53 results about "Capital equipment" patented technology

A wireless local area network (WLAN) system comprises multiple access points that are distributed throughout a medical facility to provide wireless access to a hardwired network. The access points implement multiple WLAN protocols, including a realtime protocol for realtime patient monitoring (telemetry) and a standard WLAN protocol (such as IEEE 802.11 within an ISM band) for providing general-purpose wireless access. Some or all of the access points preferably implement both WLAN protocols such that the different WLANs and wireless device types share network access resources. Some or all of the access points may also include RF location-tracking modules which may be used to track locations of patients, hospital personnel, capital equipment, and / or disposable medical supplies. Also disclosed are an antenna design which may be used with the access points to improve reception (particularly for patient monitoring), and a TDMA timeslot rotation method for avoiding lockstep interference between access points that operate on the same channel.

The present invention relates to capital equipment units, such as systems for providing medical treatment, that are associated with smart supplies. The smart supplies are tagged with data carriers which may encode such information as a unique ID for the supply or component, the identification of the supply or component, the identification of the source of the supply or component, the status of whether said supply or component has been previously used, the expiration date of the supply or component, and in the case where the supply or component contains drug, the purity levels of the drug and the concentration levels of the drug. The capital equipment units or their users then utilize the information to assure quality of any procedure run with the units, by way of improved pre-use checks, certification of the supplies for use, record keeping, inventory control, and charge capture.

At the present time, physicians often treat patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) using radiofrequency (RF) catheter systems to ablate conducting tissue in the wall of the Left Atrium of the heart around the ostium of the pulmonary veins. These systems are expensive and take time consuming to use. The present invention circular ablation system CAS includes a multiplicity of expandable needles that can be expanded around a central axis and positioned to inject a fluid like ethanol to ablate conductive tissue in a ring around the ostium of a pulmonary vein quickly and without the need for expensive capital equipment. The expansion of the needles is accomplished by self-expanding or balloon expandable structures. The invention includes centering means so that the needles will be situated in a pattern surrounding the outside of the ostium of a vein. Also included are members that limit the distance of penetration of the needles into the wall of the left atrium, or the aortic wall. The present invention also has an important application to ablate tissue around the ostium of one or both renal arteries, for the ablation of the sympathetic nerve fibers and / or other afferent or efferent nerves going to or from each kidney in order to treat hypertension.

At the present time, physicians often treat patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) using radiofrequency (RF) catheter systems to ablate conducting tissue in the wall of the Left Atrium of the heart around the ostium of the pulmonary veins. These systems are expensive and take time consuming to use. The present invention circular ablation system CAS includes a multiplicity of expandable needles that can be expanded around a central axis and positioned to inject a fluid like ethanol to ablate conductive tissue in a ring around the ostium of a pulmonary vein quickly and without the need for expensive capital equipment. The expansion of the needles is accomplished by self-expanding or balloon expandable structures. The invention includes centering means so that the needles will be situated in a pattern surrounding the outside of the ostium of a vein. Also included are members that limit the distance of penetration of the needles into the wall of the left atrium. The present invention also has application to ablating tissue around the ostium of a renal artery for the treatment of hypertension.

The present invention relates to capital equipment units, such as systems for providing medical treatment, that are associated with smart supplies. The smart supplies are tagged with data carriers which may encode such information as a unique ID for the supply or component, the identification of the supply or component, the identification of the source of the supply or component, the status of whether said supply or component has been previously used, the expiration date of the supply or component, and in the case where the supply or component contains drug, the purity levels of the drug and the concentration levels of the drug. The capital equipment units or their users then utilize the information to assure quality of any procedure run with the units, by way of improved pre-use checks, certification of the supplies for use, record keeping, inventory control, and charge capture.

The subject invention relates to a wafer stage, such as may be used in optical wafer metrology instruments. The stage contains a wafer-chuck that can be connected to translation stages for the purpose of clamping and translating the wafer so that a plurality of sites on the wafer surface may be measured. The chuck includes a holder for mounting a reference sample. The holder is movable between a retracted position where the reference sample is held below the chuck surface and an extended position, such as where the surface of the reference sample is co-planar with the wafer surface. Therefore the holder may be installed within the area of the chuck that is utilized for wafer clamping. By this arrangement, the size of the wafer translation system can be reduced minimizing the stage travel and enabling increased spatial resolution, increased wafer throughput and reduced capital equipment and operating costs.

At the present time, physicians often treat patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) using radiofrequency (RF) catheter systems to ablate conducting tissue in the wall of the Left Atrium of the heart around the ostium of the pulmonary veins. These systems are expensive and take time consuming to use. The present invention circular ablation system CAS includes a multiplicity of expandable needles that can be expanded around a central axis and positioned to inject a fluid like ethanol to ablate conductive tissue in a ring around the ostium of a pulmonary vein quickly and without the need for expensive capital equipment. The expansion of the needles is accomplished by self-expanding or balloon expandable structures. The invention includes centering means so that the needles will be situated in a pattern surrounding the outside of the ostium of a vein. Also included are members that limit the distance of penetration of the needles into the wall of the left atrium. The present invention also has application to ablating tissue around the ostium of a renal artery for the treatment of hypertension.

A wireless local area network (WLAN) system comprises multiple access points that are distributed throughout a medical facility to provide wireless access to a hardwired network. The access points implement multiple WLAN protocols, including a realtime protocol for realtime patient monitoring (telemetry) and a standard WLAN protocol (such as IEEE 802.11 within an ISM band) for providing general-purpose wireless access. Some or all of the access points preferably implement both WLAN protocols such that the different WLANs and wireless device types share network access resources. Some or all of the access points may also include RF location-tracking modules which may be used to track locations of patients, hospital personnel, capital equipment, and / or disposable medical supplies. Also disclosed are an antenna design which may be used with the access points to improve-reception (particularly for patient monitoring), and a TDMA timeslot rotation method for avoiding lockstep interference between access points that operate on the same channel.

At the present time, physicians often treat patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) using radiofrequency (RF) catheter systems to ablate conducting tissue in the wall of the Left Atrium of the heart around the ostium of the pulmonary veins. These systems are expensive and take time consuming to use. The present invention circular ablation system CAS includes a multiplicity of expandable needles that can be expanded around a central axis and positioned to inject a fluid like ethanol to ablate conductive tissue in a ring around the ostium of a pulmonary vein quickly and without the need for expensive capital equipment. The expansion of the needles is accomplished by self-expanding or balloon expandable structures. The invention includes centering means so that the needles will be situated in a pattern surrounding the outside of the ostium of a vein. Also included are members that limit the distance of penetration of the needles into the wall of the left atrium, or the aortic wall. The present invention also has an important application to ablate tissue around the ostium of one or both renal arteries, for the ablation of the sympathetic nerve fibers and / or other afferent or efferent nerves going to or from each kidney in order to treat hypertension.

At the present time, physicians often treat patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) using radiofrequency (RF) catheter systems to ablate conducting tissue in the wall of the Left Atrium of the heart around the ostium of the pulmonary veins. These systems are expensive and take time consuming to use. The present invention circular ablation system CAS includes a multiplicity of expandable needles that can be expanded around a central axis and positioned to inject a fluid like ethanol to ablate conductive tissue in a ring around the ostium of a pulmonary vein quickly and without the need for expensive capital equipment. The expansion of the needles is accomplished by self-expanding or balloon expandable structures. The invention includes centering means so that the needles will be situated in a pattern surrounding the outside of the ostium of a vein. Also included are members that limit the distance of penetration of the needles into the wall of the left atrium, or the aortic wall. The present invention also has an important application to ablate tissue around the ostium of one or both renal arteries, for the ablation of the sympathetic nerve fibers and / or other afferent or efferent nerves going to or from each kidney in order to treat hypertension.

A fluteless endodontic file is provided, formed from a tapered shaft of material having a prismatic shape generally defined by three or more side surfaces and three or more interposed corners. A plurality of notches are cut into one or more corners defining cutting surfaces, points and / or edges. The notched cutting surfaces are formed such that the file, when rotated and / or reciprocated within a root canal, effectively cuts / debrides hard tissue (known in the art as dentin) as well as soft tissue, thus, forming an optimal canal shape. The cutting surfaces are also preferably formed at an angle to the centerline of the instrument to provide optimal cutting efficiency and material removal. The fluteless file design exhibits increased efficacy, with less tendency to bind and break within the root canal and also significantly reduces manufacturing and capital equipment costs.

A process for the treatment of industrial waste water. The process includes the steps of admixing partially-treated waste water containing precipitated impurities with a flocculating agent in a flocculation basin, directing the admixed waste water to an elongated sedimentation basin, allowing flocculated solids in the waste water to settle to the bottom of the sedimentation basin, removing the settled solids from the bottom of the sedimentation basin and directing the treated water from the sedimentation basin. The process can further include the step of adjusting the pH of the waste water to precipitate impurities in the waste water prior to the addition of the flocculation agent. The elongated sedimentation basin can include a pair of sloped sides to consolidate the settled solids at the bottom of the basin. The settled solids can then be removed by suction. The basins can be formed from the excavation or impoundment of earth in an area adjacent to a waste water-generating facility. Furthermore, the flow of the streams between basins can be controlled by overflow, with flow rates further controlled by recycle of solids and treated water. The treatment of industrial water according to the present processes allows removal of impurities such that the water is suitable for internal re-use in an operating phosphoric acid facility or release. Additionally, the process is able to treat acidic industrial waste water by the removal of impurities as a preliminary treatment stage leading to discharge of the final treated water to natural water bodies in compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act. Moreover, treated water may be processed by reverse osmosis to remove residual impurities. By employing the processes taught herein reverse osmosis becomes possible and practicable in the context of industrial waste water treatment. Treatment of waste water in accordance with the present invention will require less expensive capital equipment for the separation stages and provide a more concentrated solids stream.

An arthroscopic sealing cannula having improved efficiency, access and reduced manufacturing costs is described herein. In particular, the present invention describes arthroscopic sealing cannulae in which the conventional thermal and chemical bonding means are eliminated and replaced with a mechanical joining system that utilizes mating fastener pairs integrally molded into the distal and proximal elements of a cannula so as to thereby provide a strong reliable joining of the elements. Such a mechanical system eliminates the need for costly capital equipment and specializing tooling as well as the material and environmental handling problems associated with conventional bonding techniques. Furthermore, in that the join may be readily confirmed through simple visual examination, the present invention also eliminates the need for complex, costly, and time-consuming validation procedures mandated by regulations in place to ensure proper integrity, strength, and reliability of the bond. Accordingly, arthroscopic sealing cannulae constructed in accordance with the principles of this invention are expected to have increased reliability and reduced manufacturing costs.

The invention discloses a processing method for alarm correlation of a monitoring system based on business rules. The processing method comprises following steps of: a), coding all capital equipment in a unified mode according to business rules; b), acquiring original alarm information, where each piece of business rules comprises a capital code through which a business system ID is founded out and finding out all related capital equipment corresponding to the business system by means of the business system ID; c), reading occurrence time of original alarm information and calculating the related warning time range; and d), matching all related original alarm information in a related manner in order to find out original alarm information and result alarm information if original alarm information of related capital equipment within the related alarm time range is present and carrying out early warning operation if otherwise. The processing method for alarm correlation of the monitoring system based on business rules has following beneficial effects: with business requirements of a client as objects of management, root causes of failure based on business rules can be precisely positioned and non-perceptible failure of the client can be pre-processed in order to avoid occurrences of perception failures.

A computer-implemented method for providing maintenance service for long-term capital equipment or fixtures includes the steps of diagnosing existing conditions of the long-term capital equipment or fixtures, providing a warranty on the long-term capital equipment or fixtures in conjunction with a purchase of an initial maintenance service, repairing the long-term capital equipment or fixtures to reach the start-up standard if any of the existing conditions are below the predetermined start-up standard, developing a maintenance schedule according to the predetermined start-up standard and any of existing conditions which are beyond the predetermined start-up standard, and maintaining the long-term capital equipment or fixtures according to the maintenance schedule so as to fulfill the warranty. The providing of the warranty includes transferring from owner to a provider the risk of maintaining performance of the long-term capital equipment or fixtures during a specified time and within a predetermined start-up standard.

The disclosure relates to ultrahigh efficiency spray drying systems and processes, utilizing induction of localized turbulence in a drying fluid flow stream to produce spray dried product, having particular utility for low temperature spray drying operations. In a specific implementation, a method of processing a spray dryable liquid composition to form a spray dried product includes the steps of: generating a spray of the spray dryable liquid composition; contacting the spray of spray dryable liquid composition in a spray drying contact zone with a stream of primary drying fluid; injecting pressurized secondary drying fluid into the stream of primary drying fluid in the spray drying contact zone at multiple loci thereof to provide localized turbulence at said multiple loci; and recovering the spray dried product from the spray drying contact zone. Systems of the present disclosure are effective in achieving high-rate production of dry powder spray dried products, with substantially reduced capital equipment costs, energy requirements, and operating expenditures.

An electrical connector capable of being sealingly connected to a housing structure by using a friction stir welding technique includes a polymeric electrical connector harness, at least one electrical conductor extending through the electrical connector harness, and a welding strip sealingly connected around a perimeter of the electrical connector harness to facilitate welding of the electrical connector to a housing structure, such as a sealed metal housing, to sealingly close an opening defined in the housing structure. The electrical connector can be used in a process that creates a hermetic seal between the connector and the housing structure, eliminates the need for mechanical fasteners and / or adhesives, and / or reduces capital equipment and energy costs.

An integrated well access assembly. The assembly may be a coiled tubing unit with integrated pumping capability. However, other types of assemblies for oilfield operations may be employed. Regardless, the assembly may include a single prime mover to operate multiple pumps from a single trailer platform. This may be achieved by replacement of a conventional crankshaft driven pump or other significantly massive pump with a smaller hydraulic pump of sufficient pumping capacity. This replacement allows for a reduction in the amount of capital equipment required at the oilfield for a given operation. Thus, in turn, manpower and other maintenance expenses may similarly be reduced for the operation.

A fluteless endodontic file is provided, formed from a tapered shaft of material having a prismatic shape generally defined by three or more side surfaces and three or more interposed corners. A plurality of notches are cut into one or more corners defining cutting surfaces, points and / or edges. The notched cutting surfaces are formed such that the file, when rotated and / or reciprocated within a root canal, effectively cuts / debrides hard tissue (known in the art as dentin) as well as soft tissue, thus, forming an optimal canal shape. The cutting surfaces are also preferably formed at an angle to the centerline of the instrument to provide optimal cutting efficiency and material removal. The fluteless file design exhibits increased efficacy, with less tendency to bind and break within the root canal and also significantly reduces manufacturing and capital equipment costs.

This invention relates to a breakthrough in the art of chromatography allowing 1) larger scale of operation; 2) faster processing time; 3) disposability; 4) reduction of media / resin expenses; and 5) a reduction of capital equipment investment. In this invention, the chromatography column is replaced by a module that consists of two or more interconnected tangential flow filters and static mixers. The chromatography resin flows through this module in a single pass, while similar operations to a regular chromatographic process are performed on the resin (binding, washing, elution, regeneration, and equilibration). The buffers for these operations are pumped into the module in a countercurrent direction to the flow of resin, and permeate solutions from later stages are recycled back into previous stages. This creates concentration gradients in the permeate solutions of the tangential flow filters in the countercurrent direction to resin flow, thus saving buffer volume and increasing process efficiency.

Biomass is quickly becoming an important feedstock for energy generation in power plants. Due to their composition and nature, certain biomass fuels contribute to slagging, fouling, and corrosion. This invention provides a novel method of reducing or suppressing slag deposition and / or cleaning deposited slag in energy production processes in which potassium-containing solid fuels are combusted. Besides acting as a slag suppressant, further advantages of this invention are that the additive has no detrimental side-effects on capital equipment, increases slag friability, decreases slag fouling rate, reduces heat transfer corrosion as well as increasing the lifetime of the selective catalytic reduction catalyst.

The invention provides a mobile operation system and method for water and electricity production management for solving the problems existing in an existing water and electricity production management information system.The system comprises a mobile application server and a mobile application client side.The mobile application server achieves the functions of service data exchange, auditing supervision and control and operation instruction sending; the mobile application client side achieves the functions of two mobile tickets, mobile defects, mobile polling, technical supervision, mobile KPI, basic data and the like.According to the method, the mobile operation system is adopted, front-line staff achieves on-site execution of two tickets, defect compilation, checking and elimination, polling information receiving, recording and reporting, technological supervision test data on-line collection and other work contents, management staff obtains service data information conditions of the two tickets, the defects, polling, technical supervision and the like, and on-line analysis of capital equipment overhaul conditions is carried out through KPI.By means of the mobile operation system and method, smoothness of on-site operation procedures and data accuracy can be effectively ensured.

An electrical connector capable of being sealingly connected to a housing structure by using a friction stir welding technique includes a polymeric electrical connector harness, at least one electrical conductor extending through the electrical connector harness, and a welding strip sealingly connected around a perimeter of the electrical connector harness to facilitate welding of the electrical connector to a housing structure, such as a sealed metal housing, to sealingly close an opening defined in the housing structure. The electrical connector can be used in a process that creates a hermetic seal between the connector and the housing structure, eliminates the need for mechanical fasteners and / or adhesives, and / or reduces capital equipment and energy costs.

The invention provides an iris algorithm based electric power security information identification and intelligent management system. The system comprises an identification terminal located on an operating condition site and a remote management module connected with the identification terminal, the identification terminal comprises a personnel identification unit, a tool and appliance identification unit and an alarm unit, the remote management unit comprises a controller and a storer connected with the controller, and the storer is connected with the alarm unit. The personnel identification unit comprises an iris image processing based video monitoring module, and the tool and appliance identification unit comprises a scanner, an identification tag and a reader connected with the scanner. The iris biometric identification technique and the RFID (radio frequency identification) barcode technique are combined with wireless network applications, users are provided with accurate and quick personnel and capital equipment data collection, statistics and management, and personnel entry-exit management in important places and real-time track management including tracking, positioning, maintenance and the like on capital equipment in the whole life cycle of the capital equipment are realized.

The disclosure relates to ultrahigh efficiency spray drying systems and processes, utilizing induction of localized turbulence in a drying fluid flow stream to produce spray dried product, having particular utility for low temperature spray drying operations. In a specific implementation, a method of processing a spray dryable liquid composition to form a spray dried product includes the steps of: generating a spray of the spray dryable liquid composition; contacting the spray of spray dryable liquid composition in a spray drying contact zone with a stream of primary drying fluid; injecting pressurized secondary drying fluid into the stream of primary drying fluid in the spray drying contact zone at multiple loci thereof to provide localized turbulence at said multiple loci; and recovering the spray dried product from the spray drying contact zone. Systems of the present disclosure are effective in achieving high-rate production of dry powder spray dried products, with substantially reduced capital equipment costs, energy requirements, and operating expenditures.

A testing system for semiconductor chips having a removable device under test printed circuit board (DUT PCB) that electrically connects with the electrical testing components of the system. A removable top plate is placed on top of the DUT PCB and is locked in place by a plurality of locking posts that selectively connect to cam surfaces in the top plate that pull the top plate down sandwiching the DUT PCB between the top plate and the electrical testing components of the system. The DUT PCB is quickly and easily removed and replaced by moving the locking posts between an engaged position and a disengaged position. In this way, a single testing system can be used to test a great variety of semiconductor chips thereby reducing capital equipment costs and space needed in cleanrooms.

A unique, integrated non-obvious pathway to convert biomass to biofuels using integration of chemical processes is described herein. The present invention is simple, direct, and provides for the shortest or minimum path between biomass and transportation fuels with alcohols as intermediates, while avoiding hydrogen use during processing. Furthermore, the present invention allows the manufacture of “drop-in” substitutable fuels to be used as-is without modifications instead of conventional petroleum based fuels. The processing described herein is done under mild conditions, under relatively low pressures and temperatures, and under non-corrosive conditions obviating use of special equipment or materials. The novel integration heat and mass generated during the process increases overall process efficiency and lowers financial costs for processing and capital equipment, manages environmental impact, and enables a relatively high degree of yield by an enhanced usage of fresh water and thermal energy in comparison to the amount of biomass processed.

SPF (spray polyurethane foam) insulation applied in a commercial or residential building is the only building product which is manufactured on-site and not in a controlled in-plant environment. One reason for the high cost of SPF is that application of SPF requires large investment capital equipment and a specialized crew for each job. The work is further complex because the crew of each rig manufactures and installs the plural component product with little or no technical off-site guidance or support. We worked to solve this problem by designing a remote monitoring and reporting system which sends live raw parameter data from the spray rig to a support center server. The support center processes the data and provides rig support through our 4 pillars of technology. We designed the system to interface with all proportioner brands used by contractors keeping the user interface and majority of components standard for all. Using our system, the rig crew can optimize their performance and the performance of the equipment. Using our system, the average spray rig can improve productivity by 15-20% per job.

The disclosure relates to ultrahigh efficiency spray drying systems and processes, utilizing induction of localized turbulence in a drying fluid flow stream to produce spray dried product, having particular utility for low temperature spray drying operations. In a specific implementation, a method of processing a spray dryable liquid composition to form a spray dried product includes the steps of: generating a spray of the spray dryable liquid composition; contacting the spray of spray dryable liquid composition in a spray drying contact zone with a stream of primary drying fluid; injecting pressurized secondary drying fluid into the stream of primary drying fluid in the spray drying contact zone at multiple loci thereof to provide localized turbulence at said multiple loci; and recovering the spray dried product from the spray drying contact zone. Systems of the present disclosure are effective in achieving high-rate production of dry powder spray dried products, with substantially reduced capital equipment costs, energy requirements, and operating expenditures.