Patents Assigned to Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd.
  • Patent number: 11654508
    Abstract: Provided is a method for manufacturing a liquid-cooled jacket, to reduce the size of a recessed groove on a surface of a metal member and also to reduce roughness of an abutted surface. The method includes: a placing step of placing a jacket body and a sealing body, a first main joining step of performing friction stirring by moving a main joining rotary tool around along a first abutted portion, and a second main joining step of performing friction stirring by moving the main joining rotary tool around along a second abutted portion. The main joining rotary tool has a base-end-side pin and a tip-end-side pin. A taper angle of the base-end-side pin is grater than a taper angle of the tip-end-side pin and a stairs-like pin step portion is formed on an outer circumferential surface of the tip-end-side pin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi Hori, Nobushiro Seo, Kosuke Yamanaka
  • Patent number: 11654507
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a liquid-cooling jacket (1) where heat transfer fluid flows in a hollow part (14) defined by a jacket body (2) and a sealing body (3) includes: an overlapping process in which the sealing body (3) is placed on an end surface (11a) of a peripheral wall part (11) in such a way that the end surface (11a) and a back surface of the sealing body (3) are overlapped each other to form a first overlapped part (H1); and a primary joining process in which primary joining is performed by friction stirring in such a way that a rotary tool (FD) is moved once around a recessed part (13) along the first overlapped part (H1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2023
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi Hori, Nobushiro Seo, Kosuke Yamanaka
  • Publication number: 20230135888
    Abstract: The present invention includes: a primary joining process in which a coarse portion having a predetermined width is formed in the vicinity of a step side face within a plasticized region while the rotary tool is being moved one round along a first butted portion to perform friction stirring in a state that a tip of a stirring pin of a rotary tool being rotated is inserted to the same depth as or slightly deeper than a step bottom face and a bottom face of a shoulder portion is in contact with a front face of a sealing body and the stirring pin is slightly in contact with at least an upper portion of a jacket body; and an inspection process in which a passed position of the stirring pin is specified by performing, after the primary joining process, a flaw detection to detect the coarse portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2020
    Publication date: May 4, 2023
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi HORI, Nobushiro SEO
  • Patent number: 11626257
    Abstract: When manufacturing an electrode for an electrolytic capacitor, in a first hydration step (ST1), an aluminum electrode is immersed in a first hydration processing solution having a temperature of at least 70° C. and comprising pure water or an aqueous solution to which phosphoric acid or a phosphate has been added so that the phosphorus concentration is no greater than 4 mass ppm. In a second hydration step (ST2), the aluminum electrode is immersed in a second hydration processing solution to which phosphoric acid or a phosphate has been added so that the phosphorus concentration is 4-5000 mass ppm, the second hydration processing solution having a pH of 3.0-9.0 and a temperature of at least 70° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignees: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD., TOYO ALUMINIUM K. K.
    Inventors: Shuhei Enoki, Yuta Shimizu, Masahiko Katano, Toshifumi Taira, Kazuya Fujimoto, Shinya Sone
  • Patent number: 11603582
    Abstract: An Al—Si—Fe-based aluminum alloy casting material that is excellent in elongation while having characteristics of high rigidity and a method for producing the same are provided. The Al—Si—Fe-based aluminum alloy casting material has a composition that includes: Si, a content of which is 12.0% by mass or more and 25.0% by mass or less; Fe, a content of which is 0.48% by mass or more and 4.0% by mass or less; Cr, a content of which is 0.17% by mass or more and 5.0% by mass or less; and a remainder composed of Al and unavoidable impurities. The casting material includes a structure, in which a Si-based crystallized product surrounds an Al—Cr—Si-based compound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Satoru Suzuki, Kazuhiro Oda, Katumi Fukaya
  • Patent number: 11590605
    Abstract: Provided is a joining method that can prevent a plastic flowing material from flowing out from a butt section and that can reduce the thickness and weight of metal members. The joining method is for joining a first metal member and a second metal member by using a rotary tool comprising a stirring pin, and is characterized in that: the stirring pin comprises a flat surface perpendicular to the rotation axis of the rotary tool and comprises a protruding section protruding from the flat face; and in a friction stirring step, the flat surface is brought into contact with the first metal member and the second metal member, and a front end face of the protruding section is inserted deeper than an upper overlapping section to join an upper front butt section and the upper overlapping section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Nobushiro Seo, Hisashi Hori
  • Publication number: 20230053077
    Abstract: The present invention includes: a primary joining process in which a coarse portion having a predetermined width is formed in the vicinity of a step side face within a plasticized region while the rotary tool is being moved one round along a first butted portion to perform friction stirring in a state that a tip of a tip side pin of a rotary tool being rotated is inserted to the same depth as or slightly deeper than a step bottom face and an outer circumferential face of a base side pin is in contact with a front face of a sealing body and the tip side pin is slightly in contact with at least an upper portion of a jacket body and an inspection process in which a passed position of the tip side pin is specified by performing, a flaw detection to detect the coarse portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2020
    Publication date: February 16, 2023
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi HORI, Nobushiro SEO, Kosuke YAMANAKA
  • Publication number: 20230044246
    Abstract: A joining method includes: an overlapping step of overlapping a front surface of a first metal member with a back surface of a second metal member; and a welding step of welding the first metal member with the second metal member by hybrid welding, with use of a hybrid welding machine including a leading laser welding unit and a trailing arc welding unit. In the welding step, laser welding, by irradiating a laser beam, and arc welding are performed, along a preset travel route set on an inner corner portion formed by the front surface of the first metal member and an end surface of the second metal member, to the inner corner portion and the laser beam is oscillated to cross the preset travel route.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2020
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Ryo YOSHIDA, Hiroshi KANEKI
  • Publication number: 20230042870
    Abstract: A joining method includes: an overlapping step of overlapping a front surface of a first metal member with a back surface of a second metal member; and a welding step of welding the first metal member with the second metal member by hybrid welding, using a hybrid welding machine including a leading laser welding unit and a trailing arc welding unit. In the welding step, laser welding, by irradiating with a laser beam, and arc welding are performed from a front surface of the second metal member, along a preset travel route which is set on an overlapped part formed by the first metal member and the second metal member overlapped with each other, to the overlapped part, and the laser beam is oscillated to cross the preset travel route.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2020
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Ryo YOSHIDA, Hiroshi KANEKI
  • Patent number: 11559850
    Abstract: A jacket main body is formed of a first aluminum alloy. A seal body is formed of a second aluminum alloy. The first aluminum alloy is higher in hardness than the second aluminum alloy in material type. A method includes: a preparing step of forming on an peripheral wall part a step part having a step bottom surface and a step side surface obliquely rising; a mounting step of mounting the seal body on the jacket main body to form a first butt portion and putting the step bottom surface and a back surface of the seal body on each other to form a second butt portion; a main joining step of performing friction stir welding while only the stirring pin of the rotary tool rotating contacts with only the seal body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi Hori, Nobushiro Seo
  • Patent number: 11549461
    Abstract: An aluminum alloy having excellent high temperature strength and thermal conductivity; and an internal combustion engine piston including the alloy. The aluminum alloy includes 11.0-13.0% Si, ?0.3% Fe, 0.3-2.0% Mg, 2.0-5.0% Cu, 3.0-4.0% Ni, 0.2-1.0% Mn, 0.05-0.4% Cr, and 0.05-0.4% V, with the remainder including aluminum and unavoidable impurities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2023
    Assignees: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD., ART METAL MFG. CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Izumi Yamamoto, Kazuhiro Oda, Hiroshi Horikawa, Katsumi Fukaya, Takashi Seki, Tadashi Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20220347788
    Abstract: The automatic joining system includes: a fixing device; a friction stir device; a measuring unit; and a controlling device, in which a rotating tool includes a base end side pin and a tip end side pin formed continuously to the base end side pin, the controlling device sets a target moving route along which the rotating tool moves when friction stir joining of a butting portion is performed, based on a ridge line position before the friction stir joining is performed, and also sets a modified moving route at a position displaced toward a first metallic member side in substantially parallel with respect to the target moving route, and the friction stir device controls the rotating tool to move along the modified moving route and thereby performing the friction stir joining along the target moving route.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2020
    Publication date: November 3, 2022
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi HORI, Kosuke YAMANAKA, Takeshi HANDA, Kiyomi TSUCHIYA, Satoshi TAKAHASHI, Nobuki TAKAHASHI
  • Patent number: 11419237
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a liquid-cooling jacket (1) where heat transfer fluid flows in a hollow part (14) defined by a jacket body (2) and a sealing body (3) includes: an overlapping process in which the sealing body (3) is placed on an end surface (11a) of a peripheral wall part (11) in such a way that the end surface (11a) and a back surface of the sealing body (3) are overlapped each other to form a first overlapped part (H1); and a primary joining process in which primary joining is performed by friction stirring in such a way that a rotary tool (F1) is moved once around a recessed part (13) along the first overlapped part (H1). In the primary joining process, the first overlapped part (H1) is joined in a state where the tip side pin is in contact with only the sealing body (3) or with the jacket body (2) and the sealing body (3) while the base side pin is in contact with the sealing body (3).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi Hori, Nobushiro Seo, Kosuke Yamanaka
  • Patent number: 11413700
    Abstract: The present invention is characterized by including a heat medium pipe insertion process to insert a heat medium pipe into a concave groove; a lid plate insertion process to insert a lid plate into a lid groove; and a joining process to perform friction stirring while a primary joining rotary tool provided with a base side pin and a tip side pin is moved along a butted portion of a side wall of the lid groove and a side face of the lid plate, wherein in the joining process, friction stirring is performed while the tip side pin of the primary rotary tool which is rotating is inserted into the butted portion and an outer circumferential face of the base side pin is in contact with the base member and the lid plate, and plastically fluidized material fluidized by frictional heat is flowed into a void portion formed adjacent to the heat medium pipe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hisashi Hori, Nobushiro Seo, Kosuke Yamanaka
  • Patent number: 11401584
    Abstract: Aluminum alloy sheet for battery lid use having suitable strength and excellent in formability and work softenability, which aluminum alloy sheet for battery lid use enabling formation of an integrated explosion-proof valve with little variation in operating pressure and excellent in cyclic fatigue resistance, and a method of production of the same are provided, the aluminum alloy sheet for battery lid use for forming an integrated explosion-proof valve having a component composition containing Fe: 1.05 to 1.50 mass %, Mn: 0.15 to 0.70 mass %, Ti: 0.002 to 0.15 mass %, and B: less than 0.04 mass %, having a balance of Al and impurities, having an Fe/Mn ratio restricted to 1.8 to 7.0, restricting, as impurities, Si to less than 0.40 mass %, Cu to less than 0.03 mass %, Mg to less than 0.05 mass %, and V to less than 0.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuuichi Tamaki, Keiji Kanamori, Daisuke Shimosaka, Toshiya Anami
  • Publication number: 20220226927
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a hollow container with use of a rotary tool including a tapered stirring pin, including: preparing a first metal member, a second metal member, and an auxiliary member; butting the first metal member and the second metal member to face with each other, the auxiliary member is interposed between the first metal member and the second metal member; and joining the first metal member with the second metal member via the auxiliary member. The first and second metal members, and the auxiliary member are made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, and the first and second metal members have higher hardness than the auxiliary member. At least one of the first and second metal members has an inclined surface inclined outward, and the auxiliary member has an inclined surface, tapered from the external surface toward an internal surface, on at least one of the side surfaces.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2020
    Publication date: July 21, 2022
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Nobushiro SEO, Keita OIKAWA, Ryo YOSHIDA
  • Patent number: 11389892
    Abstract: The present invention includes: a preparation process configured to provide a first metal member including an end portion with a vertical face, and a second metal member including an end portion with an inclined face, a higher melting point and a smaller plate thickness than the first metal member; a butting process configured to butt the end portions of the first metal member and the second metal member against each other and form a butted portion with a V-shaped gap; and a joining process configured to join the first metal member and the second metal member together by inserting the rotating rotary tool from only a front face of the first metal member and relatively moving the rotary tool along the butted portion while only the stirring pin is in contact with at least the first metal member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Hisashi Hori
  • Patent number: 11377349
    Abstract: Provided are sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate crystals capable of long-term storage that have improved stability of sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate, which is effective as an oxidizing 5 agent or bactericide, in the vicinity of normal temperatures, and a method for producing the same. The sodium hypochlorite pentahydrate crystals are such that peaks appear at the locations of the angles of diffraction described in Table 1 of claim 1 over a range of 10°?2? (angle of diffraction)?65° as measured by powder X-ray diffraction using a Cuk? radiation source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomohide Okada, Hideo Shimazu, Hiromichi Ito, Yukihiro Sugiyama, Takashi Toyama, Kaoru Shimada, Hiroshi Fujihisa, Satoshi Takeya, Takehiro Matsunaga, Yoshito Gotoh
  • Patent number: 11360381
    Abstract: Provided are: a support frame for pellicle that has both low dust generation property and high light resistance, and further has an ion elution amount which is reduced to the utmost limit to an extent that haze is not generated even when a short wavelength laser is used for exposure light source, a pellicle using the support frame for pellicle, and a method for efficiently manufacturing the support frame for pellicle, support frame for pellicle which comprises a frame member comprising aluminum or aluminum alloy and an inorganic coating layer formed on the surface of the frame member, wherein the main chain of the inorganic coating layer is constituted by a —Si—O—Si—O— bond. An anodized film is preferably formed between the frame member and the inorganic coating layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Takayuki Yamaguchi
  • Publication number: 20220161354
    Abstract: The present invention includes a joining process in which a first metal member and a second metal member are joined with an auxiliary member interposed therebetween by moving a rotary tool along a butted portion in a state where the rotary tool being rotated is inserted only from a front face side of the auxiliary member, only a stirring pin is in contact with the auxiliary member, a base end side of the stirring pin is exposed, and an outer circumferential face of the stirring pin is slightly in contact with the first metal member and the second metal member, and the auxiliary member is provided with an inclined face on at least one side face in such a form that the auxiliary member has a smaller dimension with increasing distance from a front face, and at least one of the first metal member and the second metal member is provided with an inclined face corresponding to the inclined face of the auxiliary member and inclined from the front face toward a back face.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 24, 2019
    Publication date: May 26, 2022
    Applicant: NIPPON LIGHT METAL COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Nobushiro SEO, Keita OIKAWA, Ryo YOSHIDA