Abstract: A roll conveyor includes a pair of parallel, spaced apart stationary beams and a plurality of elongate cylindrical rollers supported in parallel, side-by-side spaced apart relation for rotation relative to the beams. The rollers are supported and driven individually, each rotated with respect to a pair of non-rotating, coaxial and axially spaced apart first and second shafts. The first shaft is stationary and supports a motorized pulley. A cylindrical housing of the pulley is mounted concentrically and rotatably relative to the stationary shaft. An end plate integral with the housing is shaped to provide an interference fit with a flange secured to one end of the roller, to coaxially align the roller and motorized pulley. The opposite end of the roller includes an idler end region containing an axially inward portion of the second shaft. An axially outward portion of the second shaft is mounted slidably in the axial direction but prevented from rotating.

Abstract: A rotary actuator for disk drives includes a carriage rotatable on a vertical axis, and multiple transducing head suspensions extended horizontally away from the carriage in cantilever fashion. Data reading and writing circuitry includes an electrical circuit package mounted at the carriage, and multiple flexible printed circuits extending horizontally away from the circuit package, each for electrical coupling to one of the transducing heads. A series of slots, formed through the circuit package along one edge, support the flexible printed circuits to achieve an electrical and mechanical coupling that orients the flexible printed circuits with their major planes horizontal throughout their respective lengths, avoiding any twists of the flexible circuitry while providing improved damping and electrical performance. Alternative connecting structures, in lieu of the slots, include rigid rails on one or both sides of each flexible printed circuit, and bendable tabs incorporated into the printed circuits.

Abstract: A bifurcated stent graft implantable in branched internal passageways includes an open-frame stent latticework formed of helically wound structural strands, and a graft sleeve formed of interwoven textile strands. The sleeve is substantially impervious to fluids and is adjustable along with the graft between a nominal state and radially-reduced axially-elongated state, according to substantially the same relationship of radial reduction versus axial elongation. The sleeve and stent are bonded to one another at least at proximal and distal end regions of the stent graft. The sleeve preferably is surrounded by the stent, and incorporates a flow dividing feature in the form of an axially extending seam. The seam brings together portions of the sleeve that otherwise would be circumferentially spaced apart in the tubular sleeve shape.

Abstract: A system is disclosed for detecting local surface discontinuities in magnetic data storage disks. The system includes a spindle that rotatably supports a magnetic disk being tested. An interferometer generates a laser beam which is guided through an optics assembly supported above the magnetic disk, for linear movement radially of the disk. The combined radial and linear movement causes the laser beam to trace a spiral scanning path on the disk surface. The disk surface scatters the laser energy, a portion of which is returned to the interferometer and caused to interfere with a reference beam. The resulting interference intensity fluctuates in response to changes in the optical path length, thus measuring topographies of the discontinuities. A discontinuity recognition triggering pulse can be positioned in time with respect to indexing pulses, to identify the location of the associated discontinuity radially and angularly of the disk.

Abstract: An atherectomy device includes a catheter with a window at its distal tip for admitting tissue into a catheter compartment. A cylindrical cartridge in the compartment has a cutting edge that supports an electrically conductive cutting element, e.g. a band or wire. The cutting element and adjacent tissue can be heated to a selected temperature by generating an electrical current through the cutting element. The catheter is maneuverable to position its distal end near a lesion in an artery. The catheter incorporates a dilatation balloon or other feature to urge the catheter against the lesion, so that at least part of the lesion enters the compartment through the window. Then, the cartridge is manipulated from the catheter's proximal end to move the cutting edge across the window, severing the acquired tissue. According to alternative embodiments, the cartridge is either rotated or moved axially relative to the catheter, in either event closing the catheter window when the cut is complete.

Abstract: A balloon catheter includes an elongate pliable catheter tubing with a dilatation balloon fixed to the catheter tubing near its distal end. The dilatation balloon includes a first wall for dividing the balloon into a plurality of dilatation compartments adjacent one another and arranged angularly about the catheter tubing. Each dilatation compartment is fluid tight and in fluid isolation from other compartments. The compartments are individually controlled so the pressure within each balloon compartment may be adjusted as determined by the operator. The dilatation balloon includes a second wall composed of the respective outer wall portions of the dilatation compartments which defines an outer transverse profile of the dilatation balloon and adapted to form surface engagement with the tissue segments surrounding the balloon when the compartments are dilatated.

Abstract: In a magnetic disk drive, a stationary spindle shaft and a rotary actuator shaft are mounted to opposed walls of the drive housing in precise radial and axial alignment with one of the walls, despite relatively relaxed tolerances in the mounting components. At each shaft end, an axially directed fastener is surrounded by an alignment ring with two frusto-conical guide surfaces, one engaged with an enlarged head of the fastener and the other engaged with the associated shaft end. An axially inward tightening of the fastener brings the enlarged head and shaft end into engagement with their respective guide surfaces of the alignment ring. The fastener is tightened further to elastically elongate the fastener and create a tensile force which, through wedging action, urges the alignment ring radially outward into a firm frictional engagement with a rim of the selected wall, thus to radially align and integrally mount the shaft end with respect to the wall.

Abstract: A continuous flow recycling cleaning system includes a canister containing a liquid cleaning solution, and a dispensing conduit for conveying the cleaning solution from the canister to a cleaning tool head for direct application to a carpet, upholstery fabric or other material at an application area. A recovery conduit is connected to the cleaning tool head for returning recovered cleaning solution, along with air and extracted soil, to the canister. The system includes at least one ozone injector selectively positioned along a fluid flow pathway that includes the canister, the dispensing and recovery conduits, and the cleaning tool head. The fluid flow pathway further can include a counterflow conduit and an ozone-introduction conduit provided solely for the injection of ozone. Each injector is coupled to an ozone generator, to combine the ozone with the cleaning solution flowing through the injector.

Abstract: A process and apparatus are disclosed for generating object traces representing the movement of objects through a measuring space. The measuring space can be illuminated by a laser or other light source, or alternatively the objects can be self-illuminating. In either event, light from the objects is detected over a finite acquisition time, to generate the object traces. During a predetermined portion of the acquisition time, preferably near the end, one of several parameters that govern the object trace width is altered to increase the width, thereby giving the object trace the form of an arrow or vector. The altered parameter can be the brightness of illumination, the sensitivity of the image detector, or the position or state of system components, in particular the image detector, a lens or other active optical component between the objects and the detector, or an optical component between the light source and the objects.

Abstract: A device and process for interferometric sizing of stochastic (irregular and/or inhomogeneous) particles is disclosed. The device generates a pair of laser beams that interfere with one another to form a measuring volume including interference fringes. Particles crossing the fringes scatter light collected by two or more optical receivers. Outputs of the optical receivers are provided to signal processing and phase processing circuits, to generate indications of particle velocities based on signal frequencies, and indications of particle sizes based on phase shift values. Particles are characterized as to size by generating probability density functions of phase, based on multiple particle traverses through the measuring region, thus to more accurately measure groups of particles, despite the lack of reliability inherent in measuring a single particle. The device is operable in a calibration mode, using particles of known sizes or size distributions.

Abstract: A substantially odorless and sterilized fertilizer in pellet form is produced by combining a dry organic waste material and a dry binder material, then combining the resulting dry mixture with steam, water and/or further organic waste in the form of sludge. The resulting material is provided to an extruder for a more thorough, dispersive mixing, a pressure increase to at least 100 psi, and heating above the glass transition temperature of the binder, and more preferably to at least about 125.degree. C. to substantially sterilize the material mass. The extruded material is forced through a die and released to an ambient environment, rapidly reducing pressure of the material and thereby lysing spores and microorganisms surviving conditions within the extruder. The emerging material is segmented and dried, or segmented and tumbled to form pellets, then dried.

Abstract: A high-speed byte-parallel pipelined error-correcting system for Reed-Solomon codes includes a parallelized and pipelined encoder and decoder and a feedback failure location system. Encoding is accomplished in a parallel fashion by multiplying message words by a generator matrix. Decoding is accomplished with or without byte failure location information by multiplying the received word by an error detection matrix, solving the key equation and generating the most-likely error word and code word in a parallel and pipelined fashion. Parallelizing and pipelining allows inputs to be received at very high (fiber optic) rates and outputs to be delivered at correspondingly high rates with minimum delay. The error-correcting system can be used with any type of parallel data storage or transmission media to create an arbitrary level of fault-tolerance and allows previously considered unreliable media to be effectively used in highly reliable memory or communications systems.

Abstract: A food product for animal consumption is prepared from an animal by-product, preferably a complete avian carcass. A heated hydrolyzing agent is applied by spray or dip coating to the carcass exterior. After initiation of hydrolysis, the carcass is ground, enhanced by additives, then steam heated to a temperature of about 200 degrees F. The heated by-product is provided as a slurry or as dry particulates to a twin screw extruder. As it is transported across several zones of the extruder, the by-product is thoroughly dispersively mixed and subjected to high pressures and temperatures, vented to release moisture, neutralized with a neutralizing agent, and blended under high temperatures and pressures sufficient to completely sterilize what has become a highly uniform and homogeneous by-product mass. The by-product mass is extruded and cut into pellets, which then are dried to a moisture content at or below 10 percent.

Abstract: An electrical circuit package including disk drive operation and control circuitry is formed in multiple layers, including a compliant circuitry layer coextensive with the package, and additional conductive and dielectric layers to form relatively stiff circuit panels bonded to the compliant layer and spaced apart from one another. Portions of the compliant layer, between confronting edges of adjacent circuit panels, provide compliant joinder segments. Each joinder segment electrically couples its associated pair of circuit panels, and structurally couples the panels in a manner that permits a selective, non-coplanar orientation of the panels relative to each other. Thus, the panels are electrically and structurally coupled in a manner that facilitates testing the circuit package as a single unit, followed by installation of the package to a disk drive housing with the circuit panels integral with the housing and in the desired non-coplanar arrangement.

Abstract: An information processing network includes multiple processing devices, a main storage memory, and an interface coupling the processing devices to the main storage memory. All processing devices contend for control of the interface on an equal basis, subject to a dynamically shifting sequence of priority rankings, invoked to resolve contentions for the interface or for one of a plurality of hardware class locks. The class locks are uniquely associated with different capabilities or classes of data operations, which reduces the number of contentions and allows multiple operations to proceed simultaneously. Arbitration logic encompassing all of the processing devices is duplicated in each of the processing devices, and kept coherent through an interconnection of multiple data buses. One bus is associated with each processing device, receives the output of the associated processing device and provides the output to each of the other processing devices.

Abstract: The electronic postage meter includes a printing unit which is responsive to a plurality of motors for printing of a postage indicia in response to a control circuit. The control circuit is comprised of a programmable microprocessor in bus communication with an accounting means having memory units for accounting for the postage printed by the printing unit responsive to the programming of the microprocessor. An integrated circuit includes an address decoding module means for generating a unique combination of ASIC control signals in response to a respective address placed on the bus by the microprocessor. A timer register is responsive to ones of the control signals from the address decoding module to enable writing of the timer data into the timer registers by the microprocessor. The timer unit is responsive to the timer data for timer data. Also included are a plurality of non-volatile memory units.

Abstract: A reflow soldering system includes a reflow station with one or more soldering containers. Each container includes a base and a cover reciprocable to either open or close the container. When open, the container receives a printed circuit board/electrical circuit component assembly for reflow soldering, or permits the exit of such assembly after soldering. When closed, the container provides a fluid-tight seal between the chamber inside and the immediate outside environment. Container opening and closure are synchronized with an input conveyor providing assemblies to the container and an output conveyor removing the soldered assemblies, both of which are operated by a control system at a controlled rate of speed. When the container is closed, its internal environment is precisely controlled through heating elements in the container and several conduits for supplying air (heated if desired), for supplying an inert gas, and for drawing a vacuum.

Abstract: An information processing network includes multiple processing devices, a main storage memory, and an interface coupling the processing devices to the main storage memory. All processing devices contend for control of the interface on an equal basis, subject to a dynamically shifting sequence of priority rankings, invoked to resolve contentions for the interface or for one of a plurality of hardware class locks. The class locks are uniquely associated with different capabilities or classes of data operations, which reduces the number of contentions and allows multiple operations to proceed simultaneously. Arbitration logic encompassing all of the processing devices is duplicated in each of the processing devices, and kept coherent through an interconnection of multiple data buses. One bus is associated with each processing device, receives the output of the associated processing device and provides the output to each of the other processing devices.

Abstract: An aerodynamic particle size measuring device includes a laser energy source and beam splitting, shaping and polarizing optics for forming two parallel, peripherally overlapping beams. The beams are caused to intersect a gas stream perpendicular to the direction of gas flow, thus to form a measuring volume at the intersection of the beams and flow. Single particles are carried through the measuring volume with the gas flow, each particle scattering and extinguishing light according to the beam profile, as predetermined by the degree of beam overlap and the Gaussian intensity distribution of each beam. A photodetector, responsive either to scattered light or light extinction, generates a time-dependent voltage profile that tends to replicate the intensity profile. The resulting electrical signal is processed to determine an amplitude, set a threshold for minimally acceptable amplitudes, and to derive two negative-going zero crossings for an unambiguous time/velocity determination.

Abstract: A continuous flow recycling surface cleaning device includes a cleaning tool head incorporating a nozzle arrangement to enhance surface cleaning and drying. The head includes a shell that engages a surface being cleaned to form an enclosed chamber. A partition divides the chamber into intake and evacuation compartments. A row of nozzles is mounted to the shell to spray liquid cleaning solution into the intake compartment. Air enters the receiving sector through slots near the nozzles and between a forward portion of the shell and the floor, and is drawn beyond the partition into the evacuation compartment by a vacuum source. Each of the nozzles generates a sheet-like, fan-shaped spray pattern. The nozzles are arranged to form adjacent spray patterns that overlap one another longitudinally (lengthwise of the elongate shell) but are separated from one another to avoid interference between adjacent spray patterns.