Abstract: A flow rate converter has a body with a cyclindric tube and an inlet and an outlet diffuser. The tube and body have inner annular conduits connecting with pipe connections disposed in the body. The body is also provided with a heating element. A replaceable cylindric body is inserted in the cylindric tube and is provided with first axial channels providing for a laminar flow and second axial channels of which at least one has a cross-sectional area at least two times larger than the cross-sectional area of the first channels. In both ends of the second channels are formed chambers while a replaceable cover with openings is fastened to the outlet diffuser.

Abstract: A modular wire feeding device includes a wire feeding block with an electric motor and a planetary wire feeding head disposed in an electrically insulating casing. To the front shield of the electric motor there is rigidly fastened a current and water conducting pipe, a water outlet and gas inlet pipe connected to a front and rear flange. To the rear shield of the electric motor there is mounted an insulating flange which connects the wire feeding device to the wire supply part of a welding hose. The external surfaces of the front, rear, and insulating flanges are shaped as guides of the insulating casing. The casing is made up of two parts with openings provided for the manipulation of the wire feeding head. Above the openings and movably mounted on the insulating casing there is mounted a protective cover for the openings in the casing.

Abstract: A manipulator module comprises an arm bearingly mounted on an axle, confined between left and right adjustable stops with a suitably completed fixing surface. On the arm are stationary mounted hard stops with slits, charged with helical cylindric springs. The springs contact the adjustable stops when the arm approaches the respective stop. Onto parallel guideways, formed by the stationary stops with slits, roll the extreme bearings of a three bearing bearings block, the intermediate bearing of which contacts the fixing surface of the respective stop while the mover is at "on" position. When the arm has reached the stop and has deformed the spring, the "fix" mover is actuated, the arm is fixed to the stop and the energy lost during the arm's movement is added.

Abstract: Method of and apparatus for sorting tobacco into two groups: a group of satisfactory leaves and a group of unsatisfactory leaves. Tobacco leaves, spaced so that they pass one by one along a conveyor, travel through a zone illuminated by pulsed polychromatic light and an optical sensor receiving light reflected from the tobacco leaves. In a manner which is synchronous with the pulsations of light there is measured the quantity of the light reflected by each of the leaves in the green, orange, red, and infrared areas of the spectrum. Sums are formed from the values corresponding to the reflected light in such areas of the spectrum and relations are obtained between sums corresponding to the green and orange as well as to the red and infrared ranges, of time in which the value of the reflected light in the infrared area is greater than a value preliminarily preset by the operator.

Abstract: Device for determining the reflective properties of objects in discrete spectral zones. The device has a housing in which there is disposed a diaphragm perpendicularly to the optical axis of the device and photosensors sensitive to light in a narrow spectral range that are connected with electronic amplifiers. The opening of the diaphragm coincides with the basic aperture of vision. Between the diaphragm and the object there are disposed supplementary diaphragms with openings coinciding with the basic aperture of vision. Each supplementary diaphragm lies in a plane determined by the intersection point of the parasitic aperture of vision of the diaphragm preceding it on the side of the photosensors and the housing. The device may be use to advantage in color discriminating systems, for example, the sorting of tobacco leaves according to their color.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding wire at great distances, as in feeding electrode wire in electric welding. A plurality of wire-feeding mechanisms are disposed in tandem, each of such mechanisms being coupled to a DC motor, the DC motors being connected in parallel through individual back-polarizing diodes. The first or leading DC motor is connected via a speed stabilizer in a generator for switch-on impulses to a thyristor rectifier, the outputs of a rectifier being connected to the first DC motor. Each of the remaining DC motors is connected to the outputs of the thyristor rectifier, the connection of all DC motors to the thyristor rectifier being effected via a respective separating diode. The apparatus of the invention is particularly characterized by its simplified structure, while it still preserves all functional possibilities of prior art systems for feeding wire over large distances.

Abstract: In order to track a distinctive line on a workpiece area to be followed by an operating implement, specifically a junction line between two workpieces to be welded by a torch advancing along that line, a narrow beam is trained generally perpendicularly from a pulsating source of luminous radiation--e. g. a laser--upon that area and is shifted parallel to itself around the implement so as to intersect the workpiece area along a closed trace substantially bisected by the line being tracked. The source of radiation is part of a photosensor including an objective with an optical axis inclined to the beam at a small angle to generate an image of the latter on a slanting straight line parallel to a central ray which passes through the point of intersection of the beam axis with the front focal plane of the objective, this image line starting at the intersection of the rear focal plane with a central ray parallel to the beam.

Abstract: In an open-pit mine with several excavation sites and a fleet of trucks carrying ore from loading stations near these sites to a number of unloading stations, data concerning production schedules are manually fed into a programmer together with information on the yield of each loading station as determined by local ore analyzers, on the identity and location of vehicles as ascertained by roadside monitoring units, and on the loading and unloading rates as detected by sensing elements at the various stations. The programmer classifies the several loading stations in two groups, i.e.