Abstract: A process and a secondary pulper used in a system for waste paper conditioning wherein the secondary pulper has a tumbling space separated from an accepted stock space by a screen. The secondary pulper includes a central drain line through which a fraction of fiber suspension enriched with light dirt is removed at one end of the secondary pulper, and a circumferential line through which a fraction of the fiber suspension enriched with heavy dirt is removed from the secondary pulper. A pulp inlet sleeve surrounds the central drain line and receives fiber suspension enriched with heavy dirt from the circumferential drain line through a conduit from the circumferential drain line to the pulp inlet sleeve so that the fiber suspension enriched with heavy dirt enters the tumbling space adjacent the entrance to the central drain line.

Abstract: Incorporation of fluorine into a porous silica body, such as an unsintered body produced by a sol-gel method, by VAD or OVPO, reduces or eliminates bubble or pore formation upon re-heating of the glass formed by sintering of the porous material. Effective fluorine concentrations are between 0.01 and 5% by weight. The invention can be used advantageously in producing preforms and optical fiber.

Abstract: In an extended nip proess including a stationary support member, a hydraulically actuatable press shoe supported on and extending along the support member and a rotatable counter-roll opposed to and extending along the direction of the press shoe, there is a flexible, tubular press jacket which rotates around the support member and which is sealed so as to be inflatable by air. Before rotation of the counter-roll starts, the press jacket is air inflated and expands to partially wrap around the counte-roll. After rotation of the counter-roll and the press jacket begins, and only after a set minimum velocity has been exceeded, then the press shoe is fluid pressurized against the press jacket. At the time, the air pressure in the press jacket is reduced. Various control devices control the feed of pressure liquid to the press shoe and the feed of air to the press jacket until and then after a minimum speed level is exceeded.

Abstract: A device for transferring the energy emitted by a high power laser onto a target characterized in that it comprises two guides of optical fibre having step index refraction distribution and at least a plastic material coating. The first guide, stiffly coupled to the laser source, is a variable section fibre with an input face of larger diameter. Guide is the second one by a uniform or variable section fibre with a larger diameter near the output terminal. The two guides are joined by a low leakage optical fibre connector, and between them an adapter can be interposed if the output section of the first guide of fibre does not coincide with the input section of the second guide of fibre. The variable section fibre can be drawn from a pre-moulded or melted material, with the speed controlled by an electronic circuit. Different kinds of pots can be utilized in order to obtain the fibre plastic coating.

Abstract: A thin film evaporator consists of an enclosure defining a vapor space, a level drive shaft running into the enclosure and a rotor fixed to the shaft and having an axis of rotation disposed horizontally when in operative position, the rotor being made up of spaced coaxial conical evaporator elements, whose evaporation space communicates with the vapor space. The feed to be evaporated is supplied at one end of the rotor at the inner circumference of one or more conical evaporator elements thereof. Such evaporator elements are placed together in pairs so that they taper outwards with the evaporating faces thereof facing each other, so as to form a collection trough at their outer edges for the concentrate. The feed spreads out in the form of a film from the inner edge or edges for the elements and is taken up in the respective collection trough as a preconcentrate.

Abstract: In a sand classification tank for producing classified sand for concrete pouring purposes, i.e., sand containing predetermined fractions of sand grains of different sizes per unit of volume, a mixture of unclassified sand and water is introduced into a tank (1) partially filled with water, beneath the surface of the water, and the sand grains are deposited by sedimentation at the bottom of the tank at varying distances from the inlet, depending on their weight, such that the coarsest sand fraction will be deposited closest to, and the finest fraction or fines farthest from, the place where the sand/water mixture is introduced into the tank. For the purpose of retaining as much of the fines fraction as possible (i.e., sand grains of between 0.002 and 0.

Abstract: A gas analyzer for simultaneously measuring a plurality of ingredients of a sample gas has a sample gas-introducing passage, a sample gas, flow-divider connected to the gas-introducing passage for dividing the sample gas into a plurality of gas flows in a desired flow-dividing ratio, a sample gas-diluter connected to the flow-divider for diluting the plurality of divided sample gas flows, and a plurality of gas concentration detectors, one for each gas flow, and connected in parallel with each other to said sample gas-diluter for receiving the respective diluted gas flows from the sample gas-diluter.

Abstract: A wire former comprising a structural framework, a headbox for holding and dispensing the pulp slurry, a breast roll, a couch roll, a forming fabric belt extending endless between the breast roll and the couch roll in a straight run, and drainage elements and suction devices underlying said straight run for extracting liquid from the slurry. The forming fabric is a multi-ply fabric, the uppermost ply being a self-sustaining weave with monofilament warp yarns of a given diameter interwoven with shute yarns, the lowermost ply being a weave with a series of generally ovate warp yarns having a vertical dimension generally equal to the diameter of the warp yarns of the uppermost ply, interwoven with shute yarns. The ovate warp yarns have a horizontal width in the shute direction substantially greater than their vertical dimension. Binder shute yarns interconnect the upper and lower plies by being interwoven with the upper and lower plies so as to be contained within the body of the multi-ply fabric.

Abstract: Photoresist apertures having tapered sidewalls can be provided by first opening the aperture in accordance with ordinary practice followed by the exposure of the photoresist to a suitable energy source such as a flood exposure to wideband light, the heating of the photoresist to round the peripheral edges of the aperture and the exposure of the thus pretreated photoresist to an environment which removes photoresist from the inside wall of the aperture until the desired tapered profile is obtained. In the preferred practice of the invention, the pretreated photoresist is removed from the inside wall of the aperture through exposure to a dry oxygen plasma etch.

Abstract: A pressing machine includes a roller and a pressing shoe which can be moved towards and away from the roller to exert pressure on the roller or on a material in a gap between the shoe and the roller. The shoe is mounted in a pressure chamber to which hydraulic pressure medium can be supplied to move the shoe. Upon movement towards the roller, the shoe applies pressure over a zone extending for a part of the circumference of the roller. Means is mounted on the pressing shoe for altering the length of this zone in the circumferential direction of the roller. To this end, the shoe may have two movable jaws which establish said zone, the jaws being movable by adjusting means over a cylindrical surface of said shoe which has substantially the same centre of curvature as the roller. The pressing shoe is particularly advantageous in a paper machine for dewatering a web of paper or for supporting the rollers of a rolling apparatus.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for separating particulate solid from a solid mixture based on the size of the particles which includes feeding a slurry of the particulate solid mixture into an upper vessel portion adapted to be filled with liquid such as the slurried particulate. The apparatus also includes a lower vessel portion having a cross-sectional area which is less than the cross-sectional area of the upper vessel portion and is sealingly connected for fluid communication with the upper vessel portion by an outwardly diverging wall located at the top of the lower vessel portion. The upper vessel portion has a free-settling region for separating particulate solids. The particulate containing slurry is met with an upwardly directed stream of fluidization fluid, e.g., water, in the lower vessel portion wherein a first fraction-containing solid particulate which has descended through the fluidization stream is directed from the apparatus by a means therefor.

Abstract: A method of planarizing a semiconductor layer by use of a plasma etch step which also etches vias having a tapered profile is made possible by selecting a conformal layer preferably of a different material than the material through which the via is to be provided such that a plasma etch will establish differing etch rates in the conformal and underlying layers.

Abstract: A press apparatus is disclosed for pressing a moving web formed on a forming wire. The apparatus includes a frame and a first plurality of rolls rotatably secured to the frame. A first continuous felt extends around the first plurality of rolls which include a pickup roll disposed adjacent to the wire for transferring the web from the wire onto the first felt. The first plurality of rolls also includes a first press roll which is disposed downstream relative to the pickup roll. A second continuous felt extends around a second plurality of rolls with the second felt cooperating with the first felt. The second plurality of rolls includes a second press roll which cooperates with the first press roll for defining therebetween a first nip. The web is urged against the second felt when the web emerges from the first nip and the second felt and supported web pass through a second nip defined by an extended nip press disposed downstream relative to the first nip.

Abstract: In a lead frame for a semiconductor device, inner leads are formed by etching and outer leads are formed by pressing.

Abstract: A starting solution is concentrated to a desired end solution by contacting the starting solution with a gaseous medium under the conditions that the heat content of the starting solution in contact with the gaseous medium is smaller than the heat content of the medium, and the duration of contacting is such that most of the solution that evaporates does so under conditions of constant enthalpy. When the starting solution is a brine, and the gaseous medium is air whose relative humidity is less than the relative humidity at the air/brine interface, the brine can be sprayed into the air to form a shower of droplets within which heat and vapor transfer take place during the transit time of the droplets in the air. When the ratio of droplets to air is sufficiently small, the heat content of the droplets is much smaller than the heat content of the air.

Abstract: A low loss fiber optic coupler is fabricated by forming a coupler preform having a plurality of spaced glass cores extending longitudinally through a matrix of glass having a refractive index lower than that of the cores. The coupler preform is heated and stretched by first pulling means to form a glass rod which is drawn by second pulling means past an intermittant source of localized heat. When the localized heat source is turned on, the second pulling means draws the rod downwardly at a rate faster than the first pulling means. Since the rod is softened by the localized heat source, a necked-down coupling region is formed. The rod is severed to form a plurality of coupler units. When an end of a unit is immersed in acid, the matrix glass dissolves, thereby leaving the unit cores and surrounding etch-resistant cladding glass protruding from the newly formed endface of the unit.

Abstract: Extended nip presses for papermaking machines and the like are provided with electromagnets immediately adjacent the press nip to create or augment the nip pressures or loads. The electromagnets have massive, wide large areas, establishing a concentrated magnetic field between conforming opposite sides of the entire nip area eliminating gaps heretofore encountered in magnetic presses. Non-magnetic belts convey wet webs through the nips of dewatering presses and dry web calendering presses can have the webs directly engage a calender roll conveying the web through the nip.

Abstract: A colorimetric reagent formulation is disclosed for the determination of the ferric iron content of serum. The formulation consists of two aqueous solutions. One solution, acting as chromogenic reagent, consists of a buffer, a soluble salt of an alkali or alkaline earth metal, chromazurol S in acidic form, and either a cationic or nonionic surfactant. The other solution, acting as masking reagent, consists of a complexing agent and if desired the same components of the chromogenic reagent, which are able to prevent the formation of the complex between the chromazurol S, the surfactant and the iron. The complexing agent consists of a polycarboxylic organic acid or salt thereof.

Abstract: Apparatus for the purpose of enabling a paper mill to determine the extent to which the performance and/or the product of an existing Fourdrinier paper machine in the mill will be improved by its conversion into a top former machine comprises a fractional version of top forming apparatus which can be readily combined with an existing Fourdrinier machine in such manner that a minor portion of the forming width of the machine will be converted to top forming operation. The apparatus makes it possible to produce, on an existing Fourdriner machine, a sheet of which a small integral portion is formed by drainage through both the primary wire and a top wire, while the remainder of the sheet continues to be produced in the same manner as before the top wire testing.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method of beneficiating coal or mineral ores containing a metaliferous sulfide, e.g. iron sulfide or pyrite, and comprises removal of unwanted components, including pyrite, from such ores by subjecting an aqueous pulp of the pulverized mineral or coal to a froth flotation process in which pyrites are depressed by a depressant composition comprising xanthan gum, a hydroxycarboxylic acid and sodium silicate. The process is especially useful for removal of pyrite from a solid carbonaceous fuel, e.g., coal containing pyrite, and for the recovery of non-ferrous metal concentrates from ores containing pyrite. The coal or ore may be subjected to a mild preoxidation treatment to enhance sulfide removal in the subsequent froth flotation operation.