Abstract: A shutter comprising an actuator ring that rotates about a midpoint and three obturator elements movably coupled to the actuator ring. A housing defines a cavity for holding the actuator ring and the obturator elements. The system also includes a plurality of wipers. Each wiper comprises a seal material and acts as a seal disposed between a first or second surface of the obturator elements and a first or second planar surface of the housing. The system also includes curved grooves adapted for receiving a wall seal when valve moves between an open and closed position. When the valve moves between an open and closed position, one end of the obturator element contacts the wall seal and the plurality of wall seals prevent egress of fluid into at least a portion of the cavity of the housing.

Abstract: An apparatus and methods for sorting and determining the length distribution of fibers in a sample are disclosed. One method of sorting and determining the length distribution of fibers includes immersing the fibers in a liquid to form a mixture; placing the mixture into a stack of sieves; progressively applying a predetermined number of frequencies of sound energy to each sieve in the stack of sieves; draining the mixture from the stack of sieves; and quantifying the collected fibers in each sieve in the stack of sieves.

Abstract: A device for removing plants or portions of plants from the plant bed includes a frame having forward and rearward ends, and first and second containment coulters attached to the frame in side-by-side alignment. The first and second containment coulters define a space between them. A rotary cutter is rotatably attached to the frame rearward of the first and second containment coulters. A portion of the rotary cutter extends into the space between the first and second containment coulters. The rotary cutter includes a plurality of teeth along a peripheral edge thereof. A shroud is attached to the frame and extends over at least a portion of the containment coulter pair and the rotary cutter. The shroud includes side walls that extend downward from the top of the shroud along at least a portion of the height of the pair of containment coulters and the rotary cutter.

Abstract: A roller cleaning assembly including: a main body support; and, a contact portion including an elongate cleaning surface for contacting an outside cylindrical surface of a roller, the contact portion being coupled to the main body support and moveable therefrom between a retracted position where the cleaning surface is remote from the roller and an engaged position where the cleaning surface is in contact with an outside cylindrical surface of the roller.

Abstract: A plurality of relatively long wires having the same diameter are bundled together to obtain a bundle wire in a continuous wire bundling process. A wire bundling device includes a plurality of reels rotated by a rotating drive and wind a wire while a first end is engaged. A wire second-end pressing device collects and presses a second end of each of a plurality of wires having a predetermined length which is fed from a single spool and individually wound around each of a plurality of reels. The wires are withdrawn in a collected state from the reels by a withdrawing device between the plurality of reels and the wire second-end pressing device. The wire second-end press includes first and second pressing devices. The reels are rotated by an electric motor with a contact roller that rotates in contact with an outer circumference of the reel. The motor can be moved so that the contact roller selectively makes contact with the outer circumferences of the reels.

Abstract: Disclosed is a sludge processing system having a centrifugal separator concentrating the sludge and a furnace heat-treating the concentrated sludge. It allows automatic control in which the operational condition of the centrifugal separator operates under optimal conditions according to the operational state of the furnace. The control device sets a variable range of a differential speed between the bowl and screw conveyor of the centrifugal separator, and variably controls the differential speed so concentrated sludge convey torque of the screw conveyor achieves a torque corresponding to a moisture content requested by the furnace within the variable range, when the differential speed varies within a certain previously set range and the concentrated sludge convey torque of the screw conveyor maintains the torque corresponding to the moisture content requested by the furnace for a certain period of time being previously set, changes a control value of the centrifugal force and the torque.

Abstract: Provided are lubricant compositions from renewable biological sources with improved properties and methods of making and using such compositions. In one form, the lubricant composition includes from 20 to 99.8 wt. % of a lube base stock produced from a renewable biological source and an effective amount of one or more lubricant additives. The lube base stock includes 10 to 35 wt. % paraffins, 40 to 70 wt. % 1-ring naphthenes, and 0 to 40 wt. % combined 2-ring naphthenes and aromatics, and has a ratio of 1-ring naphthenes to paraffins from 1.8 to 5.0, and a Viscosity Index of from 100 to 160. The lube base stock has a 14C level ranging from 2 to 101% of the modern day 14C level in the atmosphere, and yields a CCS ratio of less than or equal to 0.85 at ?35° C. The lubricant compositions exhibit improved solvency and % thickening when blended with a viscosity modifier.

Abstract: Provided are lube base stocks produced from renewable biological sources with improved low temperature properties. In one form, the lube base stock includes from 10 to 35 wt. % paraffins, 40 to 70 wt. % 1-ring naphthenes, and 0 to 40 wt. % combined 2-ring naphthenes and aromatics, and has a ratio of 1-ring naphthenes to paraffins from 1.8 to 5.0, and a Viscosity Index of from 100 to 160. The lube base stock has a 14C level ranging from 2 to 101% of the modern day 14C level in the atmosphere, and yields a CCS ratio (Cold Crank Simulator (CCS) viscosity to the predicted CCS viscosity by Walther equation) of less than or equal to 0.85 at ?35° C. The base stocks are useful as in formulated lubricant compositions requiring improved low temperature properties.

Abstract: Methods are provided for predicting the properties of an asphalt fraction that contains two or more asphalt components based on measurements of the viscosity for the asphalt fraction. Based on the measured viscosity, a virtual cut point is determined for a virtual asphalt blend that has the same viscosity (to within a tolerance value) as the measured viscosity for the asphalt fraction. The virtual cut point is then used to determine a variety of predicted property values for the asphalt fraction. Optionally, the predicted property values can be used to adjust the actual cut point for the distillation or separation process used for forming the asphalt fraction.

Abstract: An apparatus generates a machine operation enable signal as a function of a closed position of a movable safety access door of a safety guard for a work cell. A pivotal plate carries a handle and a switch receiver. A stationary non-contact proximity switch is mounted to be activated by the switch receiver when the door is closed and the pivotal plate is in a latched position. A ring receives a tongue projecting from the pivotal plate when the plate and handle are in the latched position. A pivotal hasp is movable around the ring into interference with the path of movement of the pivotal plate to block the plate from the fully latched position. A movable detent enables the plate and handle to be moved to the fully latched position only by moving the detent from exterior side of the plate.

Abstract: The present invention provides a dual sensor differential pressure transmitter with a single fill fluid volume that intrinsically eliminates process and environmental performance influences, increases signal level while substantially reducing product costs.

Abstract: A three-level inverter having two direct current (DC)-links for converting DC voltages generated in a plurality of photovoltaic (PV) modules into alternating current (AC) voltages, wherein one end of a first DC-link of the two DC-links is connected to a first potential point at which a first potential is generated in the plurality of PV modules, and one end of a second DC-link of the two DC-links is connected to a second potential point at which a second potential that is lower than the first potential is generated in the plurality of PV modules, and both the other end of the first DC-link and the other end of the second DC-link are connected to a third potential point at which a third potential having a medium level between the first potential and the second potential is generated in the plurality of PV modules.

Abstract: The present invention provides a phosphonate-containing polymer and use thereof and a phosphonate-containing polymer viscosity reducer for drilling fluid. The phosphonate-containing polymer comprises structural units expressed by formula (1), structural units expressed by formula (2), and structural units expressed by formula (3) and/or structural units expressed by formula (4), wherein, the ratio of the mole number of the structural units expressed by formula (1), mole number of the structural units expressed by formula (2), and total mole number of the structural units expressed by formula (3) and structural units expressed by formula (4) is 10-85:10-75:5-55. The phosphonate-containing polymer still has outstanding viscosity reducing effect after high-temperature aging when it is applied in brine drilling fluids and high-density drilling fluids.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides an ethylene cracking furnace, comprising at least one radiant section provided with a bottom burner and/or a side burner, and at least one set of radiant coil arranged along a longitudinal direction of the radiant section. The radiant coil is an at least two-pass coil having an N?1 structure, wherein N is preferably a natural number from 2 to 8. A manifold is arranged at an inlet end of a downstream tube of said at least two-pass coil, and an outlet end of each upstream tube of said at least two-pass coil is connected to the manifold through a curved connector. The arrangement according to the present disclosure can effectively reduce the expansion differences between the upstream tubes and the downstream tubes, and therefore reduce the stress caused thereby. Consequently, bending of the radiant coil can be avoided, thereby extending the service life of the radiant coil.

Abstract: In a heat integrated distillation column (HIDiC), the product purity can be stably maintained against various disturbances. Provided is a method for controlling a distillation apparatus, which includes a high-pressure part including the whole or a part of a rectifying section and performing gas-liquid contact at a relatively high pressure; a low-pressure part including the whole or a part of a stripping section and performing gas-liquid contact at a relatively low pressure; a line for directing overhead vapor of the low-pressure part to a column bottom of the high-pressure part; a line for directing a column bottom liquid of the high-pressure part to a column top of the low-pressure part; and a heat exchange structure for transferring heat from the rectifying section to the stripping section, wherein the method includes controlling a flow rate of the column bottom liquid to be directed from the high-pressure part to the low-pressure part.

Abstract: Receive signals may be combined to form receive beam signals at multiple receive frequency channels. The receive beam signals may be partitioned by receive frequency channel into multiple groups of receive beam signals, each group corresponding to a different frequency spectrum and the multiple groups including a first group and a second group. The first and the second group of receive beam signals may be communicated to a first and a second switch, respectively. The first and the second group of receive beam signals may be switched by the first switch and the second switch, respectively, to generate a first and a second group of transmit beam signals. Transmit beam signals that include the first and the second group of transmit beam signals may be combined to form transmit signals to be transmitted using corresponding transmit antenna elements to form one or more transmit beams at multiple transmit frequency channels.

Abstract: The inkjet printing system includes a print information receiving unit that receives print information including work piece types, print images, and print conditions (S231), an image arrangement deciding unit that decides an image arrangement that is an arrangement of the print images on a pallet (S232 to S242), a work piece arrangement outputting unit that outputs a work piece arrangement that is an arrangement of work pieces according to the image arrangement (S243), and a print executing unit that executes printing on the work pieces on the pallet based on the print image, print conditions, and image arrangement, wherein the image arrangement deciding unit decides the image arrangement in a state where a plurality of print images with the common specific print conditions being predetermined conditions among the print conditions is aligned in a main scanning direction (S232, S233).

Abstract: Foil-based PTC heaters are self-regulating, i.e. do not need any electronic control unit (ECU) to limit the maximum heating current. In order to establish different heating power levels the present invention proposes to choose different PTC ratio/onset characteristics. In addition, the print design of the PTC ink can be adjusted accordingly.

Abstract: A method for changing a signal value of an FPGA at runtime, including the steps of loading an FPGA hardware configuration with at least one signal value onto the FPGA, running the FPGA hardware configuration on the FPGA, setting the signal value for transfer to the FPGA, determining writeback data from the signal value, writing the writeback data as status data to a configuration memory of the FPGA, and transferring the status data from the configuration memory to the functional level of the FPGA. A method is also provided for performing an FPGA build, including the steps of creating an FPGA hardware configuration with a plurality of signal values, arranging signal values in adjacent areas of the FPGA hardware configuration, ascertaining memory locations of a configuration memory for status data of the plurality of signal values on the basis of the FPGA hardware configuration, and creating a list containing signal values.