Patents Assigned to Murakami Corporation
  • Publication number: 20130070353
    Abstract: A mirror housing of an electric door mirror is provided with a partition wall for partitioning a mirror accommodating space and a harness accommodating space. The partition wall is provided with an opening portion for exposing a terminal portion of a mirror surface angle adjusting unit to the harness accommodating space. A peripheral edge portion of the opening portion is provided with a claw portion elastically deformed when a connector portion is pushed to the terminal portion and elastically recovered to be opposed to a back face of the connector portion to thereby prevent detachment of the connector portion after connecting the connector portion to the terminal portion. Further, a peripheral edge portion of the opening portion is provided with a guide portion for restricting a movement of the connector portion against an elastic force of the claw portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2012
    Publication date: March 21, 2013
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kentaro SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20130040468
    Abstract: Provided is a remote-controlled mirror drive unit, the drive unit eliminating the need to provide a splice portion that short-circuits terminals of two motors at a halfway position in a mirror harness and enabling the short-circuit part to be arranged outside a mirror unit. A mirror harness includes four wires connected respectively to four terminals of two mirror angle adjustment motors. The mirror harness is led to a vehicle body inner portion through a mirror housing and a mirror base. In the vehicle body inner portion, a mirror switch circuit is disposed. Three wires that supply drive power to the motors are drawn out from the mirror switch circuit. The four wires and the three wires are interconnected in an in-vehicle body connector. Here, two wires are connected to one wire, and two wires are individually connected to two wires.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 27, 2012
    Publication date: February 14, 2013
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masahiro MOTOMIYA
  • Patent number: 8366489
    Abstract: Provided is a relay connector 100 for establishing connection between motors each having a pair of motor terminals provided to a back plate, and for supplying power supplied from external terminals to the respective motor terminals. The relay connector 100 includes: a motor connecting surface 120 having a first relay terminal 140 that connects to the motor terminals of each motor; an external connector connecting surface 130 that is continuous to the motor connecting surface 120 and has in its bonding surface a second relay terminal 150 that connects to L-shaped terminals 220; and a housing 110 having the motor connecting surface 120 and the external connector connecting surface 130 in its end surfaces. The first relay terminal 140 and the second relay terminal 150 are electrically connected with each other within the housing 110.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignees: Molex Incorporated, Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Kotaro Kobayashi, Naoya Matsuura, Hisaya Suzuki, Akira Fukai, Masahiro Motomiya
  • Publication number: 20130020461
    Abstract: When a reflecting film of a mirror device employed in a rearview mirror with monitor is processed with laser light, a part from which the reflecting film is removed by the laser light transmits light therethrough, while the remaining part reflects the light. Therefore, the light transmittance can be changed easily according to the area irradiated with the laser light. Further, when laser-processing a reflecting/transmitting mirror region corresponding to a monitor screen, cells having the same form are arranged in a matrix, and each cell is formed with an irregular pattern by the laser light.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 21, 2012
    Publication date: January 24, 2013
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Ayako YAMADA, Masaaki MATSUURA
  • Publication number: 20120314425
    Abstract: A turn lamp unit has a substrate holding unit for use when assembling a rigid substrate equipped with a lamp to a base member. This substrate holding unit comprises a board-like substrate mount rising from a bottom face on the inner face side of the base member; a pair of elastic pressers, which rise from a flat part of the substrate mount and are arranged so as to oppose each other in a width direction of the base member (i.e., a vertical direction in the state where the turn lamp unit is mounted to a door mirror), for pressing the front face of the rigid substrate by elasticity and thereby holding the rigid substrate at the substrate mount; and a projection, disposed on the substrate mount between the pair of elastic pressers, for abutting against the rear face of the rigid substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2012
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akira FUKAI, Hiroya MIWA, Ryo INUZUKA
  • Patent number: 8308325
    Abstract: The present invention is intended to provide an image pickup device-equipped rear view mirror with improved image pickup performance, glare prevention and appearance (design) in addition to improved performance as a vehicle mirror. A mirror element is formed by forming a reflecting film consisting of high refractive index material films and a low refractive index material film on a back surface of a transparent glass substrate. The integrating sphere reflectance of the mirror element in the visible range is 40% to 60% and the near-infrared transmittance is no less than 70% for the whole or part of the band belonging to the near-infrared range within the entire sensitive wavelength range of the near-infrared camera. A black mask member is attached to an entire back surface of the reflecting film. The near-infrared camera is arranged behind the black mask member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Shinya Takayanagi, Masatoshi Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20120235009
    Abstract: A door mirror base including a base main unit for holding a vehicular door minor and a gasket disposed between the base main unit and a vehicle body. The gasket includes a hook protruding toward a vehicle body side and to be hooked onto the vehicle body. The base main unit includes a reinforcing pin passed through the gasket and protruding toward the vehicle body side of the gasket along the hook. The reinforcing pin includes a locking portion exposed on the vehicle body side of the gasket and caught by a surface of the gasket on the vehicle body side. By visually recognizing the locking portion from the vehicle body side of the gasket, it can be confirmed that the reinforcing pin is sufficiently passed through the gasket. Additionally, the locking portion makes it difficult for the reinforcing pin to be removed from the gasket.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2012
    Publication date: September 20, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroaki Horie, Yasuhiro Iwamoto, Toshiharu Yamashita
  • Publication number: 20120235832
    Abstract: The door mirror for an automobile including a light diffusing section disposed between the side object detection symbols and the first and second LEDs. Relative dispositions between the side object detection symbols and the first and second LEDs are such that the optical axis of the first LED intersects with a host vehicle display section and the optical axis of the second LED intersects with an other vehicle display section. The relative dispositions enable uniform illumination of the side object detection symbols using the two LEDs. Furthermore, the optical axis of the first LED intersects with a light non-transmissive portion of the host vehicle display section and the optical axis of the second LED intersects with a light non-transmissive portion of the other vehicle display section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2012
    Publication date: September 20, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Shinya TAKAYANAGI
  • Publication number: 20120230045
    Abstract: An aspect of the present invention provides a rearview mirror designed to enhance assembly workability. When assembling a mirror unit of the rearview mirror, a lamp unit is dropped in an opening provided on a mirror holder from an inner surface side of the mirror holder in a condition in which side object detection symbols face upward. Thereafter, a circumferential edge of a reflective mirror is fitted into a recess-shaped fit portion of the mirror holder. The lamp unit is thus simply clamped and fixed between a lamp unit receiving portion (tab portions) and the reflective mirror. When the lamp unit is assembled in the mirror unit, therefore, adhesive is not used, so that workability is extremely good.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2012
    Publication date: September 13, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Shinya TAKAYANAGI
  • Patent number: 8240898
    Abstract: On the surface of Fresnel lens part which is formed on the back face of the lens in a door mirror, grain is provided. This grain includes the first grain formed in the first area positioned in the outside of the boundary extending in the front and rear direction of a vehicle, and the second grain formed in the second area positioned in the door panel side of the boundary, and the concavity depth of the second grain is deeper than that of the first grain. Consequently, illumination intensity of the light irradiated toward the face of the door panel from the deeper grain side of the second area can be reduced compared with the illumination intensity of the light toward the footstep from the shallower grain side of the first area. Adoption of such lens makes possible to apply in the various vehicle models through changing only the boundary position and concavity depth of the grain on the face of the Fresnel lens part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Teramoto, Ryo Yasumoto
  • Publication number: 20120183281
    Abstract: A warming device capable of quickly increasing a temperature of a washer fluid with a relatively-low current, warming a relatively-large volume of washer fluid, and further retaining a washer fluid in a warmed state for some time after a power supply is turned off is provided. A warming device includes a structure in which a small heating chamber is housed in an inner space of a heat-retaining hot fluid storage chamber and an electric heater is housed in an inner space of the small heating chamber. The heat-retaining hot fluid storage chamber has a heat-insulating structure. The small heating chamber has a moderate thermal conductivity. A washer fluid fed from a washer tank is supplied to the small heating chamber through the heat-retaining hot fluid storage chamber, warmed by the heater and ejected from a washer nozzle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2011
    Publication date: July 19, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori SATO, Masaki KOBAYASHI
  • Patent number: 8215781
    Abstract: In a mirror for an automobile, the adoption of resin mirror body to a mirror plate can decrease the weight of the mirror body, and the mirror plate is fixed onto a mirror holder through the welding. Therefore, this eliminates the usage of both-sided adhesive tape or adhesive agent, makes assembly processes less complicated, and thus the reduction in production cost is achieved. Furthermore, since the mirror plate can be fixed onto the mirror holder firmly and strongly even when the mirror plate is not pressed strongly to the mirror holder, excessive load on the mirror holder or the mirror plate becomes avoided. In addition, at the time of the production stage, some dimensional variation in the edge part of the mirror holder or the peripheral edge of the mirror plate becomes easily acceptable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 10, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Fumitaka Kitagawa, Akira Fukai
  • Patent number: 8210726
    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: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Kentaro Suzuki, Yosuke Sato
  • Publication number: 20120162798
    Abstract: When a mirror angle is automatically displaced toward a target position, if the movement is mechanically locked before reaching the target position, power supply to a motor can promptly be halt, and in the case of a low temperature and a low voltage where the operating speed is slow, the mirror angle can also reach the target position. If time during which no change in the mirror angle is detected after the start of power supply exceeds a long-term determination period, the power supply to the motor is halted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2011
    Publication date: June 28, 2012
    Applicant: MURAKAMI CORPORATION
    Inventor: Noriyuki TAKEMASA
  • Patent number: 8197107
    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: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Kentaro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 8182124
    Abstract: Light of an incorporated lamp illuminates the lower side of a side surface of a door of a vehicle. A rear end part of a lamp socket mounted with the lamp is exposed from a cylinder part of a lamp housing and projected from the lamp housing toward a holder/mirror assembly. Therefore, when replacing the lamp, the lamp socket can be found easily by simply removing the holder/mirror assembly, and the lamp can easily be extracted along with the lamp socket, to an operator side. Also, when attaching the lamp socket, high visibility of an opening part can be obtained because the opening part of the cylinder part is exposed to the holder/mirror assembly side in the lamp housing, thereby achieving a door mirror with extremely good workability of lamp replacement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Yasuhiro Sato
  • Patent number: 8177400
    Abstract: There is provided an outer mirror with turn lamp that facilitates assembling of a housing cover to a mirror housing and increases strength of the housing cover. A turn lamp assembly is mounted to a mirror housing. A housing cover is placed over and mounted to a partial area of the mirror housing. Thus, a lens of the turn lamp assembly is exposed through an opening formed in an outer position of the housing cover. The mirror housing and the housing cover are connected to each other with a ridge and a groove in end surfaces and abutting against and fitting each other. On a wall on an inner side of the mirror that constitutes a part of the component of the groove in the housing cover, at an assembling start position in an outer position outside the opening, an assembling leading rib is formed that protrudes in a direction abutting against the end surface of the mirror housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventor: Yoshihiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20120115354
    Abstract: Provided is a relay connector 100 for establishing connection between motors each having a pair of motor terminals provided to a back plate, and for supplying power supplied from external terminals to the respective motor terminals. The relay connector 100 includes: a motor connecting surface 120 having a first relay terminal 140 that connects to the motor terminals of each motor; an external connector connecting surface 130 that is continuous to the motor connecting surface 120 and has in its bonding surface a second relay terminal 150 that connects to L-shaped terminals 220; and a housing 110 having the motor connecting surface 120 and the external connector connecting surface 130 in its end surfaces. The first relay terminal 140 and the second relay terminal 150 are electrically connected with each other within the housing 110.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2006
    Publication date: May 10, 2012
    Applicants: Murakami Corporation, Molex Incorporated
    Inventors: Kotaro Kobayashi, Naoya Matsuura, Hisaya Suzuki, Akira Fukai, Masahiro Motomiya
  • Patent number: 8169307
    Abstract: To provide a vehicle rear-view mirror equipped with a display device, configured so that: a warning indication is easy to see from the driver and is hard to see from following vehicles and vehicles on the adjacent lanes; and when no warning is indicated, no discontinuities occur in the rear-area image reflected in the mirror and the warning symbol is unnoticeable. A mirror element 18 is configured by forming a semi-transmissive reflective film 24 or 56 formed of a dielectric multilayer film on the back or front surface of a transparent glass substrate 22. A dark color mask member 26 is arranged on the back surface of the mirror element 18. An opening 26a is formed on the mask member 26. A light-orienting tube 28 is arranged in such a manner that it protrudes in the backward direction of the mask member 26 so as to surround the opening 26a. The tube axis 28a of the light-orienting tube 28 is inclined in the direction toward the driver's viewpoint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Murakami Corporation
    Inventors: Masatoshi Nakamura, Shinya Takayanagi, Atsunori Bandou, Yoshifumi Masuda
  • 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