Patents Assigned to Murakami Corporation
  • Patent number: 8157395
    Abstract: The object of this invention is to provide a folding outer mirror, in which the cost reduction, the prevention of large sizes and heavy weights, and higher stiffness of the stopper mechanism can be obtained. The folding outer mirror includes a mirror base extending outside from a side surface of vehicle body, a mirror assembly attached rotatably to the mirror base, and a stopper mechanism for stopping the mirror assembly at a predetermined position. The stopper mechanism is provided with a base-side engaging surface formed in the mirror base, and a body-side engaging surface formed in the mirror assembly and being in plane contact with the base-side engaging surface at a predetermined position. The base-side engaging surface and the body-side engaging surface are formed such that a raising angle relative to a rotating direction of the mirror assembly becomes a sharp angle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Itoh, Takanobu Matsushita, Yusuke Hagiwara
  • Patent number: 8147105
    Abstract: For a turn lamp unit, a reflecting member is disposed in an inner space formed by a housing and lens section, wherein the reflecting member is fixed to the housing by a screw. The head portion of the screw is disposed inside a screw housing space arranged at the housing, and an opening of the screw housing space is closed by a waterproof moisture-transmission section. Further, since the inner space and screw housing space are communicated with each other through a breathing hole, one end of the breathing hole is continuous with the inside of the screw housing space closed by the waterproof moisture-transmission section, and the other end of the breathing section is continuous with the inside of the inner space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami, Corporation
    Inventors: Shungo Ikeno, Masahiro Motomiya, Akira Fukai, Ryo Inuzuka
  • Publication number: 20120075510
    Abstract: The present invention enables switching between bright-light shooting and low-light shooting with an infrared cut filter placed on an optical path. An optical system captures and focuses image light from a subject. The focused image light passes through a multilayer infrared cut filter placed on an optical path of the image light and forms an image on an imaging device. The imaging device has sensitivity to at least the visible to near-infrared region. The infrared cut filter is constructed by forming a multilayer dielectric film on a surface of a transparent substrate. The infrared cut filter has a cutoff wavelength near a boundary between the visible region and near-infrared region and is configured so as to have a high incident-angle dependence. An angle of the infrared cut filter with respect to an optical axis of the optical system is varied by an incident angle varying mechanism according to an amount of light on the subject, shifting the cutoff wavelength.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2011
    Publication date: March 29, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori SATO, Yoshiyuki TERADA
  • Patent number: 8123369
    Abstract: In a shaft structure of a retractable outer mirror, a shaft includes: a first member; and a second member. The first member includes: a base section having an attachment boss; a shaft section vertically arranged on the base section; and a catch part by which a catch member is caught. The second member includes: clutch parts that performs an engagement or a release of the engagement in response to rotation of a frame; and an insert portion inserted into a shaft section. The second member is fitted in with the shaft section from above a top end side of the shaft section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Itoh, Takanobu Matsushita, Yusuke Hagiwara
  • Patent number: 8113672
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an outer mirror which prevents the whistle noise without the rotation of the mirror assembly being prevented. In order to achieve the above object, an outer mirror which includes a mirror base provided on a vehicle body; a shaft portion fixed to the mirror base; a mirror assembly rotatably mounted on the mirror base around the shaft portion used as a rotational axis; a windshield member to occlude a gap between the mirror base and the mirror assembly, in which the shaft portion includes a mounting seat attached to the mirror base; a shaft body provided uprightly on the mounting seat, the mirror assembly includes a housing having an opening toward the mirror base and the shaft body is inserted into the opening; and a mirror attached to the housing is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Masahiko Itoh, Kenji Ichikawa, Hiroyuki Kajiyama
  • Patent number: 8049452
    Abstract: A control method can stop motor operation reliably when a mirror rotator is mechanically locked at a driven end of the mirror rotator. The control method operates a motor 18 according to battery voltage. The motor 18 is operated with an operating time set and is stopped after a lapse of the set operating time, where the operating time is a time required for the motor 18 to drive the mirror rotator 14 from the retracted position or the working position to the working position or the retracted position at which the mirror rotator 14 is locked by a stopper. The control method detects the battery voltage, and decreases the set operating time of the motor 18 when the detected battery voltage is high or increases the set operating time of the motor 18 when the detected battery voltage is low.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyoshi Nagao, Noriyuki Takemasa
  • Patent number: 8040376
    Abstract: To provide a vehicle monitor apparatus capable of acquiring more information through effective utilization of an image taking region of a camera on the occasion of taking interior and exterior images of a vehicle with the camera. A vehicle monitor apparatus 1 is provided with a drive recorder 11 and a reflecting mirror 12. The drive recorder 11 is provided with a camera 14 and the camera 14 is arranged to take a forward image of the vehicle 2. In an image taking region of the camera 14, the reflecting mirror 12 is located in a range where a hood 23 should be imaged if the reflecting mirror 12 were excluded, and the camera 14 takes an image of an exterior situation outside the vehicle viewed through a windshield 22, and an image projected by the reflecting mirror 12.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Ayako Yamada, Hidenori Sato
  • Patent number: 8041209
    Abstract: A door mirror which includes a camera for checking the side of a vehicle which is in a blind spot of a driver, has a door mirror body having a through hole formed for lens side part of the camera to be inserted therein, and a camera cover having an opening part for exposing the lens part formed, and the camera cover has the first abutting surface which abuts on the outer surface of the door mirror body with elasticity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Atsushi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 8029150
    Abstract: An outer mirror includes: a mirror base which is attached to a side surface of a vehicle body of a vehicle; a shaft which is erected on the mirror base; and a mirror housing which is rotatably attached to the shaft and is provided with a mirror for reflecting a rearward of the vehicle body. The shaft is exposed in a gap between a top surface of the mirror base and a bottom surface of the mirror housing. The shaft includes at least one of a concave portion or a convex portion on a part of an outer circumferential surface of the shaft which faces to a front side of the vehicle body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Shuuzi Okamoto, Yoshikazu Terada, Hiroaki Horie
  • Publication number: 20110226922
    Abstract: A suction cup device includes a suction cup, an adhesive polymer gel layer mounted to a suction surface of the suction cup and a case. A suction surface of the polymer gel layer includes a region on an outer peripheral side and a region on an inner peripheral side placed in a position deeper than an extending surface of the region on the outer peripheral side. The case includes, on an inner surface thereof, a rib formed into an annular shape concentric with the suction cup. The rib faces the region on the outer peripheral side of the polymer gel layer from the back surface of the suction cup. When the suction cup mounted with the polymer gel layer is in the suction state, the rib presses and abuts against the back surface of the suction cup by the negative pressure, and presses the region on the outer peripheral side of the polymer gel layer via the suction cup.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Publication date: September 22, 2011
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi ISHIZAKI, Yoshitsugu NONAKA, Keiichiro OOISHI
  • Patent number: 8016466
    Abstract: A reflector 30 is constituted as an aspherical mirror that forms a light distribution S1 in which spread of reflected light in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle is larger than spread of reflected light in a lateral direction of the vehicle. The light distribution expanded in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle 3 makes the light less likely to impinge on a side surface of the vehicle 3, so that the rear part of the vehicle 3 can be illuminated efficiently. As a result, maximum illumination can be achieved with the minimum amount of light. In addition, because the range of illumination is long in the longitudinal direction, not only the area around an occupant's feet outside a front door 5 but also an area around the feet outside a rear door 6 can be illuminated easily.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Yasuhiro Sato
  • Patent number: 8016436
    Abstract: There is provided a vehicle door mirror capable of restraining whistling sounds produced by an airflow passing through a gap between a mirror base and a mirror housing when the vehicle is running. A vehicle door mirror is formed by rotatably supporting a mirror housing on a mirror base. A concave part is formed in a downward surface of the mirror housing that is rotated relative to the mirror base in a state in which the downward surface faces to an upward surface of the mirror base. Protrusions are formed in the entire region of the concave part. The protrusions project to a position close to the upward surface of the mirror base beyond the position of the outside portion of the concave part of the downward surface. The cross section of a front edge of the concave part is formed so as to be rounded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Masayuki Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 8017896
    Abstract: The present invention provides a vehicle accessory which reliably blocks the sunlight without any mechanical operation. The vehicle accessory includes: a light controlling sheet which is attached to the windshield of a vehicle, and of which light transmittance changes according to a value of voltage; and a rear view mirror which insures a rear view of the vehicle. The rear view mirror has a front light receiving sensor which measures illumination intensity of the sunlight which enters from the front of the vehicle, a rear light receiving sensor which measures illumination intensity inside the vehicle, and a circuit board which controls voltage to be applied to the light controlling sheet. When a combination of the illumination intensity of the sunlight received by the front light receiving sensor and the illumination intensity inside the vehicle received by the rear light receiving sensor is a combination stored in storage unit in advance, the circuit board applies voltage to the light controlling sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Hideyuki Kikuchi
  • Publication number: 20110205649
    Abstract: The present invention provides a housing structure of a door mirror in which a fixed-side housing portion is reliably crimped to a fixing-side housing portion on the surface side of a housing. In the housing structure of a door mirror, a boss portion and a contact piece are located on the deeper side than first and second butting portions located on the surface side, and a projection portion is located farther than a screwing portion in a positional relationship in the vertical direction (an arrow Y direction) with respect to a horizontal plane passing through the first butting portion. Therefore, when the boss portion (first mounting portion) of an upper housing (fixing-side housing portion) and the contact piece (second mounting portion) of a lamp assy (fixed-side housing portion) are fixed by a screw, a screw tightening force can be concentrated on the projection portion as shown by an arrow A, and this force can be made to act on the first and second butting portions as shown by an arrow B.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2010
    Publication date: August 25, 2011
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kentaro SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20110205747
    Abstract: The present invention provides a door mirror for an automobile, in which molding errors are made difficult to occur in a housing and assembling accuracy between the housing and a lamp assy is improved. A housing applied to the door mirror for an automobile is divided into two parts, that is, an upper housing located on the upper side and a lower housing located on the lower side, and a lamp assy constituting a side-turn lamp is disposed between the upper housing and the lower housing. Since the housing is divided vertically into two parts, materials or colors of the upper housing and the lower housing can be made different so that a texture and an appearance of the housing can be easily changed. Moreover, assembling errors between the housing and the lamp assy due to deformation by injection molding or thermal deformation applied during painting can hardly occur, and a gap can be hardly generated between the housing and the lamp assy on the surface side of the housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2010
    Publication date: August 25, 2011
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kentaro SUZUKI, Yosuke SATO
  • Publication number: 20110204667
    Abstract: The present invention has an object to provide a door mirror for an automobile in which a variation in a gap between a bottom wall of a housing and a pedestal portion of a door-mirror base is eliminated. In this door mirror for an automobile, even if distortion, contraction error or the like occurs in a lower housing after molding, if the frame and the shaft are assembled rotatably with accuracy, since a lower end face of a shaft container portion provided on the frame rotatably connected to the shaft fixed to a pedestal portion of the door-mirror base is in contact with the peripheral edge portion of an opening portion in the inner face of a bottom wall of the lower housing, the housing can be fixed to the frame without an error in the positional relationship between the peripheral edge portion of the opening portion of the lower housing and the shaft.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2010
    Publication date: August 25, 2011
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kentaro SUZUKI
  • Patent number: 8004768
    Abstract: The present invention provides a vehicle mirror and a manufacturing method therefor which allow the rear face side of a mirror element to be dark-colored without using a color plate or color coating. A mirror element is configured by forming a semitransparent reflective film made of a dielectric multilayer film on the front face of a flat transparent substrate. A dark-colored self-adhesive film is attached to the rear face of the mirror element. The dark-colored self-adhesive film is configured by forming an adhesive layer on the rear face of a dark-colored film layer by means of application. Grid-like air release channels are formed at fine pitches with minimal depth on an entire surface of the adhesive layer. After the dark-colored self-adhesive film is attached to the rear face of the mirror element, the grid-like air release channels visible from a front side of the mirror element are eliminated by heating and/or pressurizing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Shinya Takayanagi, Masatoshi Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20110194201
    Abstract: If a lip portion of a gasket is brought into contact with a peripheral wall face on the upper side of a door mirror mounting portion strongly from an arrow A direction, an elastic portion is largely deformed so as to deflect outward when the lip portion is retreated, and the lip portion controls a force that hits the peripheral wall face of the door mirror mounting portion. Therefore, whether a distal end portion of the lip portion hits the peripheral wall face of the door mirror mounting portion disposed on a front door weakly or strongly due to variation in accuracy of a component, the distal end portion of the lip portion and the peripheral wall face of the door mirror mounting portion can be reliably brought into close contact with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2010
    Publication date: August 11, 2011
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Ryo MURAMATSU
  • Patent number: 7980711
    Abstract: Interference of light is prevented from occurring in a rear-view mirror incorporating a light-emitting display device where a dark color mask member is arranged behind a mirror element. A mirror element is formed by forming a semi-transmissive reflective film on one surface of a transparent substrate. On a back surface of the mirror element, a dark color mask member is arranged. An opening a is formed in the dark color mask member Behind the mirror element, a light-emitting display device is arranged facing the opening. A protrusion forming a spacer is formed on the entire peripheral edge of a front surface of the dark color mask member. The spacer provides a clearance gap between the semi-transmissive reflective film and the dark color mask member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Shinya Takayanagi, Masatoshi Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20110141591
    Abstract: The present invention provides a base which can be used for both manually retractable vehicle door mirror in which a shaft is placed on a rotating side and electrically retractable vehicle door mirror in which a shaft is placed on a stationary side. A base includes a car body fixing section and rotation support section. The rotation support section is equipped with an upright shaft fastening surface on which a shaft of an electric drive mechanism of an electrically retractable door mirror is fastened upright. A center hole is formed in a central part of the upright shaft fastening surface to rotatably pass a shaft formed on a rotating side of a manually retractable door mirror. An annular wall housing groove is formed on an outer circumferential side of the upright shaft fastening surface to rotatably house an annular wall formed coaxially with the shaft on the rotating side of the manually retractable door mirror.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kota ISEKI