Patents by Inventor Katsuhito Gomi

Katsuhito Gomi has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11891722
    Abstract: A screw feeder includes: a case that includes a material putting-in portion through which a fluff material is put in and a material putting-out portion through which the fluff material is put out below the material putting-in portion; and a screw that includes a rotational shaft and a blade portion, the rotational shaft being provided rotatably inside the case, the blade portion being spirally mounted on the rotational shaft; wherein the screw is rotated with repeated alternation of a slope-down direction in which the blade portion slopes downward spirally in a vertical direction and a slope-up direction in which the blade portion slopes upward spirally in the vertical direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhito Gomi, Yuki Oguchi
  • Patent number: 11732415
    Abstract: A fiber body forming apparatus including an accumulating unit that has a release unit that releases a material containing a fiber and that has an accumulating member on which the material released from the discharging unit accumulates, a sheet substrate supply unit that supplies a sheet substrate to a position vertically below the release unit, and a control unit that controls operation of the accumulating unit and the sheet substrate supply unit, in which the control unit controls the operation of the accumulating unit and the sheet substrate supply unit to selectively execute a first mode for causing the material to accumulate on the accumulating member and the second mode for supplying the sheet substrate to the position vertically below the release unit and causing the material to accumulate on the sheet substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2023
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuhito Gomi
  • Publication number: 20220205181
    Abstract: A fiber body forming apparatus including an accumulating unit that has a release unit that releases a material containing a fiber and that has an accumulating member on which the material released from the discharging unit accumulates, a sheet substrate supply unit that supplies a sheet substrate to a position vertically below the release unit, and a control unit that controls operation of the accumulating unit and the sheet substrate supply unit, in which the control unit controls the operation of the accumulating unit and the sheet substrate supply unit to selectively execute a first mode for causing the material to accumulate on the accumulating member and the second mode for supplying the sheet substrate to the position vertically below the release unit and causing the material to accumulate on the sheet substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2021
    Publication date: June 30, 2022
    Inventor: Katsuhito Gomi
  • Patent number: 11319668
    Abstract: The sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: a rough crushing unit that roughly crushes a raw material containing fibers; and a defibration unit that defibrates the roughly crushed raw material in a gas atmosphere. In addition, the sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: first and second web formers that accumulate defibrated substances obtained through a defibrating process and form webs; and a sheet former that forms a sheet of the second web. In addition, the sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: a vaporization-type humidifying unit that humidifies a space in which the raw material is roughly crushed by the rough crushing unit; and a mist-type humidifying unit that humidifies the webs that are formed by the first and second web formers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhito Gomi, Nobumasa Abe
  • Publication number: 20210355604
    Abstract: A screw feeder includes: a case that includes a material putting-in portion through which a fluff material is put in and a material putting-out portion through which the fluff material is put out below the material putting-in portion; and a screw that includes a rotational shaft and a blade portion, the rotational shaft being provided rotatably inside the case, the blade portion being spirally mounted on the rotational shaft; wherein the screw is rotated with repeated alternation of a slope-down direction in which the blade portion slopes downward spirally in a vertical direction and a slope-up direction in which the blade portion slopes upward spirally in the vertical direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2021
    Publication date: November 18, 2021
    Inventors: Katsuhito GOMI, Yuki OGUCHI
  • Patent number: 11174594
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: a defibration unit that defibrates a raw material containing fibers in a gas atmosphere; and a sheet former that forms a sheet by using at least a part of defibrated substances obtained through a defibrating process performed by the defibration unit. The defibration unit and the sheet former are thermally blocked from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuhito Gomi
  • Publication number: 20210292971
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: a defibration unit that defibrates a raw material containing fibers in a gas atmosphere; and a sheet former that forms a sheet by using at least a part of defibrated substances obtained through a defibrating process performed by the defibration unit. The defibration unit and the sheet former are thermally blocked from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2017
    Publication date: September 23, 2021
    Inventor: Katsuhito GOMI
  • Publication number: 20210277600
    Abstract: The sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: a rough crushing unit that roughly crushes a raw material containing fibers; and a defibration unit that defibrates the roughly crushed raw material in a gas atmosphere. In addition, the sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: first and second web formers that accumulate defibrated substances obtained through a defibrating process and form webs; and a sheet former that forms a sheet of the second web. In addition, the sheet manufacturing apparatus includes: a vaporization-type humidifying unit that humidifies a space in which the raw material is roughly crushed by the rough crushing unit; and a mist-type humidifying unit that humidifies the webs that are formed by the first and second web formers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2017
    Publication date: September 9, 2021
    Inventors: Katsuhito GOMI, Nobumasa ABE
  • Publication number: 20210246612
    Abstract: A fibrous body accumulating device includes: a drum having an opening for releasing a material containing fibers and rotating around a central axis; and a first dispersion member disposed in the drum, extending in a direction along the central axis, and dispersing the material in the drum, in which the first dispersion member has a first portion having the material with a high dispersion ability and a second portion having the material with a lower dispersion ability than the first portion, the first portion and the second portion being disposed at different positions in a direction along the central axis.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Publication date: August 12, 2021
    Inventors: Kazuma MIYAZAWA, Katsuhito GOMI
  • Patent number: 10843386
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes a web forming unit that forms a web in which at least fiber and resin are deposited in the air; a pressing unit that presses the web; and a heating and pressing unit that heats and presses the web on a further downstream side than the pressing unit in a transport direction of the web, in which a pressing force of the pressing unit is greater than a pressing force of the heating and pressing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2020
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuhito Gomi
  • Patent number: 10626555
    Abstract: There is provided a sheet manufacturing apparatus including: a defibrating unit configured to defibrate a material including fibers in the air; a deposition unit configured to deposit at least a part of defibrated materials defibrated by the defibrating unit in the air; and a pressing unit configured to press a deposited material that is deposited by the deposition unit, in which the pressing unit includes a pair of pressing rollers that initially presses the deposited material, and among the pair of the pressing rollers, the pressing roller positioned at an upper portion is positioned on a downstream side of the pressing roller positioned at a lower portion in a horizontal component of a transfer direction of the deposited material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2020
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuhito Gomi
  • Patent number: 10619302
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes a crusher unit, a defibrator unit, a second web forming unit, and a shaping unit. The crusher unit coarsely crushes a raw material that contains fibers into coarsely crushed pieces. The defibrator unit defibrates coarsely crushed pieces into defibrated material. The second web forming unit forms a web by accumulating defibrated material. The shaping unit forms a sheet from the web. The crusher unit is positioned vertically below the shaping unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2020
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhito Gomi, Shigeo Fujita
  • Patent number: 10350784
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus can process various materials and manufacture a variety of sheets by changing conditions for making the sheets. A sheet manufacturing apparatus according to the invention has a supply unit that supplies feedstock; a defibrating unit that defibrates the feedstock; a classifier that classifies defibrated material that past the defibrating unit; a mixing unit that mixes an additive containing resin with the classified material that past the classifier; a sieve unit that passes the mixture that past the mixing unit through many openings; a deposition unit that deposits precipitate that past many openings in the sieve unit; a forming unit that applies pressure and heat to the web deposited on the deposition unit, forming a sheet; and a control unit that changes a condition of at least one of the classifier, mixing unit, sieve unit, deposition unit, and forming unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Murayama, Shunichi Seki, Katsuhito Gomi
  • Patent number: 10253456
    Abstract: A recycled sheet in which fibers are bonded via an additive agent includes a history including information that is related to characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Shunichi Seki, Yoshiaki Murayama, Katsuhito Gomi, Toshiaki Yamagami
  • Publication number: 20180355556
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes a crusher unit, a defibrator unit, a second web forming unit, and a shaping unit. The crusher unit coarsely crushes a raw material that contains fibers into coarsely crushed pieces. The defibrator unit defibrates coarsely crushed pieces into defibrated material. The second web forming unit forms a web by accumulating defibrated material. The shaping unit forms a sheet from the web. The crusher unit is positioned vertically below the shaping unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2018
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Inventors: Katsuhito GOMI, Shigeo FUJITA
  • Patent number: 10105882
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing method includes defibrating a defibration object into a defibrated material in the atmosphere, mixing, in the atmosphere, additive agents including resin into the defibrated material that has been defibrated, adding moisture to a mixture of the defibrated material and the additive agents after the mixing is completed, and heating the mixture that has been moisture-added.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 23, 2018
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhito Gomi, Masahide Nakamura, Yuki Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 10100466
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing apparatus includes a crusher unit, a defibrator unit, a second web forming unit, and a shaping unit. The crusher unit coarsely crushes a raw material that contains fibers into coarsely crushed pieces. The defibrator unit defibrates coarsely crushed pieces into defibrated material. The second web forming unit forms a web by accumulating defibrated material. The shaping unit forms a sheet from the web. The crusher unit is positioned vertically below the shaping unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2018
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhito Gomi, Shigeo Fujita
  • Patent number: 9938660
    Abstract: A paper manufacturing apparatus that can manufacture paper with good mechanical strength and/or water resistance in a dry process. A paper manufacturing apparatus according to the invention has a defibrating unit that defibrates feedstock in air; a mixing unit that mixes an additive containing resin with defibrated material that was defibrated; and a heat unit that heats a mixture into which the defibrated material and the additive were mixed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2018
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuhito Gomi, Masahide Nakamura, Yoshiaki Murayama
  • Publication number: 20170203478
    Abstract: A sheet manufacturing method includes defibrating a defibration object into a defibrated material in the atmosphere, mixing, in the atmosphere, additive agents including resin into the defibrated material that has been defibrated, adding moisture to a mixture of the defibrated material and the additive agents after the mixing is completed, and heating the mixture that has been moisture-added.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2017
    Publication date: July 20, 2017
    Inventors: Katsuhito GOMI, Masahide NAKAMURA, Yuki YAMAMOTO
  • Publication number: 20170198438
    Abstract: A recycled sheet in which fibers are bonded via an additive agent includes a history including information that is related to characteristics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2017
    Publication date: July 13, 2017
    Inventors: Shunichi SEKI, Yoshiaki MURAYAMA, Katsuhito GOMI, Toshiaki YAMAGAMI