Patents by Inventor Kimihiro Imamura
Kimihiro Imamura 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).
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Patent number: 8475958Abstract: A nickel hydrogen storage battery is provided which includes an electrode assembly formed by winding spirally a strip-like negative electrode (4) and a strip-like positive electrode with a separator interposed therebetween, the strip-like negative electrode (4) having a mixture layer containing a hydrogen storage alloy disposed on a core material. The electrode assembly is contained in a bottomed cylindrical container such that the negative electrode (4) forms the outermost peripheral portion. A portion corresponding to an outermost peripheral portion (5) of the negative electrode is a thin portion, and the thin portion is bent in advance in the winding direction of the electrode assembly to form an arc shape. In this manner, when the spirally wound electrode assembly is configured, the outermost peripheral portion of the negative electrode is prevented from peeling from the electrode assembly, and thus the insertability into the bottomed cylindrical container is improved.Type: GrantFiled: December 28, 2005Date of Patent: July 2, 2013Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Takashi Okawa, Tsuneyoshi Murakami, Kenichi Aoki, Hiroyuki Usui, Kimihiro Imamura
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Patent number: 8475876Abstract: An electrode mixture paste is applied on both sides of a strip of core material as it runs along its lengthwise direction, and the coating thickness of the paste is adjusted as the core material coated with the paste passes through a gap between a pair of scraper tools. Tips provided to the scraper tools scrape off the paste to form a paste-coated portion of a predetermined width. The electrode mixture paste scraped off with the tips is returned through recesses on the upstream side of the tips in the running direction of the core material, so as to prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion. Thus, a method for applying electrode mixture paste is realized that can prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion.Type: GrantFiled: February 3, 2012Date of Patent: July 2, 2013Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Publication number: 20120207914Abstract: An electrode mixture paste is applied on both sides of a strip of core material as it runs along its lengthwise direction, and the coating thickness of the paste is adjusted as the core material coated with the paste passes through a gap between a pair of scraper tools. Tips provided to the scraper tools scrape off the paste to form a paste-coated portion of a predetermined width. The electrode mixture paste scraped off with the tips is returned through recesses on the upstream side of the tips in the running direction of the core material, so as to prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion. Thus, a method for applying electrode mixture paste is realized that can prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 3, 2012Publication date: August 16, 2012Applicant: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kimihiro IMAMURA, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Publication number: 20120132135Abstract: An electrode mixture paste is applied on both sides of a strip of core material made of porous metal sheet that is running along its lengthwise direction. The paste-coated core material is pressed with press rollers alternately from opposite sides once or more, after which the paste-coated core material is passed through the gap between a pair of scraper tools to adjust the coating thickness of the paste, while the position of the core material is restricted with comb-shaped projections, so that, even though the projections are distanced from each other sufficiently to allow weld points of the core material to pass through, the coating thickness is precisely regulated.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 29, 2011Publication date: May 31, 2012Applicant: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Publication number: 20120121980Abstract: An alkaline storage battery electrode includes a conductive core member as a current collector. A plurality of through holes are formed in the core member so as to be arranged linearly in parallel with a longitudinal direction of the core member. Each of the through holes has a substantially rectangular shape. The through holes are arranged so as to be shifted in the longitudinal direction of the core member at each of lines of the linearly-arranged through holes. A displacement amount between the through holes of adjacent lines in a width direction is less than a half of a sum of a size of the through hole in the longitudinal direction of the core member and a distance between the adjacent through holes in the longitudinal direction of the core member.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 8, 2011Publication date: May 17, 2012Inventor: Kimihiro Imamura
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Patent number: 8132527Abstract: An electrode mixture paste (5) is applied on both sides of a strip of core material (1) as it runs along its lengthwise direction, and the coating thickness of the paste (5) is adjusted as the core material (1) coated with the paste (5) passes through a gap between a pair of scraper tools (16a, 16b). Tips (18) provided to the scraper tools (16a, 16b) scrape off the paste (5) to form a paste-coated portion of a predetermined width. The electrode mixture paste (5) scraped off with the tips (18) is returned through recesses (19) on the upstream side of the tips (18) in the running direction of the core material, so as to prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion. Thus, a method for applying electrode mixture paste is realized that can prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion and prevent process failures such as deformation of paste-coated sheet.Type: GrantFiled: April 11, 2006Date of Patent: March 13, 2012Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Patent number: 8088444Abstract: An electrode mixture paste (5) is applied on both sides of a strip of core material (1) made of porous metal sheet that is running along its lengthwise direction. The paste-coated core material (1) is pressed with press rollers (15a, 15b) alternately from opposite sides once or more, after which the paste-coated core material (1) is passed through the gap between a pair of scraper tools (16a, 16b) to adjust the coating thickness of the paste (5), while the position of the core material (1) is restricted with comb-shaped projections (17a or 17a, 17b), so that, even though the projections (17a, 17b) are distanced from each other sufficiently to allow weld points of the core material (1) to pass through, the coating thickness is precisely regulated.Type: GrantFiled: April 11, 2006Date of Patent: January 3, 2012Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Patent number: 7886568Abstract: In a rolling step of feeding an electrode hoop (1) having electrode mixture layers (3a, 3b) formed on both sides of a band-shaped core (2) made of a metal thin plate to between a pair of mill rolls (8a, 8b) for rolling, the electrode hoop (1) is fed so that side a is wound about one of the mill rolls if the electrode mixture layers (3a, 3b) of the electrode hoop (1) have different average thicknesses, where the side a is one of the electrode mixture layers of the electrode hoop (1) having the smaller average thickness and side b is the other. This realizes a method for rolling an electrode hoop capable of making a rolled flat electrode even if the electrode mixture layers on both sides of the core have respective different thicknesses.Type: GrantFiled: April 11, 2006Date of Patent: February 15, 2011Assignee: Panasonic CorporationInventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Keiji Minamino
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Publication number: 20090078018Abstract: In a rolling step of feeding an electrode hoop (1) having electrode mixture layers (3a, 3b) formed on both sides of a band-shaped core (2) made of a metal thin plate to between a pair of mill rolls (8a, 8b) for rolling, the electrode hoop (1) is fed so that side a is wound about one of the mill rolls if the electrode mixture layers (3a, 3b) of the electrode hoop (1) have different average thicknesses, where the side a is one of the electrode mixture layers of the electrode hoop (1) having the smaller average thickness and side b is the other. This realizes a method for rolling an electrode hoop capable of making a rolled flat electrode even if the electrode mixture layers on both sides of the core have respective different thicknesses.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 11, 2006Publication date: March 26, 2009Inventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Keiji Minamino
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Publication number: 20090053399Abstract: An electrode mixture paste (5) is applied on both sides of a strip of core material (1) as it runs along its lengthwise direction, and the coating thickness of the paste (5) is adjusted as the core material (1) coated with the paste (5) passes through a gap between a pair of scraper tools (16a, 16b). Tips (18) provided to the scraper tools (16a, 16b) scrape off the paste (5) to form a paste-coated portion of a predetermined width. The electrode mixture paste (5) scraped off with the tips (18) is returned through recesses (19) on the upstream side of the tips (18) in the running direction of the core material, so as to prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion. Thus, a method for applying electrode mixture paste is realized that can prevent the phenomenon where the coating thickness is increased at both side edges of the paste-coated portion and prevent process failures such as deformation of paste-coated sheet.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 11, 2006Publication date: February 26, 2009Inventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Publication number: 20090007843Abstract: An electrode mixture paste (5) is applied on both sides of a strip of core material (1) made of porous metal sheet that is running along its lengthwise direction. The paste-coated core material (1) is pressed with press rollers (15a, 15b) alternately from opposite sides once or more, after which the paste-coated core material (1) is passed through the gap between a pair of scraper tools (16a, 16b) to adjust the coating thickness of the paste (5), while the position of the core material (1) is restricted with comb-shaped projections (17a or 17a, 17b), so that, even though the projections (17a, 17b) are distanced from each other sufficiently to allow weld points of the core material (1) to pass through, the coating thickness is precisely regulated.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 11, 2006Publication date: January 8, 2009Inventors: Kimihiro Imamura, Hiroyuki Usui, Tadakazu Seto
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Publication number: 20080261105Abstract: A nickel hydrogen storage battery is provided which includes an electrode assembly formed by winding spirally a strip-like negative electrode (4) and a strip-like positive electrode with a separator interposed therebetween, the strip-like negative electrode (4) having a mixture layer containing a hydrogen storage alloy disposed on a core material. The electrode assembly is contained in a bottomed cylindrical container such that the negative electrode (4) forms the outermost peripheral portion. A portion corresponding to an outermost peripheral portion (5) of the negative electrode is a thin portion, and the thin portion is bent in advance in the winding direction of the electrode assembly to form an arc shape. In this manner, when the spirally wound electrode assembly is configured, the outermost peripheral portion of the negative electrode is prevented from peeling from the electrode assembly, and thus the insertability into the bottomed cylindrical container is improved.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 28, 2005Publication date: October 23, 2008Inventors: Takashi Okawa, Tsuneyoshi Murakami, Kenichi Aoki, Hiroyuki Usui, Kimihiro Imamura
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Publication number: 20050154196Abstract: A process for producing a saccharide having a lowered molecular weight, which comprises irradiating an electron beam to a polysaccharide fraction. Also, a process for producing a saccharide having a weight average molecular weight of n (Da), which comprises irradiating an electron beam to a polysaccharide fraction which has a weight average molecular weight of M (Da) and is in a solid state at a dosage of d (kGy) that satisfies the following equation: n=Mead (wherein M is a number of 5,000 to 70,000; n is an optional positive number; e is the base of natural logarithm; and a is a number of ?0.008 to ?0.004). Furthermore, a process for producing hyaluronic acid having a lowered molecular weight, which comprises irradiating an electron beam to a hyaluronic acid fraction.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 13, 2004Publication date: July 14, 2005Inventors: Hiroshi Maeda, Kimihiro Imamura