Abstract: Gas generant compositions without highly toxic azides are provided which, upon combustion, are converted into gaseous products with only small amounts of solid combustion products thereby minimizing the gas filtration problem. Gas generants having ammonium nitrate safely phase stabilized by mixture with wet triaminoguanidine are provided. A process for safely preparing the gas generants is also provided. These compositions are especially suitable for inflating automotive and aircraft occupant restraint bags.

Abstract: A vehicle safety belt system of the lap and shoulder type comprises a main belt wound on a retractor, the free end of the belt being securable to the vehicle body work, a slidable tongue fitted to the main belt and a main buckle securable to the vehicle body work into which the tongue is lockingly insertable. The retractor prevents the main belt from being withdrawn when the retractor is subjected to an acceleration or deceleration in excess of a predetermined value. The retractor is mounted adjacent the top of the vehicle seat back. The retractor is prevented from moving forwardly in the event of an accident, but is releasable to allow the seat back, and with it the retractor, to be folded forward when desired.

Abstract: A trigger lock for a gun comprises a pair complimentary housings that overly opposite sides of the gun trigger guard. One of the housings has a connector shaft with a plurality of teeth thereon that extends through the trigger guard. The other of the housings has a latch plate with a plurality of teeth thereon engageable with the teeth on the connector shaft to effect locking of the housings to one another and to the gun. Each of the housings has an elastomeric pad that is compressible about the trigger of the gun to preclude movement thereof. The housings are separable from the gun upon opening of a lock and depression of a release button.

Abstract: A filter utilizes a filter bed having a ceramic media to remove particulates from process emissions upstream of a regenerative incinerator to prevent fouling of the incinerator. To prevent the filter from fouling, the filter is adapted to "bake-off" contaminants from the filter bed by providing a flow of hot innocuous air through the filter. In addition, fluid can be flushed through the filter.

Abstract: A gas generator (10) utilizes two segregated propellant container/combustion chambers (62) and (64), each having a plurality of nonazide propellant grains (40 and 66) therein, and an igniter (24) for igniting only the propellant grains (40) located within the first combustion chamber (62). The nonazide propellant produces enough heat energy to subsequently ignite the segregated propellant grains (66) by forced convection and/or heat conduction.

Abstract: A gas generator (10) utilizes at least three segregated propellant container/combustion chambers (22, 32 and 34), each having a plurality of nonazide propellant grains (20, 36 and 38) therein, and an igniter (16) for igniting only the propellant grains (20) located within the first combustion chamber (22). The nonazide propellant produces enough heat energy to subsequently ignite the segregated propellant grains (36 and 38) by forced convection and/or heat conduction. The output inflation profile can be tailored to optimally cover a range of 10 to 90 percentile vehicle occupants.

Abstract: An accelerometer (10) features a housing (12) having an passage (14) of rectangular cross-section formed therein, the width dimension of which gradually increases with increasing displacement along a central longitudinal axis (16) away from a first end (24) of the passage; and a puck-shaped magnetic sensing mass (26) located within the passage whose magnetic axis extends in a direction normal to the basal surface (18) of the passage. A pair of magnetically-permeable elements (22) on the housing magnetically-interact with the sensing mass so as to bias the sensing mass towards a first position within the passage; and a first and second pair of stationary beam contacts (30) project into the passage so as to be bridged by respective electrically-conductive circumferential surfaces (28) on the sensing mass when it moves to a second position within the passage.

Abstract: A two chamber regenerative thermal oxidizer comprises an oxidizing chamber and a pair of regenerator chambers. Inlet and outlet valves control fluid flow to and from said regenerator chambers. A transition duct communicates with a contaminated fluid feed duct upstream of the regenerator inlet valves and with the oxidizing chamber of said oxidizer. Electronic control means opens and closes valves, selectively, in a prearranged sequence whereby the inlet and outlet valves in an individual regenerator are never open at the same time, thereby precluding short circuiting of the regenerative chamber, yet all of the inlet and outlet valves to the regenerative chambers are never simultaneously closed thereby to maintain the pressure of fluid flow through said regenerator chambers relatively constant.

Abstract: A gas cooled arc welding torch has inner and outer metal heat transfer sleeves disposed in telescoped relation and defining a longitudinally extending gas channel therebetween and having a welding tip at one end thereof supported by the inner heat transfer sleeve in heat transfer relationship and enveloped in gas flowing through the gas channel.

Abstract: A method and system for detecting a vehicle roll-over utilizes a z-axis accelerometer (12) and a processor (20) for analyzing the accelerometer output (18) to provide early detection/prediction of a vehicle roll-over. The output signal (18) is substantially a positive constant value equal to the force of gravity when the vehicle (16) is in a normal upright condition, and as the vehicle (16) experiences a roll-over, the output signal transitions to a substantially negative constant value when the vehicle has rolled 180.degree. upside down. To provide early roll-over detection and/or prediction, the z-axis data is averaged (102) and compared to a first threshold value (104) set to a g-force value within a range of 0 to -1 g. Estimating a slope value (step 110), i.e. the change in z-axis data over time, can provide an additional discrimination measure to improve overall reliability, and to provide a qualitative measure of the roll over.

Abstract: A fastener has a head portion with a torque accepting surface and a cylindrical recess on an external surface thereof defining a pair of axially spaced annular shoulders for acceptance in a circular fastener accepting aperture in a connector component. The aperture has a counterbore for the acceptance and seating of the head portion of the fastener and a channel extending radially of a longitudinal axis of the aperture therein for the acceptance of the fastener in translation, the channel having parallel shoulders spaced slightly greater than the diameter of the cylindrical recess in the head portion of the fastener but less than the minimum diameter of at least one of the shoulders thereon.

Abstract: An engine head gasket comprises a relatively incompressible steel plate having compressible tubes with a thermally expandible non gaseous non compressible elastic media therein disposed within each combustion opening and elastomeric sealing beads molded about each coolant and oil flow aperture in the head gasket. Shim plates are utilized on each side of the steel plate as compression limiters for the sealing elements. The shim plates also function to retain the tubular combustion seals in place.

Abstract: A system (10) and method for detecting an envelope of received vehicle acceleration information (a(t)) useful in controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device, wherein consecutive values for received vehicle acceleration information (a(t)) are stored and rank-ordered in a pair of rank-order filters (14, 16) to provide a highest-ranked value (a.sub.H) from among the most-recent half of the stored values, and a highest-ranked value (a.sub.H ') from among the least-recent half of the stored values. The absolute value of the highest-ranked least-current value is taken and subtracted from the highest-ranked most-recent value to obtain a modified jerk measure (j.sub.H *). The absolute value of the thus-generated modified jerk value is taken to obtain a measure (m.sub.1) which tracks the envelope of the received acceleration information and, hence, is useful as an envelope detector when evaluating a crash waveform for purposes of controlling actuation of the safety device.

Abstract: A motorized vehicle anti-theft system which is passive by being automatically armed (i.e., does not require a vehicle occupant to set the system). Once power has been turned on to the vehicle, detection of an attempt to start the vehicle motor or the opening of a vehicle door starts a predetermined time cycle. If a first reset signal is not received before the end of the time cycle, a vehicle disabling circuit is set. After that, a detection of actuation of the vehicle brake will trigger the disabling circuit to only permit the vehicle engine to operate properly near the engine idling speed, and set off an alarm. More specifically, the engine's operating speed is continually monitored, and after the disabling circuit is triggered, if the contemporaneous engine operating speed exceeds the normal idling speed, the vehicle fuel supply is intermittently interrupted to cause violent lunging of the vehicle.

Abstract: A matched filter (14) for vehicle crash discrimination system (10) utilizes at least one set of n scaling factors stored in a memory (24) to combine (22) with a set of n time sequenced acceleration data samples. The values of the n scaling factors are selected to effect a desired vehicle crash discrimination strategy. The matched filter optimizes system design flexibility and reconfigurability by allowing different strategies to be implemented simply by selecting the appropriate scaling factors stored in the memory.

Abstract: An air bag inflator is manufactured by sandwiching a wire mesh filter between a pair of flat elongated perforate strips of steel, thereafter rolling the sandwiched steel strips and wire mesh concomitantly to form a right circular cylindrical tube with the edge portions of the steel strips orientated in juxtaposed relation to one another, respectively; and welding the juxtaposed edge portions of the strips by a common weld that extends radially across the edge portions of both of the steel strips.

Abstract: In a system (10) and method for controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device in response to an event possibly requiring actuation of the safety device, a differential measure (m.sub.1 (t)) is generated based on stored consecutive values for received vehicle acceleration information while a measure (m.sub.2 (t)) correlated with the relative progress of the event is generated by selectively providing as an input to a first accumulator (24) either a weighted transitory value for received acceleration information (a(t)) whenever the transitory value is itself less than or equal to a first predetermined threshold value (x.sub.1), or a weighted alternative value, wherein the alternative value is itself equal to twice the first predetermined threshold value (x.sub.1) minus the transitory value. The differential measure (m.sub.1 (t)) is thereafter combined with the progress measure (m.sub.

Abstract: Nonazide gas generating compositions are formed from a nonazide fuel, an oxidizer, a slag former, and a built-in catalyst comprising an alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, or transition metal salt of tetrazoles, bitetrazoles, and triazoles, or a transition metal oxide. The built-in catalyst promotes the conversion of nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.x) and carbon monoxide to nitrogen gas (N.sub.2) and carbon dioxide, respectively. The gas generants are therefore nontoxic and useful for inflating a vehicle occupant restraint system.

Abstract: A pressure regulator for an industrial process system is connected between the industrial process equipment and pollution control equipment and exhibits a pressure inversely related to pressure changes in the pollution control equipment so as to maintain the exit pressure at the process equipment constant.

Abstract: In a system and method for controlling actuation of a vehicle passenger safety device in response to an event possibly requiring actuation of the safety device, stored and rank-ordered values for received vehicle acceleration are used to generate a high-rank jerk measure (j.sub.H), a median-ranked acceleration value (a.sub.M) and a median-rank velocity measure (v.sub.M), while raw acceleration information is further used to generate an "event-based timer" or event-progress measure (t') . These measures (j.sub.H, a.sub.M, v.sub.M, t') are then used to generate a pair of event-identification measures (m.sub.1, m.sub.2) useful in identifying two specific crash types for which specialized acceleration-based event-severity measures other than the default event-severity measure (m.sub.