Patents by Inventor Tatsuo Kobayashi

Tatsuo Kobayashi 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).

  • Publication number: 20130277453
    Abstract: A fuel injection valve includes: a nozzle body having an injection aperture in a tip portion thereof; a needle that is slidably located in the nozzle body, forms a fuel introduction path between the needle and the nozzle body, and is seated on a seat portion in the nozzle body; a swirling flow generation portion that is located more upstream than the seat portion, and imparts a swirl with respect to a sliding direction of the needle to fuel introduced from the fuel introduction path; and a swirl velocity increasing portion that is located more downstream than the seat portion, and supplies fuel to the injection aperture while producing an air plume by increasing a swirl velocity of a swirling flow generated in the swirling flow generation portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Publication date: October 24, 2013
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20130270368
    Abstract: A fuel injection valve 1 includes: a nozzle body 10 having a nozzle hole 11 formed at the tip thereof; a needle 20 that is slidably provided in the nozzle body 10, forms a fuel introduction path 21 between the needle 20 and the nozzle body 10, and is seated on a seat portion 12 in the nozzle body 10; a pressure chamber 13 that stores fuel introduced through the fuel introduction path 21; a relay chamber 50 that is located closer to the base end side than the seat portion 12 is, and closer to the tip side than the pressure chamber 13 is; a first helical fuel passage 60 that connects the pressure chamber 13 to the relay chamber 50, and applies a flow to fuel, the flow swirling around an axis A of the needle 20; and second helical fuel passages 70 that connect the relay chamber 50 to a seat space 15 that is formed between the seat portion 12 and the needle 20 when the needle 20 is lifted up.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Publication date: October 17, 2013
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20130256429
    Abstract: A fuel injection valve includes: a nozzle body; a needle that is slidably arranged in the nozzle body and sits on a seat portion in the nozzle body, the needle and the nozzle body forming a fuel introduction path therebetween; a spiral fuel path that is formed at an upstream side of the seat portion, and gives a flow which swirls around the needle to a fuel which is introduced from the fuel introduction path and supplied to the injection hole; and an acceleration portion that is formed between the seat portion and the injection hole, accelerates the swirling fuel which has passed through the fuel path, and generates a negative pressure at the center of swirling flow of the fuel to generate an air core; wherein the fuel path is formed to the outside of an outer peripheral surface of the needle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Publication date: October 3, 2013
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20130233946
    Abstract: A fuel injection valve includes a nozzle body including an injection aperture; a needle that is slidably located in the nozzle body, forms a fuel introduction path between the needle and the nozzle body, and is seated on a seat portion in the nozzle body; a swirling flow generating portion that is located more upstream than the seat portion, and imparts a swirl with respect to a sliding direction of the needle to fuel introduced from the fuel introduction path; a swirl velocity increasing portion that is located more downstream than the seat portion, and increases a swirl velocity of a swirling flow generated in the swirling flow generating portion; and an air bubble reserving portion that is located more downstream than the swirl velocity increasing portion, and reserves air bubbles generated by passage through the swirl velocity increasing portion. The injection aperture opens in the air bubble reserving portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 20, 2010
    Publication date: September 12, 2013
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 8267075
    Abstract: An ignition device includes: an axially extending chamber with an opening portion to be open to a cylinder and a bottom surface facing the opening portion; an outer electrode provided around the opening portion; and a center electrode that forms the bottom surface. When a voltage is applied between the center electrode and the outer electrode, a plasma is produced in the chamber and a plasma jet is injected through the opening portion. The ignition device includes: a metal housing formed integrally with or separately from the outer electrode; an insulating member that supports the center electrode while insulating the center electrode from the housing and the outer electrode; and a screw thread formed on a periphery of the housing by which the ignition device is screwed into a cylinder head of the internal combustion engine. A gasket is disposed in a side closer to the inside of the cylinder. A peripheral wall of the chamber is formed by the insulating member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 17, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 8171711
    Abstract: A hybrid carbon fiber spun yarn having a core region with carbon fibers as a main component, and a surrounding region with carbon fibers as a main component and covers an outer peripheral surface of the core region. 20% by mass or more of fibers forming the core region are long carbon fibers having a fiber length of 500 mm or longer. 80% by mass or more of fibers forming the surrounding region are short carbon fibers having a fiber length of less than 500 mm. A mass ratio between the long carbon fibers and the short carbon fibers (long carbon fibers:short carbon fibers) is in a range of 20:80 to 80:20.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Kureha Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuo Kobayashi, Naohiro Sonobe, Shigeki Iwamoto
  • Publication number: 20120056018
    Abstract: A fuel injection valve 30 includes: a nozzle body 31 provided with a jet hole 32 at an end portion thereof; and a needle 33 slidably arranged within the nozzle body 31, defining a fuel introduction path 34 between the needle 33 and the nozzle body 31, and provided with a seat portion 33a seated on a seated position 31 a within the nozzle body 31. The fuel injection valve 30 includes: a rotational flow generation portion 36 formed in an upstream side of the seat portion 33a of the needle 33, and provided with a spiral groove 36a giving a rotational component to a fuel introduced from the fuel introduction path 34; an air introduction path 37 formed inside the needle; and a rotation stable chamber 45 formed at the end portion of the nozzle body 31, the fuel that has passed through the rotational flow generation portion 36 and the air that has passed through the air introduction path 37 being introduced into the rotational stable chamber 45.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2010
    Publication date: March 8, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20120000996
    Abstract: A fuel injection valve includes: a nozzle body provided with an injection hole at a tip portion; a needle that is located slidably in the nozzle body and includes a seat portion seated on a seat position in the nozzle body; and an air bubble generation means generating air bubbles in a fuel flowing through the nozzle body, and when a curvature radius is R, a length of a curve is L and a constant is a, an inner peripheral shape of the injection hole includes a curving part passing through a region surrounded by a clothoid curve which is expressed by R×L=a2 and of which the constant a is 0.95 and an clothoid curve of which the constant a is 1.05 or a region surrounded by approximate curves of the clothoid curves at a cross-section surface along a direction of axis of the injection hole.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 1, 2010
    Publication date: January 5, 2012
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 7929229
    Abstract: An actuator device includes: a piezoelectric element; a weight secured to one end of the piezoelectric element along an expansion-contraction direction thereof; and a drive member secured to another end of the piezoelectric element. The piezoelectric element and the weight are in contact so as to have a spatial overlap with respect to the expansion-contraction direction of the piezoelectric element, and the center of gravity of the weight is positioned in the vicinity of a plane that contains a contact plane in which the piezoelectric element and the weight are in contact.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Kouji Ugawa, Hiroshi Nishizawa, Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20100330858
    Abstract: A molded article having both of sufficient strength and peel resistance, especially a heat insulating material for a high temperature furnace, is provided. A carbon fiber-containing stacked molded article 1 comprises a substrate 10 composed of first carbon fibers piled, and a woven fabric layer 20 located on at least one surface of the substrate 10, and composed of carbon fiber spun yarns 21 including second carbon fibers 22 having an average fiber diameter of 12 ?m or less, and third carbon fibers 23 having an average fiber diameter in excess of 12 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Publication date: December 30, 2010
    Applicant: KUREHA CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasushi Okada, Tatsuo Kobayashi, Naohiro Sonobe, Takashi Kameyama
  • Patent number: 7807590
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing an isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber spun yarn fabric includes the following steps of: obtaining composite yarn by winding a water-soluble polymer fiber around a surface of isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber spun yarn; obtaining a composite yarn fabric by weaving the composite yarn; and obtaining the isotropic pitch-based carbon fiber spun yarn fabric by dissolving and removing the water-soluble polymer fiber from the composite yarn fabric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: Kureha Corporation
    Inventors: Akira Takeuchi, Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20100220404
    Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide an actuator device that realizes improvements in impact resistance as well as size reduction and thickness reduction of the device. An actuator device according to the invention includes: a piezoelectric element; a weight secured to one end of the piezoelectric element along an expansion-contraction direction thereof; and a drive member secured to another end of the piezoelectric element. The piezoelectric element and the weight are in contact so as to have a spatial overlap with respect to the expansion-contraction direction of the piezoelectric element, and the center of gravity of the weight is positioned in the vicinity of a plane that contains a contact plane in which the piezoelectric element and the weight are in contact.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2007
    Publication date: September 2, 2010
    Inventors: Kouji Ugawa, Hiroshi Nishizawa, Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20100180873
    Abstract: An ignition device includes: an axially extending chamber with an opening portion to be open to a cylinder and a bottom surface facing the opening portion; an outer electrode provided around the opening portion; and a center electrode that forms the bottom surface. When a voltage is applied between the center electrode and the outer electrode, a plasma is produced in the chamber and a plasma jet is injected through the opening portion. The ignition device includes: a metal housing formed integrally with or separately from the outer electrode; an insulating member that supports the center electrode while insulating the center electrode from the housing and the outer electrode; and a screw thread formed on a periphery of the housing by which the ignition device is screwed into a cylinder head of the internal combustion engine. A gasket is disposed in a side closer to the inside of the cylinder. A peripheral wall of the chamber is formed by the insulating member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 17, 2008
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 7681550
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine 10 includes a fuel injection valve 37 for injecting a gasoline fuel into a combustion chamber 25, and a spark plug 35. When the internal combustion engine is operated in a light-load region, the fuel is injected at an early and/or middle stage of an intake strode, whereby a homogeneous air/fuel mixture is formed and compressed to thereby perform a premixed-charge compression auto-ignition operation in which the fuel is auto-ignited and combusted. When the internal combustion engine is operated in a middle-load region, a spark-ignition combustion operation is performed. When the internal combustion engine is operated in a high-load region, air taken into the combustion chamber is compressed, and the fuel is injected into the compressed air, thereby performing a diffusion combustion operation in which the fuel is diffusion-combusted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20100045846
    Abstract: An excellent image pickup device whose size and thickness are reduced is realized with a simple structure, and thus the slimming down of a mobile terminal device is accomplished. A slim image pickup device in which a plate-like member 8 having a stepped portion 8A around an opening portion 9, an optical filter 5 arranged on an inside of the stepped portion 8A to cover the opening portion, a wiring substrate 7 arranged on an outside of the stepped portion to be fitted, a semiconductor image pickup element 6 flip-chip mounted on the wiring substrate 7, and a lens 2 positioned/fitted on the plate-like member 8 are provided is realized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2008
    Publication date: February 25, 2010
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nishizawa, Tatsuo Kobayashi, Kouji Ugawa
  • Patent number: 7634840
    Abstract: A pitch-based carbon fiber sliver providing a high-strength carbon fiber spun yarn is efficiently produced by providing a pitch-based carbon fiber mat comprising a mass of piled-up pitch-based carbon fibers of which fiber extension directions are aligned preferentially in one direction; and directly subjecting the carbon fiber mat to drawing and carding by means of a carding machine while moving the mat in said one preferential alignment direction. The thus-obtained carbon fiber sliver is drawn and twisted to produce a pitch-based carbon fiber spun yarn containing at least 3 wt. % of fibers having a fiber length of at least 150 mm, a number of primary twist of 50-400 turns/m and a tensile strength of at least 0.10 N/tex.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2009
    Assignee: Kureha Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuo Kobayashi, Naohiro Sonobe
  • Patent number: 7628013
    Abstract: A control device is applied to a multi-cylinder 4-cycle charge compression ignition-type internal combustion engine. The control device operates to open an exhaust valve in an exhaust stroke of each cylinder, operates to close an intake valve before an intake bottom dead center, and then, operates to open the exhaust valve again before the intake bottom dead center. An exhaust flow rate regulating valve is disposed in a collecting portion of an exhaust path and its opening is controlled. Hereby, a period in which the exhaust valve is open in an intake stroke of one cylinder and a period in which the exhaust valve is open in an exhaust stroke of another cylinder partially overlap each other. Combustion gas pushed out of a combustion chamber of the other cylinder in the overlapping period is pushed into a combustion chamber of the one cylinder via the exhaust path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2009
    Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidefumi Aikawa, Tatsuo Kobayashi, Fumito Chiba
  • Patent number: 7610743
    Abstract: A carbon fiber spun yarn, which is a spun yarn of a carbon fiber that has an average (002)-interlayer spacing of 0.340-0.380 nm as measured by X-ray diffraction method, has a specific gravity of 1.55-1.80 as measured by a density gradient tube method, a hydrogen-to carbon atomic ratio (H/C) as measured by elementary analysis of at most 0.1 and contains 3-30 wt. % of carbon fiber having a fiber length of at least 150 mm, wherein the spun yarn has a weight per 1000 m (tex) of 30-150 g, a number of primary twist of 50-400 turns/m and a tensile strength of at least 0.15 N/tex. The carbon fiber spun yarn may be woven to provide a carbon fiber woven fabric suitable as a gas diffuser (electroconductive substrate) of a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Assignee: Kureha Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuo Kobayashi, Naohiro Sonobe
  • Publication number: 20080307765
    Abstract: A carbon fiber spun yarn, which is a spun yarn of a carbon fiber that has an average (002)-interlayer spacing of 0.340-0.380 nm as measured by X-ray diffraction method, has a specific gravity of 1.55-1.80 as measured by a density gradient tube method, a hydrogen-to carbon atomic ratio (H/C) as measured by elementary analysis of at most 0.1 and contains 3-30 wt. % of carbon fiber having a fiber length of at least 150 mm, wherein the spun yarn has a weight per 1000 m (tex) of 30-150 g, a number of primary twist of 50-400 turns/m and a tensile strength of at least 0.15 N/tex. The carbon fiber spun yarn may be woven to provide a carbon fiber woven fabric suitable as a gas diffuser (electroconductive substrate) of a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2004
    Publication date: December 18, 2008
    Inventors: Tatsuo Kobayashi, Naohiro Sonobe
  • Publication number: 20080275621
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine 10 includes a fuel injection valve 37 for injecting a gasoline fuel into a combustion chamber 25, and a spark plug 35. When the internal combustion engine is operated in a light-load region, the fuel is injected at an early and/or middle stage of an intake strode, whereby a homogeneous air/fuel mixture is formed and compressed to thereby perform a premixed-charge compression auto-ignition operation in which the fuel is auto-ignited and combusted. When the internal combustion engine is operated in a middle-load region, a spark-ignition combustion operation is performed. When the internal combustion engine is operated in a high-load region, air taken into the combustion chamber is compressed, and the fuel is injected into the compressed air, thereby performing a diffusion combustion operation in which the fuel is diffusion-combusted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2006
    Publication date: November 6, 2008
    Inventor: Tatsuo Kobayashi