Patents Represented by Attorney Kanesaka Berner & Partners, LLP
  • Patent number: 8324852
    Abstract: It is an object to detect the axial position of a rotor without using a sensor. A method for detecting the position of a motor including a rotor and a stator around which armature windings of a plurality of phases are wound is provided, wherein a position detecting coil is disposed on one axial end face of a stator core, an induced voltage generated in the position detecting coil is detected, and the axial position of the rotor is detected on the basis of the detection result.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
    Inventors: Yohei Kakiuchi, Takeshi Okubo, Yasuharu Yamamoto, Tatsuya Hidaka
  • Patent number: 8308438
    Abstract: A wind power generator is provided in which a reduction in weight is achieved by reducing the wall thickness of a nacelle, and an increase in the amount of heat input to the interior of the nacelle from sunlight is suppressed. In a wind power generator in which driving/power-generating mechanisms linked to a rotor head to which wind-turbine blades are attached are accommodated and installed inside a nacelle, a coating of high-reflectivity paint is formed on at least part of the outer wall that receives sunlight.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd
    Inventors: Takeshi Matsuo, Shinichi Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 8299650
    Abstract: A wind turbine generator derives the gradient of a change in output power of a generator that generates power by rotation of a wind turbine rotor, and determines an increase/decrease in the output power of the generator on the basis of the derived gradient of the change in output power. Then, when the frequency of a utility grid has dropped, power control is performed on the basis of the determination results. Therefore, a decrease in the amount of power supplied to the utility grid can be more effectively compensated for by accurately detecting output power fluctuations of the generator, using a simple configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Akira Yasugi
  • Patent number: 8276273
    Abstract: There are provided a method for removing a blade ring by pulling out the blade ring smoothly and surely while preventing damage to other components, and a member for removing a blade ring. By using a dummy blade ring, connection plates, and connecting bolts, work for removing and mounting a lower half section of the blade ring is performed. Thereby, work of rotation and the like can be performed while the lower half section of the blade ring and the dummy blade ring are connected to each other in both end portions. Therefore, during the work, the lower half section of the blade ring and the dummy blade ring are prevented from shifting from each other and therefore from interfering with the opposed rotor blade tip, a lower half section of a casing, and the like, thus preventing damage to the tip, distortion of the lower half section of the blade ring and the dummy blade ring, and the like. Consequently, a stator blade ring can be pulled out smoothly and surely.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Katsuhisa Shigemoto, Taichi Ozaki, Hitoshi Morimoto
  • Patent number: 8278773
    Abstract: A wind turbine generator includes a synchronous generator that generates electric power via rotation of a rotor provided with blades that receive wind and that supplies the generated electric power to a utility grid, and a sea water resistor in which sea water serves as a resistive element. When the output power of the synchronous generator drops suddenly because of a momentary power interruption caused by a fault occurring on the utility grid, thus producing surplus energy, the sea water resistor consumes, in the form of electric power, the surplus energy that cannot be supplied to the utility grid from among the electric power generated at the synchronous generator. Because the sea water resistor uses sea water as the resistive element, the problem of heat generation hardly ever arises, and because the sea water can be easily exchanged, it is not affected by lifetime or on-time limitations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Naoto Murata
  • Patent number: 8269366
    Abstract: A handy terminal for a wind turbine generator which the maintenance of the wind turbine generator, especially the maintenance work inside the nacelle, can be simplified while considering the safety of the maintenance operator. The handy terminal comprises a tower provided to stand on land or off-shore, a nacelle supported on the tower to be controlled to rotate in the yaw direction and a plurality of rotatable blades attached to the nacelle to be controlled to move their pitch, whereby the handy terminal is connectable to connecting ends respectively provided on the lower portion of the tower and the nacelle so as to perform various control of the wind turbine generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tohru Minami, Eiji Irie
  • Patent number: 8271145
    Abstract: A handy terminal for a wind turbine generator, includes a connecting portion connectable to a connector provided in the wind turbine generator, an operating ends group including an operating button to generate an operating signal which selectively validates a control logic within a control circuit provided in the wind turbine generator, and a display portion for displaying the operating state of the operating ends group. The operating ends group includes a mode selecting button for selectively validates one of a maintenance mode and an operating mode of the wind turbine generator; and a rotor turning button for switching to the blades pitch control state in which blades of the wind turbine generator side are driven in the predetermined low speed with adjusting the pitch angle of the blades according to the rotational speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tohru Minami, Eiji Irie
  • Patent number: 8264097
    Abstract: A wind turbine generator includes: a main shaft; a generator having a rotor and a stator; and a sleeve coupled to the rotor and inserted onto the main shaft. The stator includes: stator magnetic poles arrayed circumferentially of the main shaft; and first and second stator plates rotatably coupled to the main shaft to support the stator magnetic poles. The rotor includes: rotor magnetic poles and at least one magnetic pole supporting structure coupled to the main shaft to support the rotor magnetic poles and provided between the first and second stator plates such that the rotor and stator magnetic poles are detachable from the sleeve. Positions at which the rotor and stator magnetic poles are detachable from the sleeve are closer to the main shaft from a closer end of the main shaft to the generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Tomohiro Numajiri
  • Patent number: 8255173
    Abstract: A load is based calibrate on data collected under wide observation conditions and promptly calibrate loads of a plurality of wind turbine blades. A load measuring apparatus is applied to a wind turbine in which a pitch angle of a wind turbine blade is variable. The apparatus includes a sensor for obtaining a distortion of the wind turbine blade; a load calculating unit having a function expressing a relation between the distortion of the wind turbine blade and a load on the wind turbine blade, for obtaining the load on the wind turbine blade by applying to the function the distortion based on measurement data of the sensor; and a calibration unit for calibrating the function based on the measurement data of the sensor obtained in a pitch angle range and a rotational speed range of the wind turbine blade in which a variation between maximum and minimum aerodynamic torques is equal to or less than a predetermined value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hideyasu Fujioka, Yoshiyuki Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8252668
    Abstract: Provided is a photoelectric conversion device fabrication method that realizes both high productivity and high conversion efficiency by rapidly forming an n-layer having good coverage. The fabrication method for a photoelectric conversion device includes a step of forming a silicon photoelectric conversion layer on a substrate by a plasma CVD method. In the fabrication method for the photoelectric conversion device, the step of forming the photoelectric conversion layer includes a step of forming an i-layer formed of crystalline silicon and a step of forming, on the i-layer, an n-layer under a condition with a hydrogen dilution ratio of 0 to 10, inclusive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 28, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kengo Yamaguchi, Satoshi Sakai, Yoshiaki Takeuchi
  • Patent number: 8245648
    Abstract: A guided vehicle transportation system is described in the application. The system includes guard wheels and a guard rail positioned along a center line of a guide track. The guard rail has a groove in which the guard wheels are received with a predetermined clearance between the periphery of the guard wheels and side walls of the groove. The guard rail has a flange extending toward the groove at the top of each side wall. The vehicle has first arms extending in longitudinal direction and being attached rotatably at a central part of an axle provided for suspending each pair of front wheels and rear wheels, and the guard wheels are attached rotatably and directly to the both end parts of the first arms or attached rotatably to both end parts of second arms each of which is attached to a corresponding end part of the first arms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunji Morichika, Katsuaki Morita, Masahiro Yamaguchi, Kosuke Katahira, Yasuhiro Nagamichi
  • Patent number: 8247916
    Abstract: A wind turbine generator is provided with a generator which is provided with a stator and a stator casing accommodating a generator rotor and the stator; a main shaft having one end coupled to a wind turbine rotor and the other end coupled to the generator rotor; a first bearing which rotatably supports the main shaft; a second bearing which is provided on the main shaft to support the stator casing such that the main shaft and the stator casing are rotatable relative to each other; a base to which the first bearing is attached; and a torque support including a coupling member which couples the base portion and a front plate of the stator casing. The load center of force acting between the coupling member and the front plate in a case that torque acts on the stator casing in the circumferential direction of the main shaft is positioned in a range between the front and back surfaces of the front plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Tomohiro Numajiri
  • Patent number: 8247917
    Abstract: A control method for a wind turbine generator and storage battery unit connected to a power grid in parallel, includes calculating total active power and total reactive power, and switching between: a first mode in which the generator outputs turbine required active power and reactive power that can be outputted by the generator and the battery unit outputs battery required active power and battery required reactive power which correspond to a difference between the total active power and the turbine required active power and a difference between the total reactive power and the turbine required reactive power respectively; and a second mode in which the battery required active power is maintained and the battery required reactive power is reduced while the turbine reactive power is increased by an amount of the reduction of the battery required reactive power wherein apparent power exceeds a set battery unit apparent power.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Yasugi, Masaaki Minami
  • Patent number: 8240226
    Abstract: A speed-varying device (10A) that can give a high gear ration with a small number of stages and that can be reduced in weight is provided. The speed-varying device (10A) is configured by combining parallel gears, and an input gear (11) provided on an input shaft (Si) and an output gears (12A, 12B) provided on an output shaft (So) are coupled to each other via a plurality of pinion shafts (Sv) that are arranged in the circumferential direction. The pinion shafts (Sv) are each provided with gears (13, 14A to 14D) having teeth different in number at both ends thereof. The gears (14A to 14D) disposed on the output shaft (So) side of the plurality of pinion shafts (Sv) are engaged with the plurality of output gears (12A, 12B) alternately in the circumferential direction. The output gears being arranged so as to be shifted from one another in the axial direction of the output shaft (So).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Tomohiro Numajiri
  • Patent number: 8242618
    Abstract: A wind turbine generator is provided in which a gear having a large diameter is not required in a yaw drive device (30) of a yaw system (10A). The yaw drive device (30) of the yaw system (10A), which revolves a nacelle (3) depending on the wind direction, includes a electric motor (31) which is fixedly provided on a nacelle base plate (12), with an output shaft (31a) substantially aligned with a pivot of the nacelle (3). The output shaft (31a) and a fixed-side support member (2b) provided in the vicinity of an upper end of the tower (2) are coupled by a coupling shaft (33) having couplings (32) provided at both ends thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventor: Tomohiro Numajiri
  • Patent number: 8242619
    Abstract: Provided is a wind power generation system intending to suppress an increase of torque when a voltage in a utility grid is restored, and to reduce a load to devices due to the torque. The blade control unit controls the pitch angle of the wind turbine blades such that a rotation speed of the power generator becomes equal to or greater than a synchronous rotation speed when the power control unit de-actuates the operations of the converter and the inverter, and controls the pitch angle of the wind turbine blades such that the pitch angle matches a target pitch angle that is determined based on one of a wind speed, a rotation speed of the power generator, and a requested output power when the power control unit re-actuates the operations of the converter and the inverter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shinji Arinaga, Tsuyoshi Wakasa, Takatoshi Matsushita, Akira Yasugi, Masaaki Shibata
  • Patent number: 8234022
    Abstract: The essential feature of the present invention is the provision of a track transportation system in which a vehicle runs on a predetermined track, being automatically steered, having a simplified and lightweight structure so as to surely ensure a safety, and to be capable of carrying out efficient and high-speed operation. The track transportation system according to the present invention incorporates a steering mechanism for automatic steering by means of an M actuator, a protection guide rail laid on the track, protection guide wheels which travel together with the vehicle along the protection guide rail without making contact with the latter, and a control means for controlling automatic steering in accordance with a result of determination by a track data determining means for determining a straight portion, a curved portion, a turnout portion or the like of the track in view of vehicle position data, and steering caused by the protection wheels making contact with the protection guide rail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shunji Morichika, Katsuaki Morita, Hiroyuki Kono, Hiroyuki Mochidome, Hiroshi Yamashita, Masahiro Yamaguchi, Kosuke Katahira
  • Patent number: 8225619
    Abstract: The present invention provides a technique for rapidly removing frost accumulated in air-refrigerant cooling apparatuses. An air-refrigerant cooling apparatus in accordance with the present invention includes a bypass line for directly supplying a defroster with refrigerant air having an increased temperature from a compressor, avoiding temperature drop by a heat exchanger and an expansion turbine. Moisture of the frost melted in the defroster is externally exhausted by a fan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignees: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd, International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer
    Inventors: Seiichi Okuda, Masato Mitsuhashi
  • Patent number: 8227932
    Abstract: In a wind generator, which effectively utilizes an opening of a door opening and a shell plate, and in which an outside air-circulation flow path for introducing outside air into a cooling heat exchanger in a tower is formed, a cooling medium that cools a heating element disposed in the tower circulates through a cooling heat exchanger, and heat is absorbed by exchanging heat with outside air, an outside air-circulation flow path of a closed space having an outside-air inflow opening and an outside-air discharge opening that are in communication with a door opening of a shell plate is formed in an interior space in the tower, and the cooling heat exchanger is disposed in the outside air-circulation flow path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hajime Murata, Shinsuke Sato
  • Patent number: 8227695
    Abstract: A wind turbine generator includes a tower, a nacelle mounted on the tower, at least one cable suspended downward from the nacelle inside the tower, a protective tube attached to the cable to surround the cable, and a cable swing restraint support attached to the tower and provided in a position opposed to the protective tube to surround the protective tube. The protective tube is relatively movable with respect to the cable swing restraint support.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2012
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Ueno, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi