Patents Examined by John Sheehan
  • Patent number: 8092619
    Abstract: An R-T-Cu—Mn—B based sintered magnet includes: 12.0 at % to 15.0 at % of R, which is at least one of the rare-earth elements that include Y and of which at least 50 at % is Pr and/or Nd; 5.5 at % to 6.5 at % of B; 0.08 at % to 0.35 at % of Cu; 0.04 at % to less than 0.2 at % of Mn; at most 2 at % (including 0 at %) of M, which is one, two, or more elements that are selected from the group consisting of Al, Ti, V, Cr, Ni, Zn, Ga, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ag, In, Sn, Hf, Ta, W, Au, Pb and Bi; and T as the balance, which is either Fe alone or Fe and Co and of which at most 20 at % is Co if T includes both Fe and Co.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Hitachi Metals, Ltd.
    Inventors: Futoshi Kuniyoshi, Rintaro Ishii, Hiroyuki Tomizawa
  • Patent number: 8092616
    Abstract: A rapidly solidified Fe—Ga alloy containing 15 to 23 atomic percent of Ga having a particular rapidly solidified texture is formed into slices which are laminated to each other in a die, or is formed into a powder or chops which are filled in the die. Subsequently, spark plasma sintering is performed so that bonds between the slices, grains of the powder, or the chops are formed at a high density to form a bulk alloy and the rapidly solidified texture is not lost, followed by annealing whenever necessary, so that a magnetostriction of 170 to 230 ppm at room temperature is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Japan Science and Technology Agency
    Inventors: Yasubumi Furuya, Teiko Okazaki, Chihiro Saito, Masaki Yokoyama, Mamoru Oomori
  • Patent number: 8088229
    Abstract: A method for producing high-quality grain oriented magnetic steel sheet utilizes a steel alloy with (in wt %) Si: 2.5-4.0%, C: 0.02-0.10%, Al: 0.01-0.065%, N: 0.003-0.015%. The method utilizes an operational sequence whose individual steps (secondary metallurgical treatment of the molten metal, continuous casting of the molten metal into a strand, dividing of the strand into thin slabs, heating of the thin slabs, continuous hot rolling of the thin slabs into hot strip, cooling of the hot strip, coiling of the hot strip, cold rolling of the hot strip into cold strip, recrystallization and decarburization annealing of the cold strip, application of an annealing separator, final annealing of the recrystallization and decarburization annealed cold strip to form a Goss texture) are harmonized with one another, so that a magnetic steel sheet with optimized electromagnetic properties is obtained using conventional apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2012
    Assignee: ThyssenKrupp Steel AG
    Inventors: Klaus Günther, Ludger Lahn, Andreas Ploch, Eberhard Sowka
  • Patent number: 8084128
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a rare earth magnet which enables to achieve a good balance between high coercive force and high residual magnetic flux density, and its manufacturing method. The present invention provides a rare earth magnet in which a layered grain boundary phase is formed on a surface or a portion of a grain boundary of Nd2Fe14B which is a main phase of an R—Fe—B (R is a rare-earth element) based magnet, and wherein the grain boundary phase contains a fluoride compound, and wherein a thickness of the fluoride compound is 10 ?m or less, or a thickness of the fluoride compound is from 0.1 ?m to 10 ?m, and wherein the coverage of the fluoride compound over a main phase particle is 50% or more on average.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
    Inventors: Matahiro Komuro, Yuichi Satsu
  • Patent number: 8075710
    Abstract: A process for the manufacture of soft magnetic composite components is provided including the steps of: die compacting a powder composition including a mixture of soft magnetic, iron or iron-based powder, core particles of which are surrounded by an electrically insulating, inorganic coating, and an organic lubricant in an amount of 0.05 to 1.5% by weight of the composition, the organic lubricant being free from metal and having a temperature of vaporization less than the decomposition temperature of the coating; ejecting the compacted body from the die; heating the compacted body in an inert atmosphere to a temperature above the vaporization temperature of the lubricant and below the decomposition temperature of the inorganic coating for removing the lubricant from the compacted body, and subjecting the body obtained after heating the compacted body in an inert atmosphere to heat treatment at a temperature between 300 and 600 in water vapor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Höganäs AB
    Inventors: Björn Skårman, Zhou Ye, Patricia Jansson
  • Patent number: 8075707
    Abstract: A method for preparing a rare earth permanent magnet material comprises the steps of disposing a powder on a surface of a sintered magnet body of R1aTbAcMd composition wherein R1 is a rare earth element inclusive of Sc and Y, T is Fe and/or Co, A is boron (B) and/or carbon (C), M is Al, Cu, Zn, In, Si, P, S, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Ga, Ge, Zr, Nb, Mo, Pd, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Hf, Ta, or W, said powder comprising an oxide of R2, a fluoride of R3 or an oxyfluoride of R4 wherein R2, R3, and R4 are rare earth elements inclusive of Sc and Y and having an average particle size equal to or less than 100 ?m, heat treating the magnet body and the powder at a temperature equal to or below the sintering temperature of the magnet body for absorption treatment for causing R2, R3, and R4 in the powder to be absorbed in the magnet body, and repeating the absorption treatment at least two times.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hajime Nakamura, Takehisa Minowa, Koichi Hirota
  • Patent number: 8066825
    Abstract: A (CoFe)Zr/Nb/Ta/Hf based target material is provided which is capable of achieving a high sputtering efficiency and a high sputtering effect by increasing the leakage magnetic flux in the magnetron sputtering, and a method for producing the target material. This target material is made of an Fe—Co based alloy comprising not less than 80 atomic % in total of Fe and Co having an Fe:Co atomic ratio of 80:20 to 0:100, and less than 20 atomic % of one or more selected from the group consisting of Zr, Hf, Nb and Ta. The Fe—Co based alloy comprises a Co—Fe phase being a ferromagnetic phase, and the one or more selected from the group consisting of Zr, Hf, Nb and Ta are incorporated in solid solution form into the Co—Fe phase in a total amount of 0.5 to 2 atomic %.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Sawada, Akihiko Yanagitani, Ryoji Hayashi, Yoshikazu Aikawa
  • Patent number: 8057650
    Abstract: A soft-magnetic FeCo based target material is provided which has a high saturation magnetic flux density and superior atmospheric corrosion resistance. The target material is a soft-magnetic FeCo based target material made of an FeCo based alloy. The FeCo based alloy comprises 0 to 30 at. % of one or more metal elements selected from the group consisting of B, Nb, Zr, Ta, Hf, Ti and V; and the balance being Fe and Co with unavoidable impurities. The Fe:Co atomic ratio ranges from 10:90 to 70:30. The FeCo based alloy may further comprise 0.2 at. % to 5.0 at. % of Al and/or Cr.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Sanyo Special Steel Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryoji Hayashi, Akihiko Yanagitani, Yoshikazu Aikawa, Toshiyuki Sawada
  • Patent number: 8052806
    Abstract: A powder magnetic core is provided for operating at high frequencies that is obtained by pressure forming an iron-based magnetic powder covered with an insulation film, which has a specific resistance more than 1000, preferably more than 2000, and most preferably more than 3000 ??m, and a saturation magnetic flux density B above 1.5, preferably above 1.7, and most preferably above 1.9 (T). A method for the preparation of such cores as well as a powder which is suitable for the preparation also are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2011
    Assignee: Höganäs AB
    Inventors: Zhou Ye, Björn Skårman
  • Patent number: 8038806
    Abstract: A method, which makes it possible to economically produce high-quality grain oriented magnetic steel sheet, utilizes a steel alloy with (in wt %) Si: 2.5-4.0%, C: 0.01-0.10 %, Mn: 0.02-0.50%, S and Se in contents, whose total amounts to 0.005-0.04%. The method utilizes an operational sequence whose individual routine steps (secondary metallurgical treatment of the molten metal in a vacuum-or ladle facility, continuous casting of the molten metal into a strand, dividing of the strand, heating in a facility standing inline, continuous hot rolling in a multi-stand hot rolling mill standing inline, cooling, coiling, cold rolling, recrystallization and decarburization annealing, application of an annealing separator, final annealing to form a Goss texture) are harmonized with one another, so that a magnetic steel sheet with optimized electromagnetic properties is obtained using conventional apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: ThyssenKrupp Steel AG
    Inventors: Klaus Günther, Ludger Lahn, Andreas Ploch, Eberhard Sowka
  • Patent number: 8038808
    Abstract: A flat soft magnetic material to be used for a noise-suppressing magnetic sheet, wherein the 50% particle size D50 (?m), coercive force Hc (A/m) and bulk density BD (Mg/m3) of the flat soft magnetic material satisfy the following formula (1). D50/(HC×BD)?1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: TDK Corporation
    Inventors: Atsuhito Matsukawa, Katsuhiko Wakayama, Hideharu Moru, Naoyoshi Sato, Yoshihito Hirai, Toshihisa Murayoshi
  • Patent number: 8034196
    Abstract: A grain-oriented electrical steel plate is characterized in that grooves having a width of 10 ?m to 200 ?m and a depth of 10 ?m to 30 ?m exist in at least one of a front surface and a rear surface of a steel plate at intervals of 1 mm to 10 mm, an angle between a direction in which the grooves extend and a rolling direction of the steel plate is 60 degrees to 120 degrees, and tensile stresses having a maximum value of 20 MPa to 300 MPa act in the rolling direction within ranges of 10 ?m to 300 ?m from side surfaces of the grooves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Nippon Steel Corporation
    Inventors: Keiji Iwata, Hideyuki Hamamura
  • Patent number: 8029627
    Abstract: A magnetic component for a magnetically actuated fuel injection device is formed of a corrosion resistant soft magnetic alloy consisting essentially of, in weight percent, 9%<Co<20%, 6%<Cr<15%, 0%?S?0.5%, 0%?Mn?4.5%, 0%?Al?2.5%, 0%?V?2.0%, 0%?Ti?2.0%, 0%?Mo?2.0%, 0%?Si?3.5%, 0%?C<0.05%, 0%?P<0.1%, 0%?N<0.5%, 0%?O<0.05%, 0%?B<0.01%, and the balance being essentially iron and having at least one of Al, V, Ti and Mo.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventor: Joachim Gerster
  • Patent number: 8029626
    Abstract: A method for producing a soft magnetic powdered core comprises a mixing step for forming a raw powder by adding a thermoplastic resin powder to a soft magnetic powder and mixing them, a compacting step for forming a compact by compacting the raw powder into a predetermined shape, a melting and setting step for the resin in which the resin of the compact is melted by heating to at least the melting point of the thermoplastic resin and the melted resin is set by cooling to a room temperature, and a crystallizing step for the resin in which the set resin is heated to not less than the exothermic onset temperature and not more than the endothermic onset temperature, which are measured by DSC analysis of the thermoplastic resin, and is cooled to a room temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignees: Hitachi Powered Metals Co., Ltd., Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Chio Ishihara, Kazuo Asaka, Kohei Muramatsu, Tsuyoshi Akao, Hirotake Hamamatsu
  • Patent number: 8025744
    Abstract: A rare earth permanent magnet is prepared by disposing a powdered metal alloy containing at least 70 vol % of an intermetallic compound phase on a sintered body of R—Fe—B system, and heating the sintered body having the powder disposed on its surface below the sintering temperature of the sintered body in vacuum or in an inert gas for diffusion treatment. The advantages include efficient productivity, excellent magnetic performance, a minimal or zero amount of Tb or Dy used, an increased coercive force, and a minimized decline of remanence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2011
    Assignee: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroaki Nagata, Tadao Nomura, Takehisa Minowa
  • Patent number: 8002906
    Abstract: The present invention provides a rare earth magnet, which is formed through at least hot molding, the rare earth magnet containing grains including an R2X14B phase as a main phase, and a grain boundary phase surrounding peripheries of the grains, in which R is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nd, Pr, Dy, Tb and Ho, and X is Fe or Fe with a part being substituted by Co; in which an element RH is more concentrated in the grain boundary phase than in the grains, in which the element RH is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Dy, Tb and Ho; and the element RH is present with a substantially constant concentration distribution from the surface part of the magnet to the central part of the magnet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Daido Tokushuko Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shunji Suzuki, Hayato Hashino, Masahiro Hiraoka, Takao Yabumi
  • Patent number: 7198682
    Abstract: A process for the production of electrical steel strips, in which a strip is directly cast from molten steel and contains alloy elements apt to generate a precipitation of sulphides and/or nitrides apt to inhibit the grain growth. The strip is hot rolled in-line with the casting operation at a temperature between 1250 and 1000° C., and in which the strip is coiled after hot rolling at a temperature of less than 780° C. if sulphides are utilized, or at a temperature of less than 600° C. if nitrides, or nitrides plus sulphides, are utilized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2007
    Assignee: Thyssenkrupp Acciai Speciali Terni S.p.A.
    Inventors: Stefano Cicale′, Stefano Fortunati, Giuseppe Abbruzzese
  • Patent number: 7166172
    Abstract: A ferromagnetic iron alloy powder for a magnetic recording medium is composed of acicular iron-base particles of an average major axis length (X) of not less than 20 nm and not greater than 80 nm and have oxygen content of not less than 15 wt % and coercive force (Hc) of not less than [0.0036 X3?1.1 X2+110 X?1390 (Oe)] (where X is average major axis length expressed in nm). The ferromagnetic iron alloy powder is obtained by reacting metal powder composed of acicular iron-base particles having an average major axis length of not less than 20 nm and not greater than 80 nm with pure water in substantial absence of oxygen to form a metal oxide film on the particle surfaces. Optionally, the particles can be reacted with a weak oxidizing gas by a wet or dry method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: Dowa Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuyuki Matsumoto, Kimitaka Sato, Takatoshi Fujino, Kenichi Inoue
  • Patent number: 7108757
    Abstract: A reversible hydrogen storage alloy capable of storing large amounts of hydrogen and delivering reversibly large amounts of hydrogen at temperatures ranging from 0° C. up to 40° C. The hydrogen storage alloy is generally composed of titanium, vanadium, and chromium. The alloy may further include manganese. Modifier elements such as zirconium, iron, nickel, molybdenum, ruthenium, and/or cobalt, and scavenger elements such as misch metal, calcium, and/or magnesium may be included in the alloy to improve performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2006
    Assignee: Ovonic Hydrogen Systems LLC
    Inventors: Baoquan Huang, Stanford R. Ovshinsky
  • Patent number: 7048808
    Abstract: The present invention provides a rare-earth sintered magnet exhibiting desirable magnetic properties in which the amount of Nd and/or Pr forming a non-magnetic phase in a grain boundary phase is reduced. Specifically, the present invention provides a rare-earth sintered magnet having a composition of (R1x+R2y)T100-x-y-zQz where R1 is at least one element selected from the group consisting of all rare-earth elements excluding La (lanthanum), Y (yttrium) and Sc (scandium); R2 is at least one element selected from the group consisting of La, Y and Sc; T is at least one element selected from the group consisting of all transition elements; Q is at least one element selected from the group consisting of B and C, and including, as a main phase, a crystal grain of an Nd2Fe14B crystalline structure, wherein: molar fractions x, y and z satisfy 8?x?18 at %, 0.1?y?3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2006
    Assignee: Neomax Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuji Kaneko, Katsuya Taniguchi, Takao Sekino