Abstract: A sliding spline shaft device of the present invention includes a male spline and a female spline that is fitted to the male spline in an axially slidable manner, and at least one of the splines has a surface processed layer. The surface processed layer includes an undercoat layer, an intermediate layer containing phosphate, and a topcoat layer containing solid lubricant, in this order. The undercoat layer contains iron nitride and/or iron carbide. Thus, the surface of a base material has high hardness. As a result, microscopic deformation of the sliding surface is reduced, and increase in a real contact area is suppressed, whereby stick-slip is prevented.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a mechanical seal for a shaft, having a rotary seal ring and a stationary seal ring which slide on and come in contact with each other for sealing a fluid. A blade-like sealing end portion formed at one seal ring is resiliently pressed, through a coil spring or a flat leaf spring, to a flat sealing end surface formed at the other seal ring. The blade-like sealing end portion is symmetrical at the inner and outer peripheral surfaces thereof with respect to the edge surface thereof, and the angles formed by the inner and outer peripheral surfaces of the sealing end portion with respect to the edge surface thereof are set to 90.degree. or more, and preferably in the range from 105.degree. to 150.degree.. This facilitates the machining of the sealing end portion and prevents the sealing end portion from being broken, thus assuring a stable sealing performance for a long period of time.

Abstract: A distributed data processing system is provided in which two computers, each running under a different operating system, are coupled so that jobs initiated by a first one of the computers can be executed on a second computer by using the resources of the second computer. This enables the user of the first computer to use the second computer under the environment of the first computer. The first computer acts as the interface between the user and the data processing system. Service programs running on the system can handle or provide for input/output operations during the execution of jobs on the second computer so that the jobs seem to the user of the first computer to be executed on the first computer. The system has means for creating a dummy file in the file system of one operating system which is used as a place holder for a corresponding file in a storage device attached to the other operating system, and accessed by programs controlled by that other operating system.