Abstract: A submersible pumping system has an electric motor, a rotary hydraulic pump driven by the electric motor, and a linear hydraulic pump that is configured to move a production fluid. The rotary hydraulic pump produces a pressurized working fluid that drives the linear hydraulic pump. In another aspect, a method is disclosed for controlling the temperature of an electric motor within a submersible pumping system disposed in a wellbore. The method includes the steps of circulating motor lubricant through a hydraulically driven production pump to reduce the temperature of the motor lubricant.

Abstract: A reciprocating compressor of the disclosure includes a cylinder, a piston, a space for compressing gas, a discharge port for discharging the compressed gas from the space, a discharge valve, and a supplying port for supplying liquid that is different in kind from the gas. The cylinder has an axis extending in a direction of gravity. The piston is disposed to be reciprocable along the axis inside the cylinder. The space is constituted above the piston by being surrounded by the piston and an inner peripheral surface of the cylinder. The inner peripheral surface of the cylinder includes a straight portion and a throttle portion. The throttle portion is constituted such that an inner diameter of the cylinder decreases toward the discharge valve.

Abstract: A working-fluid moving device is a laminate of ceramic sheets, which constitute a channel. One of the ceramic sheets is formed to serve as a diaphragm. A piezoelectric/electrostrictive film is formed on the diaphragm. The channel houses first and second working fluids. The first working fluid is inferior to the second working fluid in wettability to the inner wall surface of the channel. When voltage is applied to the piezoelectric/electrostrictive film, the diaphragm is deformed, and the cross-sectional area of the channel at the central portion is reduced. The first working fluid which is present in the form of a single fluid mass at the central portion of the channel receives a repulsive force from the wall surface of the channel due to inferior wettability. As a result, the first working fluid is split into two fluid masses, which then move in the channel.

Abstract: A micropump fabricated in a planar substrate is provided with a valving chamber which is communicated to a pumping chamber. The valving chamber has an inlet and outlet port. Both the valving chamber and pumping chamber have a liquid, electrically conductive piston disposed therein, which liquid piston is nonmiscible with the pumped working fluid and nonreactive with the substrate in which the chambers are formed. The valving piston is magnetohydrodynamically driven to selectively close either the inlet port or the outlet port. The pumping piston is magnetohydrodynamically driven to pull or push the working fluid through one of the inlet or outlet ports, through the valving chamber, into the pumping chamber, back out of the pumping chamber and through the other one of the inlet or outlet ports after activation of the valving piston. Both direct current and inductive magnetohydrodynamic drives are contemplated.

Abstract: The invention relates to a process and apparatus for the pumping and metering of liquid products, wherein the melting point is between 200.degree. and 350.degree. C. In the process, a pulsation generator with piston and diaphragm displaces a thermal fluid which actuates a pumping apparatus, and the fluid transmits its pulsations to a molten tin alloy or tin bath contained in a siphon, the bath in turn transmitting the pulsations to part of the liquid product to be displaced and which is contained in a conduit connecting the siphon to a diaphragm-free pumping head, between the suction valve and delivery valve of the said pumping head, which makes the latter operate in suction and delivery with respect to the same product between suction pipe and delivery pipe. The process and apparatus are particularly applicable to the pumping of melted salts with a melting point between 200.degree. and 350.degree. C. at temperatures between 210.degree. and 380.degree. C.

Abstract: An ink jet"drop-on-demand" printer has a number of parallel channels each containing ink. A thread of mercury extends longitudinally of each channel or pair of channels and is connected for electrical current flow. A magnetic field is applied orthogonally to the channel plane such that current flow in a selected channel causes electromagnetic deformation of the mercury thread. This leads to a pressure pulse in the ink causing ejection of an ink droplet. With a mercury thread shared between a pair of channels, current in the opposite sense results in droplet ejection from the opposite channel of the pair.