Flashover voltage characteristics of contaminated station insulators under temporary ac overvoltages in the ac system connected with a frequency converter station

According to the recent analysis results of temporary ac overvoltage in the ac system connected with a frequency converter station, large-magnitude over-voltages were confirmed to occur under some special system conditions. Most of the station insulators currently used cannot withstand such overvoltages according to an evaluation based on the data obtained earlier. The necessity of tests to be done to evaluate such performance more accurately was recognized. Both power frequency and switching impulse overvoltage flashover tests were made on contaminated insulators by the method well simulating the natural wetting condition. Switching impulse flashover voltage with the waveshape having a long wavefront time of 2 ms can be well correlated with the flashover voltage characteristics of temporary ac overvoltage. Higher flashover voltage characteristics were obtained by a clean fog test method compared with those obtained by equivalent fog test method.     

Calciothermic reduction of titanium oxide in molten CaCl<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Titanium oxides were reduced to metallic titanium using the liquid calcium floating on the molten CaCl₂. A part of Ca dissolved into CaCl₂ and reacted with TiO₂ settled below CaCl₂. The by-product CaO also dissolved by about 20 mol pct into CaCl₂, which was effective in reducing the oxygen concentration in the obtained Ti particles. The compositional region in the Ca-CaCl₂-CaO system was examined for the less oxygen contamination in Ti and the better handling in leaching. A large amount of the residual calcium oxidized the titanium powder in leaching. The metallic Ti powder less than 1000 mass ppm oxygen could be obtained only for 3.6 ks using 5 to 7 mol pct Ca-CaCl₂ at 1173 K. The powder was slightly sintered like sponge, and contained approximately 1500 ppm Ca. The anatase phae, the intermediate product in the refining process of TiO₂, could be also supplied as raw material as well as rutile.     

Effects of vitamin B6 deficiency on cytokine levels and lymphocytes in mice

The effects of vitamin B6 (B6) deficiency on cytokine levels and proportions of lymphocyte subsets in BALB/c mice were investigated. The proportion of lymphocytes from the thymus and spleen of mice given no B6, that were CD4+ CD8- T cells, was larger than in mice given B6, and the ratio of CD8+ to CD4+ T cells in the thymus of mice given no B6 was lower. The concentrations of interleukin-5 and -10 in spleen cells stimulated in vitro with concanavalin A were significantly higher in the mice with B6 deficiency, as was their plasma corticosterone concentrations. These results suggested that B6 is necessary to maintain cytokine levels and lymphoid function in the thymus and spleen of mice.     

Wide gamut LCD using locally dimmable four‐primary‐color LED backlight

This paper proposes a wide gamut LCD using locally dimmable four‐primary‐color (4PC) LED backlight. Although the color gamut of LCDs has been improved in recent years, it is insufficient to reproduce all the colors in the real world. The objective of this paper is to propose a wide gamut LCD that reproduces all the colors in the real world while keeping the cost increases to a minimum. We evaluated the color gamut reproduced by LEDs of multiple primary colors and selected cyan as the optimal color to be added to the three primary colors to reproduce all the colors in the real world. Therefore, we designed an LED backlight consisting of an additional only‐cyan LED with three‐primary‐color LEDs and developed a prototype LCD with 4PC LED backlight. Furthermore, we developed a local dimming algorithm for the 4PC LED backlight. As a result, we confirmed that the prototype LCD with the 4PC LED backlight is able to cover almost all the colors in the real world and also able to display natural images with highly saturated colors by local dimming.     

Wheel/rail contact dynamics in turnout negotiations with combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach

In railroad turnouts, geometries of tongue and crossing rails are very complex and their shapes are changing along the track. Therefore, wheels are subjected to not only tread and flange contacts, but also the back-of-flange and top-of-flange contacts in the case of spring switches of tram vehicles. For this reason, one needs to deal with significant jumps in contact points for solving wheel/rail contact problems in turnout, and an accurate prediction of jumps in contact points is one of the most important issues that need to be carefully handled in the dynamic simulation of vehicle/turnout interactions. In this investigation, a numerical procedure that can be used for solving such a complex wheel/rail contact problem in turnout is proposed. In particular, a combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach is developed such that significant jumps in contact points are detected using the nodal search, while the exact location of contact point is then determined with continuous surface parameterizations using non-conformal contact equations. With this combined nodal and non-conformal contact approach for the contact geometry analysis of vehicle/turnout interactions, multiple look-up contact tables can be generated in an efficient way without losing accuracy. Since detailed contact search is performed off-line to obtain look-up contact tables, significant changes in contact points in turnout can be efficiently predicted on-line with tabular data to be interpolated in a standard way. Several numerical examples are presented in order to demonstrate the use of the numerical procedure developed in this investigation.     

Automatic optical inspection of plated through-holes for ultrahigh density printed wiring boards

An automatic optical through-hole inspection system for ultrahigh density printed wiring boards (PWBs) using leakage light detection has been developed. To detect the dim leakage light emitted from the through-hole defect, we enhanced the sensitivity of the light detector 150 times using a microchannel plate tube. However, the tube caused two problems: stray light sensing and image distortion. To solve these problems, we optically isolated the sensing optics and developed a distortion correction method. We have developed a prototype system that can detect a defect as small as 100 m.     

Co-crosslinking blend of incompatible polymers VI: Poly(vinyl chloride) toughened with polyethylene via a co-crosslinking technique

A binary blend which consists of two incompatible polymers such as poly(vinyl chloride) and polyethylene has been performed through a partial co-crosslinking reaction with peroxide to give a co-crosslinked blend with a uniform dispersion of small polyethylene particles and with an improved mechanical property. The results are obtained through the formation of a co-crosslinked product which acts as a potential solid phase dispersant as well as a well-bonded reinforcing interlayer on polyethylene particles uniformly dispersed in poly(vinyl chloride) matrix. The resulting blends (PVC/PE=10/90 wt) give carbon spherules of 0.5 to 1m diameter through pressure-carbonization at 650° C for 1 h.     

Surface modification of tetrafluoroethylene–perfluoroalkyl vinylether copolymer (PFA) by plasmas for copper metallization

Tetrafluoroethylene–perfluoroalkyl vinylether copolymer (PFA) sheet surfaces were modified with argon, helium, oxygen, and hydrogen plasmas. How the four plasmas modified the PFA sheet surfaces was investigated. All plasmas modified the PFA surfaces and at the same time initiated degradation of the PFA polymer chains. The balance between modification and degradation was strongly influenced by the magnitude of the discharge current in the plasmas. Efficiency of the plasmas in modification was hydrogen plasma > oxygen plasma > argon plasma > helium plasma. The modification involved defluorination of CF₂ carbons into CHF and CH₂ carbons and oxidation into O? CH₂, O? CHF, and O? CF₂ groups. The surface‐modification technique (a combination of hydrogen plasma treatment and silane coupling treatment) proposed in this study was applied for copper metallization of the PFA surface. The utility of the technique was confirmed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 85: 1087–1097, 2002