Patents Represented by Attorney Rankin, Hill, Porter & Clark LLP
  • Patent number: 7331609
    Abstract: A lock releasing button is provided at a slide plate including a slip joint for slidably supporting a webbing for restraining an occupant to a seat. Locking of the slide plate to a center pillar is arranged to be released when the lock releasing button is pressed upward from below. Therefore, when an airbag presses to open a connecting portion between a roof lining and a pillar garnish and deploys downward at a time of collision of a vehicle, the lock releasing button is prevented from releasing the locking by being pressed by the airbag deploying downward. This prevents the situation in which the slip joint is moved downward together with the slide plate to loosen the webbing and thus a seat belt device cannot sufficiently exhibit an occupant restraining performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Koji Uno, Koji Ikeda, Hideki Kajiwara, Mitsuhiro Nishizaka, Nobumoto Sekiguchi
  • Patent number: 7331756
    Abstract: An axial-flow fan unit that produces less noise is provided. Blades 19 are exposed from a venturi 29. The shape of each of the blades 19 is so defined that a space formed between at least an inner surface 28a of each of web leg sections 28A to 28C and an edge 19a of each of the blades 19 located in the radially outward direction of the blades 19 expands toward the ends of the web leg sections 28A to 28C (or web bodies 30A to 30C). With this arrangement, noise produced when the blades 19 rotate along the web leg sections 28A to 28C is reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Michinori Watanabe, Toshiki Ogawara, Haruhisa Maruyama
  • Patent number: 7332711
    Abstract: A main scale 10 has protrusive grating 12 of a thin film of e.g. Cr formed on a base member 11. The base member 11 and the Cr thin film constitute a reflecting face which is set to provide the sufficient quantity of received light on a light receiving side. The protrusive grating 12 can be formed accurately by photo-etching the thin film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Mitutoyo Corporation
    Inventors: Tetsuhiko Kubo, Yukinari Nozawa
  • Patent number: 7331626
    Abstract: In an automotive vehicle body including a first annular frame (29) formed by front pillars (11, 12), a second annular frame (34) formed by center pillars (13, 14) and a front door (7) internally provided with a front door beam (51) and fitted between the front pillar and center pillar one each side of the vehicle body, the front door beam overlaps the first annular frame and second annular frame as seen from sideways, and includes a door beam main body (61) providing a channel member having an open side facing inboard and a tension wire (71) extending along an inboard side of the door beam main body. Thereby, when another vehicle hits the front door from sideways, because the front door beam overlaps the first annular frame and second annular frame as seen from sideways, the impact energy can be effectively transmitted to the vehicle body. Furthermore, because the door beam main body supports a compressive load while the tension wire supports a tensile load, deformation of the door beam is minimized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takeshi Yoshimoto, Hitoshi Kato, Kosaku Tomozawa, Kazuo Arai
  • Patent number: 7331466
    Abstract: A packaging dunnage including a plurality of packaging columns having a pair of sidewalls, a bottom wall, a plurality of front transverse walls, and a plurality of rear transverse walls that cooperate to define a plurality of cells. Each of the cells is adapted to receive an article for shipment, and is associated with a cam lock assembly. The cam lock assembly includes a lock member that is movable between a first orientation and a second orientation. When the lock member is in the first orientation the cell is adapted to stably receive a first size article. When the lock member is in the second orientation, the cell is adapted to stably receive a second size article. The packaging dunnage is further adapted to receive articles having sizes between the first and second sizes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Michael L. Stefanik
  • Patent number: 7332110
    Abstract: An annular insert (4) is arranged in the optical component molding cavity of a mold to surround an outer periphery of raw material resin in a direction in which the resin is distributed in the cavity to limit the distribution of the raw material resin and define an outer profile of a lens (L). With this arrangement, it is only necessary to provide raw material resin only by a quantity equal to the volume of the region surrounded by the molding surfaces of upper and lower mold inserts (14, 24) and the inner peripheral edge of the annular insert (4) of the mold, so that the required volume of the raw material resin can be reduced. Since the pressure is preserved at the outer periphery of the distributed resin by the presence of the annular insert (4), the residual strain of the resin is minimized to prevent generation of sink mark, thereby providing excellent optical characteristics on the lens (L).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2008
    Assignee: Hoya Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuo Inoue, Kiyohiro Saito, Tadayoshi Uehara
  • Patent number: 7329944
    Abstract: A leadframe for a semiconductor device of the present invention is a leadframe for a semiconductor device having a stage section where a semiconductor chip is to be mounted, an inner lead section connected to the stage section, and an outer lead section connected to the inner lead section. The leadframe has (1) a nickel (Ni) layer 1, (2) a palladium (Pd) or palladium alloy layer 2, (3) a tin (Sn) or tin alloy layer or a zinc (Zn) or zinc alloy layer 3, 3a, or 3b, and (4) a gold (Au) layer 4, 4a, or 4b, all of which are formed on a base material B forming the leadframe in sequence from the surface of the leadframe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Shinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazumitsu Seki, Harunobu Sato, Muneaki Kure
  • Patent number: 7330859
    Abstract: In a database system having a primary server side (10) and a secondary server side (30), a high availability data replicator (26, 46) transfers log entries from the primary side (10) to the secondary side (30) and replays the transferred log entries to synchronize the secondary side (30) with the primary side (10). R-tree index transfer threads (54, 56) copy user-defined routines, the user defined index, and index databases deployed on the primary server side (10) to the secondary server side (30) and deploy the copied user-defined routines, reconstruct the user-defined index, and copy data pages on the secondary side (30) to make the user-defined index consistent and usable on the secondary side (30).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ajay K. Gupta, Karl Ostner
  • Patent number: 7328909
    Abstract: A structure of removably mounting a tower connecting bar between top surfaces of right and left strut towers by bolts and nuts. The tower connecting bar has a pipe and annular circular plates attached to opposite ends of the pipe. The circular plates are mounted to the top surfaces of the towers by the bolts and nuts. Upper ends of suspension struts are fastened to the top surfaces of the towers by bolts and nuts. The circular plates have through holes for allowing the strut-mounting nuts to escape when the towers and circular plates are mated together. The through holes provide access to loosen the strut-mounting nuts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Taku Takayanagi, Takeshi Yamaguchi
  • Patent number: 7329568
    Abstract: There are provided the steps of forming, on a substrate 10, a semiconductor layer 12 to be a base of a device, forming each of electrodes 14 to be a source electrode and a drain electrode on a surface of the semiconductor layer 12 provided on the substrate, covering a surface of the substrate 10 having the electrode 14 formed thereon with a resin having an electrical insulating property, thereby forming an insulating layer 16, embossing the insulating layer 16 by using a metal mold, thereby forming an insulating resin film layer 16a on a channel of the semiconductor layer 12, and forming a gate electrode 18 on the insulating resin film layer 16a.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Shinko Electric Industries Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Masahiro Kyozuka
  • Patent number: 7329859
    Abstract: A photoelectric encoder that has a lens optical system including a lens inserted between a main scale and a light receiving element. In the photoelectric encoder, three planes extended from a surface of the main scale, a principal plane of the lens, and an image plane of the light receiving element are disposed so as to intersect at a single point and satisfy the Scheimpflug rule. Focus can thereby be obtained over the entire image plane, so that a reduction in contrast is prevented, even if the optical axis is inclined to make an optical system smaller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Mitutoyo Corporation
    Inventors: Miyako Mizutani, Tatsuya Nagahama
  • Patent number: 7330278
    Abstract: An optical displacement measurement device for introducing light from a light source to an object through an optical system having an objective lens and for detecting light reflected from the object by a detection section to thereby measure a displacement of the object relative to the objective lens. In the optical displacement measurement device, the objective lens is a conical lens for advancing the light toward the object and for receiving light reflected from the object to direct to the detection section, and the displacement of the object relative to the objective lens is measured in consideration of the property that a shape of an detected image detected by the detection section varies depending on the displacement of the object relative to the objective lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Mitutoyo Corporation
    Inventors: Tadashi Iwamoto, Yoshihisa Tanimura
  • Patent number: 7329973
    Abstract: The present invention provides a rotary electric machine, of which the occupied volume can be reduced and which allows a space in an electric apparatus equipped therewith to be utilized effectively. A slot insulator 15 is integrally formed with a holder mounting portion 25, a whole or major part of which is positioned on one of end faces of a yoke 11 of a stator core 7. A lead wire holder 27 includes a connection holding portion 27a for disposing a plurality of connections 30, in which lead-out wires of windings are connected with corresponding core wires 29a of lead wires 29, at a predetermined interval so that the connections do not contact with each other. The lead wire holder 27 is arranged so that the connection holding portion 27a is positioned over a part of the windings 9 and the holder mounting portion 25 when the lead wire holder is attached to the holder mounting portion 25.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masaaki Oohashi, Shigenori Miyairi, Ikuo Takeshita
  • Patent number: 7330770
    Abstract: To provide a fan selection device capable of selecting a fan using a small amount data prepared in advance and also using simple computations. A required ventilation flow quantity is computed by computing means 4 when predicted total electric power consumption and a predicted air temperature rise are entered into a predetermined computational expression. Parameter range determining means 5 determines a parameter range of a proper flow quantity ratio necessary for cooling. Required flow quantity computing means 7 computes a minimum required flow quantity and a maximum required flow quantity by dividing the required ventilation flow quantity by the upper and lower limit values of the parameter range of the proper flow quantity ratio, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Kato, Kinshi Ito
  • Patent number: 7328597
    Abstract: A circumferential length correcting method for a metal ring including: a circumferential length measuring step of passing the metal ring around a driving roller and a driven roller, displacing the driving roller and the driven roller away from each other, and measuring the actual circumferential length of the ring under tension; and a circumferential length correcting step of correcting the circumferential length of the ring by displacing a circumferential length correcting roller by a predetermined distance in a direction in which the metal ring is extended. The method is capable of imparting an appropriate arc shape to the metal ring while correcting the circumferential length to fall within an appropriate value range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshiharu Watabe, Seiichi Minegishi, Toru Yagasaki, Hideaki Aoyama
  • Patent number: 7328928
    Abstract: A rear tray 1 separates a vehicle room and a trunk from each other and includes a closed section part 6 formed integrally with the rear tray 1, the closed section part 6 extending in the width direction of a vehicle and having a polygonal section shape. In the rear tray 1, there is provided a connecting member 4 which connects together the opposite corners of the inside of the closed section part 6.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuo Aizawa, Jun Horiguchi, Eiji Sakaguchi
  • Patent number: 7325830
    Abstract: An airbag device for a vehicle includes an airbag that can be inflated to restrain an occupant of the vehicle against the impact of a collision, an inflator for generating gas to inflate the airbag, and a guide passage provided between the inflator and the airbag for guiding the gas into the airbag. The airbag has at least one opening formed therein to provide a fluid communication between the interior and exterior of the airbag, the opening being disposed near the guide passage to perform an aspiratory function efficiently.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hitoshi Higuchi, Nobuyuki Kawamura
  • Fan
    Patent number: D560622
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Katsumichi Ishihara, Honami Ohsawa
  • Patent number: D560986
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2008
    Assignee: Emerson Electric Co.
    Inventors: Brian M. Adkins, Steven M. Macsay, Glen R. Chartier
  • Fan
    Patent number: D561709
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2008
    Assignee: Sanyo Denki Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jiro Watanabe, Takahisa Toda