1. A method of forming an appliance liner comprising:
extruding a sheet from a plastic material;
arranging the sheet in a stack of similarly extruded sheets wherein the sheet is permitted to cool;
transferring the sheet to a temperature control unit;
directing a temperature controlled fluid medium onto opposing side surfaces of the sheet within the temperature control unit to establish a substantially uniform temperature across the sheet, wherein the directed temperature controlled fluid medium directly contacts the opposing side surfaces; and
delivering the sheet to a thermoforming device for creating the appliance liner.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: creating the substantially uniform temperature by impinging the fluid medium to a temperature differential across the entire sheet of less than 5\xb0 F.
3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
delivering the fluid medium through a manifold assembly unto the opposing side surfaces of the sheet; and
recirculating the fluid medium through the manifold assembly.
4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: developing a flow of air as the fluid medium through the use of first and second blowers, with each of the first and second blowers developing an air flow rate of approximately 15,000 CFM.
5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: operating the temperature control unit at a static pressure in the range of 0.7\u20130.9 in. H2O.
6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
extruding the sheet at a thickness of approximately 5 mm (0.20 inches); and
creating an appliance liner with a depth of approximately 61 cm (2 feet).
7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: directing the air onto the opposing side surfaces of the sheet from nozzles spaced approximately 76 mm (3 inches) from the opposing side surfaces.
8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
sensing operating parameters of the temperature control unit; and
regulating the temperature control unit based on the sensed operating parameters.
9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising: heating the sheet to a temperature of approximately 130\xb0\u2013140\xb0 F.
10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
utilizing air, supplied by a blower unit, as the fluid medium; and
controlling an amount of heat added to the air by the blower unit by varying an operating speed of the blower unit.
11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
developing a flow of air as the fluid medium through the use of at least one blower which directs the flow of air into a manifold assembly; and
regulating the position of a damper unit to control an introduced amount of ambient air into the manifold assembly.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of in-flight adjusting a flight plan of an aircraft to provide a low cost flight, the method comprising:
a) predicting a trajectory for completion of the flight based on at least current state data of the aircraft along the flight plan, performance data for the aircraft, and flight plan data;
b) computing the cost of completing the flight plan along the predicted trajectory;
c) applying a constraint, including at least one of a scheduling constraint and a cost constraint, to the predicted trajectory;
d) accepting the predicted trajectory if it satisfies the constraint;
e) varying at least one of the current state data, performance data, and flight plan data and repeating steps a-d to define a set of acceptable predicted trajectories and corresponding costs;
f) selecting a cost trajectory from the set of acceptable predicted trajectories and updating the flight plan data according to the selected trajectory; and
g) flying the aircraft along the selected trajectory.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein steps a-g are repeated multiple times during the flight.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein steps a-g are continuously repeated during the flight.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the number of repetitions of steps a-d is limited by at least one of time or iterations.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the current state data and the performance data is updated during the repeating of steps a-d to reflect movement of the aircraft during the flight.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein the at least one of the current state data and the performance data is updated for each iteration of the predicted trajectory.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the current state data comprises aircraft position data.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the aircraft position data comprises at least one of latitude, longitude, altitude, flight phase, and location on the flight plan.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the location on the flight plan comprises location relative to a waypoint of the flight plan.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the performance data comprises at least one of air speed, altitude, throttle setting, cruise speed, cost index, gross weight, zero fuel weight, fuel on board weight, tail number, fuel consumption rate, drag, and operating envelope, and current weather conditions.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the flight plan data comprises at least one of departure airport, arrival airport, time of departure, estimated time of arrival, gate arrival time, enroute waypoints, airways, waypoint wind data, and waypoint temperature data.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the applying the constraint comprises applying both the scheduling constraint and the cost constraint.
13. The method of claim 1 wherein the scheduling constraint comprises at least one of arrival gate availability and flight crew availability.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the cost constraint comprises at least one of fuel costs and crew costs.
15. A method of in-flight adjusting a flight plan of an aircraft to provide a low cost flight, the method comprising:
a) predicting a trajectory for completion of the flight based on at least current state data of the aircraft along the flight plan, performance data for the aircraft, and flight plan data;
b) computing the cost of completing the flight plan along the predicted trajectory;
c) applying a constraint, including at least one of a scheduling constraint and a cost constraint, to the predicted trajectory;
d) accepting the predicted trajectory if it satisfies the constraint;
e) varying at least one of the current state data, performance data, and flight plan data and repeating steps a-d to define a set of acceptable predicted trajectories and corresponding costs and where the number of repetitions of steps a-d is limited by at least one of time or iterations;
f) selecting a lowest cost trajectory from the set of acceptable predicted trajectories and updating the flight plan data according to the selected trajectory; and
g) flying the aircraft along the selected trajectory.