Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Carrier, Blackman & Associates, P.C.
  • Patent number: 8196689
    Abstract: A saddle-type vehicle including a radiator disposed forwardly of a steering shaft for steering a front wheel, the radiator being covered by a vehicle body cover, the vehicle including a controller case which extends forwardly of the steering shaft of a vehicle body frame, formed separately from the vehicle body cover, and fixed on a frame supporting the radiator. The controller case is positioned rearward of and above the radiator, and is configured such that the controller case supports an electronic controller therein. The saddle-type vehicle also includes a heat shield disposed between the radiator and the controller, wherein the heat shield substantially isolates the controller from heat emitted from the radiator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Tetsuro Hosoda
  • Patent number: 8191443
    Abstract: A reverse inhibitor mechanism for a transmission of an all terrain vehicle, in which a shift drum is jounalled to a side wall opposite the transmission case so as to be rotatably supported thereon, and a reverse inhibitor arm is detachably engaged with the reverse inhibitor groove formed in the outer circumferential surface of the shift drum to regulate a reverse setting. A reverse inhibitor shaft having the reverse inhibitor arm supported at one end thereof is positioned within the transmission case. The other end of the reverse inhibitor shaft is rotatably journaled to one of the opposite side walls of the transmission case from the inside of the transmission case. A distal end of the reverse inhibitor arm which swings by the rotation of the reverse inhibitor shaft is brought into engagement with the reverse inhibitor groove during assembly of the reverse inhibitor mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroatsu Inui, Hiromi Sumi, Shinya Koyama, Eiji Kittaka
  • Patent number: 8191515
    Abstract: A V-type internal combustion engine includes a crankcase, a crankshaft disposed in the crankcase, and first and second banks operatively attached to the crankcase. The engine also includes a throttle body, an electric motor and a force-transmitting device arranged between the first and second banks. The force-transmitting device is disposed adjacent the front bank with respect to the throttle body. The force-transmitting device is disposed on a non-transmitting portion side opposite to a side where a timing mechanism is located with respect to a branch pipe of an intake air routing pipe, which supplies intake air into a cylinder adjacent to the timing mechanism of the first bank. An electric motor for operating the throttle valve is provided in the throttle body, and fuel injection valves are arranged between the banks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masahiro Kontani, Takashi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 8189868
    Abstract: A vehicle periphery monitoring device is operable to report a high contact possibility between a vehicle and an object at an appropriate time or frequency according to the type of the object. When the object is determined to be a human being and the position of the object in real space is contained in a first contact determination area, a high contact possibility between the vehicle and the object is reported. On the other hand, when the object is determined to be a quadruped animal and the real spatial position of the object is contained in a second contact determination area, the corresponding report is made. The second contact determination area has an overlapped area that overlaps with the first contact determination area, and an overflowed area that has at least a part thereof overflowing from the first contact determination area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Aimura, Nobuharu Nagaoka, Hideki Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 8189169
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a cooling apparatus which makes it possible to cool a substrate uniformly in a short period of time even if the substrate has a large area. The cooling apparatus 3 comprises a flat-box-shaped body 10, a cooling medium supply tube 11 which is inserted into the body 10, a nozzle 12 which is attached to the cooling medium supply tube 11 so as to eject the cooling medium toward the internal surface of the body, a pipe 13 for withdrawing water (refrigerant) ejected from the nozzle 12 toward the body 10, a chiller 14 for cooling the water from the pipe 13 to a predetermined temperature, and a circulating pipe 15 for sending the water which has been cooled by the chiller 14 back to the cooling medium supply tube 11.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2012
    Assignee: Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Futoshi Shimai, Shigeru Kawata
  • Patent number: 8184862
    Abstract: Provided is an apparatus capable of, even when an object is moving, measuring the position of the object at a high accuracy. A vehicle periphery monitoring apparatus (10) calculates the change rate (Rate(t)) of the size of an object region between two times separated by a specified interval (?T). The specified interval (?T) is a time interval defined so that the shapes and postures of an object in images resemble or match each other to such an extent that it is possible to identify that the object is identical. Based on the change rage (Rate(t)) of the size of the object region during the specified interval (?T), it is possible to measure the distance from a vehicle (1) to the object or the position at a high accuracy even when the object is moving.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuharu Nagaoka, Hideki Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 8181685
    Abstract: A vehicle wheel includes: a disk and a rim having a well portion and fixed to the disk for supporting a tire for the vehicle; and an additional air chamber member secured to an outer circumferential surface of the well portion in a tire air chamber defined between the rim and the tire. The additional air chamber includes a communication pipe with a communication through hole therein for communication between the additional air chamber and the tire air chamber. The additional air chamber has a peak in a radial direction of the vehicle wheel. A radius D2 of rotation of the vehicle wheel at the tip of the communication through hole is equal to or greater than a radius D1 of rotation of the vehicle at the peak of the additional air chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Youichi Kamiyama, Katsushi Ishii, Hisamitsu Takagi
  • Patent number: 8181549
    Abstract: An electric power steering apparatus 10 has an electric motor 46 for supplying an auxiliary force to a steering force inputted from a steering wheel 16, and transmits the steering force including the auxiliary force to a steered road-wheel 14 at least partially via a rack-and-pinion mechanism 30, thereby performing steering of a vehicle 12. The rack-and-pinion mechanism 30 includes: a pinion 38 provided at a pinion shaft 28 connected to the steering wheel 16; a rack 40 that is provided over a predetermined width at a rack shaft 32 connected to the steered road-wheel 14, and that is engaged with the pinion 38; and a rack guide 70 for urging the rack shaft 32 toward the pinion 38. A pressure angle ?1 of a tooth root of the rack 40 is set to be greater than a pressure angle ?0 of a tooth tip of the rack 40.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Katsuji Watanabe, Yasuo Shimizu, Tsuyoshi Matsuo, Yousuke Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8184299
    Abstract: A semiconductor ring laser gyroscope includes: a semiconductor laser for emitting two lights from both end surfaces thereof; an optical fiber ring through which the two lights propagate in the respective opposite directions, which, in association with the semiconductor laser, constitutes a laser resonator, and which includes a sensor coil made of an optical fiber wound in a multilayer manner; and an optical detection unit for detecting a rotational angular velocity based on beat frequencies of the two lights, wherein an expression: 2?Fbeat—max<Frlg?10?Fbeat—min is satisfied in which Frlg=C/nL, where ?Fbeat—max and ?Fbeat—min are beat frequencies corresponding respectively to the upper and lower limits of an angular velocity measuring range, Frlg is a ring resonance frequency, C is a light speed, n is a refractive index of the optical fiber, and L is an overall length of the optical fiber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Minebea Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsushi Kitamura, Miki Sugawara
  • Patent number: 8181614
    Abstract: An internal combustion engine includes a main enlarged member extended towards a camshaft for forming reed valve chambers. The main enlarged member is integrally provided on a head cover of the engine at a location at which reed valves for controlling supply of secondary air to an exhaust system are disposed. The main enlarged member is extended towards the camshaft for increasing volume of the reed valve chambers while avoiding the increase in size of the head cover. A recessed portion is provided on a cam cap fastened to a cylinder head of the engine. A portion of the main enlarged member is inserted into the recessed portion such that cam cap cooperates with the cylinder head for rotatably supporting the camshaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Sugiura
  • Patent number: 8177171
    Abstract: There is provided a piping installation structure for a vehicle which is installed under a floor of a vehicle body and configured to support and fix a long part including at least piping, the piping installation structure including: a clamp member for supporting and fixing the long part; a stud for fixing the clamp member under the floor of the vehicle body; a stud fixing member to which the stud is fixed; and an underfloor structural member installed under the floor of the vehicle body, in which the stud fixing member and the underfloor structural member are joined to form a closed cross section on a plane which is orthogonal to a front-rear direction of the vehicle body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kunio Miyauchi, Toshifumi Gocho
  • Patent number: 8176792
    Abstract: An inspection system for inspecting a processing accuracy of a work piece is provided. The inspection system includes a supporting mechanism which supports the work piece in a same posture as a posture in which the work piece is assembled to a body; a load reproduction device which applies a load to the work piece along a substantially vertical direction; and a measurement device which measures positions of at least one characteristic portion of the work piece while the load is being applied to the work piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Kozasa, Takafumi Ikeda, Michio Kamiyama, Hitoshi Yoshimichi
  • Patent number: 8178459
    Abstract: A corrosion-resistant member includes a ceramic member containing yttrium oxide as a main component, containing cerium element, and obtained by firing under a nonoxidizing atmosphere. The corrosion-resistant member that has high corrosion-resistant characteristics and includes a ceramic member having a low volume resistivity can be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Toto Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayuki Ide, Masami Ando, Hiromi Arimitsu
  • Patent number: 8180499
    Abstract: In a power supply system (10) having a cogeneration unit (12) equipped with an internal combustion engine (12a) and a generator (12b) to generate power to be supplied to a power destination and hot water to be supplied to a hot water destination, there are provided with a natural energy generation unit (14) that generates power with natural energy, a power supply unit (20) that receives the power generated by the generator and natural energy generation unit to supply the received power to the power destination; a voltage detector (22a) that detects voltage (V1) of the power flowing through an connecting bus (22), and an electric heater (121). The power supply unit (20) controls operation of the electric heater based on the detected connecting bus power voltage (V1), thereby effectively utilizing surplus electricity without transmitting back it to a commercial power source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yasushi Kanai
  • Patent number: 8180100
    Abstract: A rotation matrix and a translation vector between a basic camera and a reference camera are read out from a parameter storage section. At a projection conversion matrix calculating section, a projection conversion matrix capable of overlapping the road plane area included in images picked up by the basic camera and the reference camera is calculated by using the rotation matrix and the translation vector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignees: Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Tokyo Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Tomo Fujimaki, Masatoshi Okutomi
  • Patent number: 8177070
    Abstract: An air sieving apparatus capable of sieving particles in a particle size range below 50 ?m includes a cylindrical screening case defining an internal space and provided with a screen dividing the internal space into an upper space and a lower space. Powdered material is fed through a powdered material feed opening onto a bottom plate disposed to cover the lower open end of the screening case with gaps formed therebetween. Air in the screening case is sucked upward by a suction blower. The fed powdered material is dispersed by currents of air sucked through the gaps and the dispersed powdered material is sucked upward. Fine particles that have passed through the screen 3 flow through a fine particle recovery duct into a cyclone and a fine particle container. Coarse particles remaining in the lower space drop through the coarse particle recovery opening into a coarse particle container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Seishin Enterprise Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Isamu Minami
  • Patent number: 8175331
    Abstract: A vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus, method, and program capable of reducing a possibility of overlap between a detection object and a background object in a standard image when detecting objects around the vehicle from images obtained by a plurality of image sensors so as to detect the objects accurately. The vehicle surroundings monitoring apparatus detects the objects existing around the vehicle (10) from the images obtained by the image sensors (2R, 2L) mounted on the vehicle (10).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuharu Nagaoka, Takayuki Tsuji
  • Patent number: 8174578
    Abstract: A vehicle periphery monitoring device is operable to recognize with high accuracy whether or not an object is a designated quadruped animal. According to the vehicle periphery monitoring device, for determining whether or not a first object region and a second object region correspond to the designated quadruped animal according to whether or not the aspect ratio of the first object region is equal to or greater 1, a plurality of the second object regions are extracted, and it is determined whether the ratio of the vertical dimension of the second object region to the vertical dimension of the first object region lies within the range of the ratio of the leg vertical dimension to the torso vertical dimension of a common designated quadruped animal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Aimura, Masakazu Saka, Hiroshi Hattori
  • Patent number: 8171598
    Abstract: An apparatus for cleaning and extracting water from carpet, comprising a vacuum head including a vacuum chamber configured to be connected to a vacuum source and two downward facing elongate vacuum ports extending downwardly from the vacuum chamber and an elongate solution manifold mounted between the vacuum ports and configured to discharge cleaning liquid in a space between the vacuum ports. The vacuum ports are configured to extract waste liquid from carpet when the vacuum head is moved in both a forward motion and a backward motion of the vacuum head. Further, the vacuum head includes elongate glides sealingly fitted in lower openings of the vacuum ports, the glides having suction openings formed therein through which fluids may be drawing into the vacuum ports, and the glides project below the bottom face of the vacuum head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Inventor: Erik Daniel Hiltz
  • Patent number: 8175773
    Abstract: In an electric power steering system (10) for use in a vehicle incorporated with a vehicle behavior control system (30), a failure detecting unit (12) detects a failure of the electric power steering system according to the steering torque and actual electric current. A criterion for detecting a failure by the failure detecting unit is changed when the vehicle behavior control system is activated. Thereby, even when the vehicle behavior control system is activated and it causes a corrective current to be supplied to the electric motor, because the failure detection criterion is changed, the failure detecting unit is prevented from confusing the corrective current due to the operation of the vehicle behavior control system with an erroneous current caused by a failure of the electric power steering system. Therefore, an unnecessary interruption of the operation of the electric power steering system can be avoided, and the convenience of the electric power steering system can be enhanced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takashi Nishimori