Disclosed is an apparatus and method for testing the integrity and acceptability of the seal of a package before or after it has been sterilized by any chosen conventional process which may include heat sterilization of a sealed package, aseptic packaging or irradiation. Testing is accomplished by subjecting the package or container to a controlled external pressure, preferably a linear actuator, sufficient to create a selected level of internal pressure. Any suitable means may be used to determ...

Disclosed is an improved electro-optical triangulation distance sensing method and apparatus incorporating a reference detector to detect light returned from an object surface and so control light power, integration time (or other characteristic) of the primary image sensing photodetector. Ideally the reference detector is the same size as the primary photodetector and positioned effectively to see the same image of a zone of light projected on the object surface. Also disclosed are useful calib...

A method and apparatus is taught for rapidly implementing a semiautomatic vacuum test of food cannisters prior to filling. Unit numbers of completely formed but unfilled cannisters are manually positioned on vacuum mandrels and the test sequence started. Progress of the sequence is controlled automatically and concluded by a digital value report of the unit seal quality. Test productivity is maximized by preparing a second unit number of cannisters for test, as the test sequence for a first unit...

A process is provided for rapidly and non-destructively evaluating the particle retention characteristics of porous membranes using a novel liquid-porosimetric technique. A ratio of two membrane permeabilities is measured at preselected operating conditions using a pair of mutually immiscible fluids, one of which is employed as a membrane wetting agent and the other used as an intrusion fluid. The first operating condition, a particular transmembrane pressure, is chosen so as to selectively intr...

An apparatus and method for testing the structural joints in steel buildings is described. The invention provides electromechanical test units fixed at the joints of a building and permanently wired to a test apparatus such as an ultrasonic test monitor. Such a monitor may be one of many that are in communication with a central monitor and test management computer so as to accomplish wide spread testing of many buildings immediately after an earthquake by remote access.

A process for updating the frame check sequence FCS.sub.r (X) of a digital frame including an embedded variable header polynomial H.sub.r (x), said process including: partitioning H.sub.r (x); XORing the modified polynomial header H.sub.t (x) and previous polynomial header H.sub.r (x) to generate a differential polynomial D(x); computing a differential frame check polynomial sequence dFCS (x) on said D(x) only and adding dFCS (x) to the polynomial FCS.sub.r (x) to form a new FCS.sub.t (x).

A monitor device connected between a pin for connection to the more positive lead of the voltage supply or the less positive voltage of the power supply and the more positive voltage supply conductors or the less positive voltage supply conductors on the integrated circuit substrate. The monitor circuit has a threshold circuit so insignificant perturbations will not trigger the monitor. The monitor circuit also has a reference voltage input such that the same circuit may be used for the more pos...

An apparatus and method which provides job integrity and security for each sheet transported to and from a printing station including periods when a printing machine has cycled down enabling an operator to remove sheets therefrom. Each sheet transported to the printing station and each sheet delivered from the printing station is counted. A controller compares the number of sheets transported to the printing station to the number of sheets delivered from the printing station and the number of an...

A procedure is disclosed for detecting and documenting flaws in the glassivation layer protecting the active device region of an integrated circuit. A droplet of dilute sulfuric acid solution is placed on top of the glassivation layer and a positively biased electrode is immersed in it. The leads coupled to circuit under the glassivation layer are coupled to a more negative voltage. The release of hydrogen bubbles into the solution through flaws in the glassivation via an electrolysis reaction a...

An expandable memory structure, both vertically and laterally, which uses a plurality of uniformly sized and duplicated chips which includes parity check functionality using an auxiliary parity memory chip of the same type and size. Selection circuitry permits choice of format for odd or even parity.