You can’t exactly drop somebody into an underground tank filled with thousands of gallons of radioactive sludge and have them wipe it clean. But at the largest nuclear waste cleanup project in U.S. history, a smart machine is on the job. The Mobile Arm Retrieval System (MARS) is a robotic arm that officials hope will speed up the process and dramatically cut down the costs of radioactive waste cleanup.
The site of this high-tech cleanup is the Department of Energy’s 586-square-mile Hanford site, located in the desert of southeastern Washington state. The site, established in 1943 as a plutonium-producing hub for the Manhattan Project, houses nine former nuclear reactors and their associated processing facilities used during World War II and throughout the Cold War to build America’s nuclear arsenal. That process produced billions of gallons of liquid waste and millions of tons of solid waste, which the DOE has been cleaning up since 1989.
There are 149 underground single-shell tanks at Hanford housing radioactive sludge, according to Kent Smith, the single-shell retrieval and closure manager for DOE contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. Since 1999, crews have used the "modified sluicing" technique that pumps in liquefied waste to push the sludge toward the center of the tanks, where a central pump sucks it up and transfers it to a double-shell tank for safer storage. However, the sluicing machine hasn’t budged the toughest of the sludge, often leaving more than 10 percent of the radioactive goop inside the tanks.
But MARS, a fully maneuverable robotic arm that Smith says began working on Sept. 29, can reach nearly 40 feet into a tank and sluice 90 gallons a minute at 100 psi. That’s its normal speed; at high pressure, MARS can fire 20 gallons a minute at up to 5000 psi, attacking the gunk that traditional sluicing leaves behind.
Smith says the articulating knuckle on MARS has a telescoping ability that lets the unit reach every portion of the tank, top to bottom, to clean out the 253,000 gallons of waste left inside. "Telescoping 37 feet out to the edge of the tank, the arm can move up and down off a pivot point," Smith says. "At the end effecter, a nozzle system can rotate in all directions. There is a lot of flexibility to get to the waste itself, something lacking in the current system." The operating head has multiple low- and high-pressure spray nozzles that hydraulically "rake" waste to a central pump. And by blasting liquid waste already retrieved from Hanford’s tanks, MARS can loosen the compacted sludge without contaminating more water.
So far, one of the biggest challenges in using MARS has been just getting the 20,000-pound steel and hose contraption into the tank—the hatch was too small. Crews remotely cut a 172-inch-circumference hole in the concrete, using a pressurized mix to methodically etch away the 15- to 20-inch-thick concrete and rebar. The slow and steady stream ensured the debris remained miniscule and easily removable by MARS.
The robotic arm is made primarily of steel hydraulic hoses and EPDM (ethylene, propylene, diene, and polymethylene) hose. All the movement is driven by a hydraulic power unit weighing 96,000 pounds and located on the top of the tank system, which also ensures a constant tension on the hosing system to keep tangles out of the C-107 process. One person operates the arm from a trailer over 50 yards away in an upwind, uncontaminated area; another monitors the flow rates; a third watches the hydraulics powering MARS and a fourth checks the flow into the retrieval tank.
By about three weeks into the MARS project, crews had cleared 27 percent of the waste out of C-107, the first tank in which it has been used. It’s already exceeded the performance of ordinary sluicing and eliminated the need for multiple cleaning methods for each tank, cutting millions of dollars and months of time from the process. The first-ever Hanford C-farm tank cleaned—C-106—cost $100 million as crews figured out the process. Now costs range between $6 million and $9 million a tank for the sluicing method. The C-107 tank will cost about $15 million to Mars, Smith says, but the equipment is reusable at least two more times. And as crews get better with the system, the cost for the next two tanks could drop to $5 million each.
MARS has proved so popular that its creators are designing a second generation bot, one that replaces the sluicing of liquid with a vacuum system. That could come in handy at Hanford: Of the 149 tanks, 67 are known or suspected leakers, and regulators have said the leaky tanks can’t handle the thousands of gallons of liquid required to loosen the sludge, for fear that MARS’ power would blast radioactive contamination through the leaks. The new system is undergoing final testing in preparation to deploy into tank C-105 late in 2012.
Of course, once the MARS robots collect all this radioactive sludge, it has to go somewhere. The DOE aims to turn Hanford’s 56 million gallons of liquid waste into vitrified glass, through a process that heats and blends the waste with molten glass, then pours the mixture into stainless steel canisters for storage. The DOE is building four major concrete facilities—a pretreatment center, low-activity waste vitrification site, a high-level waste vitrification site, and an analytical laboratory—and about 20 support facilities that include operations and maintenance buildings, utilities, and office space.
"The vit plant will be largely self contained, functioning like a small city," says Gary Olsen, DOE area project manager. The project kicked off in 2001 and is nearing its final design deadline of 2013. Construction will wrap in 2016, and the plant will be operational by 2019. By then, the MARS project should be even more refined, and ready to take on the huge task of cleaning up the remaining tanks—there are 136 still not full clean, Smith says. "I think MARS would be used at the majority of the tanks," he says. "We are pretty excited about this. We think it’s a new day for retrieval."
2011年11月7日星期一
2011年10月30日星期日
Putting I-680 back together
In the early morning, the Welcome to Iowa sign stood cloaked in darkness up the hill from the paving crew trying to put Interstate 680 back together.
Under normal circumstances, the sign greets Interstate travelers and commuters with a pleasant, "The People of Iowa Welcome You."
With the passageway closed from the destruction of Missouri River floodwaters, the sign is a fitting greeting for the construction workers, whose roar of activity has replaced the raging river from this summer and the hum of traffic before that.
Indeed, Iowa welcomes these workers. Council Bluffs welcomes the work; Crescent and Missouri Valley welcome it. Drivers from north Omaha and the northwest Omaha suburbs welcome it.
This Wednesday afternoon, all four lanes of the 3.1-mile stretch of I-680 are due to reopen to traffic, making an improbably quick comeback from its closure and destruction.
When the floodwater receded just two months ago, I-680 was revealed as a broken, crumpled row of concrete blocks. The dour assessment was that it would take until late 2012 at the earliest to rebuild.
I-680's route to reopening stands as a testament to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of people, from the mechanic fixing a bad alternator on a paving machine to top officials at the Iowa Department of Transportation.
On the front lines, construction workers embraced the challenge of getting the highway open as soon as possible and performed beyond the most optimistic expectations. For their quick work, three contractors stand to split some $6 million in incentives for opening early.
Behind the scenes, DOT officials cut through the normally grinding process to fast-track plans, quickly hire contractors and get workers on the job.
Mother Nature, having caused the problem in the first place, actually became a partner. Throughout an intense four weeks of construction, a mild, dry October meant practically no time was lost to weather.
As the work wraps up, a sense of pride and accomplishment has washed over the people who returned I-680 to use.
The people waiting to drive the stretch again are thankful for the effort. Within the construction industry, people consider the project a sight to behold.
"It's gone so fast," said Ron Otto, technical director for the Associated General Contractors of Iowa, who previously had a 47-year career at the Iowa DOT. "It's truly amazing."
The first peek of morning sun was more than an hour away last week as the crew from Manatts Construction prepared to lay one of the last ribbons of new concrete.
Floodlights glared to allow this group of 20-some workers to start a day that wouldn't end until the sun went back down. Overhead, jets departed out of Eppley Airfield just across the Missouri River, their engine noise drowned out by paving machines.
At 7:03 a.m., as a pink glow emerged in the eastern sky, the first dump truck backed up to the paver and dropped the day's first load of cement for a 14,000-foot-long stretch. Two minutes later, the second dump truck pulled up, paving the way for 108 more loads to follow.
The project has continued almost nonstop for four weeks. At the start, work to clear upward of 18,000 tons of broken highway each day ran 24 hours a day.
Since then, the pace has backed off — to 12- to 14-hour days, seven days a week — as workers have prepared the ground, installed a sub-pavement layer, paved the road and completed other work.
Mark Bare, project coordinator with Peterson Contractors of Reinbeck, Iowa, has overseen the job. Bare said the workers, about 300 at one time during the peak, are motivated by the challenge. He described the attitude as: "Tell me it can't be done. Then get out of my way."
While focused on their task, the workers are tired and even lose track of days sometimes.
Troy Teggatz, a Manatts mechanic from Marengo, Iowa, in the eastern part of the state, admits he's ready to go home. But before that can happen, he said he's committed to doing "whatever it takes to get the job done."
The week before, that meant fixing a burst hydraulic hose that stopped the paver. He fixed an alternator that quit charging and caused other parts to shut down. The day before the shoulder paving started, Teggatz put in six hours shifting a paving guide 2 feet to fit the 8-foot-wide shoulder.
His co-workers, Teggatz said, have "done an awesome job."
"It's all about helping the community out as quickly as we can," he said.
The work zone can be described as organized chaos. Using the two lanes of highway now in place, construction traffic generally follows the proper eastbound and westbound routes.
As two sets of pavers operate at one end, dump trucks and cement trucks run back and forth to a makeshift cement plant three miles down the road. In a spot just off the road, crushers work down what had been a 30-foot-tall pile of the broken pieces of I-680.
Heavy trailers haul excess dirt from the median, dumping it into a detention pond. Other workers install drainage equipment on the roadside.
Two primary contractors — Peterson and Reilly Construction of Ossian, Iowa — bid for the job, beating out four other bidders, including Omaha's Kiewit Co. Along with subcontractor Manatts, five other subcontractors have worked on-site at one point or another, and dozens more companies have provided the supplies to keep the work going.
Peterson and Reilly won the contract with a $19.239 million bid. Three companies — Peterson, Reilly and Manatts — stand to split some $6 million in incentive bonuses offered by the Iowa DOT. All but $2 million of that is due to be reimbursed by federal highway disaster funds.
Cork Peterson, vice president of Peterson Contractors, acknowledged the incentives are a boost. But he said the bonus is not pure profit, helping instead to recover some costs and cover a "staggering" payroll.
Peterson commended the workers and the contractors, saying, "Everybody has their A-team there."
"I would not have thought we'd be done this soon," he said. "Our people have performed incredibly well."
Still, Peterson said the project also has been blessed with good weather — little rain, unseasonable warmth and few dips below freezing. "Sunshine makes us smart," he said.
Under ordinary circumstances, a project to repave a stretch of Interstate might take a construction season, perhaps six months to complete. If a brand new highway was carving a new route, that could take two years.
Before a brand new project could even proceed to construction, it very well could take 10 years to study, buy property and finish other preliminary work, said Otto, the Associated General Contractors official.
So while construction moved quickly, the Iowa Department of Transportation's behind-the-scenes preparations also sped up the project.
While the Interstate was still flooded, the DOT surveyed the site by air to get an early read on problems.
Before the extent of damage became clear, Director Paul Trombino called together senior management to plan for flood recovery efforts, said Dena Gray-Fisher, a department spokeswoman. Trombino's challenge to the department: Be bold and innovative.
As the floodwaters pulled back, officials knew they had to put the project out to bid as quickly as possible with fall approaching, said Mike Kennerly, director of the design office.
The department decided to offer contractors a "limited design," something that Iowa hadn't tried before, Kennerly said. That meant not taking the time to draw up the typical detailed, prescriptive plan — the precise cross-section at different points, for instance, or details on the guardrail design.
Instead, Kennerly said, the contractors would receive only key guidelines necessary to let them start the work.
"A lot of those details, we just filled in after the fact," he said.
The plans didn't come completely from scratch. Planners were able to call up a complete set of original I-680 plans from the 1970s stored electronically.
Still, there were gaps in the land survey data, Kennerly said. To obtain survey information from areas still affected by the flood, the state turned to 3-D models of the terrain that the state had previously gathered.
Because the work would trace the existing highway route, the department also could skip the lengthy environmental review process.
After construction bids were opened on a Friday — Sept. 23 — the contractors were chosen that day. The companies started mobilizing equipment by Saturday, had some workers on-site by Monday and began work that Wednesday, Sept. 28.
Throughout construction, the department and its contractors have remained in close contact. Each Monday, DOT officials meet with managers and executives from the three main contractors.
Bare, the project manager, said the coordination among the department and contractors has been exceptional.
"There's a united front," he said. "It's a testament to what can be done if you work together."
People have been taking notice.
During a reporter's tour of the site, Bare got a call from a local contractor asking if he would go to lunch to talk about the project.
In Crescent, local worker Jacki Killpack, who lives in Minden, Iowa, can't wait for the highway to open so she can get back to driving her regular route into Omaha.
"It's just amazing," she said. "I commend them."
At the main intersection entering Crescent, the town's message board posted a sign of thanks.
"Thank You Road Contractors For Fixing Our Highways."
Under normal circumstances, the sign greets Interstate travelers and commuters with a pleasant, "The People of Iowa Welcome You."
With the passageway closed from the destruction of Missouri River floodwaters, the sign is a fitting greeting for the construction workers, whose roar of activity has replaced the raging river from this summer and the hum of traffic before that.
Indeed, Iowa welcomes these workers. Council Bluffs welcomes the work; Crescent and Missouri Valley welcome it. Drivers from north Omaha and the northwest Omaha suburbs welcome it.
This Wednesday afternoon, all four lanes of the 3.1-mile stretch of I-680 are due to reopen to traffic, making an improbably quick comeback from its closure and destruction.
When the floodwater receded just two months ago, I-680 was revealed as a broken, crumpled row of concrete blocks. The dour assessment was that it would take until late 2012 at the earliest to rebuild.
I-680's route to reopening stands as a testament to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of people, from the mechanic fixing a bad alternator on a paving machine to top officials at the Iowa Department of Transportation.
On the front lines, construction workers embraced the challenge of getting the highway open as soon as possible and performed beyond the most optimistic expectations. For their quick work, three contractors stand to split some $6 million in incentives for opening early.
Behind the scenes, DOT officials cut through the normally grinding process to fast-track plans, quickly hire contractors and get workers on the job.
Mother Nature, having caused the problem in the first place, actually became a partner. Throughout an intense four weeks of construction, a mild, dry October meant practically no time was lost to weather.
As the work wraps up, a sense of pride and accomplishment has washed over the people who returned I-680 to use.
The people waiting to drive the stretch again are thankful for the effort. Within the construction industry, people consider the project a sight to behold.
"It's gone so fast," said Ron Otto, technical director for the Associated General Contractors of Iowa, who previously had a 47-year career at the Iowa DOT. "It's truly amazing."
The first peek of morning sun was more than an hour away last week as the crew from Manatts Construction prepared to lay one of the last ribbons of new concrete.
Floodlights glared to allow this group of 20-some workers to start a day that wouldn't end until the sun went back down. Overhead, jets departed out of Eppley Airfield just across the Missouri River, their engine noise drowned out by paving machines.
At 7:03 a.m., as a pink glow emerged in the eastern sky, the first dump truck backed up to the paver and dropped the day's first load of cement for a 14,000-foot-long stretch. Two minutes later, the second dump truck pulled up, paving the way for 108 more loads to follow.
The project has continued almost nonstop for four weeks. At the start, work to clear upward of 18,000 tons of broken highway each day ran 24 hours a day.
Since then, the pace has backed off — to 12- to 14-hour days, seven days a week — as workers have prepared the ground, installed a sub-pavement layer, paved the road and completed other work.
Mark Bare, project coordinator with Peterson Contractors of Reinbeck, Iowa, has overseen the job. Bare said the workers, about 300 at one time during the peak, are motivated by the challenge. He described the attitude as: "Tell me it can't be done. Then get out of my way."
While focused on their task, the workers are tired and even lose track of days sometimes.
Troy Teggatz, a Manatts mechanic from Marengo, Iowa, in the eastern part of the state, admits he's ready to go home. But before that can happen, he said he's committed to doing "whatever it takes to get the job done."
The week before, that meant fixing a burst hydraulic hose that stopped the paver. He fixed an alternator that quit charging and caused other parts to shut down. The day before the shoulder paving started, Teggatz put in six hours shifting a paving guide 2 feet to fit the 8-foot-wide shoulder.
His co-workers, Teggatz said, have "done an awesome job."
"It's all about helping the community out as quickly as we can," he said.
The work zone can be described as organized chaos. Using the two lanes of highway now in place, construction traffic generally follows the proper eastbound and westbound routes.
As two sets of pavers operate at one end, dump trucks and cement trucks run back and forth to a makeshift cement plant three miles down the road. In a spot just off the road, crushers work down what had been a 30-foot-tall pile of the broken pieces of I-680.
Heavy trailers haul excess dirt from the median, dumping it into a detention pond. Other workers install drainage equipment on the roadside.
Two primary contractors — Peterson and Reilly Construction of Ossian, Iowa — bid for the job, beating out four other bidders, including Omaha's Kiewit Co. Along with subcontractor Manatts, five other subcontractors have worked on-site at one point or another, and dozens more companies have provided the supplies to keep the work going.
Peterson and Reilly won the contract with a $19.239 million bid. Three companies — Peterson, Reilly and Manatts — stand to split some $6 million in incentive bonuses offered by the Iowa DOT. All but $2 million of that is due to be reimbursed by federal highway disaster funds.
Cork Peterson, vice president of Peterson Contractors, acknowledged the incentives are a boost. But he said the bonus is not pure profit, helping instead to recover some costs and cover a "staggering" payroll.
Peterson commended the workers and the contractors, saying, "Everybody has their A-team there."
"I would not have thought we'd be done this soon," he said. "Our people have performed incredibly well."
Still, Peterson said the project also has been blessed with good weather — little rain, unseasonable warmth and few dips below freezing. "Sunshine makes us smart," he said.
Under ordinary circumstances, a project to repave a stretch of Interstate might take a construction season, perhaps six months to complete. If a brand new highway was carving a new route, that could take two years.
Before a brand new project could even proceed to construction, it very well could take 10 years to study, buy property and finish other preliminary work, said Otto, the Associated General Contractors official.
So while construction moved quickly, the Iowa Department of Transportation's behind-the-scenes preparations also sped up the project.
While the Interstate was still flooded, the DOT surveyed the site by air to get an early read on problems.
Before the extent of damage became clear, Director Paul Trombino called together senior management to plan for flood recovery efforts, said Dena Gray-Fisher, a department spokeswoman. Trombino's challenge to the department: Be bold and innovative.
As the floodwaters pulled back, officials knew they had to put the project out to bid as quickly as possible with fall approaching, said Mike Kennerly, director of the design office.
The department decided to offer contractors a "limited design," something that Iowa hadn't tried before, Kennerly said. That meant not taking the time to draw up the typical detailed, prescriptive plan — the precise cross-section at different points, for instance, or details on the guardrail design.
Instead, Kennerly said, the contractors would receive only key guidelines necessary to let them start the work.
"A lot of those details, we just filled in after the fact," he said.
The plans didn't come completely from scratch. Planners were able to call up a complete set of original I-680 plans from the 1970s stored electronically.
Still, there were gaps in the land survey data, Kennerly said. To obtain survey information from areas still affected by the flood, the state turned to 3-D models of the terrain that the state had previously gathered.
Because the work would trace the existing highway route, the department also could skip the lengthy environmental review process.
After construction bids were opened on a Friday — Sept. 23 — the contractors were chosen that day. The companies started mobilizing equipment by Saturday, had some workers on-site by Monday and began work that Wednesday, Sept. 28.
Throughout construction, the department and its contractors have remained in close contact. Each Monday, DOT officials meet with managers and executives from the three main contractors.
Bare, the project manager, said the coordination among the department and contractors has been exceptional.
"There's a united front," he said. "It's a testament to what can be done if you work together."
People have been taking notice.
During a reporter's tour of the site, Bare got a call from a local contractor asking if he would go to lunch to talk about the project.
In Crescent, local worker Jacki Killpack, who lives in Minden, Iowa, can't wait for the highway to open so she can get back to driving her regular route into Omaha.
"It's just amazing," she said. "I commend them."
At the main intersection entering Crescent, the town's message board posted a sign of thanks.
"Thank You Road Contractors For Fixing Our Highways."
2011年10月25日星期二
Terex releases cranes with a Chinese touch
The new Terex Toplift 025G and 055G truck cranes from the Terex Chang Jiang joint venture share much technology with the rest of the Terex family of cranes. Built in Luzhou, China, the new 25 and 55 tonne class cranes represent “the next advancement in bringing Terex design, operation and styling to the China market,” says the company.
Frank Bardonaro, vice president and managing director global sales for Terex Cranes says: “The new truck cranes incorporate designs based on extensive customer and dealer feedback. They blend Chang Jiang’s legacy for strength and lift performance with the latest Terex innovations.”
Spacious new driver and operator cab designs greatly increase operator efficiency while ergonomic control placement and air conditioning provide the operator with an environment that enhances productivity over extended hours. The rated capacity indicator features a graphical display that provides immediate feedback of load weight and alerts the operator before the load is outside the rated lifting capacity for radius and configuration. Both cranes feature hydraulic hose and electrical wire routing common to other Terex crane models.
Frank Bardonaro, vice president and managing director global sales for Terex Cranes says: “The new truck cranes incorporate designs based on extensive customer and dealer feedback. They blend Chang Jiang’s legacy for strength and lift performance with the latest Terex innovations.”
Spacious new driver and operator cab designs greatly increase operator efficiency while ergonomic control placement and air conditioning provide the operator with an environment that enhances productivity over extended hours. The rated capacity indicator features a graphical display that provides immediate feedback of load weight and alerts the operator before the load is outside the rated lifting capacity for radius and configuration. Both cranes feature hydraulic hose and electrical wire routing common to other Terex crane models.
2011年9月26日星期一
U.S. Patents Awarded to Inventors in Michigan
Michigan Inventor Develops Patent for Self-adjusting Wind Turbine Generator Blade ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 26 -- Guixian Lu, Pontiac, Mich., has developed a patent (8,021,114) for a "self-adjusting wind turbine generator blade." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A self-adjusting blade for wind turbine generator or windmill will change width of blades according to wind speed to optimize efficiency. The windmill comprises a brace, rib tubes, cylinders, cylinder holders, hose holders, non-movable shells, and movable shells. The movable shells and rib tubes are organized like extendable antennas of portable radios. The movable shells are moved and held by cylinders. There are sets of hose holder for hoses and wires for cylinders. A micro-controller controls cylinders to move the movable shells according wind speed."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The specification discloses a locking threaded fastener including a body, a coil spring, and a compression ring. The body is hex-shaped and defines a partially threaded bore, an external circumferential groove, and a passage extending radially between the bore and the groove. The coil spring is located within the bore and includes a first end angularly fixed with respect to the body and a second end extending through the passage and into the groove. The compression ring is located within the groove and defines an opening receiving the second end of the coil spring. The compression ring is free to move within the groove and includes portions that extending radially outwardly beyond the flats of the hex shape. When a conventional wrench is engaged with the hex shape, the wrench compresses the compression ring to prevent relative angular movement between the ring and the body. The "locked" compression ring thereby prevents relative angular movement between the second end of the coil spring and the body."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting mechanisms include clutches and a brake. The torque transmitting mechanisms are each selectively engageable to interconnect at least one of the first, second, and third members of the planetary gear sets with at least another one of the first members, second members, third members of the planetary gear sets, and the stationary element. The torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engageable in combinations of at least two to establish at least eight forward speed ratios and at least one reverse speed ratio between the input member and the output member."
GM Global Technology Operations, Detroit, has been assigned a patent (8,021,257) developed by Michael D. Foster, Carmel, Ind., Jy-Jen F. Sah, West Bloomfield, Mich., and Peter E. Wu, Brighton, Mich., for a "hydraulic clutch control system." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A transmission includes two blocking valves that control fluid pressure to a plurality of clutches. The blocking valves are characterized by a plurality of states that result in at least three transmission operating conditions. Each of the three operating conditions is characterized by fluid pressure being unavailable to at least one of the clutches."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "The specification discloses a locking threaded fastener including a body, a coil spring, and a compression ring. The body is hex-shaped and defines a partially threaded bore, an external circumferential groove, and a passage extending radially between the bore and the groove. The coil spring is located within the bore and includes a first end angularly fixed with respect to the body and a second end extending through the passage and into the groove. The compression ring is located within the groove and defines an opening receiving the second end of the coil spring. The compression ring is free to move within the groove and includes portions that extending radially outwardly beyond the flats of the hex shape. When a conventional wrench is engaged with the hex shape, the wrench compresses the compression ring to prevent relative angular movement between the ring and the body. The "locked" compression ring thereby prevents relative angular movement between the second end of the coil spring and the body."
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A transmission is provided having an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, a plurality of coupling members and a plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms. Each of the planetary gear sets includes first, second and third members. The torque transmitting mechanisms include clutches and a brake. The torque transmitting mechanisms are each selectively engageable to interconnect at least one of the first, second, and third members of the planetary gear sets with at least another one of the first members, second members, third members of the planetary gear sets, and the stationary element. The torque transmitting mechanisms are selectively engageable in combinations of at least two to establish at least eight forward speed ratios and at least one reverse speed ratio between the input member and the output member."
GM Global Technology Operations, Detroit, has been assigned a patent (8,021,257) developed by Michael D. Foster, Carmel, Ind., Jy-Jen F. Sah, West Bloomfield, Mich., and Peter E. Wu, Brighton, Mich., for a "hydraulic clutch control system." The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A transmission includes two blocking valves that control fluid pressure to a plurality of clutches. The blocking valves are characterized by a plurality of states that result in at least three transmission operating conditions. Each of the three operating conditions is characterized by fluid pressure being unavailable to at least one of the clutches."
2011年9月19日星期一
Vigil held for two cousins involved in fatal crash
Friends and family are mourning for two cousins one of them killed the other severly injured in a horrible accident, early Saturday morning.
Loved ones held each other close during a candlelight vigil, Sunday evening as they try to understand why a woman identified by relatives as Charlene Zambrano, 26 was taken so soon.
As those close to Zambrano try to cope with their loss, they continue to pray for her cousin Angela Riding, 21, as she struggles to survive the critical injuries she sustained in the crash.
According to Stockton police, the two women were passengers in a vehicle that was traveling at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control and struck a tree. It happened in the 4100 block of McDougald Boulevard. The vehicle went airborne, hit three cars parked in a driveway, then went through a garage door and hit a boat and truck.
"It looked like a battlefield. Total devastation," said the owner of the home, who did not want to publicly share his name.
"When I got downstairs and got outside my neighbor is telling me get the water hose, get the water hose and I'm asking my neighbor, "what do we need the water hose for?' And she says 'there's a car on fire'."
"I heard a loud, breaking, screeching sound," said neighbor Sandra Hickey.
When Hickey went outside she found a woman pinned between a car and her neighbor's garage. The second female victim was found lying on the other side of the driveway.
According to Hickey, a man climbed out of the car and left the scene. Police later identified the man as 25-year-old Zane Ashik Ali. He was taken to the hospital with a head injury.
Construction workers began repairing the house on Saturday. The owner estimates the crash caused about $100,000 in damage.
Loved ones held each other close during a candlelight vigil, Sunday evening as they try to understand why a woman identified by relatives as Charlene Zambrano, 26 was taken so soon.
As those close to Zambrano try to cope with their loss, they continue to pray for her cousin Angela Riding, 21, as she struggles to survive the critical injuries she sustained in the crash.
According to Stockton police, the two women were passengers in a vehicle that was traveling at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control and struck a tree. It happened in the 4100 block of McDougald Boulevard. The vehicle went airborne, hit three cars parked in a driveway, then went through a garage door and hit a boat and truck.
"It looked like a battlefield. Total devastation," said the owner of the home, who did not want to publicly share his name.
"When I got downstairs and got outside my neighbor is telling me get the water hose, get the water hose and I'm asking my neighbor, "what do we need the water hose for?' And she says 'there's a car on fire'."
"I heard a loud, breaking, screeching sound," said neighbor Sandra Hickey.
When Hickey went outside she found a woman pinned between a car and her neighbor's garage. The second female victim was found lying on the other side of the driveway.
According to Hickey, a man climbed out of the car and left the scene. Police later identified the man as 25-year-old Zane Ashik Ali. He was taken to the hospital with a head injury.
Construction workers began repairing the house on Saturday. The owner estimates the crash caused about $100,000 in damage.
2011年5月5日星期四
Tasco celebrates its 40th anniversary with a trade show
Tasco Supplies is celebrating its 40th anniversary in the lakecity with a Trade Expo at the Curling Rink this Friday and Saturday.
More than 60 exhibitors catering to the automotive, industrial and welding trades will be featured in the show.
Tasco and its sister businesses Taylor Automotive and Cariboo Steel Centre typify the entrepreneurial spirit that remains alive and well in the Cariboo Chilcotin.
Owner Rick Weil says there is no doubt his company has suffered over the past few years with the global recession, but he is proud to say they have not had to cut back on employee hours or income.
Tasco Supplies was founded in Williams Lake March 1, 1971 by Rick Weil, Dave Ireland and Fred Thuncher. A few years later, in 1974, the partners opened a second Tasco Supplies in 100 Mile House.
The Williams Lake store was expanded five times over the years to meet the growing demands of industry in the region, which included a demand for custom-made parts for heavy equipment and machinery.
So in 1989 the company purchased the Cariboo Steel Centre and then a third Tasco Supplies in Quesnel 12 years ago.
Over the years, Rick bought out his partners’ shares in the business, eventually becoming sole owner in 1993.
Today the businesses employ 68 people, including 12 welders and machinists capable of making custom bushings, shafts, couplings, protective grills and other items needed by the automotive and heavy equipment industries.
The company specializes in problem solving.
“We started out selling industrial and automotive supplies, and have evolved to provide specialized service for the automotive and equipment trades,” Rick says, as an employee hands me a beautifully polished steel cylinder he calls a “splined bushing.”
I almost drop the object on the floor because it is much heavier than it looks. Then my jaw almost drops to the floor when they tell be the small custom object carries a price tag of $400 because of the time it takes to make.
These days one of the company’s biggest challenges is keeping track of and maintaining inventory because the needs of industry are always changing.
A floor-to-ceiling wall of resource material in the purchasing department is testimony to the enormity of this task.
“We have 30,000 different parts or “SKUs,” which is an anachronism for numbers given to the parts in the computer,” Rick says. “We are looking forward to the day when everything is bar-coded.”
While Tasco and Taylor Automotive meet specific needs of industry, the stores are also great scouting places for the home hobbyist and do-it-yourselfer.
There are nuts, bolts and screws as small as an eighth of an inch, right up to three inches in diameter. There is heavy duty hydraulic equipment and there are garden hose attachments. And there are plasma cutters in sizes large enough to slice through inches of steel and small enough to design thin metal sculptures.
But what really makes the business tick is its employees who are treated as family.
Rick says it is important for the employees to have wages they can live well on and he has also worked hard to provide medical, dental, extended health, and RRSP benefit plans.
As a result many of the employees have been with the company 20 years or longer.
Creating a stable working environment, he says, is especially important for a business like their’s which caters to repeat customers, who know what they need and can develop an easy rapport with the employee who specializes in the particular type of equipment they are seeking.
Rick and his family also have deep ties to the Williams Lake community.
Rick, was born in Paris, France and lived in England until the age of six, when his family settled in Williams Lake where he was raised.
His wife Carol (Kelly) was born and raised in Williams Lake.
“We married young and decided early on that we wouldn’t work together so we would have things to talk about in the evenings,” Rick says. “It’s worked so far. We’ve been married 47 years.”
Fresh out of school Rick started learning the automotive and industrial supply trade as a salesman for Taylor, Pearson and Carson automotive equipment supply. He has taken many workshops and training sessions over the years to develop his skills in business.
Carol became a well-known and respected realtor in the community.
Today their son, Troy, is working with his father as manager of the Cariboo Steel Centre and their daughter, Tanya Rankin, has followed in her mother’s footsteps as an independent realtor.
Tanya and her husband Jordan have three school-age daughters, Makena, Mailea, and Mallory. Troy and his wife Naomi have two school-age daughters, Kaylee and Paityn.
Friday and Saturday Rick and his close and extended family will be looking forward to sharing their 40th anniversary with visitors to the trade show at the curling rink where there will be a three-foot-by-six-foot cake to share each day of the show.
In addition to displays by some 60 exhibitors and suppliers there will be all sorts of demonstrations of welding, woodworking, new products and equipment.
“Everyone is invited,” Rick says. People working in industry, families, hobbyists — everyone.”
More than 60 exhibitors catering to the automotive, industrial and welding trades will be featured in the show.
Tasco and its sister businesses Taylor Automotive and Cariboo Steel Centre typify the entrepreneurial spirit that remains alive and well in the Cariboo Chilcotin.
Owner Rick Weil says there is no doubt his company has suffered over the past few years with the global recession, but he is proud to say they have not had to cut back on employee hours or income.
Tasco Supplies was founded in Williams Lake March 1, 1971 by Rick Weil, Dave Ireland and Fred Thuncher. A few years later, in 1974, the partners opened a second Tasco Supplies in 100 Mile House.
The Williams Lake store was expanded five times over the years to meet the growing demands of industry in the region, which included a demand for custom-made parts for heavy equipment and machinery.
So in 1989 the company purchased the Cariboo Steel Centre and then a third Tasco Supplies in Quesnel 12 years ago.
Over the years, Rick bought out his partners’ shares in the business, eventually becoming sole owner in 1993.
Today the businesses employ 68 people, including 12 welders and machinists capable of making custom bushings, shafts, couplings, protective grills and other items needed by the automotive and heavy equipment industries.
The company specializes in problem solving.
“We started out selling industrial and automotive supplies, and have evolved to provide specialized service for the automotive and equipment trades,” Rick says, as an employee hands me a beautifully polished steel cylinder he calls a “splined bushing.”
I almost drop the object on the floor because it is much heavier than it looks. Then my jaw almost drops to the floor when they tell be the small custom object carries a price tag of $400 because of the time it takes to make.
These days one of the company’s biggest challenges is keeping track of and maintaining inventory because the needs of industry are always changing.
A floor-to-ceiling wall of resource material in the purchasing department is testimony to the enormity of this task.
“We have 30,000 different parts or “SKUs,” which is an anachronism for numbers given to the parts in the computer,” Rick says. “We are looking forward to the day when everything is bar-coded.”
While Tasco and Taylor Automotive meet specific needs of industry, the stores are also great scouting places for the home hobbyist and do-it-yourselfer.
There are nuts, bolts and screws as small as an eighth of an inch, right up to three inches in diameter. There is heavy duty hydraulic equipment and there are garden hose attachments. And there are plasma cutters in sizes large enough to slice through inches of steel and small enough to design thin metal sculptures.
But what really makes the business tick is its employees who are treated as family.
Rick says it is important for the employees to have wages they can live well on and he has also worked hard to provide medical, dental, extended health, and RRSP benefit plans.
As a result many of the employees have been with the company 20 years or longer.
Creating a stable working environment, he says, is especially important for a business like their’s which caters to repeat customers, who know what they need and can develop an easy rapport with the employee who specializes in the particular type of equipment they are seeking.
Rick and his family also have deep ties to the Williams Lake community.
Rick, was born in Paris, France and lived in England until the age of six, when his family settled in Williams Lake where he was raised.
His wife Carol (Kelly) was born and raised in Williams Lake.
“We married young and decided early on that we wouldn’t work together so we would have things to talk about in the evenings,” Rick says. “It’s worked so far. We’ve been married 47 years.”
Fresh out of school Rick started learning the automotive and industrial supply trade as a salesman for Taylor, Pearson and Carson automotive equipment supply. He has taken many workshops and training sessions over the years to develop his skills in business.
Carol became a well-known and respected realtor in the community.
Today their son, Troy, is working with his father as manager of the Cariboo Steel Centre and their daughter, Tanya Rankin, has followed in her mother’s footsteps as an independent realtor.
Tanya and her husband Jordan have three school-age daughters, Makena, Mailea, and Mallory. Troy and his wife Naomi have two school-age daughters, Kaylee and Paityn.
Friday and Saturday Rick and his close and extended family will be looking forward to sharing their 40th anniversary with visitors to the trade show at the curling rink where there will be a three-foot-by-six-foot cake to share each day of the show.
In addition to displays by some 60 exhibitors and suppliers there will be all sorts of demonstrations of welding, woodworking, new products and equipment.
“Everyone is invited,” Rick says. People working in industry, families, hobbyists — everyone.”
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