Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Bierman, Muserlian and Lucas
  • Patent number: 6400446
    Abstract: A thermally developing apparatus for thermally developing a thermally developable material by heating the thermally developable material to 80° C. or more, is provided with a thermally developing device having a heater and for thermally developing the thermally developable material with heat generated by the heater; and a controller to control heat generation by the heater; wherein the thermally developing device thermally develops the thermally developable material such that an amount M of heat given to the thermally developable material during thermally developing a single sheet of the thermally developable material satisfies the following formula for a maximum amount Hmax of heat generation of the heater: 0.07≦M/Hmax≦0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Teruo Kashino, Akira Taguchi, Hirofumi Okabe, Yasuaki Tamakoshi, Masaya Shimoji
  • Patent number: 6399270
    Abstract: A support for a printing plate is disclosed, comprising a substrate having thereon at least one component layer contains porous particles. The component layer further contains a flaky inorganic particles or a material having the function of converting light to heat. A printing plate comprising the support is also disclosed, having on the support an image forming layer containing a thermally fusible particles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Takahiro Mori, Kazuyuki Nishio, Io Mizushima, Katsura Hirai
  • Patent number: 6399263
    Abstract: An electrophotographic photoreceptor having an interlayer between the electrically conductive base body and the photosensitive layer. The electrophotographic photoreceptor an aluminum-evaporated surface and contact potential difference of said interlayer with respect to the aluminum-evaporated surface of the photoreceptor is at least +0.175 V.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventor: Hirofumi Hayata
  • Patent number: 6395442
    Abstract: A toner for electrophotography is disclosed. The resin binder is obtained by fusing fine resin particles comprising a crystalline material and amorphous polymer in a water-based medium. The crystalline material preferably has a melting point of 60 to 130° C., a number average molecular weight of 1,500 to 15,000, and a melt viscosity at the melting point +20° C. of not more than 100 Pa·s, and the amorphous polymer is preferably composed of a radically polymerizable monomer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Hayashi, Mikio Koyama, Masafumi Uchida, Hiroshi Yamazaki, Tsuyoshi Uchida
  • Patent number: 6393214
    Abstract: A lens-fitted film unit package, including: a lens-fitted film unit further including: (a) a preloaded photographic film; (b) a camera lens; (c) a shutter; (d) a diaphragm; and (e) an EV value switcher for switching the EV value of the lens-fitted film unit between the first EV value and the second EV value, which is greater than the first EV value; and a packing material; in which the lens-fitted film unit is packaged in the packing material under the condition that the EV value of the lens-fitted unit is switched to the second EV value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Tetsufumi Takaba, Katsuyuki Koizumi, Hiromi Nakanishi, Hiroshi Kibayashi
  • Patent number: 6391904
    Abstract: A compound of the formula where the substituents are defined in the specification and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts and prodrugs thereof useful as antagonists of vitronectin receptors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignees: Aventis Pharma S.A., Genentech, Inc.
    Inventors: Denis Carniato, Jean-Francois Gourvest, Jean-Marie Ruxer, Jochen Knolle, Anurschirwan Peyman, Sarah C. Bodary, Thomas R. Gadek
  • Patent number: 6390594
    Abstract: There are described a method and mechanism for recovering an ink-jetting head and a cap utilized for sucking nozzles. The mechanism includes a cap to cover at least a nozzle hole of the ink-jetting head, a cap movement mechanism to move the cap relative to a nozzle plate on which the nozzle hole is equipped, a depressurizing device and a controller to control the cap movement mechanism, so that the cap moves to a first position at which the cap air-tightly seals a region of the nozzle plate, and moves to a second position at which the cap contacts the nozzle plate to generate a gap between a lip portion of the cap and the nozzle plate, wherein the depressurizing device operates to depressurize a space covered by the cap, when the cap is positioned at the first position, and the depressurizing device operates, when the cap is positioned at the second position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Ryuji Tanno, Kazuumi Tukinowa
  • Patent number: 6391512
    Abstract: An image forming material comprises a support and provided thereon, a light sensitive layer containing a compound capable of generating an acid on irradiation of an active light, a compound having a chemical bond capable of being decomposed by an acid and an infrared absorber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Katsura Hirai, Tatsuichi Maehashi
  • Patent number: 6393230
    Abstract: In a fixing apparatus for fixing a toner image on a transfer material by applying heat and pressure to the transfer material, the fixing apparatus includes: a roll-shaped rotary member for applying heat, including a ray radiating device for radiating a ray generated by a ray generating source provided inside the ray radiating device; a cylindrical ray-transmitting base member through which the ray generated by the ray generating source is transmitted, being arranged around the ray radiating device; a resilient layer; and a ray absorbing layer provided outside the resilient layer for absorbing the ray generated by the ray generating source. The following condition is satisfied, K1>K2 where K1 (J/cm·s·K) represents thermal conductivity of the ray-transmitting base member and K2 (J/cm·s·K) represents thermal conductivity of the resilient layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Haneda, Hiroyuki Tokimatsu, Kunio Shigeta
  • Patent number: 6389227
    Abstract: A lens-fitted film unit and production thereof, wherein lens-fitted film unit has a front cover, a rear cover, a main body and a magazine chamber lid to take out a film magazine from a film magazine chamber located in the main body, below the film magazine chamber and at the bottom surface of the lens-fitted film unit. The front cover, rear cover and main body have respectively a rib, and the surrounding of the lower portion of the film magazine chamber is surrounded by the rib of the front cover, the rib of the rear cover and the rib of the main body. After the rear cover is attached, the film magazine chamber lid is attached so that the magazine chamber lid is fixed to the front and rear cover and is not fixed to the main body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoaki Hazama, Kazuhisa Aratame, Kijiro Suzuki, Akihiko Fujiwara, Tsutomu Kako
  • Patent number: 6387440
    Abstract: The invention describes a method for applying an electrocatalytic or a protective coating to a metal substrate or repairing a damaged area of the same, consisting in a thermal treatment of a precursor of said catalytic coating by means of a hot air jet from a blower. The temperature of the substrate is locally controlled by means of surface temperature sensors or by an infrared measuring system. The metal substrate may be an exhausted electrode structure, in which case the reactivation is easily carried out at the plant site without any need of sending the structure to the producer. The method of the invention is particularly useful for reactivating anodes for oxygen evolution as it permits to avoid the risky procedure of detaching the anode from the current conductor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: DeNora S.p.A
    Inventors: Claudio Mantegazza, Emilio Zioni
  • Patent number: 6387604
    Abstract: A processing method which thermally develops a thermally developable photosensitive material which is exposed imagewise, comprising the step of thermally developing said thermally developable photosensitive material using heating element which intermittently heats and has duration time of surface temperature of not less than 250° C. to be not more than 1 second, wherein said thermally developable photosensitive material comprising a support having thereon one layer or plural layers; containing organic silver salt, photosensitive silver halide grains and a reducing agent.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 1999
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventor: Takeshi Sampei
  • Patent number: 6387608
    Abstract: A photothermographic material is disclosed, comprising a support, an image forming layer containing organic silver salt grains, light sensitive silver halide grains and a reducing agent and a surface protective layer on the image forming layer, wherein the element composition on the surface of image forming layer side, obtained by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy exhibits a ratio of the number of carbon elements to the number of oxygen elements of not more than 9.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventor: Kiyokazu Morita
  • Patent number: 6388142
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for producing aldehydes by reacting one olefine containing 3 to 12 carbon atoms with hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the presence of one rhodium catalyst. The invention is characterized in that (a) the rhodium catalyst is present in an aqueous phase, whereby the aqueous phase contains i) rhodium in an elemental or bonded form, ii) one trisulfonated triaryl phosphine, and iii) one crown etherl (b) the olefine is present in the reaction conditions in a liquid organic phase which cannot be mixed with the aqueous phase.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2002
    Assignee: Celanese Chemicals Europe GmbH
    Inventors: Sandra Bogdanovic, Klaus Kuhlein
  • Patent number: 6383700
    Abstract: In an electrostatic image forming method, said electrophotographic photoreceptor comprises a resinous layer comprising siloxane base resin containing a structural unit having charge transport performance and a cross-linked structure on an electrically conductive support, and developer material comprises a toner which is obtained by suspension-polymerizing a polymerizable composition comprised of at least polymerizing monomer and colorant or a toner which is obtained by fusing at least said resin particles in an aqueous medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Yamazaki, Hiroyuki Yamada, Meizo Shirose, Shigenori Kouno, Akihiko Itami
  • Patent number: 6379834
    Abstract: This invention pertains to improved formulations of platinum-molybdenum alloys for use as anode catalysts. These electrocatalysts find utility as a constituent of gas diffusion electrodes for use in fuel cells that operate at less than 180° C. or in applications whereupon hydrogen is oxidized in the presence of carbon monoxide or other platinum inhibiting substances. The new formulations derive unexpected activity through creating highly dispersed alloy particles of up to approximately 300 Å on carbon supports. The desired activity is achieved by carefully controlling the platinum to molybdenum ratio during preparation and judiciously selecting a proper loading of alloy on the carbon support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2002
    Assignee: De Nora S.p.A.
    Inventors: James R. Giallombardo, Emory S. De Castro, Robert J. Allen
  • Patent number: 6375181
    Abstract: A finisher includes: a conveyor for conveying sheets; an intermediate stacker on which conveyed sheets are stacked; a stapler for stapling a stacked package of sheets; a sheet delivery device for delivering the stapled package of sheets; an up-and-down sheet exit tray on which the delivered package of sheets is stacked and which can move up and down; a driving device for driving the up-and-down sheet exit tray; an upper limit detector for detecting an upper limit position of a surface of the stapled package of sheets which is stacked on the up-and-down sheet exit tray; and a controller for controlling the driving device, wherein when a mode to staple a package of sheets which is not larger than a predetermined size and not larger than a predetermined number of sheets, is set, the controller temporarily withdraws the up-and-down sheet exit tray from the upper limit to a lower position before the stapled package of sheets has been delivered onto the up-and-down sheet exit tray; and when the sheet delivery devic
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Kawano, Tsuyoshi Tsuchiya, Masaru Ohtsuka, Toshitaka Matsumoto, Hirohiko Okabe
  • Patent number: 6375180
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a sheet finisher, which receives sheets from an image forming apparatus, such as an electro-photographic copying machine, a printer, a facsimile, etc., to align and bind the sheets. There is described a sheet finisher which includes a conveyance roller pair to convey the sheets, an intermediate stacker to stack the sheets, an aligning device to align the sheets stacked on the intermediate stacker, a binder to bind the sheets stacked and aligned on the intermediate stacker, an ejector to convey and eject the sheets bound by the binder, a driver to drive the aligning device, a controller to control the driver and an overlapped sheets conveying device to grip and convey two sheets. In the sheet finisher, the controller controls the driver in a manner such that the aligning device aligns an initial one sheet stacked on the intermediate stacker under a first aligning condition, while the aligning device aligns two overlapped sheets under a second aligning condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Kawano, Tsuyoshi Tsuchiya, Masaru Ohtsuka, Toshitaka Matsumoto, Hirohiko Okabe, Tadahiro Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6375360
    Abstract: An angular contact ball bearing of a steering shaft (27) of an automotive vehicle, said bearing comprising an inner bearing ring (11), an outer bearing ring (1) and bearing balls (7) arranged between the inner and outer bearing rings in rolling contact with raceways (14, 5) formed on the inner and outer bearing rings, the inner bearing ring (11) being received by an elastic tolerance ring (15) of a polymeric material, said bearing further comprising an inseparable assembly, wherein, a retaining ring (20) is arranged between the steering shaft (27) and the tolerance ring (15), the retaining ring (20) comprises circumferentially equi-spaced retaining elements (19) that project therefrom in axial direction and comprise radially outward directed retaining lugs (22) that overlap the outer bearing ring (1), the tolerance ring (15) comprises circumferentially equi-spaced clearances (18) for receiving the retaining elements (19), and the tolerance ring (15) extends in axial direction up to the end of a generally radi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2002
    Assignee: INA
    Inventors: Ulrike Weisskopf, Rainer Lutz
  • Patent number: 6376167
    Abstract: A photothermographic material is disclosed, comprising on a support an organic silver salt, a photosensitive silver halide, a reducing agent, a binder and a compound represented by the following formula R1—SO2—O—L1—COOM1. The photothermographic material may further comprise a compound respresented by following formula: R2—COOM2 or R3—CO—L2—COOM3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2002
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroto Ito