Abstract: An improved sheet printer is provided capable of simultaneously printing both on a “main” surface of a sheet of print media and along edges of that same sheet of print media, such that when the sheets are stacked after being printed, a predetermined image will appear along one or more of the sides of the stack. The “side image” is formed by the dots that have been printed along the edges of the individual sheets. The side image is generated during image processing of the print job, not by a post-processing step of marking or printing against the side of a stack that has already been printed. The printer can form the side images by printing along all four edges of a single piece of the sheet media, and also on one of that sheet's main surfaces, during a single pass through a printing station.

Abstract: An improved laser printer is provided that keeps its fuser at a standby temperature that is somewhat raised above the ambient temperature, which allows the printer to operate more quickly (to begin printing the first page) when a print job arrives at the printer. The time needed to raise the fuser's temperature is minimized, so that other printer operations become the determining factor in the time to first print parameter. The electrical energy that energizes the fuser is provided in a form that prevents light flicker, by use of AC waveform phase control, or by use of integer half cycle control. The present invention uses closed-loop feedback control, and the type of controller is a PID controller.

Abstract: A portable induction tool is provided for soldering or brazing sections of metal pipe together. A work coil head (with induction coil) is U-shaped, allowing placement of the head around lengths of pipe, heating a susceptor (e.g., the pipe) to form a joint, and then to be withdrawn after the pipe joint is made. In one form, the tool uses heat pipes to remove thermal energy from the head, and also a heat exchanger for higher-powered units. Power capacitors are generally included with the induction (work) coil to create a tank circuit of a resonant frequency. The induction coil uses Litz wire, copper tubing, or heat pipes with a conductive outer skin to carry the high-current being delivered to the induction coil. The induction coil has a general racetrack configuration, which is typically wound in a U-shape (or as a semicircle) as a single winding, with multiple turns.

Abstract: An air heater is provided for use in buildings or other structures. The air heater uses infrared lamps to generate a temperature rise in a forced air chamber that contains several infrared lamps, in which two ends of the chamber act as an inlet and an outlet, and in which the chamber has a highly reflective interior surface that reflects the light being emitted by the lamps to multiply the thermal effect of the infrared light sources. An alternative embodiment uses a closed chamber, in which the temperature rise causes the unit to act as a detonator.

Abstract: A flexible scintillation-type level detector (10), in which the scintillator (18) is made from a flexible tube (12) substantially filled with a liquid scintillating material (16) to provide flexibility in at least two, and preferably three, dimensions. At least one end (32) is aligned for operable connection to a photodetector (14, 20). Outer surfaces of the flexible tube (12) may be covered with an inwardly-facing light reflective material (30) and/or light-excluding material or flexible armored casing(22). The scintillator (18) may include a variable-volume expansion chamber (110, 152, 176) to compensate for thermal expansion and contraction of the liquid scintillator material (16).

Abstract: An electronic lock box contains a secure compartment for storing keys to a structure. A linear actuator moves in one direction opening the door to the secure compartment, and moves in the opposite direction releasing a shackle that holds the lock box to the structure. A lock box system uses an encryption algorithm to diversify user PIN data at a central computer, and stores that diversified information on a memory card for later use when the user attempts to access a lock box. The central computer and electronic lock box both keep track of system “epoch time,” and the memory card must be presented to the electronic lock box within a correct epoch time window for the diversified PIN data to be successfully decrypted and compared to the user's PIN data that is entered on a keypad of the electronic lock box.

Abstract: A portable hand-held screw driving tool is provided for use with collated strips of screws. A collated strip of screws enters from an upper-rear area of the tool and runs through a pathway or slot in an elongated, movable upper guide mounted at the tool's upper housing, then to a movable slide body having that receives and indexes the collated strip so a screw can be driven by the tool. The upper guide provides containment that prevents the flexible collated strip becoming substantially misaligned while moving through the guide's slot. When the tool is actuated to drive a screw into an object, the sliding guide moves longitudinally along the top of the tool, along with the tool's front-end screw-driving mechanism. Thus the flexible collated strip is always in a relatively fixed orientation as compared to the movable front end portion of the tool.

Abstract: A portable hand-held screw driving tool is provided for use with collated strips of screws. A collated strip of screws enters from the “bottom” area of the tool and runs through a fixed guide along a front area of the tool's handle, and then to a movable slide body having a rotatable sprocket that receives the collated strip, and indexes the strip so a screw can be driven by the tool. Between the slide body and the fixed guide is a flexible strap with a bracket that places tension on the collated screw strip, which prevents the flexible collated strip from becoming substantially misaligned (e.g., bunching, sagging, or becoming tangled) in the area between the fixed guide and the slide body. The collated strip is kept sufficiently taut, regardless of the orientation of the screw driving tool with respect to the ground.

Abstract: An improved variable speed fan controller for use in devices such as laser printers. The controller automatically adjusts its output signal to fans such that a fan quickly settles into an appropriate operating speed, even if the fan has been newly installed into the equipment. The controller can store values in non-volatile memory, if desired, to keep track of recent changes in the fan's operating parameters and corresponding control signal values. The controller is able to control relatively inexpensive fans that don't necessarily operate at a predictable fan rotating speed under repeatable conditions and control signals, by controlling the fan to an initial or predetermined rotating speed; if the fan isn't running within a suitable range of rotational speeds, then determining whether a fine or coarse adjustment should be made to the fan's rotational speed. The controller makes appropriate adjustments until the fan's rotational speed is within acceptable operating tolerances.

Abstract: A highly reflective arrowhead traffic sign is provided which exhibits an arrow shape to “aim” traffic to one side or the other along a roadway. A horizontal longitudinal member has at least one pair of arrow-shaped “wings” that extend beyond the outer boundary of the horizontal member. The wing sets can be attached to the horizontal member by use of locating holes and mating pins, or they can be pivotally mounted on the horizontal member. The arrow wings can be shaped into a configuration that points to the left or to the right, or they can be placed on both ends of the horizontal member and simultaneously point to both the left and right, thereby indicating to traffic that a lane is closed, and that traffic must go either left or right to avoid the closed lane.

Abstract: A portable induction tool is provided for soldering or brazing sections of metal pipe together. A work coil head (with induction coil) is U-shaped, allowing placement of the head around lengths of pipe, heating a susceptor (e.g., the pipe) to form a joint, and then to be withdrawn after the pipe joint is made. In one form, the tool uses heat pipes to remove thermal energy from the head, and also a heat exchanger for higher-powered units. Power capacitors are generally included with the induction (work) coil to create a tank circuit of a resonant frequency. The induction coil uses Litz wire, copper tubing, or heat pipes with a conductive outer skin to carry the high-current being delivered to the induction coil. The induction coil has a general racetrack configuration, which is typically wound in a U-shape (or as a semicircle) as a single winding, with multiple turns.

Abstract: A method for using magnetic fields to heat magnetically susceptible materials within and/or adjacent to adhesives, so as to bond, bind, or fasten solid materials to one another. The system uses alternating magnetic fields that induce eddy currents and generate heat within susceptors. An induction heating tool is used to emit the magnetic field at its work coil, and an electronic controller measures the energy being used by a power converter that generates the alternating current driving the work coil which creates the magnetic field. The heating tool is used in a method of adhesive bonding in which the thickness of the conductive layer of the susceptor is in the range of 0.01-3.0 mils, or the heating event time interval is in the range of 0.05-10.0 seconds, or the average power density of the magnetic field at the susceptor is in the range of 10-5000 Watts per square inch.

Abstract: An improved fuser subassembly is provided for electrophotographic printers, in which the detack fingers that separate print media from the fuser hot roll do not make physical contact with that hot roll, and thus are “non-contact” detack fingers. A maximum clearance distance is observed as a relatively tight tolerance between the surface of the hot roll and the tip of the non-contact detack fingers. Both color and mono laser printer products can benefit from this design. Since the finger tips are spaced-apart from the fuser hot roll, the life of the hot roll is increased, and other potential problems are eliminated, such as contamination of the detack fingers, which sometimes cause accordion jams of prior art “contact” detack fingers.

Abstract: An improved shingle mask is provided for use on ink jet printers which use multi-pass printing (shingling) to form bitmap images. The shingle mask is derived from a shingle mask density distribution which exhibits a substantially trapezoidal shape; the shingle mask density distribution is derived from an accumulated shingle mask distribution (also referred to as a “banding profile”) having an overall shape of a plateau portion and a substantially smooth decreasing portion, which reduces the number of drops to be printed along the outermost edges of the mask on each swath. This shape reduces banding effects by effectively increasing a number of printed-density bands which are decreased in size, while at the same time not increasing the number of printhead passes over a given area on the print media (which otherwise would negatively impact printed throughput).