Author: claimsbot

1. A mass flow controller comprising:
a gas passageway forming member that forms a gas passageway;
a flow rate adjusting unit that is disposed in the gas passageway and includes a valve adjusting a flow rate of a gas and an actuator adjusting an opening degree of the valve;
an opening degree setting information storage unit that stores opening degree setting information in which an opening degree setting value of the valve, used when a gas flows into the gas passageway with a flow rate defined according to a process procedure before performing the process procedure, is obtained in advance for each process procedure; and
a setting unit that acquires the opening degree setting value corresponding to the process procedure from the opening degree setting information storage unit and controls the actuator on the basis of the acquired opening degree setting value,
wherein the gas passageway forming member further includes:
a gas inlet port,
a gas outlet port,
a plurality of independent gas passageways that connects the gas inlet port and the gas outlet port to each other,
a gas exhaust port that is provided in each gas passageway,
a three-way valve that is provided at the position where each gas exhaust port is provided in the gas passageway, and
a synchronization unit that synchronizes an opening and closing control of the three-way valves of the gas passageways,

wherein each gas passageway is provided with the flow rate adjusting unit and the setting unit,
when the three-way valve of the first gas passageway is opened and the three-way valve of another gas passageway is closed, the setting unit of the first gas passageway adjusts the flow rate adjusting unit of the first gas passageway using a first opening degree setting value corresponding to one process procedure acquired from the opening degree setting information storage unit so as to become a first gas flow rate in accordance with the one process procedure,
the setting unit of the second gas passageway adjusts the flow rate adjusting unit of the second gas passageway using a second opening degree setting value corresponding to the next process procedure acquired from the opening degree setting information storage unit so that the gas flowing through the second gas passageway has a second gas flow rate, and
when the process procedure is switched, the synchronization unit allows only the three-way vale of the second gas passageway to be opened and allows the three-way valve of another gas passageway including the first gas passageway to be closed.
2. The mass flow controller according to claim 1, further comprising:
valves that are respectively provided near the gas inlet port and the gas outlet port.
3. The mass flow controller according to claim 2,
wherein each gas valve is an air operation valve or an electromagnetic valve.
4. A substrate processing device comprising:
a substrate processing chamber that includes a processing subject holding unit holding a processing subject; and
a control unit that controls a mass flow controller, adjusting the amount of a gas supplied into the substrate processing chamber on the basis of an opening degree of a valve, in accordance with a program,
wherein the control unit controls the mass flow controller on the basis of an opening degree setting value of the valve when the gas flows into the substrate processing chamber with a flow rate defined by the process procedure obtained in advance before performing the process procedure,
wherein a gas passageway forming member of the mass flow controller includes:
a gas inlet port, a gas outlet port,
a plurality of independent gas passageways that connects the gas inlet port and the gas outlet port to each other,
a gas exhaust port that is provided in each gas passageway,
a three-way valve that is provided at the position where each gas exhaust port is provided in the gas passageway, and
a synchronization unit that synchronizes an opening and closing control of the three-way valves of the gas passageways,
wherein each gas passageway is provided with the flow rate adjusting unit and the setting unit,
wherein the control unit informs the setting unit of the first passageway of one process procedure of the program, and then informs the setting unit of the second gas passageway of the next process procedure during the one process procedure,
when the three-way valve of the first gas passageway is opened and the three-way valve of another gas passageway is closed, the setting unit of the first gas passageway adjusts the flow rate adjusting unit of the first gas passageway using a first opening degree setting value corresponding to one process procedure acquired from the opening degree setting information storage unit so as to become a first gas flow rate in accordance with the one process procedure,
the setting unit of the second gas passageway adjusts the flow rate adjusting unit of the second gas passageway using a second opening degree setting value corresponding to the next process procedure acquired from the opening degree setting information storage unit so that the gas flowing through the second gas passageway has a second gas flow rate, and
when the program is switched from the one process procedure to the next process procedure, the synchronization unit of the mass flow controller allows only the three-way vale of the second gas passageway to be opened and allows the three-way valve of another gas passageway including the first gas passageway to be closed.
5. The substrate processing device according to claim 4,
wherein the mass flow controller includes valves that are respectively provided near the gas inlet port and the gas outlet port.
6. The substrate processing device according to claim 5,
wherein each gas valve is an air operation valve or an electromagnetic valve.
7. A gas flow rate adjusting method of adjusting a flow rate of a gas flowing through a gas passageway using a flow rate adjusting unit including a valve that is disposed on a gas passageway and an actuator that controls an opening degree of the valve, the gas flow rate adjusting method comprising:
acquiring an opening degree setting value corresponding to a first process procedure from an opening degree setting information storage unit when an execution instruction of the first process procedure described in a program storing a gas flow rate for each process procedure is received, the opening degree setting information storage unit storing opening degree setting information including opening degree setting values of the valve, the opening degree setting value being obtained in advance for each process procedure and being used when causing a gas to flow to the gas passageway at a flow rate defined according to a process procedure before the process procedure is performed;
performing a first adjustment of flow rate by controlling the actuator on the basis of the opening degree setting value;
acquiring, in parallel with the controlling the actuator, an opening degree setting value corresponding to a second process procedure subsequent to the first process procedure in the program;
controlling an actuator in another gas passageway different from the gas passageway associated with the execution instruction of the first process procedure, on the basis of the opening degree setting value corresponding to the second process procedure; and
performing switching between gas passageways by stopping the flow of the gas flowing through the gas passageway and causing the gas to flow through the another gas passageway, simultaneously when the first process procedure is switched to the second process procedure.

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 making a structured surface article comprising at least one cube corner element having a plurality of faces, the method comprising:
providing a prepared substrate having a plurality of non-machined faces arranged to form a plurality of cavities and protrusions extending above said cavities; and
removing material from the prepared substrate to form at least one machined face such that the machined face and at least one of the non-machined face together form one of the plurality of faces of the at least one cube corner element and wherein a transition line lies between the machined face and the non-machined face.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the removing step further forms at least one additional machined face, the at least one additional non-machined face and at least one additional machined face forming at least another of the plurality of faces.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the removing step forms the machined face in an orientation offset by less than about 10 degrees of arc from a desired orientation.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing step comprises:
providing an initial substrate having an intermediate face; and
producing a negative copy of the initial substrate to form the prepared substrate, the non-machined face being a replica of the intermediate face.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing step comprises:
embossing the non-machined face into the prepared substrate.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-machined face and the machined face are substantially planar.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-machined face and the machined face are substantially coplanar.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-machined face and the machined face are noncoplanar.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the removing step forms the machined face in an orientation offset by less than about 10 degrees of arc from that of the non-machined face.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one cube corner element comprises a PG cube corner element.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing step comprises:
providing a first substrate having a plurality of intermediate protrusions;
removing material from an upper portion of at least some of the intermediate protrusions to form intermediate pyramids therein;
producing a negative copy of the first substrate to form the prepared substrate, wherein the plurality of cavities correspond to the intermediate pyramids.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the removing material from the prepared substrate step comprises removing material from an upper portion of at least some of the protrusions to form a plurality of machined faces.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing a first substrate step comprises providing an initial substrate, modifying the initial substrate to define initial protrusions, and making a negative copy of the initial substrate to produce the first substrate.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein the intermediate protrusions have a triangular cross-section.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the intermediate protrusions have a diamond-shaped cross-section.
16. The method of claim 11, wherein the intermediate protrusions are substantially fully interconnected.
17. The method of claim 11, wherein at least some of the intermediate protrusions are not fully interconnected.
18. The method of claim 11, wherein the removing material from an upper portion of at least some of the intermediate protrusions step comprises removing material from an upper portion of each of the intermediate protrusions to form intermediate cube corner pyramids therein.
19. The method of claim 11, wherein the removing material from the prepared substrate step comprises removing material from an upper portion of each of the protrusions to form cube corner pyramids therein.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein the removing material from the prepared substrate step forms cube corner pyramids substantially in registration with the cavities to form compound cube corner pyramids that comprise at least portions of the cube corner pyramids and at least portions of neighboring cavities.
21. The method of claim 11, wherein at least some of the cube corner elements are preferred geometry (PG) cube corner elements.
22. The method of claim 11, wherein the at least one cube corner element is a plurality of cube corner elements forming a structured surface, the method further comprising replicating the structured surface to form retroreflective cube corner sheeting.
23. A method of forming in a substrate a structured surface extending along a reference plane and containing multiple preferred geometry (PG) cube corner elements each of which includes at least one nondihedral edge that (1) is nonparallel to the x-y plane; and (2) is substantially parallel to an adjacent nondihedral edge of a neighboring cube corner element, comprising:
providing a prepared substrate; and
forming in the prepared substrate groove side surfaces that extend along axes that are substantially parallel to the reference plane;
wherein portions of at least some groove side surfaces form at least portions of the PG cube corner elements.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein the prepared substrate has an initial structured surface that includes a first plurality of faces, and wherein the groove side surfaces define additional faces, the additional faces and the first plurality of faces together forming the preferred geometry (PG) cube corner elements.
25. The method of claim 24, wherein exactly one of the three faces of each preferred geometry (PG) cube corner element is a compound face comprising one of the first plurality of faces and one of the additional faces.
26. The method of claim 24, wherein exactly two of the three faces of each preferred geometry (PG) cube corner element are compound faces comprising one of the first plurality of faces and one of the additional faces.
27. The method of claim 24, wherein all of the three faces of each preferred geometry (PG) cube corner element are compound faces comprising one of the first plurality of faces and one of the additional faces.
28. The method of claim 24, wherein the first plurality of faces define at least one cube corner cavity that has at least four faces.
29. The method of claim 24, wherein the additional faces define cube corner pyramids.
30. The method of claim 24, wherein a transition plane separates at least some of the first plurality of faces from at least some of the additional faces.
31. The method of claim 23, wherein the providing step comprises providing a prepared substrate having an exposed surface that is structured, and wherein the groove side surfaces are formed in the exposed surface.
32. The method of claim 23, wherein the providing step comprises:
providing a first substrate having a plurality of initial protrusions;
removing material from an upper portion of at least some of the initial protrusions to form intermediate pyramids therein; and
producing a negative copy of the first substrate to form the prepared substrate, the prepared substrate having a plurality of cavities corresponding to the intermediate pyramids, the prepared substrate also having secondary protrusions extending above the cavities.
33. The method of claim 23, further comprising replicating the structured surface to form retroreflective cube corner sheeting.

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:
a binarizing unit that binarizes image data based on density of the image data to obtain binarized image data;
a determining unit that determines a pixel with high density as a character pixel and a pixel with low density as a non-character pixel in the binarized image data;
a first counting unit that counts number of a sequence of character pixels in a scanning direction;
a second counting unit that counts number of a sequence of non-character pixels in the scanning direction while the first counting unit is counting the number of the sequence of character pixels; and
a first correcting unit that corrects, when the number of the sequence of the character pixels exceeds a first threshold value, the character pixels to the non-character pixels,
wherein the first counting unit continues counting when the number of the sequence of the non-character pixels is less than a second threshold value.
2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second correcting unit that corrects a target pixel determined as a character pixel to a non-character pixel based on an arrangement of pixels on a target line and a line immediately before the target line, which the first correcting unit has corrected to non-character pixels.
3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the second correcting unit corrects the target pixel to a non-character pixel when the first correcting unit has corrected a pixel adjacent to the target pixel to a non-character pixel.
4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
a gray area detecting unit that detects an area with intermediate density in the image data; and
a dot detecting unit that detects a dot area in the image data, wherein
the first correcting unit corrects the character pixels based on at least one of a detection result obtained by the gray area detecting unit and a detection result obtained by the dot detecting unit.
5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an edge detecting unit that detects an edge pixel in the image data, wherein
the first correcting unit corrects the edge pixel to a character pixel.
6. An image forming apparatus comprising:
the image processing apparatus according to claim 1;
an image forming unit that forms an image based on image data output from the image processing apparatus; and
an image output unit that outputs the image.
7. An image distributing apparatus comprising:
the image processing apparatus according to claim 1;
a scanning unit that scans an image while separating the image into color components, generates image data, and feeds the image data to the image processing apparatus; and
a communicating unit that distributes the image data processed by the image processing apparatus over a network.
8. An image processing method performed by an image processing apparatus, the method comprising:
binarizing, by a binarizing unit, image data based on density of the image data to obtain binarized image data;
determining, by a determining unit, a pixel with high density as a character pixel and a pixel with low density as a non-character pixel in the binarized image data;
first counting, by a first counting unit, number of a sequence of character pixels in a scanning direction;
second counting, by a second counting unit, number of a sequence of non-character pixels in the scanning direction while the number of the sequence of character pixels is being counted; and
first correcting, by a first correcting unit, when the number of the sequence of the character pixels exceeds a first threshold value, the character pixels to the non-character pixels,
wherein the first counting includes continuing counting when the number of the sequence of the non-character pixels is less than a second threshold value.
9. The image processing method according to claim 8, further comprising:
second correcting, by a second correcting unit, a target pixel determined as a character pixel to a non-character pixel based on an arrangement of pixels on a target line and a line immediately before the target line, which has been corrected to non-character pixels at the first correcting.
10. The image processing method according to claim 9, wherein the second correcting includes correcting the target pixel to a non-character pixel when a pixel adjacent to the target pixel has been corrected to a non-character pixel at the first correcting.
11. The image processing method according to claim 8, further comprising:
first detecting, by a first detecting unit, an area with intermediate density in the image data; and
second detecting, by a second detecting unit, a dot area in the image data, wherein
the first correcting includes correcting the character pixels based on at least one of a detection result obtained at the first detecting and a detection result obtained at the second detecting.
12. The image processing method according to claim 8, further comprising:
detecting, by an edge detecting unit, an edge pixel in the image data, wherein the first correcting includes correcting the edge pixel to a character pixel.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores computer readable program codes embodied in the non-transitory computer-readable medium that when executed causes the image processing apparatus to implement the image processing method according to claim 8.
14. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable program codes embodied in the non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executed, causes a computer to execute:
binarizing image data based on density of the image data to obtain binarized image data;
determining a pixel with high density as a character pixel and a pixel with low density as a non-character pixel in the binarized image data;
first counting number of a sequence of character pixels in a scanning direction; and
second counting number of a sequence of non-character pixels in the scanning direction while the number of the sequence of character pixels is being counted; and
correcting, when the number of the sequence of the character pixels exceeds a first threshold value, the character pixels to the non-character pixels,
wherein the first counting includes continuing counting when the number of the sequence of the non-character pixels is less than a second threshold value.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

What is claimed is:

1. A tube mill for making flattened tubes for use in a heat exchanger, comprising:
first set of rolls for continuously forming a first metal strip into a partially open continuous shell;
an insertion member disposed downstream of the first set of rolls, the insertion member serving to locate a continuous insert into the partially open continuous shell, the insert having at least one convolution in a direction transverse to the length of the continuous shell; and
closing rolls downstream of the insertion member for closing the partially open continuous shell around the insert and forming a closed tube.
2. The tube mill of claim 1 further including a cutter located downstream of the heater for cutting the closed sealed tube into desired lengths.
3. The tube mill of claim 1 further including at least a second set of rolls for imprinting dimples into the metal strip while it is being formed into the partially open continuous shell.
4. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein parallel fluid flow passages are formed on opposite sides of the insert, the tube mill further including a punch for imparting detents in the continuous shell to alternately block the fluid flow passages on opposite sides of the insert in a staggered sequence to define a serpentine fluid flow path through the tube.
5. The tube mill of claim 4 wherein the rolls for imprinting dimples and detents in the metal strip are incorporated in the first set of rolls.
6. The tube mill of claim 1 further including one or more insertion members for inserting a subsequent insert into the partially open continuous shell, the convolutions of each insert being transverse to the length of the continuous tube.
7. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein the first metal strip and continuous fin insert are coated with a brazing material and the heater heats the continuous shell to a temperature sufficient to braze the longitudinal edges of the continuous shell to each other and the fin insert to the internal surfaces of the closed continuous tube.
8. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein the first metal strip and the insert are bonded to each other so that the longitudinal edges of the continuous shell are joined to each other and the insert is joined to the internal surfaces of the closed continuous tube.
9. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein the first metal strip and fin insert comprise a base metal strip coated with a layer of metal having a melting temperature lower than the melting temperature of the base metal strip.
10. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein the first set of rolls forms a partially open continuous shell which when closed forms at least one internal longitudinal fluid flow channel.
11. The tube mill of claim 10 wherein the at least one fluid flow channel comprises two side by side continuous fluid flow channels, and said insertion mechanism places a respective one insert into each of said two fluid flow channels.
12. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein the convolutions of the fin inserts have a serrated cross-section.
13. The tube mill of clam 1 wherein the convolutions of the insert have a tear drop cross-section in which the side walls of adjacent convolutions touch each other to define closed chambers that confine molten clad so that it adheres to the internal walls of the tube, thereby localizing a bonding medium at a bonding site.
14. The tube mill of claim 1 wherein the fin insert is a high density convoluted insert having at least 40-100 convolutions per inch.
15. The tube mill of claim 1 further including a bonding device selected from a group consisting of a heater, a controlled atmosphere brazer (CAB), an induction welder, a soldering device and an ultrasonic welder.
16. A method for making a tube for a heat exchanger comprising:
forming, with a first set of rolls, a continuous partially open metal shell from a metal strip;
placing a continuous insert into the continuous shell, said insert having a high density of convolutions extending in a direction transverse to the length of the continuous shell; and
closing the continuous metal shell around the fin insert with a set of closing rolls.
17. The method of claim 16 further including slicing the sealed continuous shell with the fin insert fused inside to form a desired length of flattened tube.
18. The method of claim 16 further including imprinting dimples in the step of forming a continuous partially open shell.
19. The method of claim 16 further comprising forming two longitudinal channels between internal rounded edges of the sealed continuous shell and the edges of the insert, the method further including imprinting detents along the sides of the continuous shell, and alternately blocking the two longitudinal channels in a staggered sequence to define a serpentine fluid flow through the cooling tube.
20. The method of claim 16 further including the step of passing a second metal strip through at least one set of fin forming rolls to form the continuous fin insert.