Patents Assigned to Akebono
  • Patent number: 7051848
    Abstract: A brake system includes a caliper and a brake element. The brake system further includes an adhesive that adheres the brake element to the caliper. The adhesive stops adhering the brake element to the caliper after the adhesive heats to an elevated temperature. The adhesive retains the brake element in the caliper during shipping and component handling but stops adhering the brake element after a first service use of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2006
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation (North America)
    Inventors: Eric John Roszman, Orit Dana Baron
  • Patent number: 7044275
    Abstract: In a drum brake device having a shoe drive cam, the braking force of which is mechanically controlled according to a reaction force acting on an anchor pin by a brake shoe, the cam plate 76 pivotally supported by the anchor pin 10 and the lever plate 30, to which a shoe operating force is given by the operating force generating means 6, are connected to each other being capable of rotating relatively via a pair of cam pins 21, 23 coming into contact with the brake shoes 3, 4, and the transmitting mechanism of the input system composed of the lever plate 30 and the pair of cam pins 21, 23 and the transmitting mechanism of the control system composed of the pair of cam pins 21, 23 and the cam plate 76 are put into a separate state in which a direct power transmission is not conducted between them.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2006
    Assignee: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Toshifumi Maehara
  • Publication number: 20060049008
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide a floating caliper type disc brake which can effectively suppress the occurrence of uneven wear in linings of respective pads, and effectively suppress the occurrence of noise and judder during braking. In the present invention, a caliper is supported by a support member displaceably in an axial direction of a rotor. Pressed-side shim plates are respectively lined on reverse surfaces of back plates of pads supported by the support, while supporting-side shim plates are lined on an inner side surface of a claw portion and on a distal end face of a piston. The pressed-side shim plates and the pressing-side shim plates are respectively retained by mating members to be lined on by means of resilient retainers, and one surface of each of the mutually opposing pressed-side shim plates and one surface of each of the pressing-side shim plates are slidably abutted against each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2004
    Publication date: March 9, 2006
    Applicant: AKEBONO BRAKE INDUSTRY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Koichi Kinoshita, Hideaki Ikeda, Isao Wakabayashi, Takeshi Kashimura, Shinjiro Masuko, Takefumi Morio
  • Patent number: 6971484
    Abstract: A ball ramp mechanism constituting a force transmission converting mechanism is inserted into a cylinder of a caliper body and a relative rotation angle thereof is restricted to a predetermined range. Further, by successively assembling a piston head, a ramp plate and a ball and a screw shaft member constituting the ball ramp mechanism, a coil spring and an end plate in this order and by catching the end plate by a slit of a piston case in a state of flexing the coil spring, respective parts are elastically connected and assembled by the spring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2005
    Assignee: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kazuhiro Sekiguchi
  • Patent number: 6938736
    Abstract: An electric parking brake mechanism characterized in an electric parking brake for pressing a friction member to a braked member via a force transmission converting mechanism for converting a rotational movement of an electric motor to a linear movement, including an input shaft connected to a side of the electric motor, an output shaft connected to a side of a brake mechanism for pressing the friction member to the brake member and a cam mechanism interposed between the input shaft and the output shaft, the cam mechanism is provided with a plurality of cam members and each having a cam face having a radius gradually increasing relative to a rotational center and in driving only a side of the output shaft, rotation of the output shaft is hampered by operating all of the plurality of cam members to constitute sides of large diameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2005
    Assignee: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kimio Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6931929
    Abstract: A sine wave electric signal whose frequency continuously varies within a predetermined frequency range is applied to a piezoelectric speaker, whereby a vibration frequency characteristic of the piezoelectric speaker is detected. A change of the frequency characteristic of the piezoelectric speaker when the piezoelectric speaker is brought into contact with concrete filled into a precast concrete form is detected based on the vibration frequency characteristic detected. With this unique feature, a filling status of concrete in the precast concrete form can exactly be detected independently of the hardness of water contained in the concrete and ambient temperature, and even if a temperature difference between air and the concrete is small.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2005
    Assignee: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takashi Sakai, Minoru Kaneko
  • Publication number: 20040251100
    Abstract: In a drum brake device having a shoe drive cam, the braking force of which is mechanically controlled according to a reaction force acting on an anchor pin by a brake shoe, the cam plate 76 pivotally supported by the anchor pin 10 and the lever plate 30, to which a shoe operating force is given by the operating force generating means 6, are connected to each other being capable of rotating relatively via a pair of cam pins 21, 23 coming into contact with the brake shoes 3, 4, and the transmitting mechanism of the input system composed of the lever plate 30 and the pair of cam pins 21, 23 and the transmitting mechanism of the control system composed of the pair of cam pins 21, 23 and the cam plate 76 are put into a separate state in which a direct power transmission is not conducted between them.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2004
    Publication date: December 16, 2004
    Applicant: AKEBONO BRAKE INDUSTRY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Toshifumi Maehara
  • Publication number: 20040245054
    Abstract: An actuator 23d for pushing a plurality of friction plates 44, 44 to a plurality of plates 37, 37 to be braked is composed of members including electroactive polymer, the shape of the elastomer of which is changed by electric energy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2004
    Publication date: December 9, 2004
    Applicant: AKEBONO BRAKE INDUSTRY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kimio Takahashi, Kazuhiro Sekiguchi, Hideaki Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20040245059
    Abstract: A cam mechanism 7 provided as a shoe drive mechanism includes a cam supporting plate 21 being loosely and rotatably fitted on an anchor pin 10 for receiving a shoe operating force, a first cam plate 23 rotatably connected to the cam supporting plate 21 at an outer cam supporting position which is a position shifted away from the anchor pin 10 radially outwardly of the drum, a second cam plate 25 rotatably connected to the cam supporting plate 21 at an inner cam supporting position which is away from the anchor pin 10 toward the operating force generating means 6, so that a pair of brake shoes 3, 4 are opened outwardly by the separate cam plates 23, 25, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2004
    Publication date: December 9, 2004
    Applicant: AKEBONO BRAKE INDUSTRY CO., LTD
    Inventors: Toshifumi Maehara, Katsuhiro Miyata, Yukimasa Mitsude, Takayuki Mukasa, Takeshi Noda, Yoshiaki Saitoh
  • Publication number: 20040112690
    Abstract: A ball ramp mechanism constituting a force transmission converting mechanism is inserted into a cylinder of a caliper body and a relative rotation angle thereof is restricted to a predetermined range. Further, by successively assembling a piston head, a ramp plate and a ball and a screw shaft member constituting the ball ramp mechanism, a coil spring and an end plate in this order and by catching the end plate by a slit of a piston case in a state of flexing the coil spring, respective parts are elastically connected and assembled by the spring.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2003
    Publication date: June 17, 2004
    Applicant: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kazuhiro Sekiguchi
  • Publication number: 20040104087
    Abstract: An electric parking brake mechanism characterized in an electric parking brake for pressing a friction member to a braked member via a force transmission converting mechanism for converting a rotational movement of an electric motor to a linear movement, including an input shaft connected to a side of the electric motor, an output shaft connected to a side of a brake mechanism for pressing the friction member to the brake member and a cam mechanism interposed between the input shaft and the output shaft, the cam mechanism is provided with a plurality of cam members and each having a cam face having a radius gradually increasing relative to a rotational center and in driving only a side of the output shaft, rotation of the output shaft is hampered by operating all of the plurality of cam members to constitute sides of large diameters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2003
    Publication date: June 3, 2004
    Applicant: AKEBONO BRAKE INDUSTRY CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Kimio Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20040031327
    Abstract: A sine wave electric signal whose frequency continuously varies within a predetermined frequency range is applied to a piezoelectric speaker, whereby a vibration frequency characteristic of the piezoelectric speaker is detected. A change of the frequency characteristic of the piezoelectric speaker when the piezoelectric speaker is brought into contact with concrete filled into a precast concrete form is detected based on the vibration frequency characteristic detected. With this unique feature, a filling status of concrete in the precast concrete form can exactly be detected independently of the hardness of water contained in the concrete and ambient temperature, and even if a temperature difference between air and the concrete is small.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 8, 2003
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Lrd.
    Inventors: Takashi Sakai, Minoru Kaneko
  • Patent number: 6679355
    Abstract: The disclosure presents a control method for an electric braking device which includes a brake switch, a pushing force sensor, a thrust sensor, and an electric motor which moves a pad thrust member in a direction in which the pad thrust member approaches to a rotor rotating with the vehicle wheel associated therewith, thereby performing a braking operation. In the control method, a brake target value as computed by using an output signal of the pushing force sensor is compared with a threshold value as set to a minute braking force when the brake switch is in an on state. When the brake target value is below the threshold value, the electric motor is controlled with a predetermined value as the target value, and after the brake switch is turned off, the electric motor is rotated for a predetermined time to retract the pad thrust member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2004
    Assignee: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yoshihiko Suzuki
  • Patent number: 6670408
    Abstract: A friction material comprises a fibrous reinforcement, a friction modifier and a binder. At least potassium hexatitanate fiber and potassium octatitanate fiber are used together as the fibrous reinforcement and mixed at a ratio in a range between 2 wt % and 40 wt % of the whole of the friction material as total amount. It is preferable that a mixing ratio of the potassium hexatitanate fiber to the potassium octatitanate fiber is in a range between 1:4 and 4:1 by weight percentage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2003
    Assignee: Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akihiro Hikichi, Mikiya Haruta, Kazuya Horiguchi
  • Patent number: 6651784
    Abstract: An apparatus for operating a hand brake is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a housing (2) and an adjustable actuator (4, 6), wherein the housing (2) has a cavity which contains a ball ramp plate (48, 50) and a sleeve nut (6) to prevent their rotation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 25, 2003
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation North America
    Inventors: Manuel Barbosa, Seiya Odaka, Takashi Matsumoto
  • Patent number: D515482
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2006
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation
    Inventors: Manuel Barbosa, Sean C. Barrett, Philip N. Jedele
  • Patent number: D488414
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2004
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation (North America)
    Inventors: Manuel Barbosa, Sean C. Barrett, Philip N. Jedele
  • Patent number: D488750
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation (North America)
    Inventors: Manuel Barbosa, Sean C. Barrett, Philip N. Jedele
  • Patent number: D492229
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2004
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation (North America)
    Inventors: Manuel Barbosa, Sean C. Barrett, Philip N. Jedele
  • Patent number: D493754
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2004
    Assignee: Akebono Corporation (North America)
    Inventors: Manuel Barbosa, Sean C. Barrett, Philip N. Jedele