218 results about "Initial cost" patented technology

Offering vertical services to subscribers and service providers is an avenue to immediately improve the competitiveness of digital subscriber line access service, for example of the type offered by a local exchange carrier. To deliver high-quality vertical services, however, the underlying ADSL Data Network (ADN) or the like needs to establish Quality of Service (QoS) as a core characteristic and offer an efficient mechanism for insertion of the vertical services. The inventive network architecture introduces QoS into the ADN, in a manner that enables the delivery of sophisticated and demanding IP-based services to subscribers, does not affect existing Internet tiers of service, and is cost-effective in terms of initial costs, build-out, and ongoing operations. The architecture utilizes a switch capable of examining and selectively forwarding packets or frames based on higher layer information in the protocol stack, that is to say on information that is encapsulated in the layer-2 information utilized to define normal connectivity through the network. The switch enables segregation of upstream traffic by type and downstream aggregation of Internet traffic together with traffic from a local vertical services domain.

The invention discloses a groove-tower combined solar-heat power generation system, which comprises a subsystem for low-temperature groove-type heat collection and low-temperature heat storage, a subsystem for high-temperature tower-type heat collection and high-temperature heat storage, as well as a power generation subsystem, wherein the subsystem for low-temperature groove-type heat collection and low-temperature heat storage is used for receiving and gathering solar radiation energy, converting the received solar radiation energy into medium-temperature heat energy and conveying the medium-temperature heat energy to the subsystem for high-temperature tower-type heat collection and high-temperature heat storage or a low-temperature heat accumulator; the subsystem for high-temperature tower-type heat collection and high-temperature heat storage is used for receiving and gathering solar radiation energy, converting the received solar radiation energy into high-temperature heat energy and conveying the high-temperature heat energy to a power subsystem or a high-temperature heat accumulator; and the power subsystem is used for converting the received heat energy into electric energy and outputting the electric energy. The system solves the problems that a groove-type solar-heat power generation system is low in heat-collecting temperature and difficult to promote; the optical efficiency of a heliostat filed of a simple-tower solar-heat power generation system is greatly affected by the scale of power plants; and the simple-tower solar-heat power generation system is not easy to maximize. The system has the advantages of reducing initial cost and occupied area.

A method of operating a navigation system for a vehicle and a vehicle navigation system are provided, where an initial route to a destination is determined, the initial route that includes a plurality of links, each of which is associated with an initial cost. The initial route may be calculated such that it passes within a predetermined distance of one or more predetermined waypoints. One or more of the predetermined waypoints may be designated as an obligatory waypoint, which will be taken into account when calculating a new route. The initial cost associated with a link in the initial route may be decreased and a new route calculated in the event the vehicle deviates from the initial route.

Affordable commercial service platforms in space focusing on customer affordability, quality microgravity services, innovation and combining five emerging space technologies. The invention provides an integrated approach to microgravity services in orbit. First, the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) offers affordable transportation services, platform reboost, and eliminates platform subsystems of propulsion, RCS, liquid storage/resupply, and the like. Second, deployable structures are not heavy for the launch, but expand in orbit. Third, orbital phone networks offer customers control of unmanned experiments. Fourth, an enhanced robotic system transfers payloads. Fifth, manufactured thin film solar cells in orbit offer advantages including weight/cost reductions. The orbital service platform has a low initial cost, expands as the market demands, is repairable, offers quality unmanned microgravity, leads to production facilities using similar hardware and offers numerous affordable commercial services.

Forming a sequence plan for a machine to travel to a series of specified locations is described. An initial cost table (414) and a pattern of locations (412) is inputted to a Sequential Ordering Problem (SOP) solver (402). The resulting sequence (410) is processed by a motion planner (404) to derive by a motion planning procedure a plan of machine motions through the sequence. A cost table update (408) is performed based on the motion plan, which is then used for another iteration of the SOP solver (402).

The method provides a dry vertical shaft storage system for spent fuel of a nuclear power station and a storage method thereof. The system comprises a loading subsystem, a storage subsystem, a reloading subsystem, a transferring subsystem, a residual heat discharge subsystem, a negative pressure ventilation subsystem, a fuel suction subsystem and an air blowing subsystem. The system saves a water-cooling system and a water purification system on the basis of the water storage method; the storage vertical shaft is arranged underground, so that the influence of an external event can be effectively prevented, such as airplane crash; when the spent fuel needs to be transferred, a spent fuel storage tank can be taken out of a storage depot, and then directly loaded in a spent fuel shielding transport cask through lifting equipment so as to be conveniently transported; a plant and structural equipment are not polluted by radioactive materials, so the spent fuel storage depot can be normally disassembled and retired after the spent fuel storage tank is transferred; radioactive decontamination is not needed and the spent fuel storage depot can be conveniently retired; and the storage tank can be processed in different phases to reduce initial cost according to the operation of the power station.

The compressor in a refrigeration system is controlled solely by a variable speed drive which controls the motor of the compressor by virtue of the varying of the frequency of the electricity provided to the motor. To minimize the initial cost and to minimize operating costs, the variable speed drive is cooled by refrigerant from the refrigeration system which permits the use of a smaller drive, and the variable speed drive is operated at, or approaching, a unity power factor.

This invention relates to the field of solar energy heat pump water heater technology, especially a method of starting and stopping the special heat pump water heater cooperated with solar energy. An environmental temperature sensor detects environmental temperature T ring at any time. The T ring calculates the average temperature T average of each day. The T average determines the actual weather belongs to summer, winter or transitional season. A hot water temperature sensor detects the water temperature T hot in the heat preserving water tank at any time. The T hot compares the setting temperature Tfh and determines the starting and stopping of compressor in different seasons and times. This invention can greatly reduce the heating power arrangement of heat pump water heater. It can also reduce the initial cost and resource consumption in the initial cost.

To provide a decompression switching valve that enables reduction in the running cost and initial cost, by saving of air consumption and simplifying and downsizing of equipment. A decompression switching valve includes one valve hole, a main valve body having air supply ports, a first output port, a second output port, and an air exhaust port which are communicated with the valve hole, and a first spool and a second spool which are slidably provided in the valve hole, adjacent to each other, wherein the first spool forms a switching valve section that selectively connects the first output port to an air supply port or the air exhaust port, and wherein the second spool forms a decompression valve section that reduces the pressure of compressed air having been input from the air supply port and outputs the pressure from the second output port.

In a dehumidifying system using a desiccant dehumidifier, regeneration air at the desiccant dehumidifier is heated by the condenser of a heat pump or a gas cooler, indoor return air re-circulated from an air-conditioned indoor to a dehumidifying rotor is cooled by an evaporator. Since the cooling load of indoor return air is almost stable during operations, the size of a heat pump unit is made small as compared with outdoor air cooling by setting the capacity of the heat pump to match this cooling load to thereby reduce initial costs. Furthermore, the heat pump can be operated at an almost maximum capacity throughout operating periods to provide a stabilized energy saving effect.

The present invention discloses a WDM layer-based OChP device and the method thereof, i.e., M protection channels are added in the transmitting module and the receiving module to connect to receiving ends and transmitting ends of M protection channels in the WDM system; a switching device is added so as to switch signals in specified working channels to specified protection channels or switch signals transmitted in specified protection channels back to specified working channels according to switching requests from the WDM system; wherein M and N are natural numbers, and M<N. Because the number M of protection channels is less than the number N of the working channels, compared with 1+1 or 1:1 protection solution, this solution helps to save optical wavelength resource and initial cost. In addition, compared with 1+1 or 1:1 protection solution, when M>1, this solution can significantly reduce the risk of ruined backup performance due to above failures, without requiring increased cost.

The invention discloses a seawater desalination system adopting combined operation of a solar collector and a seawater-source heat pump. The system comprises the solar collector and a seawater-source heat pump unit, wherein the seawater-source heat pump unit comprises a seawater-source heat pump evaporator, a seawater-source heat pump compressor, a seawater-source heat pump condenser and a seawater-source heat pump electronic expansion valve. The seawater desalination system has the advantages of small overall size, simple structure, portability, convenience in transportation and initial cost saving; solar energy as a rich renewable energy source in a sea island is used, energy saving and environmental protection are realized, and the cost is low; fresh water can be prepared through a simple physical process, low requirements are needed for seawater pretreatment, a fresh water preparation process is safe and reliable, and the service life is long; an air-air heat exchanger is taken as an energy recovery device, energy waste can be avoided, and the energy utilization rate can be increased; when residents on the sea island adopt the seawater-source heat pump as a building cooling and heating source, and the system shares the seawater-source heat pump, so that the initial cost is saved again.

There is provided a substrate processing method which is capable of lowering the initial cost and the running cost of an apparatus, does not require a wide installation space, does not degrade electrical characteristics such as an interconnect resistance and a leakage current, and is capable of efficiently forming a high-quality alloy film on the surface of a metal region. The substrate processing method including; preparing a substrate having a metal region on a surface thereof, performing a pre-plating treatment by bringing a pretreatment liquid into contact with the surface of the substrate to modify the entire surface thereof, removing the pretreatment liquid remaining on the surface of the substrate in a rinsing treatment, performing an electroless plating process on the surface of the substrate to selectively form an alloy film on the surface of the metal region, and post-cleaning the substrate after the electroless plating process and drying the substrate.

The invention discloses an automatic spectrum measuring method and an automatic spectrum measuring device. The automatic spectrum measuring device comprises an unmanned automatic navigation ship, and a field spectrometer, an automatic spectrum measuring device and a main control system which are fixedly arranged on the unmanned automatic navigation ship, wherein one end of the automatic spectrum measuring device is fixedly arranged on one side of a ship body, the other end of the automatic spectrum measuring device is connected with the field spectrometer and the automatic spectrum measuring device is used for automatically realizing the multi-angle movement of the spectrum probe of the field spectrometer required for water body spectrum measurement; and the main control system is respectively and electrically connected with the unmanned automatic navigation ship, the field spectrometer and the automatic spectrum measuring device and is used for transmitting path information to the controller of the unmanned automatic navigation ship, controlling the movement of the automatic spectrum measuring device and controlling the measurement and the storage of the spectrometer. The automatic spectrum measuring device has the advantages that the coverage area is wider, the monitoring locations can be flexibly set, the energy is saved when the device is compared with a large ship, the initial cost is low, the entire process is fully automated, the spectrum data, the time, the position and the photos are synchronously obtained, the manmade errors are avoided and the measurement efficiency is improved.