Abstract: A surgical instrument comprises a body, shaft, and end effector. The shaft couples the end effector and body together. The end effector comprises an anvil and lower jaw configured to receive a surgical staple cartridge. The anvil is configured to pivot toward and away from the staple cartridge and lower jaw. The shaft assembly comprises a knife member configured to longitudinally translate to thereby substantially simultaneously cut clamped tissue and staple the severed tissue. The end effector may comprise lockout features configure to prevent longitudinal translation of the knife member. The end effector or staple cartridge may comprise lockout bypass features configured to prevent lockout of the knife member. These lockout bypass features may operate to permit longitudinal translation of the knife member once or multiple times. The end effector may comprise features configured to ensure proper alignment of the anvil relative to the staple cartridge.

Abstract: A surgical stapler, or fastening instrument, may generally comprise a layer, such as a tissue thickness compensator, for example, releasably attached to a fastener cartridge and/or anvil by a flowable attachment portion. The flowable attachment portion may be indefinitely flowable. The flowable attachment portion may be flowable from the time that layer is installed to the fastener cartridge to the time in which the layer is implanted to patient tissue. The flowable attachment portion may comprise a pressure sensitive adhesive. The flowable attachment portion may comprise an adhesive laminate comprising a base layer comprising the tissue thickness compensator and an adhesive layer on at least a portion of a surface of the base layer comprising the pressure sensitive adhesive. Articles of manufacture comprising flowable attachment portion and methods of making and using the flowable attachment portion are also described.

Abstract: A three-roll press for a web including a pair of pressing rolls forming a nip and a pressure roll bearing on one of the pressing rolls in which the deflection curve of one of the pressing rolls is matched to that of the other pressing roll by the application of a biasing force to the one pressing roll urging its end toward the pressure roll by an amount which is proportional to the internal moment in the one pressing roll at locations corresponding to the edges of a web in the nip therebetween. A compensating spring is employed to urge the one pressing roll toward the pressure roll. The pressing roll may be a crowned roll or a skewed roll.

Abstract: A housing has an inner area defined by end walls, side walls, a top wall, and a bottom wall having a flat inner surface. Inlet and outlet ports open through the flat inner surface. The inlet port is arranged to be connected to a supply source of pneumatic pressure and the outlet ports are arranged to be connected to an actuator. A control member in the housing has a pair of recesses facing the inner surface in association with the inlet and outlet ports. The control member is suspended by a pair of leaf springs which allow a high response of the control member with a low signal pressure. The leaf springs are engineered and tested precisely considering the compression or columnar force acting endwise thereon as a result of the working pressure in the valve. At the same time the leaf springs have lateral deflection sufficient for operation of the control member 54 without buckling.

Abstract: A web manufacturing apparatus including a flexible shaping member that engages fluid material of which a web is formed, a support that extends parallel to the shaping member and a plurality of thermal expansion rods that extend between the shaping member and the support so that the shaping member can be flexed to control the web thickness profile by means of heaters on the thermal expansion rod. Each thermal expansion rod is fixed to the shaping member and is secured to the support via a differential screw mechanism that includes a driven screw and an adjusting screw positioned in tandem in a threaded bore through the support and are coupled so that the driven screw can be turned by turning the adjusting screw. The driven and adjusting screws have internally threaded bores and one end of the thermal expansion rod screws into the bore of the driven screw.

Abstract: A mobile apparatus for treating substantially horizontal surfaces with particulate abrasive is provided with means for enhanced recovery of spent abrasive. Abrasive is propelled to the surface being treated at an angle such that particles rebound from the surface into a collection chute which attenuates the kinetic energy of the abrasive to facilitate recycling abrasive for reuse in the apparatus. Abrasive which is not recovered by its rebounding, passes to a rotating broom to be propelled into a collection bin for recycling for reuse in the apparatus.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for moving a blasting machine along a surface to be treated while maintaining a desired disposition of the blasting machine relative to the surface being treated. A support structure having a moveable boom with a blasting machine on its distal end is positioned adjacent the surface for treatment. Means are provided on the blasting machine to sense the positions of the blasting machine relative to the surface for treatment as the boom is moved through a working path. Movements of the blasting machine away from the desired disposition are sensed and compensated to adjust the blasting machine toward the intended disposition substantially throughout the movement of the boom through the working path.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for positioning a wedge in a web coating machine utilizes hydraulic actuating cylinders for moving the wedge and a multicylinder constant displacement pump for operating the hydraulic actuating cylinder. Valve circuits are provided to transmit trains of pulses generated by the pump to a selected port of the hydraulic actuating cylinder and a valve circuit is provided to select the cylinders of the pump utilized to operate the hydraulic actuating cylinder. Each cylinder of the pump generates volumetrically metered pulse trains of pressurized hydraulic fluid and the valve circuits transmit selected numbers of pulses from selected pulse trains to the hydraulic actuating cylinder for a time period equal to a multiple of the cycle time of the pump.

Abstract: An improved apparatus for supporting a frame for pivotation of the frame relative to a selected axis of pivotation. A plurality of connectors are attached to the frame at pivot support points on the frame, and the connectors are supported by a plurality of bearing posts that are arranged in a determined geometric relationship such that each connector is movable on its respective bearing post along an axis of travel, the axis of travel for each of the connectors passing through a common travel axis convergence point. The determined geometric relationship further directs the frame to have a positional reference mode in which all of the pivot support points are positioned on the circumference of a reference circle that intersects the axis of pivotation at an initial pivotation center, the initial pivotation center being located at one end of a reference diameter of the reference circle, and the travel axis convergence point being located at the other end of the reference diameter.