Abstract: Apparatus comprising an implement for extracting charges of uniform size of articles from a mass of the articles and delivering the charges to a receiver. The implement has a chamber for receiving the articles to form the charge. The chamber has a mouth through which articles are drawn into the chamber by applying a vacuum to the chamber. The implement then delivers and deposits the charge by releasing the vacuum. The chamber has a vent with an air permeable article barrier for access to a vacuum generator.

Abstract: Apparatus comprising an implement for extracting charges of uniform size of articles from a mass of the articles and delivering the charges to a receiver. The implement has a chamber for receiving the articles to form the charge. The chamber has a mouth through which articles are drawn into the chamber by applying a vacuum to the chamber. The implement then delivers and deposits the charge by releasing the vacuum. The chamber has a vent with an air permeable article barrier for access to a vacuum generator.

Abstract: A hinge feeder for feeding open hinges at a predetermined orientation to a receiver ready for use by an automatic door hinger. A dispenser is provided to hold a stack of closed hinges. The orientation of the top end and hinge joint of each hinge is sensed and the hinges sequentially dispensed at a uniform orientation, except for the pinhead location, to a rotator that rotates those hinges to bring their top ends to a desired side. The hinges are then opened by a leaf turner, fed to a stacker and the opened and oriented hinges then deposited in a stack by a stacker.

Abstract: A workstation having an assembly that includes a support for holding a jamb positioned with the face thereof at a site for mortising a hinge pocket in the face, a support for receiving and holding a door with its hinge side edge at the site adjacent to and parallel with the jamb for mortising operations at that edge and a cutting tool carried by the assembly operating to form hinge mortises in an edge of the door and the jamb face at the site. The support for the door is operable to pivot the door about the hinge side edge of the door from a first angle for forming hinge mortises in the hinge edge of a door having a bevel and a second angle for forming hinge mortises in the hinge edge of a door having no bevel.

Abstract: Apparatus for handling and feeding of groups of fasteners such as screws to an applicator or applicators for applying workpieces such as hinges to a base at a series of worksites. A dispenser at a charging site receives from a fastener feeder a charge of the groups of fasteners needed at all of the worksites of the series and then moves consecutively to each of the worksites to dispense a group of fasteners to an applicator at each worksite. A plurality of passageways extend from a fastener receiving side at the top to a fastener discharge side at the bottom of the dispenser, one passageway for each fastener to be dispensed. The discharge ends of the passageways register with receiving apertures at the applicator at each site. A series of gates at positions along the passageways selective hold and release groups of fasteners at their respective positions.

Abstract: A screw feeder adapted for rapid changeover of screw types. The feeder has a collator section having a floor with slots to collate random screws into rows and an enclosure about the floor for retaining random screws on the floor. The screws are collated by tilting the floor in the slotted direction to raise and lower the upstream end relative to the downstream end and are fed downstream along the slots into slots in a dispensing section. The collator section enclosure has a gate closure at the upstream end of the floor and the slots on the floor extend completely to the upstream end so that, with the gate open and the collator section oscillated to tilt the slots downward toward the upstream end, the screws in the slots will slide to the upstream end and out of the enclosure.

Abstract: An electrochemical microsensor package comprises a substrate matrix having a upper non-conductive layer and an adjacent lower non-conductive layer with a conductive trace or pad extending over an area therebetween. The conductive pad has integral therewith a projecting contact button that projects through and below the second non-conductive for making contact with external electrical contacts. A sensor electrode is positioned on the surface of the conductive pad toward the upper non-conductive layer and in electrical contact therewith. A well extends through the upper non-conductive layer to the upper surface of the electrode. The microsensor packages may be produced by electrodeposition of the conductive pad onto a conductive mandrel having depressions to form the contact button.

Abstract: Planar microfluidic devices are laminate structures having a matrix layer at an upper side laminated at an interface to a lower substrate layer. The structure has one or more cavities extending from the upper side to the interface. A membrane is laminated on the upper side of the structure thereby to form a fluid barrier for the cavities. Devices for use as electrochemical sensors further include an electrode at the laminate structure interface below the matrix layer cavity and a well through the substrate layer below the electrode for electrical communication.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for dispensing and feeding to a workstation elongated articles which are vertically stackable and have a substantially common longitudinal dimension. Articles of different shape are sequentially dispensing from separate dispensers onto a common pathway and fed to the workstation along that pathway. Articles of each shape are dispensed onto the pathway from a group of articles all having that shape in common and the articles dispensed from all the groups are fed sequentially along the common pathway in a downstream direction to the workstation. The dispensers are arranged in tandem in the pathway direction to the workstation and each is positioned above the pathway and oriented to dispense elongated articles with their longitudinal directions transverse to the pathway direction.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for inverting planate articles, such as door and window assemblies, which are supported from below in the horizontal plane, such as at a workstation for carrying out fabrication procedures from above the article. The article is tilted to a near vertical position at a tilting station, moved horizontally away to provide clearance from the tilting station, rotated a half turn about its vertical axis, returned to the tilting station and tilted back to the horizontal attitude with the original underside now on top. A tilt table that rotates around a transverse axis intermediate its length supports the article at the horizontal and tilts it to the near vertical attitude. A carriage receives the tilted article from the tilt conveyer and supports it at the near vertical by a turntable on the carriage having supports that engages the leading end and back side of the article.

Abstract: A procedure and apparatus for testing the hot tack properties of heat sealable flexible packaging materials. A portion of a test strip of heat sealable material is lapped and a segment of this portion heat sealed together. Upon completion of the heat seal the unsealed ends of the test strip are pulled apart at a prescribed constant rate to gradually delaminate the heat seal while the heat seal is cooled at a prescribed rate. Force required to delaminate the seal is continuously recorded as a function of time as the heat seal cools, thus providing data on seal strength for a full range of temperatures of the heat seal as it cools over time. In the apparatus a threading bar intercepts the strip intermediate its ends and pulls a portion through the opening between opposed dies of a heat sealer and in doing so laps the portion of the strip pulled through the opening.

Abstract: A solvation-based method for charging toner particles in a liquid electrophotographic developer composition is provided. The method makes use of a material containing specific salvation sites which are incorporated into the resinous phase of the toner, and a charge director which is a metal salt, the metal, cationic component of which is effective to form a highly stable, "solvated" charged toner complex. Toner and developer compositions are also provided which make use of the novel solvation-based mode of charge direction.

Abstract: A shielded writing system includes a hand shield and a shielded writing instrument. The hand shield comprises a thin plate having a pillar projecting from one side thereof and appropriately contoured to be grasped by the two free fingers of writing hand. The plate extends outwardly in all directions from the connection therewith of the pillar to fully underlie the butt of the hand (held in a loose fist of the writing position) as a barrier to contact with the writing surface. In the direction from the pillar that the thumb and forefinger are to project, the plate terminates short of the tips of the thumb and forefinger. The pillar has a cavity to serve as a receptacle for a writing instrument. A tubular shield of resilient material is provided into which a writing instrument is inserted to protect the user from cross-contamination with the instrument. The tubular shield is longitudinally slit, and open at either end to permit the instrument to extend therethrough.

Abstract: Leavened yeast dough products obtain a long durability in a frozen condition by omitting using in the preparation thereof fermentable carbohydrates, but the formation in situ of such fermentable carbohydrates satisfactory to leaven the dough is ensured by adding one or more amylases to the dough. Upon freezing the activity of the amylase ceases and the concentration of fermentable carbohydrates falls to such a low value that the proteinase forming activity of the yeast actually ceases. A possibly desired brown-coloring of the baked product may be ensured by the addition of amylases with an activity at a relatively high temperature.

Abstract: Toner and liquid developer compositions for use in color electrophotographic processes are described. The developer compositions display high particle-mediated conductivity and charge and thus give rise to a final print of exceptionally high quality. Methods of manufacturing the toner and developer compositions are also disclosed, as are novel charge control agents and processes for using the various compounds and compositions in a consecutive multicolor image development.

Abstract: A method of making a joint, and the joint thereby produced, in which a first element comprised of low cohesion material is joined to another element of a structure, at a position at which opposed surfaces of the first element and the other element are adjacent and generally abutting, by driving at least one nail through the first element and into the other element at a nailing point at said position. Prior to driving the nail, a nailing cavity is formed adjacent the abutting surfaces at the nailing point that extends outwardly therefrom in the direction of the surfaces and that extends a substantial distance normal to the nail direction.

Abstract: An articulate toothbrush particularly suitable for integral molding having a handle with an elongate grip and a support section extending from the grip to the brush head with an arch shape. The arch has a leg that returns toward the longitudinal axis of the grip at an acute angle to a connection with a brush head. The brush head has a longitudinal axis and terminates along that axis in a heel in the direction of the grip of handle and in a toe in the direction away from the grip. The top of the brush head is proximal to the distal leg of the support and the bottom of the brush head which is distal to the distal leg, has bristles depending therefrom. The distal leg of the support is connected to the top of the brush head at a medial position along the brush head longitudinal axis by a flexible plastic hinge.

Abstract: An articulate toothbrush having a handle with an elongate grip and a support section extending from the grip to the brush head with an arch shape that diverges fron the longitudinal axis of the grip to an apex at a point of maximum divergence. The arch has a leg that returns toward the longitudinal axis of the grip to the axis of a pivot connection with a brush head which is a substantial distance toward the longitudinal axis of the grip from the apex of the arch. The brush head has a longitudinal axis and terminates along that axis in a heel in the direction of the grip of handle and in a toe in the direction away from the grip. The top of the brush head is proximal to the distal leg of the support and the bottom of the brush head, which is distal to the distal leg, has bristles depending therefrom.

Abstract: An adaptor for extending a pipe through a barrier and securing the pipe therein which comprises a pipe segment having a leading end for insertion through the barrier and a trailing end to remain at the insertion side of the barrier upon insertion of the adaptor, each end being adapted to receive a pipe fitting. The leading end is provided with peripheral cutting teeth for boring a hole through and thereby penetrating the barrier upon rotation of the pipe around its longitudinal axis. An externally threaded section along the pipe is sized and configured to be self-threaded though the hole bored by the penetration end to secure the pipe therein and a stop is located toward the trailing end from the threaded section to engaging the outer surface of the barrier to stop further penetration of the adaptor. An installation tool which may be rotationally driven by a hand drill is also provided.