Abstract: An accumulator is provided for use with a production line formed by two or more standardized modular production units for receiving product supporting carriers in sequence from one production unit, advancing the carriers along a serpentine path of travel of a given length, and for thereafter advancing the carriers onto the next production unit. The accumulator includes a plurality of side-by-side conveyors and corresponding passive turnaround guide bars responsive to motion imparted to the carriers by next adjacent conveyors moving in opposite directions for deflecting the carriers from one conveyor to the next adjacent conveyor while at the same time effecting the turning of the carriers through approximately 180.degree..

Abstract: The aerodynamic window is formed of a contiguous pair of gas jet streams driven at subsonic velocity across the entire cross-sectional area of an annular laser beam. One of the jet streams has a shear interface with the interior gas of the laser and has its index of refraction matched to it. The other interfaces with the outside air into which the beam passes and it too has a refraction index matched to the air. Matching of the indices minimizes optical distortion of the beam at the shear interfaces. Distortion produced at the boundary layer of the contiguous jet streams is minimized by equalizing their velocities. To maintain a desired laser cavity pressure, the jet streams are permitted to bend responsively to the pressure differential. The degree of the bending is controlled to reduce window gas consumption.

Abstract: Apparatus for cutting a portion of a visible image from a film unit and mounting the same in a frame or slide holder of the type adapted to be received by a slide projector. The apparatus includes a female die upon which the film unit is supported and an elongate member having one end pivotally connected to a fixed support and its opposite end constructed to pivotally receive a male die thereby enabling the male die to self-align itself within the female die as the elongate member is rotated about its pivotal connection to the fixed support during the cutting or severing operation. A manually operative film advancing apparatus is provided for engaging an edge of the severed portion of the film unit and moving it into a chamber containing a plurality of open-ended slide mounts. As the severed portion is advanced into the chamber, its leading edge enters one of the mounts via its open end.

Abstract: An improved cylindrical processing roller is provided for use in a motor driven photographic processing apparatus of the type which spreads a fluid processing composition in a thin, substantially uniform layer between selected layers of integral type self-processable film units while advancing a film unit to the exterior of a camera after photoexposure. The improvement in the roller resides in a novel circumferential roller surface roughened by electrical discharge machining techniques to provide the roller with a high-friction characteristic for transporting the film units while being insufficiently rough to leave any visually perceptible marks on a film unit.