Abstract: An automobile brake switch assembly including a mounting clip and two brake switches, each brake switch including a threaded, cylindrical plunger housing. The mounting clip includes two hollow, cylindrical sleeves, each having an inner diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of the threads on one of the brake switches. The sleeves are integrally molded, together with a plate that joins them, out of acetal plastic. Each sleeve includes a thread-like tooth molded about the inner circumference and located approximately centrally in the cylinder. Four slots are formed in each sleeve parallel to and spaced about the cylindrical axis, the slots cutting the tooth to form four teeth. The slots permit expansion of the teeth when the threaded plunger housing of the corresponding brake switch is pressed into the sleeve so that the threads may ratchet on the teeth.

Abstract: A winding machine for electrical components has a plurality of spindle assemblies each of which can be brought in turn successively into a series of operating stations, each spindle assembly comprising clutch means and spindle operating means so arranged that when the spindle assembly is at a selected operating station a spindle of the assembly may be driven and/or the spindle otherwise operated, the machine comprising a single motor arranged to drive the spindle of the spindle assemblies at more than one of the operating stations.

Abstract: A housing includes a switch chamber and a plunger chamber communicating with the switch chamber. A plunger is slidable within the plunger chamber. Cam surfaces on the plunger operate electrical switches in the switch chamber. There is an axial channel in the plunger, and a slot through the plunger wall communicates with the channel. A vacuum passageway passes from one side of the housing, into the channel, and a solid extension of the passageway passes through the slot, and into a hole in the opposite wall of the housing. As the plunger moves in and out, the slot slides on the extension to guide to stabilize the plunger. A vent hole in the vacuum passageway opens into the channel. A sealing member slides in the channel along the axis of the plunger, alternately sealing and unsealing the vent hole as the plunger moves. A spring seated between the plunger and the sealing member permits the plunger to continue moving when the sealing member is seated in the passageway vent hole.

Abstract: There is described a speed sensor that is particularly adaptable to moving vehicles such as automobiles. A permanent magnet, stator assembly, and field coil are held within a ferromagnetic cup that is adapted to mate a bearing assembly of a non-driven wheel of the vehicle. A rotor assembly is carried by the wheel spindle. The rotor assembly has poles spaced entirely around the circumference of a circle while the stator assembly has only a few poles distributed over an arc of a portion of a circle. A magnetic flux is provided by the permanent magnet, which flux passes through the stator poles and the rotor poles. The ferromagnetic cup completes a flux path between the stator and rotor poles, and also to the magnet. The rotor poles rotate with the wheel, causing a changing magnetic flux which in turn generates an alternating voltage current in the field coil. The alternating current so generated is then fed through an electrical terminal to a vehicle computer.

Abstract: There is described a speed sensor that is particularly adaptable to moving vehicles such as automobiles. A permanent magnet, stator assembly including a stator pole piece, and field coil having an aperature are held within a cup that is adapted to mate a bearing assembly of a non-driven wheel of the vehicle. The stator pole piece is carried substantially within the aperature of the field coil. Rotor poles are carried on the wheel spindle. A magnetic flux is provided by the permanent magnet, the flux passing through the stator poles and the rotor poles which rotate with the wheel in close proximity to the stator assembly, causing a changing flux field. The changing magnetic flux in turn generates an alternating voltage current in the field coil. The alternating current so generated is then fed through an electrical terminal to a vehicle computer.

Abstract: An armature for a solenoid operated valve in which a magnetically responsive tubular housing has a central aperture extending longitudinally therethrough. Secured within the aperture is a seal component with opposite ends positioned relative to the open ends of the housing so that either of the ends of the seal component are sealingly engageable with a valve seat. The tubular housing has either a split-seam construction or a seamless construction. Both ends of the sealing component extend outwardly beyond the ends of the tubular housing, and may include a disc-shaped portion at either or both ends.

Abstract: The thickness of a formed glass container is evaluated around its wall periphery by making a selected sampling of voltage data. An encoder is used which displaces the periphery past a sensor and sampling is synchronized with the pulses of the encoder. When a seam is detected, sampled data is ignored for a chosen number of pulses prior to as well as following and the number of pulses is set by defining the diameter of the container.

Abstract: A hybrid natural language understanding (NLU) system which is particularly designed for processing natural language text. Primary functional components of the NLU system include a preprocessor; a word look-up and morphology module which communicates with a lexicon and a learning module; a syntactic parser which interfaces with an augmented transition network (ATN) grammar; a case frame applier, which converts the syntactic structure into canonical, semantic "case frames"; and a discourse analysis component which integrates explicit and implied information in the text into a conceptual structure which represents its meaning. This structure may be passed on to a knowledge based system, data base, to interested analysts or decision makers, etc. Significant feedback points are provided, e.g., the case frame applier may notify the syntactic parser of a semantically incorrect parse, or the syntactic parser may seek a semantic judgment based on a fragmentary parse.

Abstract: A housing has a flat side and an open end opposite the flat side, which open end is closed by a circuit board, sandwiching a slidable contact carrier between it and the flat side. Normal power terminals are carried by the flat side and low power traces by the circuit board. Contacts carried on both sides of the carrier open and close circuits on the flat side and the circuit board as the carrier is slid in the housing. The carrier slides on a stabilizing bar with a highly finished surface, thereby smoothing out force irregularities that could be caused by the small size and differing characteristics of the two sides of the switch.

Abstract: There is described a speed sensor that is particularly adapted to moving vehicles such as automobiles. A permanent magnet, stator assembly, and field coil are held within a cup that is adapted to mate a bearing assembly of a non-driven wheel of the vehicle. A magnetic flux is provided by the permanent magnet and when rotor poles carried by the bearing assembly rotate in close proximity to the stator assembly, the magnetic flux in turn generates an alternating voltage current in the field coil. The alternating current so generated is then fed through an electrical terminal to a vehicle computer.

Abstract: A reliable electronic lock comprises means for reading a key card upon insertion and withdrawal. Sets of data read from the key card are compared to CRC data read from the key card to determine which set contains actual data and no false data erroneously read by the electronic lock. The CRC data is stored in scrambled form on the card to minimize the possibility of match to a set of actual and false data.

Abstract: A clutch assembly permits a manual setting of a timing mechanism camstack by an appliance operator and at the same time insures that the camstack cannot be manually set during the time that electrical power is being supplied to the timing mechanism. The assembly includes a support and a camstack, a shaft and a bearing mounted in the support for rotation about a common axis. First clutch teeth are integrally formed within the bearing and second clutch teeth are integrally formed within the shaft. The bearing is mechanically coupled to the camstack via tangs on the camstack which pass through channels in the bearing. The shaft is axially movable from a first position in which the first and second teeth are engaged to a second position in which the teeth are disengaged.

Abstract: A strip of resistive carbon is deposited on a longitudinal plastic film and a strip of conductive copper is deposited on a second film. The two film strips are glued together with the resistive and conductive strips opposing to form a sealed envelope having a longitudinal cavity. This sandwich is placed in a flexible extruded tube membrane and the whole inserted in a longitudinal slot in a frame, with a channel communicating with the slot and the exterior of the frame. Liquid in a tank compresses the envelope, causing the copper and carbon strips to contract at a point depending on the level. The change in resistance of the carbon-copper circuit with level produces a changing voltage which is processed to provide a signal indicative of the level of in the tank. Temperature sensors in the frame provide the temperature of the at various levels.

Abstract: A quick connect/disconnect solenoid operated valve providing simultaneous electrical and fluid connections to a refrigerator with an icemaker.

Abstract: An electronic lock includes a bolt having a fully extended position when a door is closed and a partially extended position when the door is open. The lockset is selectively placed in a locked state when the bolt is in its fully extended position. A switch is responsive to the position of the bolt and has a first operating position when the bolt is fully extended and a second operating position when the bolt is partially extended. A processor is responsive to the switch for preventing the selective locking of the bolt when the bolt is partially extended.

Abstract: An elongated bilaminate bender is formed from a pair of piezoelectric ceramic sheets laminated to a conductive metallic strip. In response to an alternating current, the bender bends in a direction substantially perpendicular to its long axis, first one way and then the opposite. One end of a pivot bar is driven by the bender. A spring provides a bias force opposite to the direction that the pivot bar is pushed by the bender, to return the pivot bar when the bender bends in the opposite direction. A pair of pawls attached one on either side of the pivot axis of the bar, alternately drive a ratchet wheel on the bender drive stroke and the return stroke. The ratchet wheel turns a drive shaft. A stop prevents the pivot bar from exactly following the motion of the bender, so that the motion of the drive shaft is independent of voltage fluctuations of the alternating current.

Abstract: The capacitance of the wall of a glass bottle is sensed and converted to a periodic voltage by a measuring oscillator. A periodic voltage is generated by a phase locked loop which includes a voltage controlled reference oscillator which is forced to operate at the same frequency as the measuring oscillator. The voltage inputted to the reference oscillator will accordingly represent the thickness of the wall of the container. The following model is utilized by the machine computer to translate capacitance to thickness;C(T)=A.times.T/(1+B.times.T)where C is the measured capacitance, T is the wall thickness, A is the coefficient describing the small thickness, linear relationship and B is the coefficient describing the large thickness, non-linear relationship.

Abstract: A dryer timer includes a housing and a motor and a cam assembly carried in the housing. A switch in the housing is responsive to the cam to switch the motor between a 120 VAC standard timer circuit and a 240 VAC dryer heater circuit. A leadless voltage dropping resistor in the 240 VAC circuit is mounted on the exterior of the housing clasped between the feed-through to the switch and a terminal strap connected to the timer terminal which connects to the dryer heater circuit. A flanged member connected to the feed-through and the terminal strap engaged the flat surfaces of the disk-shaped leadless voltage dropping resistor to dissipate the heat it produces.

Abstract: A shaft is rotatable in a housing and connected to a rotatable actuator having a notch that pivots around the shaft. A slidable actuator is slidable along the shaft and has a notch that moves parallel to the shaft. The shaft is inserted into a slot in a lever, and a pin having a shoulder is passed through the lever perpendicular to the slot, passing through a bore in the shaft and the shoulder pressing the shaft against the side of the slot. The pin is driven in with a predetermined force high enough to hold the lever and shaft together with zero clearance and low enough to allow the lever to easily pivot on the shaft. The lever is deformable and thus grips the pin. A pair of identical carriages are pivotable on pins, each carriage having an arm that fits into one of the notches in the actuators, the arm and notches having surfaces shaped to provide a zero-clearance, non-jamming fit over their entire range of motion.

Abstract: There is a pair of cantilevered switch blades having cooperating electrical contacts mounted on their distal ends. The first blade follows a cam and the second is lifted by a pivotable ramp member to vary the distance between its contact and the cam, thereby varying the time the switch is closed. The switch controls a solenoid which controls the water flow to the icemaker tray, thus the size of the ice "cubes" is determined by the distance the second blade is lifted. The blade slides on the ramp as it is lifted so that the range of motion of the pivotable member is greater than the range of motion of the blade. The ramp is shaped so that equal amounts of movements of the pivotable member corresponds to equal increments of ice volume. A spring finger integrally formed with the ramp member cooperates with a notched member to provide a set of predetermined ice "cube" increments. The switch is one of a gang of blade switches that control icemaker functions.