Nippon Electric Glass (Japan)

With a declining birthrate, aging population, and shrinking working population, the cost of train operations must be reduced to maintain the railway network. A solution for overcoming this problem is to introduce automatic train operation (ATO). ATO systems, which are equipment for automated driving control under the protection of an automatic train control (ATC), a continuous type of automatic train protection (ATP), are introduced in specific types of rail lines, such as automated guideway transit (AGT) systems or subway systems in Japan. A new type of ATO systems operated by staff who are not required to have a driver's license is required to reduce operating costs further. The authors have developed an ATO system based on automatic train stop (ATS)-DK which is an intermittent ATP and equipped with continuous speed check. This system has achieved the first automatic operation in the ATS line, which conventionally has required ATC, and also the first GOA2.5 in which an attendant other than the driver performs emergency stop operations at the front of the train. This paper describes the details of the study, the progress of the demonstration operation, and the effects of the introduction of the GOA2.5 system.

Garnet-like oxide lithium ionic conductor Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) exhibits relatively high ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability against lithium metals, attracting much attention as a solid electrolyte for all-solid-state lithium metal batteries.However, for practical use, the improvement in the ionic conductivity of the grain boundaries and sinterability of LLZO is necessary.Nano-sized fumed Al2O3 prepared by the vapor phase with various specific surface areas as a sintering aid has been applied to the garnet-type lithium ionic conductor, Li6.25Ga0.25La3Zr2O12(LGLZ) and Li6.5La3Zr1.5Ta0.5O12(LLZT).The addition effect of fumed Al2O3 on lattice parameters, particle morphology, sinterability, and ionic conductivity has been investigated.The sinterability has improved by the addition of nano-sized fumed Al2O3 with a high specific surface area, and ionic conductivity does not exhibit a significant change for LGLZ.The addition of fumed Al2O3 with a specific surface of 130 m 2 g -1 has lowered the sintering temperature of LLZT by 200 C, which indicates nano-sized Al2O3 is quite useful as a sintering aid for garnet-type solid electrolytes.

The influence of thermal history on the kinetics of liquid-solid transformations is investigated for heterogeneous crystal nucleation near the liquidus temperature in a melt with lithium disilicate composition in contact with a PtRh10 carrier. It is shown that the achieved undercooling depends on the preceding superheating protocol. This is explained by a distribution of nano-sized cavities on the surface of the precious metal, in which crystalline clusters can persist above the liquidus temperature for a characteristic time. In series of different surface quality of the PtRh10 carrier and for air purging, these times are in the range of 5-20 s, which seems relatively long compared to metallic melts, where this phenomenon was first observed in the millisecond range. The high viscosity of the silicate melt at the liquidus temperature is discussed as the reason for the difference in the persistence time.

Abstract The oxidation of primary alcohols, sulfides, and trifluoromethyl sulfides using sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate crystals as the oxidizing agent was investigated in detail. The optimal conditions for oxidation to the corresponding carboxylic acids, sulfones, and trifluoromethyl sulfones in high yields were determined. At a reaction medium pH of 9–10, primary alcohols in ethyl acetate and water in the presence of TEMPO or AZADOL were oxidized to aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids in high yields. Sulfides were oxidized to sulfones in high yields by using toluene as the solvent, and trifluoromethyl sulfides were oxidized to give the corresponding sulfones in benzotrifluoride in the presence of trifluoroacetic acid.

A total of 52 ostracod species were found in 24 samples collected from four sites of the Yoshino Formation of the Katsuta Group, which were deposited in the Setouchi Geologic Province of southwestern Japan during the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (16.9–14.7 Ma). Q-mode cluster analysis revealed five sample clusters (ostracod biofacies), suggesting that the paleoenvironments included enclosed bay, middle to lower sublittoral bay, and upper bathyal sea, in ascending order, during the transgression. R-mode cluster analysis revealed seven species clusters (ostracod bioassociations) that reflect the paleoecology of ostracod species. Fossil ostracod assemblages are paleobiogeographically characterized by a mixture of tropical taxa (e.g. Cibotoleberis, Pacambocythere, and Paijenborchella), cosmopolitan taxa (e.g. Cytherella, Neonesidea, and Xestoleberis), and the taxa that survived or evolved around the Japanese islands since the Paleogene (e.g. Acanthocythereis, Munseyella, Pseudoaurila, and Trachyleberis). All taxa entered the study area after the opening of the Sea of Japan during 18–17 Ma. Cool-temperate species, such as Elofsonella, Hemicythere, and Laperousecythere, which have been reported from the Lower Miocene deposits in Japan, were not detected in the study area. Three new trachyleberidid species, Acanthocythereis kunihiroi sp. nov., Cibotoleberis tsuyamensis sp. nov., and Pacambocythere ishizakii sp. nov., are described.

Abstract We fabricated anti‐glare (AG) coatings on glass sheets by spraying alkoxide‐derived silica sols and demonstrated that the water‐to‐alkoxide ratio is one of the key factors for improving AG performance and sol stability. We synthesized silica sols using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), water, nitric acid, and denatured ethanol and sprayed them on sheets of chemically strengthened glass. The molar ratios of water to TEOS (r) were 3, 7, and 14. The sol with r = 7 provided a higher arithmetic‐mean height (Sa), smaller autocorrelation length (Sal), and better optical properties (lower gloss, higher haze, and lower sparkle level) than the sol with r = 3. An excessive amount of water at r = 14 yielded a large Sal and a high sparkle level. As the storage time of the sols increased, higher r values caused a more pronounced increase in Sa. Although none of the sols showed noticeable temporal changes during dynamic light scattering measurements, solutions with higher r values exhibited a more remarkable reduction in the retention time during liquid chromatography with a styrene‐divinylbenzene matrix. Hence, an excessive amount of water was thought to cause hydrophilization of the polymerized species during storage.

E-glass fibre glass products have found a wide range of applications in composite markets, including automobile parts, printed circuit boards, construction materials, wind turbine blades, pipes, etc. One of the commonly used major ingredients of E-glass batch is kaolin, which provides sources of silica and alumina. This paper focuses on the evaluation of alternative silicate minerals that may benefit the fibre glass production in terms of kinetics of batch-to-melt (BtM) conversion, stable and lower impurity iron, and lower BtM conversion energy. Using kaolin (free quartz less than 1 wt%) as a control, four new natural minerals are investigated, high silica kaolin (quartz greater than 50 wt%), pyrophyllite, anorthosite and wollastonite. In our study, a newly established FTIR protocol has been applied to track intermediate phase formation and final glass melt conversion. Literature reported XRD results and limited XRD analysis are used to support the IR characterization. According to our study, for E-glass of C a O???Al 2 O 3 ???SiO 2 based system, independent of the source of the natural silicate minerals used, BtM kinetics is primarily controlled by the availability of “free silica” to react with ???free calcium oxide??? derived from limestone in the batch at high temperature above 1000°C.

Sodium and magnesium aluminosilicate glasses with compositions 20Na2O-20Al2O3-60SiO2 (NAS) and 20MgO-20Al2O3-60SiO2 (MAS) were subjected to a 12 and 25 GPa compression and decompression at room temperature, resulting in density increases from 3.7% to 5.3% (NAS) and from 8.2 to 8.4% (MAS), respectively. The pressurization at 25 GPa was done on 17O-enriched glasses, to facilitate characterization by 17O NMR. The structural changes associated with this process have been investigated by solid state 29Si, 27Al, 23Na, 25Mg, and 17O magic-angle spinning NMR and compared with the situation in thermally relaxed glasses and/or glasses prepared at ambient pressure. While in the Na aluminosilicate glass only subtle structural changes were observed in a sample densified at 12 GPa, the average coordination number of Al 〈CN(Al)〉 increases moderately from 4.00 to 4.26 by pressurization at 25 GPa. In the Mg-based system, 〈CN(Al)〉 increases from 4.34 to 4.57 to 4.83 in the sequence 10-4 GPa → 12 GPa → 25 GPa. The experimental result at 25 GPa was qualitatively confirmed by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Overall, pressurization results in more positive 29Si and 17O chemical shifts, most likely reflecting a reduction in the Si-O-Si and Si-O-Al bonding angles in the pressurized glasses. Furthermore, the results are also consistent with either an increased number of non-bridging O-atoms upon pressurization, or a larger number of Si-O-Al or Al-O-Al linkages. The significantly higher sensitivity of MAS, compared to NAS glass, to an increase in 〈CN(Al)〉 upon pressurization, provides a good structural rationale for its significantly higher crack initiation resistance.

A new magneto-optical glass with suppressed thermally induced depolarization was developed. The glass can be manufactured in large sizes, paving the way for the development of large-diameter isolators suitable for ultra-high power lasers.

ATO (Automatic Train Operation) systems which are equipment for automated driving control under protection of ATC (Automatic Train Control), continuous type of ATP, is introduced in specific types of line, such as AGT (Automated Guideway Transit ) systems or subway systems in Japan. There is a growing need for new type ATO system which is operated by a staff who is not required driver's license in order to reduce operating costs further. We have developed an ATO system based on ATS (Automatic Train Stop) -DK which is intermittent type ATP and equipped continuous speed check. In this paper, we show the concept of the ATS-based ATO system and report on the specifications of this system and functional field test results.