Abstract: A field device of automation technology having a function for checking quality of a network connection includes an operating electronics and at least one communication interface for connecting to a communication network having one or more network participants and for building a communication connection, wherein a communication stack and a PHY are associated with the communication interface, wherein the communication stack and the PHY are embodied continually to gain and to store communication information regarding the communication connection, wherein the operating electronics is embodied to read out communication information from the communication stack and from the PHY, and by means of an algorithm to subject the communication information to computation and based on the result of the computation to classify a communication state.

Abstract: A coating device includes a vacuum chamber, a crucible, at least one spray head for preparing the coating material, and an injector tube, wherein the injector tube is designed to conduct the prepared coating material to the crucible and is connected to the crucible, wherein the at least one spray head can be moved between an operating position, in which the spray head supplies the injector tube with the prepared coating material, and a removal position, and wherein at least one removal chamberis provided which is designed to be accessible from outside the vacuum chamber and which can be sealed off from the vacuum chamber and in which the at least one spray headin its removal position is separated from the vacuum chamber in a gas-tight manner.

Abstract: The bipolar plate of the invention for electrochemical cells, especially for proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, is made with a metallic substrate and on the surface is made with an electrical contact resistance-reducing, carbon-based layer, a layer system or a boundary layer which is made of a near-surface, primarily sp2-bonded, carbon-based layer having a carbon fraction ranging from 50% to 100%, this layer being applied on a metallic substrate surface that is modified relative to the starting material. There may also be a surface region of the substrate in the form of an edge layer made with nitride and/or carbon by nitriding and/or carburizing. On the surface which is in touching contact with a gas-permeable element within the electrochemical cell, the metallic substrate may have a structuring made with elevations and/or depressions in the respective surface.

Abstract: A device for forming coatings on surfaces of a component, band-shaped material, or tool, in which at least one wire-shaped or band-shaped material is used for forming the coating and that is/are connected to a direct electrical current source, wherein an electric arc is formed between wire-shaped materials or between one wire-shaped or band-shaped material and one anode or cathode, wherein wire-shaped or band-shaped material may be fed by means of a feed device; and melted and/or evaporated material of the wire-shaped or band-shaped material flows, by means of a gas jet of a gas or gas mixture, through an inlet into the interior of a chamber that can be heated to a temperature that is at least equal to the evaporation temperature of the at least one material used for the coating or of the material with the highest evaporation temperature, and the material(s) completely evaporates and exits through at least one opening present on the chamber and impinges on the surface to be coated of the component or tool for

Abstract: The bipolar plate of the invention for electrochemical cells, especially for proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, is made with a metallic substrate and on the surface is made with an electrical contact resistance-reducing, carbon-based layer, a layer system or a boundary layer which is made of a near-surface, primarily sp2-bonded, carbon-based layer having a carbon fraction ranging from 50% to 100%, this layer being applied on a metallic substrate surface that is modified relative to the starting material. There may also be a surface region of the substrate in the form of an edge layer made with nitride and/or carbon by nitriding and/or carburizing. On the surface which is in touching contact with a gas-permeable element within the electrochemical cell, the metallic substrate may have a structuring made with elevations and/or depressions in the respective surface.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for forming coatings on surfaces of a component, band-shaped material, or tool, in which at least one wire-shaped or band-shaped material (2.1 and/or 2.2) is used for forming the coating and that is/are connected to a direct electrical current source, wherein an electric arc is formed between wire-shaped materials (2.1 and 2.2) or between one wire-shaped or band-shaped material and one anode or cathode, wherein wire-shaped or band-shaped material (2.1 and/or 2.2) may be fed by means of a feed device; and melted and/or evaporated material of the wire-shaped or band-shaped material (2.1 and/or 2.

Abstract: A laser beam apparatus for the removal of surface layers from work pieces with a beam-emitting head that may be guided by hand and that is equipped with focusing optics, which is connected to laser apparatus that generates a laser beam so as to admit light, which exhibits a beam-deflecting direction that moves on a pre-determined pathway in an oscillating manner, which covers the laser beam radially with a point and releases it through an emission opening that faces the work piece, and which has a distance retainer that permits the adjustment of the distance of the beam-emitting head from the work piece.