Westinghouse Electric

About: Westinghouse Electric is a company organization based out in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Brake & Circuit breaker. The organization has 27959 authors who have published 38036 publications receiving 523387 citations.

Robotic end effector

Abstract: The invention comprises an improved end effector for a robot which is particularly advantageous in applications such as placing flat pack integrated circuits on circuit boards. The end effector includes a vacuum-operated quill for picking up the integrated circuit from a predetermined location. A pressure spring mechanism is included in the end effector permits the flat pack to be held in the desired position with a predetermined force by utilizing the robot arm to compress the pressure spring a predetermined amount. Once the integrated circuit is positioned on the circuit board, the circuit is released and the quill moved away from the board a predetermined distance by a linear actuator included in the end effector without any motion of the robotic arm.

Wireless power line communication apparatus

Abstract: A field configuration terminal is provided that does not require physical or electrical connection to a remote device of a power line communication system. A toroid is provided that comprises a multiplicity of turns of a conductor that is connected in electrical communication with an amplifier and receiver circuitry within the field configuration terminal. A battery, with associated power supply components, provides a direct current source for the microprocessor and logic of the field configuration terminal and for the amplifier thereof. The toroid of the field configuration terminal is shaped to be disposed around a load management terminal of a power line communication system without physical or electrical contact therewith. Signals are transmitted to and received from the load management terminal by inductively coupling the toroid with the load management terminal in signal communication.

Automated rotor welding processes using neural networks

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for monitoring an arc welding process are disclosed. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention creates a digital representation of the arc created during welding and, using a neural network computer, determines if the arc is representative of normal or abnormal welding conditions. The neural network disclosed is trained to identify abnormal conditions and normal conditions and may be adaptively retrained to classify images that are not in the initial set of normal and abnormal images. In certain embodiments, other data, such as current, weld wire emission spectra, or shielding gas flow rate are also collected and the neural network is trained to monitor these data. Also, in certain embodiments, an audio signal is collected from the vicinity of the welding process and is used by the neural network computer to further classify the arc as normal or abnormal. The present invention is most preferably implemented in repetitive and continuous welding operations, such as those encountered in the manufacture and rebuilding of steam turbines.

Wire grid polarizer

Abstract: An infrared wire grid polarizer is fabricated on an infrared transmissive substrate and consists of alternating transmissive and conductive zones disposed thereon. These polarizers are particularly well suited for use with acoustic-optic tunable filters and can be employed as input and output polarizers therewith. A method of manufacturing a wire grid polarizer with at least 4000 conductors per millimeter is disclosed. The infrared transmissive substrate is selected from the group consisting of silicon crystal and gallium arsenide crystal.

High-resolution alpha-particle spectrometry using 4H silicon carbide semiconductor detectors

Abstract: SiC detectors with active volume dimensions sufficient to stop alpha particles have been manufactured and tested. A linear energy response and excellent energy resolution have been obtained for various alpha emitters in the 3.18-MeV to 8.38-MeV energy range. Evaluation of the contributing factors to the SiC detector energy resolution indicates that the measured values for the full width at half maximum (FWHM) are limited by energy straggling of the alpha particles as they pass through the metallic contact layers that comprise the entrance window to the detector. Even with this component included in the measured FWHM, the measured values are comparable to those achievable with silicon alpha spectrometers. The possibility that the energy resolution that can be achieved with SiC may surpass that of silicon can not be excluded. SiC alpha spectrometers are expected to be useful in many nuclear applications where the ability to operate in high-temperature and high-radiation environments is required. Such applications include monitoring of alpha particles, neutrons, and low-energy gamma rays and X-rays in actinide waste-tank environments as well as neutron and gamma-ray monitoring of spent nuclear fuel assemblies.