respective mounting locations each turntable. The modular mold clamp assemblies provide the structure and rigidity between the turntables to help maintain the turntables in position relative to each other.

A dispense apparatus and system for dispensing suspensions or emulsions. The system ensures uniformity of distribution of the dispersed phase within the continuous-phase liquid by moving the fluid through the dispense cartridge, such as with a continuous or pulsating flow. In one embodiment, peristaltic pumps are positioned upstream and downstream of the dispense cartridge, in fluid communication with and forming a single loop with a fluid source. Circulation between the fluid source and the dispense cartridge is maintained. In a second embodiment, a pump circulates fluid into and out of the dispense cartridge and is also in fluid communication with a fluid source such as with a pinch valve to allow proper filling of the dispense cartridge from the fluid source. In a third embodiment, a reversing pump is placed between the dispense cartridge and fluid source to continually or continuously pump fluid into and out of the dispense cartridge.

Apparatus and method for transferring hollow blow molded articles from a vertically disposed wheel blow molding machine to a horizontally-disposed takeaway conveyor. Each mold on the wheel releases multiple blown articles at the six o'clock position on the wheel such that the articles fall freely from the wheel. An inclined end of a takeaway conveyor is located directly underneath the six o'clock position in order to receive the free falling blown articles and transport them to a horizontal transporting section of the takeaway conveyor. Flanges which extend upwardly from the conveying surface of the takeaway conveyor in combination with a powered endless positioning belt which extends a spaced distance along the inclined receiving end are utilized to confine the blown articles on the receiving end and uniformly position the blown articles on the takeaway conveyor.

A commercial riding mower with a chassis built on a relatively rigid frame and having a number of operating systems such as the power plant, motive system, cutter drive system, and fuel storage and delivery system, each of which is accessible through a swing away panel, or hatch, for easy maintenance and repair without compromising safety of the operator or anyone in close proximity to the mower in operation, or impairing the structural integrity of the mower.

An apparatus is operable with a host and a data storage component for controlling expansion of storage, and comprises: an allocating component responsive to a user input for allocating an expanded target storage space to a file system element to thereby make an expanded file system element; a file system metadata component for maintaining file system metadata including metadata for said expanded file system element; a file system I / O component responsive to said file system metadata component for controlling file system I / O between said host and said storage component; and a synchronizing component responsive to said file system metadata component for synchronizing data between a source storage space and said expanded target storage space; wherein said file system I / O component is operable to use said file system metadata component to access said expanded file system element prior to completion of action of said synchronizing component.

An apparatus (2) and a method for making packs (30) of at least two beverage containers (20) is disclosed. By means of a conveyor means (15) the beverage containers (20) are at least fed to a station (10), at which the beverage containers (20) can be guided into a separate holding element (16). The station (10) has at least two rigid guiding elements (50), which are positioned in the station in transport direction of the beverage containers (20) in such a way that they run towards each other and thus clamp the beverage containers (20) in the holding element (16).

A modular hydrostatic transaxle includes an axle module removably connected to a hydrostatic transmission module. The axle module includes a differential connected to a reduction gear train and disposed in an axle casing. A pair of axles are connected to the differential and supported within the axle casing. The hydrostatic transmission module comprises a transmission casing separate from the axle casing and hydraulically connected pump and motor disposed in the transmission casing. The motor output connection includes a shaft piloted to an input drive of the reduction gear train, which constitutes the alignment mechanism of the transmission and axle modules. The pump and motor cylinder barrels are hydraulically connected through the pump and motor block at 90.degree. orientation, and a portion of the pump and motor block forms an inclined surface which supports a face of a thrust bearing. At least one homogeneous low friction bearing strip is confined between the swash plate and the interior portion of the casing. A disconnect mechanism includes a spring that urges a sleeve to engage the output and input shafts. The brake disc is disposed on a distal end of the output shaft and a brake cover is fastened to the outer portion of the axle casing and substantially encloses the brake disc.

A back-up boiler system for a solar thermal power plant (201) for transferring solar energy into electricity, said back-up boiler system comprising a combustion chamber (70) and a convection section (80) in fluid connection with said combustion chamber (70), wherein in the convection section (80) at least a first heat exchanger (92) is provided for heating a molten salts mixture of the solar thermal power plant and a second heat exchanger (90) for pre-heating boiler feed water of the solar thermal power plant, wherein the back-up boiler system (25) is configured to allow selection between only providing heat to the first heat exchanger (92), only providing heat to the second heat exchanger (90) and providing heat to both heat exchangers (90, 92), preferably dependent on availability of solar radiation and / or dependent on demand of power generation. The invention also relates to a solar thermal power plant (201) for transferring solar energy into electricity and a method for operating a solar thermal power plant.

A modular mold clamp assembly for use in a molding machine. The assembly has a frame with a base member and oppositely-facing end members, with the oppositely-facing end members having mounting areas provided thereon. First and second platens are movably mounted on the base member between an open and a closed position. The platens are mounted on the frame and are movable relative to the frame without transmitting forces to the frame. The frame, containing the platens, can be mounted or unmounted to the molding machine by the use of mounting hardware cooperating with the mounting area of the frame.

An enhanced method of reorganizing a relational database is provided. The method uses batch processing to perform the steps of providing an online database having a plurality of authoritative data stored there within; running the online database in an archive log mode for storing archival data capable of restoring all online database activity since running the online database in the archival mode; creating an off-line database by copying the plurality of authoritative data stored within the online database to the off-line database; performing a maintenance operation on the off-line database; taking the online database offline upon completion of the performance of the maintenance operation; copying the plurality of archival data from the online database to the off-line database when the online database is taken offline; recovering the off-line database by applying the copied plurality of archival data copied from the online database; and converting the off-line database to an online database.

A method and modular mold clamp assembly for use in a molding machine. The assembly has a frame with a base member. The base member has end members provided thereon. Radial adjustment mechanisms are mounted on the end members, with the radial adjustment members configured to cooperate with turntables of the molding machine. At least one support bracket extends from the frame. The support bracket is configured to cooperate with at least one support fixture of the molding machine. The radial adjustment mechanisms and the at least one support bracket allow the modular mold clamp assembly to be moved toward and away from the center of a wheel of the molding machine.

A method and system are provided for rehoming a digital subscriber line access multiplexer between a first data switch and a second data switch or ports on a single data switch. An extension permanent virtual circuit is established between the first data switch and the second data switch and a physical loop-back circuit is established at the second data switch for routing data from an output port of the second data switch to a temporary input port. A permanent virtual circuit between a data switch servicing a network service provider and the first data switch is removed, and a permanent virtual circuit between the data switch servicing the network service provider and the second data switch is established. Data is then routed between the network service provider and the digital subscriber line access multiplexer via the permanent virtual circuit between the data switch servicing the network service provider and the second data switch, the physical loop-back circuit, and the extension permanent virtual circuit.

An improved vibratory bowl feeder is provided. The improved vibratory bowl feeder includes a removable impact cone formed from an impact resistant material to deflect falling industrial workpieces toward the sidewall of a bowl. The impact cone includes a through-hole for a center bolt, the center bolt securing the impact cone to the bowl. An adhesive layer bonds the impact cone to the bowl, which is optionally formed from stainless steel. The impact cone includes a frusto-conical or hemispherical impact surface that deadens the impact from industrial workpieces falling from an overhead hopper. Replacement of the impact cone can be achieved within minimal downtime, and varying impact cones can be selected based on the size and the shape of the industrial workpieces for a given inspection run.