Abstract: The beam of a line scan fiber optics cathode ray tube is intensity modulated and is repeatedly swept along the fiber optics strip of the tube by a horizontal deflection coil to place on a transversely moving record sheet recorded gray scale images which are representative of received data signals. A sheet velocity sensor, a frequency to voltage converter, and a differentiator produce a voltage signal proportional to short term sheet velocity errors, and an integrator converts that signal into a signal which represents the time integral of each of such errors. The integral signal controls a vertical deflection coil for the tube so that each of the sheet velocity errors is accompanied by a movement of the cathode ray tube beam in the vertical direction, and hence along the path of sheet travel. This vertical beam movement maintains the instantaneous relative velocity between the sheet and the beam substantially constant notwithstanding the short term sheet velocity errors.

Abstract: A differential pressure to electrical signal transmitter has a pair of flat barrier diaphragms and a central control diaphragm located between the barrier diaphragms. First chambers between one of the barrier diaphragms and the control diaphragm, and a first length of capillary tubing connected between the first chambers and one chamber of a remotely located sensor capsule, are filled with a first incompressible fill liquid. Second chambers between the other barrier diaphragm and the control diaphragm, and a second length of capillary tubing connected between the second chambers and another chamber of the sensor capsule, are filled with a second incompressible fill liquid. The fill liquids are made to pump up their respective flat barrier diaphragms to cause the latter to have a dome shape and hence to be free from "oil canning." A chamber on the outside of one barrier diaphragm is pressurized with a first fluid, and a chamber on the outside of the other barrier diaphragm is pressurized with a second fluid.

Abstract: A group of serial-in, parallel-out shift registers has a separate output positionally corresponding to each of the pins of a multipin recording head which is maintained in marking relationship with a moving electrosensitive record sheet. Each of the shift register outputs is connected to the corresponding one of the pins by way of a pin-driving transistor which energizes its pin when a logic zero appears in the corresponding shift register output. A binary number to pin position decoder receives a binary number representing an analog input signal and repeatedly serially shifts corresponding binary bit trains into the shift registers. Due to the time required for an energized pin to mark the sheet, logic zero bits shifted into the registers cause pins to mark the sheet only after those bits are in their final loaded positions in the shift registers at the completion of each shifting operation.

Abstract: The pressure transducer includes a semiconductor cantilever beam, a diaphragm, a spacer, and a back plate. The diaphragm, spacer, and back plate are bonded together at their peripheries to form a cup. The ends of the beam are bonded, respectively, to the supported periphery of the diaphragm and to an intermediate deflecting portion thereof, whereby pressure forces within the cup are transmitted by the diaphragm to the beam. Piezoresistive elements are diffused into the surface of the beam to produce an electric signal in accordance with the strain produced in the beam as the result of the pressure forces. In one embodiment, the beam is a flat plate. In another embodiment, the beam includes a portion at the mounting end that is massive relative to the stress sensitive portion of the beam. The juncture of the massive mounting portion and the stress sensitive portion is an abrupt step, whereby a precise fulcrum for the stress sensitive beam portion is provided.

Abstract: An eccentrically rotatable control valve has a seat ring containing two seating surfaces and a stationary sealing ring mounted on an inner wall of a valve chamber to form a port therein. Rolling movement of an eccentrically mounted plug of the valve from a partial to full line fluid tight sealing contact with one of the seating surfaces of the seat ring causes the seat ring to be simultaneously moved in a rocking manner and the other seating surface of the seat ring to be moved into fluid tight sealing engagement with the stationary sealing ring. The rockable seat ring construction provides a means by which the plug and its associated seat ring can center itself in a properly seated fluid tight position on the sealing ring in the event that the sealing ring is out of properly aligned seating surface engagement with the plug.

Abstract: An elongatable endless belt passes around four rollers and, in so doing, passes adjacent to the heated surface of a U-shaped platen which has its edges adjacent to two of the rollers. The surface of the belt which faces the platen is in driving engagement with a film coming from a recording means. One of the noted two rollers is driven faster than the other so that the belt moves the film along the platen surface and leaves one edge of the latter at a higher speed than that at which the belt arrives at the other edge of the platen surface. Therefore, the belt progressively elongates and moves along the film as it is moving the latter along the platen surface.

Abstract: The recorder includes a heated stylus which is positioned across a heat-sensitive chart by a servo motor to make the stylus position follow the value of an input signal applied to a servo balancing comparing and driving circuit for the motor. A switching circuit, actuated by the pulse signal output of a pulse generator, interconnects the stylus heater, a capacitor, and a source of capacitor charging energy. The switching circuit alternately charges the capacitor from the source and discharges the capacitor into the stylus heater. This causes the stylus to produce a recorded trace on the chart having an intensity which is substantially independent of the resistance of the stylus heater over a given resistance range.

Abstract: A rotary control valve has a plug in the form of a cup shaped shell mounted on a bracket which is rotatable about an axis orthogonal to and offset from the central axis of a ring seat. This plug is connected to the rotatable actuating bracket by means of a threaded pin and nut so that the plug position can be adjusted with respect to the ring seat. Proper adjustment of the pin and nut allows the plug to be mounted in a fixed position on the bracket and enables the plug to be brought into and out of fluid tight sealing engagement with the ring seat without any bending or deformation taking place in the actuating bracket. The obtaining of this desired tight sealing engagement is aided by displacing the bracket axis from the plug center of curvature in the direction of the position occupied by the plug when in its sealing position, and by making the plug position adjustable along the bracket axis.

Abstract: A rotary control valve has a flexible cup-shaped diaphragm ring seat positioned within a valve chamber that has an annular seating lip portion on inner opposite side portions thereof. An annular outer portion of the diaphragm ring is retained against an annular wall of the chamber by an outer portion of a retaining ring member that is longitudinally adjustable along the inner wall of the chamber. The retaining ring has an inner rigid portion that provides a hard seat surface against which one of the annular lips is compressed into sealing, fluid tight engagement as a spherical plug of the rotary valve is simultaneously brought into sealing fluid tight engagement with the other lip. The fluid acting on an inlet side of the valve is applied by way of openings in an annular intermediate portion of the retaining member to the diaphragm ring in a direction that allows the plug and diaphragm ring to make good fluid tight engagement with one another.

Abstract: A differential pressure to electrical signal transmitter has a pair of barrier diaphragms and one or two central control diaphragms located between the barrier diaphragms. A chamber on the outside of one barrier diaphragm is pressurized with a first fluid, and a chamber on the outside of the other barrier diaphragm is pressurized with a second fluid. First chambers between one of the barrier diaphragms and the control diaphragm, and a first length of capillary tubing connected between the first chambers and one chamber of a remotely located sensor capsule, are filled with a first incompressible fill liquid. Second chambers between the other barrier diaphragm and the control diaphragm, and a second length of capillary tubing connected between the second chambers and another chamber of the sensor capsule, are filled with a second incompressible fill liquid.

Abstract: The generator includes an input terminal, an output terminal, and three channels connected between the input and output terminals. The first channel contains a first amplifier and a first FET switch connected in series between the terminals. The second channel contains a second amplifier and a second FET switch connected in series between the terminals. The third channel contains an adjustable resistor and a third FET switch connected in series between the terminals. An adjustable bias signal positively offsets the output signal of the first amplifier and negatively offsets the output signal of the second amplifier to produce a signal deadband. When an applied input signal lies within the deadband, a signal from the resistor lies between the amplifier output signals, and a pair of comparators turn on the third FET and turn off the first and second FET's. This produces an output signal which follows the input signal with a gain determined by the resistor adjustment.

Abstract: A noise abating plug for a fluid control valve includes a perforated sleeve that forms one end portion of the plug and a plurality of spaced apart perforated discs that extend between a hub portion of the plug and the inner wall of the sleeve portion. The perforations in the sleeve and in the multi-perforated discs form a varying number of restrictive passageways for the fluid under control as the plug is moved between its open and closed positions and thereby maintain the pressure reduction occurring at the perforated sleeve and perforated discs at values which minimize the noise created by the fluid as it flows through the valve.

Abstract: A continuously rotatable shaft is employed in a multipoint recorder for slidably and rotatably supporting a print carriage thereon in order to minimize the friction occurring between the print carriage and the shaft while the carriage traverses the shaft and as a print wheel supported by the carriage is rocked into and out of printing engagement with a record medium. A print pad wheel is provided with characterized gear teeth for meshing with characterized gear teeth of the print wheel. This print pad-print wheel construction allows each of the markers on the outer surface of the print wheel to be brought into proper precise color alignment with an associated colored ink pad formed in the ink pad wheel as the print wheel is directly indexed by a pawl and ratchet drive from one print position to another.

Abstract: A skirt, containing a number of spaced apart helical grooves along its outer longitudinal surface and an array of spaced apart perforations therein, is attached at one of its ends to one end of a plug of a cage valve. This perforated multi-helical grooved skirt provides a noise attenuating affect on a fluid as it flows through the valve. This skirt construction allows a portion of the fluid to flow through the grooves and across jets of fluid flowing through and between perforations in the wall of the skirt and in the valve cage to thereby create turbulence in the combined fluids. The grooves are formed between lands that have sharp outer edges, which lands continuously clean foreign matter from an inner bore wall portion of the cage as the unitary plug and skirt is moved between an open and closed position.

Abstract: A data communication system for an industrial plant includes a plurality of communication stations which are interconnected by a coaxial cable that is required to pass through one or more hazardous areas. The communication stations are energized from a source of alternating voltage of commercial frequency and are arranged to transmit over and to receive from said cable communicating signals that have frequencies which are substantially higher and that have an energy level which is substantially lower than that of the frequency and energy level, respectively, of the power source. Each of said stations is coupled to the cable by an individually associated intrinsic safety barrier each of which includes an iron core transformer. Each transformer includes a primary winding connected in circuit with the associated station and an inductively coupled secondary winding that is connected between the sheath and the internal conductor of the cable.

Abstract: The minimum and maximum values attained by an analog data signal in each of successive sampling periods are determined by alternately operative amplitude detectors which produce and store a corresponding minimum and maximum signal for each of these periods. A generator produces a ramp signal which repeats in each period in synchronism with the sweep of the beam of a fiber optics strip cathode ray tube along the strip thereof. A record sheet is advanced at right angles to this strip. Comparators are operative in each period to compare the stored detector signals of the immediately preceding period with the ramp signal, and to produce an output when the ramp signal exceeds either of the detector signals. An EXCLUSIVE OR gate receives these outputs and unblanks the normally blanked tube beam for a time in each period to produce a line on the sheet extending along the strip between points representing the minimum and maximum signal values for the preceding period.

Abstract: An eccentrically rotatable control valve having a spherical shaped valve plug is positioned in a valve chamber to regulate the flow of fluid there through. The valve plug is retained in a loosely captured position by means of a bolt and spring to the end of a valve actuating arm for flexible, swivel movement thereon. This construction enables the plug to be initially rotated from a completely open position into line contact with a part of the valve seat in the wall of the chamber, and to then be jointly tilted and rolled about this seat part into and out of fluid tight surface to surface contact with the entire valve seat. The plug and arm are mounted on and for limited longitudinal movement with an associated valve actuator shaft that extends through the chamber. The latter construction provides a means by which the plug can center itself in a properly seated fluid tight position on the seat in the event that the valve seat is out of properly aligned seating surface engagement with the plug.

Abstract: A primary lens, which forms a primary image of an object on an image plane, is arranged to be positioned by a lens focusing motor. First and second auxiliary optical elements, which may be lenses or mirrors, produce respective first and second detection images of the object on respective first and second arrays of light sensors. One of these elements is reciprocated in continuously repeated periods or cycles to move its image back and forth continuously on the corresponding array. A signal processing circuit receives the outputs of the light sensors and produces a correlation pulse each time that the cycling element occupies the correlation position at which it brings the light distributions of the images into best correspondence on the respective arrays. The time and element position in each cycle at which this occurs are measures of the object distance.

Abstract: An auto-focus camera includes a range finder device having no moving parts. First and second stationary lens devices receive radiation from an object along two spatially separate paths. First and second sensing devices, each comprising a plurality of photo-responsive elements, are arranged to receive the radiation passing through the first and second lens devices, respectively. The first and second sensing devices provide electrical signals representative of the relative position of the intensity distribution of the radiation passing through the second lens device and falling on the second sensing device with respect to the position of the intensity distribution of the radiation passing through the first lens device and falling on the first sensing device. A detecting circuit connected to the first and second sensing devices provides an output signal indicative of that of a plurality of predetermined zones in which the object is located.

Abstract: An optical focus detecting apparatus for an optical system includes a focus scanning and spatial frequency filter comprising a rotating chopper disc. The disc is arranged at an angle with respect to the axis thereof whereby the disc focus position is oscillated back and forth through a predetermined plane, which plane may comprise the film plane of a camera. The disc includes a plurality of transparent and opaque radial sector pairs, the widths of the sectors of any pair being the same and randomly different from the widths of the sectors of adjacent pairs. The sector pairs are so relatively arranged that sector pairs of substantially identical widths are repeated at positions displaced 180.degree. on the disc whereby the modulation of the image optical spectrum is random in nature. The distribution of transparent and opaque sectors is such that the average transmission of light by the disc is 50 percent of the incident light.