Designer Engagement Ring Designs

There is something magical about even the thought of designer engagement ring designs. The word 'designer' creates images of romance, mystery, outstanding creativity, flair and opulence.
While many of us shy away at the thought of the price tag that must be attached to such creations and do not expect to be gifted one, we are still fascinated by the thought of them and feel the irresistible urge to see just what the fuss is all about.
Whether you are looking at a simple platinum and diamond Tacori ring, an elaborate but elegant Danhov or a truly unique Leon Popov butterfly ring, there are many reasons that we look at designer engagement ring designs.
1 - We want their skill and creativity
Just as we commission someone to paint a picture, we want our ring to be uniquely designed by someone who can gather all our feelings for each other, our hopes and our dreams and turn them into a work of art that can be worn for eternity.
We want to look at our ring and immediately feel this connection with it and with each other through it. This is something that very few 'of the rack' rings can give someone and yet the personal touch of the designer engagement ring designs seems to capture it all perfectly.
2 - Exclusivity
Like anything Haute Couture, a designer engagement ring is unique and exclusive to you. You might get away with buying clothes 'off the rack' - but your engagement ring needs to be something very special.
3 - Inspiration
Nicole Ritchie and Joel Madden did it, so did many other celebrities. Designing your own ring is becoming more and more popular. Because there are so many places now that we can design our own ring online, we might look at designer engagement ring designs to get inspiration for our own special ring.
If you like Kate Middleton's ring, but want a ruby instead of a sapphire, if you love Cartier but just can't quite afford the name-tag, then designing your own version of one of their rings is very simple.
Now if you had just popped into your local jeweler, you would be forgiven for thinking that when it comes to engagement rings there is very little choice available. The usual ring consists of a single diamond set on a gold, white gold or platinum band. The ring itself can have different looks depending on whether you want a traditional looking ring or a modern one and occasionally you will see three stone settings or setting with a couple of side stones.
But on the whole, they all sparkle, they all look lovely and they all look the same, but don't be fooled - the reality is that there are literally hundreds of different settings and tens of thousands of diamonds that can go into those settings to make your ring truly unique to you and your fiancé.
Even a simple solitaire can become an exceptional and treasured gift with the addition of smaller diamonds, elaborate engraving or by adding a contemporary twist to the band, all of which can be found with designer engagement ring designs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5899313

The Real Benefits Of Using A Silent Inverter Generator

The Benefits You Gain Out Of Your Inverter Generator Includes:

• High Quality Power Output: The precision of the Inverter Generator electronic technology ensures its power is closer to normal "line power" in more than any other generator design. Inverter Generators produce power that is as reliable as the power you get from your power outlets at home. 

• Lighter, smaller size: Advanced engineers use inverter technology to integrate parts from the engine and the generator. The mechanical parts to the alternator are now combined with the engine flywheel. This allows inverter generators to be smaller and lighter in weight than most conventional models.

• High Fuel Efficiency: Economy- Throttle allows the generators engine to automatically adjust the engine speed to produce only the power needed for the appliance in use. Traditional generators have to run at 3600 rpm to produce 60 hertz (cycle) electricity. But inverter generators with Economy throttle can run at much slower rpms while maintaining frequency and power for the requested load. Because the engine does not have to run at full speed constantly, Economy throttle reduces fuel consumption by up to 40%. It also helps to reduce exhaust emissions.

• Quiet Operation: Silent inverter generators are substantially quieter than traditional generators. The Economy throttle also reduces the noise level, along with the sponge dampening materials that absorb the engine's sound to help make the inverter generators incredibly quiet.

• Parallel Capability: Inverter Generators can be paired with another identically sized unit to double your power capacity. Parallel capability allows you to use two smaller, lighter generators to do the work of a much larger generator without effecting portability.

Installation of Inverter Battery Charger Plus All Equipped

Installation of Inverter Battery Charger Plus All Equipped

1. Make sure the switch is in OFF position

2. Prepare the battery cable is red or positive that we have provided in inverter package

3. Connect the battery cables or POSITIVE RED color, the other end to the Positive Pole of the inverter and the other end to the positive pole of the battery, the inverter has no positive signs from the terminal and the existing akipun positive sign

4. Once installed the red battery cable then tighten the bolt

5. Prepare the battery cable or NEGATIVE BLACK color that has been provided by us in inverter package

6. . Connect the battery cables or colored BLACK NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE Edge Pole only to the inverter and the other end to the NEGATIVE battery poles, the inverter has no negative signs from the terminal and the existing akipun negative sign

7. Connect the black wire inverter input into the existing socket diinverter
8. Plug the black input cable from the inverter to the electricity socket
9. Turn on the switch to the ON position
10. Plug the electrical appliance like a fan, PC, etc who want to back up into the white inverter OUTPUT

Get the Help of Realty Group for Chicago Foreclosure

Investing in Chicago foreclosure property is the best way of utilizing your hard earned money in the right way. Residents of Chicago and surrounding areas have better opportunity to make the best of their money or investment they make.

Today with an aim to make your dream come true to get the best from Chicago foreclosure property a number of leading Realty Groups have come up with effective solutions and proper information to make the process easy. 

Leading and reliable Realty Groups like Pearson Realty Group has a team of property managers who leave no stone unturned in providing you the right solutions so that you can easily invest in Chicago foreclosure. Pearson Realty Groups is also one such leading Realty Groups that has a team of property managers who have specialties in Chicago Real Estate Owned subdivision to lend a hand position your buying needs in the special bank owned market.

Pearson Group is straight listing brokers for many business entities including the largest vendors in the industry, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Switched-mode power supply

Input rectifier stage

AC, half-wave and full wave rectified signals.

If the SMPS has an AC input, then the first stage is to convert the input to DC. This is called rectification. The rectifier circuit can be configured as a voltage doubler by the addition of a switch operated either manually or automatically. This is a feature of larger supplies to permit operation from nominally 120 volt or 240 volt supplies. The rectifier produces an unregulated DC voltage which is then sent to a large filter capacitor. The current drawn from the mains supply by this rectifier circuit occurs in short pulses around the AC voltage peaks. These pulses have significant high frequency energy which reduces the power factor. Special control techniques can be employed by the following SMPS to force the average input current to follow the sinusoidal shape of the AC input voltage thus the designer should try correcting the power factor. An SMPS with a DC input does not require this stage. An SMPS designed for AC input can often be run from a DC supply (for 230V AC this would be 330V DC), as the DC passes through the rectifier stage unchanged. It's however advisable to consult the manual before trying this, though most supplies are quite capable of such operation even though nothing is mentioned in the documentation. However, this type of use may be harmful to the rectifier stage as it will only utilize half of diodes in the rectifier for the full load. This may result in overheating of these components, and cause them to fail prematurely. [3]
If an input range switch is used, the rectifier stage is usually configured to operate as a voltage doubler when operating on the low voltage (~120 VAC) range and as a straight rectifier when operating on the high voltage (~240 VAC) range. If an input range switch is not used, then a full-wave rectifier is usually used and the downstream inverter stage is simply designed to be flexible enough to accept the wide range of dc voltages that will be produced by the rectifier stage. In higher-power SMPSs, some form of automatic range switching may be used.

Inverter stage

The inverter stage converts DC, whether directly from the input or from the rectifier stage described above, to AC by running it through a power oscillator, whose output transformer is very small with few windings at a frequency of tens or hundreds of kilohertz (kHz). The frequency is usually chosen to be above 20 kHz, to make it inaudible to humans. The output voltage is optically coupled to the input and thus very tightly controlled. The switching is implemented as a multistage (to achieve high gain) MOSFET amplifier. MOSFETs are a type of transistor with a low on-resistance and a high current-handling capacity. Since only the last stage has a large duty cycle, previous stages can be implemented by bipolar transistors leading to roughly the same efficiency. The second last stage needs to be of a complementary design, where one transistor charges the last MOSFET and another one discharges the MOSFET. A design using a resistor would run idle most of the time and reduce efficiency. All earlier stages do not weight into efficiency because power decreases by a factor of 10 for every stage (going backwards) and thus the earlier stages are responsible for at most 1% of the efficiency. This section refers to the block marked Chopper in the block diagram.

Voltage converter and output rectifier

If the output is required to be isolated from the input, as is usually the case in mains power supplies, the inverted AC is used to drive the primary winding of a high-frequency transformer. This converts the voltage up or down to the required output level on its secondary winding. The output transformer in the block diagram serves this purpose.
If a DC output is required, the AC output from the transformer is rectified. For output voltages above ten volts or so, ordinary silicon diodes are commonly used. For lower voltages, Schottky diodes are commonly used as the rectifier elements; they have the advantages of faster recovery times than silicon diodes (allowing low-loss operation at higher frequencies) and a lower voltage drop when conducting. For even lower output voltages, MOSFETs may be used as synchronous rectifiers; compared to Schottky diodes, these have even lower conducting state voltage drops.
The rectified output is then smoothed by a filter consisting of inductors and capacitors. For higher switching frequencies, components with lower capacitance and inductance are needed.
Simpler, non-isolated power supplies contain an inductor instead of a transformer. This type includes boost converters, buck converters, and the so called buck-boost converters. These belong to the simplest class of single input, single output converters which utilize one inductor and one active switch. The buck converter reduces the input voltage in direct proportion to the ratio of conductive time to the total switching period, called the duty cycle. For example an ideal buck converter with a 10 V input operating at a 50% duty cycle will produce an average output voltage of 5 V. A feedback control loop is employed to regulate the output voltage by varying the duty cycle to compensate for variations in input voltage. The output voltage of a boost converter is always greater than the input voltage and the buck-boost output voltage is inverted but can be greater than, equal to, or less than the magnitude of its input voltage. There are many variations and extensions to this class of converters but these three form the basis of almost all isolated and non-isolated DC to DC converters. By adding a second inductor the Ćuk and SEPIC converters can be implemented, or, by adding additional active switches, various bridge converters can be realised.
Other types of SMPSs use a capacitor-diode voltage multiplier instead of inductors and transformers. These are mostly used for generating high voltages at low currents (Cockcroft-Walton generator). The low voltage variant is called charge pump.

Regulation

A feedback circuit monitors the output voltage and compares it with a reference voltage, which is set manually or electronically to the desired output. If there is an error in the output voltage, the feedback circuit compensates by adjusting the timing with which the MOSFETs are switched on and off. This part of the power supply is called the switching regulator. The Chopper controller shown in the block diagram serves this purpose. Depending on design/safety requirements, the controller may or may not contain an isolation mechanism (such as opto-couplers) to isolate it from the DC output. Switching supplies in computers, TVs and VCRs have these opto-couplers to tightly control the output voltage.
Open-loop regulators do not have a feedback circuit. Instead, they rely on feeding a constant voltage to the input of the transformer or inductor, and assume that the output will be correct. Regulated designs compensate for the parasitic capacitance of the transformer or coil. Monopolar designs also compensate for the magnetic hysteresis of the core.
The feedback circuit needs power to run before it can generate power, so an additional non-switching power-supply for stand-by is added.

Transformer design
 

SMPS transformers run at high frequency. Most of the cost savings (and space savings) in off-line power supplies come from the fact that a high frequency transformer is much smaller than the 50/60 Hz transformers formerly used.
There are several differences in the design of transformers for 50 Hz vs 500 kHz. Firstly a low frequency transformer usually transfers energy through its core (soft iron), while the (usually ferrite) core of a high frequency transformer limits leakage. Since the waveforms in a SMPS are generally high speed (PWM square waves), the wiring must be capable of supporting high harmonics of the base frequency due to the skin effect, which is a major source of power loss.

Power factor

Simple off-line switched mode power supplies incorporate a simple full wave rectifier connected to a large energy storing capacitor. Such SMPSs draw current from the AC line in short pulses when the mains instantaneous voltage exceeds the voltage across this capacitor. During the remaining portion of the AC cycle the capacitor provides energy to the power supply.
As a result, the input current of such basic switched mode power supplies has high harmonic content and relatively low power factor. This creates extra load on utility lines, increases heating of the utility transformers and standard AC electric motors, and may cause stability problems in some applications such as in emergency generator systems or aircraft generators. Harmonics can be removed through the use of filter banks but the filtering is expensive, and the power utility may require a business with a very low power factor to purchase and install the filtering onsite.
In 2001 the European Union put into effect the standard IEC/EN61000-3-2 to set limits on the harmonics of the AC input current up to the 40th harmonic for equipment above 75 W. The standard defines four classes of equipment depending on its type and current waveform. The most rigorous limits (class D) are established for personal computers, computer monitors, and TV receivers. In order to comply with these requirements modern switched-mode power supplies normally include an additional power factor correction (PFC) stage.
Putting a current regulated boost chopper stage after the off-line rectifier (to charge the storage capacitor) can help correct the power factor, but increases the complexity (and cost).

The true colors of successful branding strategies!

When you see an apple, do you recognize it by its shape or by its color? Never thought so profoundly before gobbling up the fruit, did you! According to an ingenious team of researchers from Vanderbilt University, apparently an area in our brain is divided in such a manner that it responds differently to different colors. This in turn defines how you discern a particular object. 

Go a step further and think branding strategies as you read this and you’ll have one of those ‘Oh why didn’t I think of it before’ moments like I did. Visualize Coca Cola and doesn’t ‘red’ flood your thoughts or ‘blue’ when you imagine Facebook? (This is apart from the shape, font etc.)

Take color seriously like the above brands did, and you’ll find brand identity and recall baby steps away. Find out why some colors work and how can you use them:

Blue – It represents calmness, integrity and stability. No wonder then its the most popular color preferred by businesses. Use it in your business cards, office décor, brochures to convey the ‘you can trust us’ message.

Red – It represents the color of danger, excitement, and passion. Use this color to imprint your logo on the promotional items and rest assured, it will keep drawing attention to your brand.

Orange – It represents enthusiasm and its vibrancy is guaranteed to enhance your brand identity. Use it for your banners and your marketing message will be communicated loud and clear.

Green – It represents prosperity or money. Sending mailers about how your low prices facilitate savings, write it in green. Want to portray your company as eco-friendly? Give your office, office stationery, promotional items a green tone.

White – It represents peace and simplicity. Pick this color while gifting promotional shirts or assigning uniforms to your employees, and not only will they use it as formal wear, your logo will look the brightest too.

Black – It represents seriousness and no-nonsense boldness and is the preferred color while stating facts. Use it while writing your website or brochure content and the readers will believe in you and your services. If in white, they convey simplicity, promotional shirts in black convey style.

So there! Why stick to drabness when you can add a dash of color to your branding strategies, right?

To view a large variety of branding products for business promotion, please visit our website at www.promodirect.com

Promotional gifts for digital age

As times move forwards in to the 21st century and the televisions and radios all go digital it's only right that promotional gifts move with the times. The range of laptops, netbooks and alike have led to a plethera of usb based products and so it was inevitable that the world of printed promotional gifts would soon catch up and so it has become the case.

Promotional USB flashdrives are proving to be incredibly popular in 2010 when you consider how cost effective they are. The range of styles of flash drive (or memory stick as they're sometimes called) formats available is ever increasing. The capacities of flash drive available start from as small as 512mb and range to in excess of 16gb which is a substantial amount of storage to aid you in promoting your message.

Most flashdrives come in a form of stick shape and slip in to your pocket easily but there is a new kid on the block that more innovative and is ideal for exhibitions and conferences. This is the wristband usb which is made from silicone and incorporates a usb drive in to a section of the band that can be seperated to reveal the section which inserts in to the computer. This section is also where your logo is printed and the same can be said of the standard usb flashdrive designs.