Did You Know...
...that the Eveready Battery began as an invention called the "electric flowerpot," which was a tube with a battery and light bulb inside? The idea was to fasten this gizmo to the side of a flowerpot so it would illuminate the flowers from the bottom. The idea died on the vine and the businessman who licensed the flower pot, Conrad Huber, was left with a pile of useless tubes -- until he found a way to market them as batteries to light the world!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7643899 | Method of beveling an ophthalmic lens blank, machine programmed therefor, and computer program The present invention is directed to a machine programmed to edge an ophthalmic lens blank. The machine includes an edger device for forming a bevel in a peripheral edge of the lens blank, a central processing unit operably associated with the edger device for contr... | 01/05/2010 |
| 7463944 | Method of grooving and drilling an ophthalmic lens blank, machine programmed therefor, and computer program The present invention is directed to a method of controlling an edger device, and a machine programmed to edge a lens blank. A lens blank and an edger are provided. The edger device is capable of forming a groove in a peripheral edge of the lens, and forming at leas... | 12/09/2008 |
| 7454264 | Method of beveling an ophthalmic lens blank, machine programmed therefor, and computer program The present invention is directed to a machine programmed to edge an ophthalmic lens blank. The machine includes an edger device for forming a bevel in a peripheral edge of the lens blank, a central processing unit operably associated with the edger device for contr... | 11/18/2008 |
| 7392108 | Method of controlling an edger device, machine programmed to edge an ophthalmic lens blank, and computer program The present invention relates to a method of controlling an ophthalmic edger device, and a machine programmed to edge and ophthalmic lens blank. A lens blank and an edger device for forming a groove in a peripheral edge of the lens blank are provided. A central proc... | 06/24/2008 |
| 7377836 | Versatile wafer refining Methods of refining using a plurality of refining elements are discussed. A refining apparatus having refining elements that can be smaller than the workpiece being refined are disclosed. New refining methods, refining apparatus, and refining elements disclosed. Met... | 05/27/2008 |
| 7376482 | Grinding method and apparatus In a grinding method and apparatus, a machining portion of a workpiece is ground with a grinding wheel on a trial, and shape errors in respective rotational phases of the machining portion are measured after the trial grinding. Based on the shape errors, control dat... | 05/20/2008 |
| 7371686 | Method and apparatus for polishing a semiconductor device A method and an apparatus for polishing a semiconductor wafer are provided. An initial thickness of the semiconductor wafer is actually measured to obtain a measured initial thickness value. First and second inter-positions are then set or determined with reference ... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7361076 | Method for estimating polishing profile or polishing amount, polishing method and polishing apparatus A polishing method can automatically reset polishing conditions according to a state of a polishing member based on data on a polishing profile changing with time, thereby extending life of the polishing member and obtaining flatness of a polished surface with highe... | 04/22/2008 |
| 7335091 | Methods and apparatus for machining a coupling A method facilitates fabricating a coupling including a first annular coupling member and a second annular coupling member. The method comprises coupling the first coupling member to a machine assembly that includes a plurality of grinding wheels coupled to a tool s... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7310981 | Method for regulating the temperature of strip metal The invention relates to a method for controlling and regulating the temperature of a metal strip in a finishing train of a hot rolling mill. A target function is formed by comparing a desired temperature gradient with an actual temperature gradient. The target func... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7299107 | Method for analyzing effective polishing frequency and effective polishing times for chemical mechanical planarization polishing wafers with different polishing pad profiles A method for analyzing polishing frequency and number of polishing times for chemical planarization polishing wafer with different polishing pad profiles is disclosed. First, drawings of a wafer and a polishing pad are provided and then are converted into pixel arra... | 11/20/2007 |
| 7288418 | Process for treating substrates for the microelectronics industry, and substrates obtained by this process A process for treating substrates for the microelectronics or optoelectronics industry, wherein the substrates include on at least one of their faces a working layer in which components are intended to be formed. The process includes a step of annealing under a redu... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7283886 | Practical measurement system for a manufacturing process A complete Direct Digital Numerical Control (DDNC) automation system for a practical measurement system for a manufacturing process where a given slide or ram is moved under power by input of GO-TO location commands to cause a cascade of motion events to an approxim... | 10/16/2007 |
| 7269472 | Many-headed grinding machine and grinding method using many-headed grinding machine A control device 40 controls the grinding processing at a processing portion of a work W so as to shift to the last precision grinding step from a rough grinding step through a middle grinding step and a finishing grinding step. When the grinding in each step... | 09/11/2007 |
| 7251971 | Method for regulating the temperature of strip metal The invention relates to a method for controlling or regulating the temperature of a metal strip in a cooling path of a hot rolling system. A desired temperature gradient is compared to an actual temperature gradient in order to determine adjusting signals for the c... | 08/07/2007 |
| 7234999 | Method for estimating polishing profile or polishing amount, polishing method and polishing apparatus A polishing method can automatically reset polishing conditions according to a state of a polishing member based on data on a polishing profile changing with time, thereby extending life of the polishing member and obtaining flatness of a polished surface with highe... | 06/26/2007 |
| 7226340 | Grinding machine The grinding machine (10) according to the invention serves in particular for the machining or production of tools. It comprises a machine bed 11 and a workpiece spindle (14) arranged thereon, which receives the workpiece (13) to be machi... | 06/05/2007 |
| 7208112 | Concrete block and method of making same Molds and processes that permit high-speed, mass production of retaining wall blocks having patterned or other processed front faces, as well as retaining wall blocks formed by such processes. The invention permits the front face of the block to be impressed with a ... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7201631 | Automatic or semi-automatic device for trimming an ophthalmic lens Device comprising in combination: elements for detecting (4) characteristics of a lens; elements for integrating characteristics representing a patient's morphology; a support (3) of the mobile lens along a predetermined trajectory between a first meas... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7196018 | Semiconductor etching paste and the use thereof for localized etching of semiconductor substrates A method of etching a semiconductor substrate is described, the method comprising the steps of applying a paste containing an etchant to the substrate, and carrying out a thermal processing step to etch a part or a layer of the substrate where the paste has been app... | 03/27/2007 |
| 7191030 | Method for estimating the angular offset, method for calibrating a grinding machine for opthalmic glasses and device for carrying out said calibrating method The invention relates to a method for estimating the angular offset between a rotating radial axis linked to a glass which is to be ground and a reference rotating radial axis which can be applied to a grinding machine for ophthalmic glasses. Said method comprises t... | 03/13/2007 |
| 7179536 | Optical element having a low surface roughness, an optical pickup device including the optical element, and a die for making the optical element An optical pickup device for recording and/or reproducing information in an optical information recording medium, comprises a light source to emit light flux having a central wavelength not longer than 500 nm; a converging optical system to converge the light flux e... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7164964 | Method for producing an aspherical optical element The invention relates to a program-controlled NC data generating method for controlling a CNC wet-grinding machine for machining workpieces made of optical materials to produce aspherical forms, the data of the aspherical forms to be ground being overlaid with corre... | 01/16/2007 |
| 7155973 | Method and apparatus for balancing A balancer assembly 10 which automatically provides balancer limits, which achieves a balancing state while substantially minimizing short term vibration increases and which provides for multi-plane balancer dithering. ... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7150673 | Method for estimating polishing profile or polishing amount, polishing method and polishing apparatus A polishing method can automatically reset polishing conditions according to a state of a polishing member based on data on a polishing profile changing with time, thereby extending life of the polishing member and obtaining flatness of a polished surface with highe... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7142942 | Method of producing a design on a terracotta container having a glazed surface portion This invention relates to a method of producing designs on terracotta containers, the surfaces of which have been at least partly covered with a glaze. In the method, the glaze is cut through and is cut, grinded, or etched away with glass cutting tools to expose the... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7118452 | Pneumatically actuated flexible coupling end effectors for lapping/polishing Methods and apparatus for end effectors for performing surface lapping using a robotic system are provided. In one embodiment, a lapping system includes a robotic arm and a pneumatic end effector unit. The pneumatic end effector unit includes a first base attached t... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7103441 | Calibration procedures and such using an erosion and grinding machine A method for calibration of grinding and/or erosion machines assumes an initial calibration process and corresponding re-calibration processes. Calibration of the machine is performed with a reference piece and a reference tracer in an initial calibration process. G... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7090560 | System and method for detecting abrasive article orientation Systems and methods control abrading operations of an abrading machine by sensing characteristics of an abrading article installed on the abrading machine. When a problem is discovered by sensing the article, appropriate actions may be taken. As one example, the abr... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7090559 | Ophthalmic lens manufacturing system A tool for gripping ophthalmic lenses including a vacuum gripper, a shaft associated with said vacuum gripper, the shaft having two ends and being slidably attached at one end thereof to a support structure, a resilient member which biases the vacuum gripper in a di... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7089081 | Modeling an abrasive process to achieve controlled material removal In general, techniques are described that allow an abrasive manufacturing process to achieve a controlled performance parameter, e.g., an amount of material removal, without requiring the use of feedback controls within the abrasive manufacturing process. For exampl... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7083495 | Advanced process control approach for Cu interconnect wiring sheet resistance control A wafer based APC method for controlling an oxide (Cu, or TaN) polish step is described and combines a feed forward model that compensates for incoming wafer variations with a feed backward model which compensates for CMP variations. The method is geared toward mini... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7085619 | Method for controlling an industrial process The invention relates to a method for controlling an industrial process for manufacturing or processing a product, in particular for controlling the cooling line of a hot-rolling mill, said cooling line being simulated by a physical model. To optimize the cooling pr... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7077731 | Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) system and method for preparing a wafer in a cleaning module A method for preparing a wafer in a cleaning module is described. In this method, slurry is dispensed onto a surface of a wafer. Next, a chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) operation is conducted in the cleaning module by contacting a surface of a brush with the... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7059942 | Method of backgrinding wafers while leaving backgrinding tape on a chuck A method of backgrinding wafers wherein backgrinding tape or a pad is applied to the chuck and not to the wafers. The backgrinding tape or pad is left on the chuck as each wafer is sequentially placed on the tape or pad, background, rinsed on the backside, removed f... | 06/13/2006 |
| 7048609 | Pressure control system and polishing apparatus A pressure control system is used for eliminating individual differences of a plurality of pressure controllers used for controlling pressures of a plurality of pressure-controlled sections. The pressure control system includes a plurality of pressure controllers fo... | 05/23/2006 |
| 7044830 | Numeric controller A chopping control process, for controlling a machine tool during chopping, i.e., shaping or cutting a workpiece, is allowed without adding an extra axis dedicated just to the chopping, i.e., a chopping dedicated axis. To correct a chopping operation (i.e., an opera... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7039488 | Method of determining remaining film thickness in polishing process A method of determining remaining film thickness in polishing process provides a technology for controlling a polishing amount of CMP in a device isolating process with satisfactory accuracy regardless of the ratio between the area of each of device forming regions ... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7029993 | Method for treating substrates for microelectronics and substrates obtained according to said method The invention relates to a method for treating substrates (50) for microelectronics or optoelectronics, whereby said substrates comprise a useful layer (52) on at least one of the surfaces thereof. The inventive method includes a mechanical/chemical po... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7024262 | Process management systems and methods of the same In a manufacturing process management system 10, each of input terminals 401 to 40n located respectively in multiple manufacturing processes of a process flow with regard to a preset product reads a barcode 164 attac... | 04/04/2006 |