Patents by Inventor Koichi Hirota
Koichi Hirota 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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Publication number: 20220016818Abstract: Provided are an injection molding machine and an injection molding method. An injection molding machine includes: a plasticizing unit which rotates a screw to plasticize a molding material inside a plastication cylinder, and an injection unit. The injection unit has: a plunger reciprocally moving inside an injection chamber, and an injection driving device reciprocally moving the plunger. By driving the injection driving device to move the plunger backward and forward inside the injection chamber, and driving a rotary driving device to alternately rotate the screw in a normal rotation direction and a reverse rotation direction, the molding material is controlled to reciprocate between the plastication cylinder and the injection chamber.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 19, 2021Publication date: January 20, 2022Applicant: Sodick Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yoshikazu KUBO, Hisakazu ARAKI, Koichi HIROTA, Kenzo AKIYAMA
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Publication number: 20210366635Abstract: A rare earth sintered magnet is prepared by a method comprising the steps of melting raw materials to form an alloy, pulverizing the alloy into a fine powder, shaping the fine powder into a compact, and sintering the compact. The pulverizing step includes a coarse pulverizing step including hydrogen decrepitation and a fine pulverizing step, and further includes the step of adding a lubricant. The sintering step includes an atmosphere heat treatment including heating the compact at a temperature from the lubricant decomposition temperature to the sintering temperature and holding at the temperature for a time, in an inert gas atmosphere, and a vacuum heat treatment. The sintered magnet has a low impurity concentration and a narrow carbon concentration distribution.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 26, 2021Publication date: November 25, 2021Applicant: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yosuke SHINADA, Tetsuya KUME, Koichi HIROTA
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Publication number: 20210245650Abstract: When it is confirmed that a user exists based on an image of the situation outside a vehicle which is captured using a camera and a proximity sensor detects a fact that the user is approaching based on, for example, a putting of a hand of the user over the proximity sensor, a control device causes a ramp to be extended. As such, a user sitting in a wheelchair can cause the ramp to be extended by approaching the proximity sensor, such as the putting of the user's hand over the proximity sensor such that the user sitting in the wheelchair does not have to press an extension/storage button provided on the vehicle to cause the ramp to be extended.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 8, 2021Publication date: August 12, 2021Inventors: Takuya TOMIOKA, Hideki MAEDA, Koichi HIROTA, Taiki ISHIGURO, Tomoyuki KATO, Takeshi NISHIKIBE
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Patent number: 10937578Abstract: An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is prepared through the steps of providing an alloy fine powder having a predetermined composition, compression shaping the alloy fine powder in an applied magnetic field into a compact, sintering the compact at a temperature of 900-1,250° C. into a sintered body, cooling the sintered body to 400° C. or below, high-temperature heat treatment including placing a metal, compound or intermetallic compound containing HR which is Dy, Tb and/or Ho, on the surface of the sintered body, heating at a temperature from more than 950° C. to 1,100° C., for causing grain boundary diffusion of HR into the sintered body, and cooling to 400° C. or below, and low-temperature heat treatment including heating at a temperature of 400-600° C. and cooling to 300° C. or below. The sintered magnet produces a high coercivity despite a low content of Dy, Tb and Ho.Type: GrantFiled: September 20, 2017Date of Patent: March 2, 2021Assignee: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Tetsuya Kume, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Publication number: 20200303103Abstract: An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is provided comprising a main phase containing an HR rich phase of (R?,HR)2(Fe,(Co))14B wherein R? is an element selected from yttrium and rare earth elements exclusive of Dy, Tb and Ho, and essentially contains Nd, and HR is an element selected from Dy, Tb and Ho, and a grain boundary phase containing a (R?,HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase in the form of an amorphous phase and/or nanocrystalline phase, the (R?,HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase consisting essentially of 25-35 at % of (R?,HR), 2-8 at % of M1 which is at least one element selected from Si, Al, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Pd, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Pt, Au, Hg, Pb, and Bi, up to 8 at % of Co, and the balance of Fe. The HR rich phase has a higher HR content than the HR content of the main phase at its center. The magnet produces a high coercivity despite a low content of Dy, Tb and Ho.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 5, 2020Publication date: September 24, 2020Applicant: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Tetsuya Kume, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Publication number: 20200282950Abstract: A vehicle operation detection device includes sensors laid out in a vehicle along an axis in an opening-closing direction of a door of the vehicle. When the user moves a part of a body toward the sensors and a motion of moving the part of the body along the axis is detected, the sensors detect an opening-closing operation for the door. The vehicle operation detection device further includes light-emitting members laid out in the vehicle along the axis in the opening-closing direction and an operation direction indicator configured to drive the light-emitting members in sequence in a first direction in a fully-closed state of the door and drives the light-emitting members in sequence in a second direction in a fully-open state of the door.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 3, 2020Publication date: September 10, 2020Applicants: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHA, HONDA MOTOR CO., LTD.Inventors: Ayaka SHIMIZU, Takaya AIYAMA, Koichi HIROTA, Hiroshi SHINGU, Kenichiro KAGAWA, Toshihiro KANEDA, Makoto ONO, Satoshi KATAYAMA
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Patent number: 10720271Abstract: An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is provided comprising a main phase containing an HR rich phase of (R?, HR)2(Fe,(Co))14B wherein R? is an element selected from yttrium and rare earth elements exclusive of Dy, Tb and Ho, and essentially contains Nd, and HR is an element selected from Dy, Tb and Ho, and a grain boundary phase containing a (R?, HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase in the form of an amorphous phase and/or nanocrystalline phase, the (R?, HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase consisting essentially of 25-35 at % of (R?, HR), 2-8 at % of M1 which is at least one element selected from Si, Al, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Pd, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Pt, Au, Hg, Pb, and Bi, up to 8 at % of Co, and the balance of Fe. The HR rich phase has a higher HR content than the HR content of the main phase at its center. The magnet produces a high coercivity despite a low content of Dy, Tb and Ho.Type: GrantFiled: September 25, 2017Date of Patent: July 21, 2020Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Tetsuya Kume, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Publication number: 20200111591Abstract: Provided is a rare earth sintered magnet in which a multi-layer main phase particle having multiple layers including a layer 1 having R2 concentration, represented by at %, higher than that of a center of the particle, a layer 2 which is formed on the outside of the layer 1 and has R2 concentration lower than that of the layer 1, and a layer 3 which is formed on the outside of the layer 2 and has R2 concentration higher than that of the layer 2 is present at least in a portion in the vicinity of a surface of the main phase particle within at least 500 ?m from a surface of the sintered magnet body.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 3, 2019Publication date: April 9, 2020Applicant: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Hiroki Iida, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura, Mikio Yoshida, Kazuya Fukui, Michihiro Oida
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Publication number: 20200082962Abstract: R—Fe—B sintered magnet has a main phase containing R2(Fe,(Co))14B intermetallic compound and a grain boundary phase. The inter-particle grain boundary includes an expanded width part that is surrounded by a narrow width part at which the inter-particle width is 10 nm or less and that has a structure distended in the inter-particle width direction as compared with the grain boundary width of the narrow width part; the inter-particle width at the expanded width part is at least 30 nm; Fe/R ratio in the expanded width part is 0.01-2.5; the main phase includes, in the surface part thereof, an HR-rich phase represented by (R?,HR)2(Fe,(Co))14B (R? represents rare-earth elements excluding Dy, Tb, and Ho, and that essentially include Nd; and HR represents Dy, Tb, and Ho); the contained amount of HR in the HR-rich phase is higher than that in the central part of the main phase.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 28, 2017Publication date: March 12, 2020Applicant: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Patent number: 10573438Abstract: An R—(Fe,Co)—B base sintered magnet consisting essentially of 12-17 at % of R containing Nd and Pr, 0.1-3 at % of M1 (typically Si), 0.05-0.5 at % of M2 (typically Ti), B, and the balance of Fe, and containing R2(Fe,Co)14B as a main phase has a coercivity of at least 10 kOe. The magnet contains a M2 boride phase at a grain boundary triple junction, and has a core/shell structure that the main phase is covered with a grain boundary phase. The grain boundary phase is composed of an amorphous and/or nanocrystalline R?—(Fe,Co)—M1? phase consisting essentially of 25-35 at % of R? containing Pr, 2-8 at % of M1? (typically Si), up to 8 at % of Co, and the balance of Fe. A coverage of the main phase with the R?—(Fe,Co)—M1? phase is at least 50%, and the bi-granular grain boundary phase has a width of at least 50 nm.Type: GrantFiled: November 14, 2016Date of Patent: February 25, 2020Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Koichi Hirota, Masayuki Kamata, Takahiro Hashimoto, Hajime Nakamura
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Patent number: 10515747Abstract: The invention provides an R—Fe—B sintered magnet consisting essentially of 12-17 at % of Nd, Pr and R, 0.1-3 at % of M1, 0.05-0.5 at % of M2, 4.8+2*m to 5.9+2*m at % of B, and the balance of Fe, containing R2(Fe,(Co))14B intermetallic compound as a main phase, and having a core/shell structure that the main phase is covered with a grain boundary phases. The sintered magnet has an average grain size of less than 6 ?m, a crystal orientation of more than 98%, and a degree of magnetization of more than 96%, and exhibits a coercivity of at least 10 kOe despite a low or nil content of Dy, Tb, and Ho.Type: GrantFiled: March 31, 2016Date of Patent: December 24, 2019Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Koichi Hirota, Hiroaki Nagata, Tetsuya Kume, Hajime Nakamura
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Patent number: 10410775Abstract: The invention provides an R—Fe—B sintered magnet consisting essentially of 12-17 at % of Nd, Pr and R, 0.1-3 at % of M1, 0.05-0.5 at % of M2, 4.8+2*m to 5.9+2*m at % of B, and the balance of Fe, containing R2(Fe,(Co))14B intermetallic compound as a main phase, and having a core/shell structure that the main phase is covered with grain boundary phases. The sintered magnet exhibits a coercivity of at least 10 kOe despite a low or nil content of Dy, Tb and Ho.Type: GrantFiled: March 31, 2016Date of Patent: September 10, 2019Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Koichi Hirota, Hiroaki Nagata, Tetsuya Kume, Masayuki Kamata, Hajime Nakamura
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Patent number: 10074477Abstract: A rare earth sintered magnet is an anisotropic sintered body comprising Nd2Fe14 B crystal phase as primary phase and having the composition R1aTbMcSidBe wherein R1 is a rare earth element inclusive of Sc and Y, T is Fe and/or Co, M is Al, Cu, Zn, In, P, S, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Ga, Ge, Zr, Nb, Mo, Pd, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Hf, Ta, or W, “a” to “e” are 12?a?17, 0?c?10, 0.3?d?7, 5?e?10, and the balance of b, wherein Dy and/or Tb is diffused into the sintered body from its surface.Type: GrantFiled: December 12, 2016Date of Patent: September 11, 2018Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Hiroaki Nagata, Yuuji Gouki, Kazuaki Sakaki, Tadao Nomura, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Patent number: 10073427Abstract: An operation detecting device of an opening and closing body for a vehicle, includes: a detecting section that detects an operation by a user with respect to an opening and closing body of a vehicle; an input section that receives an opening and closing body motion signal which indicates whether or not the opening and closing body is in motion or idle; a determination section that determines whether or not the operation is performed using different detection conditions for a case in which the opening and closing body is in motion and a case in which the opening and closing body is idle; and an output section that outputs a control signal which causes the opening and closing body to move or stop based on the determination result of the determination section.Type: GrantFiled: November 19, 2015Date of Patent: September 11, 2018Assignee: AISIN SEIKI KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Koichi Hirota, Takaya Aiyama, Hitoshi Takayanagi
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Patent number: 9953750Abstract: A sintered Nd base magnet segment has a coercive force high at the periphery and lower toward the inside. A method for preparing the magnet includes the steps of: (a) providing a sintered Nd base magnet block having surfaces and a magnetization direction, (b) coating the surfaces of the magnet block excluding the surface perpendicular to the magnetization direction with a Dy or Tb oxide powder, a Dy or Tb fluoride powder, or a Dy or Tb-containing alloy powder, (c) treating the coated block at a high temperature for causing Dy or Tb to diffuse into the block, and (d) cutting the block in a plane perpendicular to the magnetization direction into a magnet segment having a coercive force distribution on the cut section that the coercive force is high at the periphery and lower toward the inside and a constant coercive force distribution in the magnetization direction.Type: GrantFiled: February 24, 2014Date of Patent: April 24, 2018Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Koji Miyata, Takehisa Minowa, Hajime Nakamura, Koichi Hirota, Masakatsu Honshima
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Publication number: 20180090250Abstract: An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is provided comprising a main phase containing an HR rich phase of (R?, HR)2(Fe,(Co))14B wherein R? is an element selected from yttrium and rare earth elements exclusive of Dy, Tb and Ho, and essentially contains Nd, and HR is an element selected from Dy, Tb and Ho, and a grain boundary phase containing a (R?, HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase in the form of an amorphous phase and/or nanocrystalline phase, the (R?, HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase consisting essentially of 25-35 at % of (R?, HR), 2-8 at % of M1 which is at least one element selected from Si, Al, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Pd, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Pt, Au, Hg, Pb, and Bi, up to 8 at % of Co, and the balance of Fe. The HR rich phase has a higher HR content than the HR content of the main phase at its center. The magnet produces a high coercivity despite a low content of Dy, Tb and Ho.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 25, 2017Publication date: March 29, 2018Applicant: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Tetsuya Kume, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Publication number: 20180090249Abstract: An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is prepared through the steps of providing an alloy fine powder having a predetermined composition, compression shaping the alloy fine powder in an applied magnetic field into a compact, sintering the compact at a temperature of 900-1,250° C. into a sintered body, cooling the sintered body to 400° C. or below, high-temperature heat treatment including placing a metal, compound or intermetallic compound containing HR which is Dy, Tb and/or Ho, on the surface of the sintered body, heating at a temperature from more than 950° C. to 1,100° C., for causing grain boundary diffusion of HR into the sintered body, and cooling to 400° C. or below, and low-temperature heat treatment including heating at a temperature of 400-600° C. and cooling to 300° C. or below. The sintered magnet produces a high coercivity despite a low content of Dy, Tb and Ho.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 20, 2017Publication date: March 29, 2018Applicant: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.Inventors: Tetsuya Ohashi, Tetsuya Kume, Koichi Hirota, Hajime Nakamura
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Patent number: 9892831Abstract: The invention provides an R—Fe—B sintered magnet consisting essentially of 12-17 at % of R, 0.1-3 at % of M1, 0.05-0.5 at % of M2, 4.8+2*m to 5.9+2*m at % of B, and the balance of Fe, containing R2(Fe,(Co))14B intermetallic compound as a main phase, and having a core/shell structure that the main phase is covered with a HR-rich layer and a (R,HR)—Fe(Co)-M1 phase wherein HR is Tb, Dy or Ho. The sintered magnet exhibits a coercivity ?10 kOe despite a low content of Dy, Tb, and Ho.Type: GrantFiled: March 31, 2016Date of Patent: February 13, 2018Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Koichi Hirota, Hiroaki Nagata, Tetsuya Kume, Hajime Nakamura
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Publication number: 20170365384Abstract: An R—Fe—B base sintered magnet is provided consisting essentially of R (which is at least two rare earth elements and essentially contains Nd and Pr), M1 which is at least two of Si, Al, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Pd, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Pt, Au, Hg, Pb, and Bi, M2 which is at least one of Ti, V, Cr, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, and W, boron, and the balance of Fe, and containing an intermetallic compound R2(Fe,(Co))14B as a main phase. The magnet contains an R—Fe(Co)-M1 phase as a grain boundary phase, the R—Fe(Co)-M1 phase contains A phase which is crystalline with crystallites of at least 10 nm formed at grain boundary triple junctions, and B phase which is amorphous and/or nanocrystalline with crystallites of less than 10 nm formed at intergranular grain boundaries and optionally grain boundary triple junctions.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 8, 2017Publication date: December 21, 2017Applicant: Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.Inventors: Koichi Hirota, Tetsuya Kume, Masayuki Kamata
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Patent number: 9742248Abstract: A method for assembling a rotor used in connection with an interior permanent magnet (IPM) rotary machine, the rotor having an axis of rotation and comprising a rotor yoke having bores and a plurality of permanent magnet segments disposed in the bores of the rotor yoke, each permanent magnet segment consisting of a plurality of magnet pieces. The method comprises the steps of: inserting the plurality of magnet pieces in each bore of the rotor yoke, with each of the magnet pieces for each of the magnet segments being kept loose from each other, for axially stacking the magnet pieces in the bore, and fixedly securing the stacked magnet pieces in the bore of the rotor yoke.Type: GrantFiled: May 16, 2014Date of Patent: August 22, 2017Assignee: SHIN-ETSU CHEMICAL CO., LTD.Inventors: Yuhito Doi, Takehisa Minowa, Hajime Nakamura, Koichi Hirota