Patents Assigned to Satake Corporation
  • Publication number: 20240046613
    Abstract: A method for discriminating a sorting target includes transferring the sorting target, imaging the sorting target during the transferring, and discriminating the sorting target based on imaging information acquired in the imaging. The imaging information includes adjacency information between sorting targets, and classification information of the sorting target.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2021
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoyuki MIYAMOTO, Shinya HARADA
  • Publication number: 20240042490
    Abstract: When a granular object is determined to have to be sorted out two or more times in two or more of sort-out necessity/unnecessity determination results determined by a determination portion, a sort-out signal setting portion of an optical sorting apparatus sets a sort-out actuation signal that contains information for actuating an ejector when the granular object advancing in the air passes through a sorting region based on a combination of the sort-out necessity/unnecessity determination results from a predetermined signal setting table.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2021
    Publication date: February 8, 2024
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masaaki SADAMARU, Yoshikazu TATEISHI
  • Patent number: 11883854
    Abstract: An optical sorter includes a light source, a color sensor, a determination part configured to determine a foreign object and/or a defective product, a color shift amount calculation part configured to calculate, based on a color image acquired by the color sensor, an amount of a color shift that occurs due to the fact that at least two element groups out of an R element group, a G element group, and a B element group are spaced apart from each other in a transit direction of a sorting target, a speed calculation part configured to calculate a transit speed of the sorting target based on a separation distance between the at least two element groups in the transit direction, the color shift amount, and a scan time, which is a time required for the color sensor to scan the sorting target once, and a sorting device configured to perform a trajectory change operation for changing a trajectory of a specific sorting target determined based on a result of the determination by the determination part at a timing determ
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takahiro Doi
  • Publication number: 20240019040
    Abstract: A piezoelectric valve including actuators that are respectively adapted to drive valve elements, and a valve body including a gas inlet port, and a plurality of gas outlet ports, the piezoelectric valve is attachable to and detachable from a fluid device via a connector unit including an inlet passage that is communicable at one end with the gas inlet port, and is communicable at another end with an air supply passage of the fluid device, and a plurality of discharge passages that are respectively communicable at one end with the plurality of gas outlet ports, and are respectively communicable at another end with a plurality of gas outlet passages of the fluid device, and a pitch of openings of the plurality of discharge passages on the other end side is greater than a pitch of openings of the plurality of discharge passages on the one end side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2021
    Publication date: January 18, 2024
    Applicants: SATAKE CORPORATION, MECHANO TRANSFORMER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi ITO, Sze Keat CHEE
  • Publication number: 20240011573
    Abstract: A piezoelectric valve including an actuator that drives a valve body; a valve seat plate including a valve seat that is adapted to be positioned in contact with and away from the valve body, and a discharge passage; and a body case that houses the valve seat plate, in which the actuator includes a proximal portion fixed to the valve seat plate, a piezoelectric element having one end portion connected to an attachment face of the proximal portion and extending in a first longitudinal direction, a support portion integrally formed with the proximal portion, the support portion being arranged side-by-side with the piezoelectric element and extending in a second longitudinal direction crossing the first longitudinal direction, an operating portion connected to another end portion of the piezoelectric element and to a distal end portion of the support portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 10, 2021
    Publication date: January 11, 2024
    Applicants: SATAKE CORPORATION, MECHANO TRANSFORMER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi ITO, Sze Keat CHEE
  • Patent number: 11858007
    Abstract: To provide an optical grain sorter that can reduce the proportion of non-defective grains blown off collaterally, and even in a case in which a plurality of defective grains or the like fall down in a state overlapping each other, can blow off all the defective grains or the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi Ito, Tadashi Matsushita, Masaaki Sadamaru
  • Publication number: 20230398578
    Abstract: In an optical sorter that includes an optical detection unit to detect a to-be-sorted material at a detection position, a determining unit to determine a to-be-sorted material to be removed, based on a detection result by the optical detection unit, and an air-jetting unit to blow off and remove the to-be-sorted material to be removed using jet air of a compressed gas, based on a determination result by the determining unit, the air-jetting unit includes a piezoelectric valve to perform valve opening and closing by driving a valve disc utilizing displacement of a piezoelectric element, and a valve driving unit to apply a drive voltage to the piezoelectric element, and the valve driving unit controls the drive voltage applied to the piezoelectric element in accordance with the to-be-sorted material to be removed to thus control a jet-air pressure of the compressed gas for removing the to-be-sorted material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2021
    Publication date: December 14, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi ITO, Tomoyuki MIYAMOTO
  • Publication number: 20230398576
    Abstract: The present invention includes a conveyance step of conveying an object to be sorted, an image information acquisition step of, at least either during the conveyance step or after the conveyance step, acquiring image information on the object to be sorted, and dividing the image information into a plurality of pieces of cell data, and an identification step of identifying the object to be sorted based on the cell data and a learning model trained by inputting learning information concerning the object to be sorted, in which the learning information at least includes good part information, defective part information, and background information concerning the object to be sorted, and the good part information at least includes contour information on the object to be sorted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2021
    Publication date: December 14, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masaaki SADAMARU, Tomoyuki MIYAMOTO, Shinya HARADA
  • Patent number: 11808373
    Abstract: A piezoelectric valve includes: a valve main part including a gas pressure chamber receiving compressed gas supplied from outside; a plate inside the valve main part, and an actuator fixed to the plate and inside the valve main part, which is a case with an opening on a front surface. The plate includes a gas discharge path and a valve seat coming into contact with a valve element of the actuator opening and closing the gas discharge path. A lid member that closes the opening of the case has a gas discharge opening communicating with the gas discharge path of the plate; is welded and fixed to a front surface of the plate, where the gas discharge path opens, on an annular welded part surrounding the gas discharge opening; and is welded and fixed to an end surface of the case on an annular welded part on the outer peripheral part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2023
    Assignees: SATAKE CORPORATION, MECHANO TRANSFORMER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi Ito, Tadashi Matsushita, Toshiro Higuchi, Sze Keat Chee, Yoshinobu Mizuno, Toshitada Hirata
  • Patent number: 11628444
    Abstract: A rice husker includes a pair of husking rolls. One of the pair of husking rolls is attached to a main shaft and the other of the pair of husking rolls is attached to an auxiliary shaft movable to be close to and away from the main shaft. The rice husker includes abnormality determination means. The abnormality determination means determines that the husking rolls fail to work normally when vibrations having a preset intensity larger than the preset intensity are successively detected by a vibration sensor until a certain time elapses. The certain time is from the start of a husking action to disappearance of distortion on a surface of the husking roll. The vibration sensor is provided on at least either of bearing units of the main shaft and the auxiliary shaft. The vibration sensor detects vibrations occurring due to the husking action by the pair of husking rolls.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 25, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takeshi Fukumori, Sumio Tagawa, Minoru Koreda
  • Patent number: 11631167
    Abstract: Provided is a grain gloss measurement apparatus capable of accurately measuring gloss of grain. A grain gloss measurement apparatus includes a light source to emit light to a measurement region for grain in an oblique direction, a light receiver to receive the light reflected from the measurement region, and a gloss value calculation device to calculate a gloss value of the grain based on the reflected light received by the light receiver. The light source includes a first light source to emit light to the measurement region from one side and a second light source to emit light from another side that is opposite to the first light source across the measurement region. The light emitted from the first light source and the light emitted from the second light source have different wavelengths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hisashi Sakamoto, Koshiro Kajiyama
  • Publication number: 20230059349
    Abstract: An inspection unit for performing an optical inspection on a grain to be transferred by transfer means includes a visible light source, a near-infrared light source, a visible light detection unit, and a near-infrared light detection unit. A determination unit plots wavelength components of red (R), green (G), and blue (B), and a near-infrared light component in a three-dimensional space, to create a three-dimensional optical correlation diagram, for a plurality of good product samples and defective product samples, and sets a threshold value, in which: the wavelength components are detected by the visible light detection unit; and the near-infrared light component is detected by the near-infrared light detection unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2021
    Publication date: February 23, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoyuki MIYAMOTO, Takuya NISHIDA, Hideaki ISHIZU, Masaaki SADAMARU
  • Publication number: 20230045423
    Abstract: Included are a chute arranged in an inclined manner to allow sorting targets to flow downward, optical detection means for detecting the sorting targets at a detection position, and ejector means for sorting and removing the sorting targets based on a result of detection of the optical detection means. The chute is provided with an optical detection slit in a direction orthogonal to a flow-down direction of the sorting targets, a slit width of the optical detection slit is adjustable, and the optical detection means images the sorting targets flowing downward on the chute with the imaging means at a position where the optical detection slit is provided as the detection position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2020
    Publication date: February 9, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yoichi KAWAMURA, Takuya NISHIDA
  • Publication number: 20230031481
    Abstract: Provided is an optical sorting device including a chute having an optical detection slit and a sorting and removal slit arranged on a downstream side of the optical detection slit, an object to be sorted flowing down on a front surface of the chute. A rear-side illuminating portion of an optical inspection unit and an ejector nozzle are attached to a rear-side housing. The rear-side housing is installed on a rear surface side of the chute such that the rear-side illuminating portion faces the optical detection slit, and a leading end of the ejector nozzle faces the sorting and removal slit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2020
    Publication date: February 2, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Yoichi KAWAMURA
  • Publication number: 20230008373
    Abstract: Provided is a method for detecting objects to be sorted with an optical sorter that can detect lateral portions of objects to be sorted with a flat shape. A chute is provided with a plurality of parallel longitudinal grooves formed in the longitudinal direction by a plurality of elongated protruding walls, and objects to be sorted with a flat shape are allowed to flow downward on the surface of the chute such that substantially flat faces of the objects to be sorted touch the elongated protruding walls in the longitudinal grooves, and lateral portions of the objects to be sorted face the front-rear direction of the chute so that the optical detection unit detects the lateral portions of the objects to be sorted at the detection position. Preferably, the objects to be sorted with the flat shape are rice grains, and the optical detection unit detects bran remaining on back strings of the rice grains at the detection position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2020
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kohei HITA, Atsushi TAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20230001454
    Abstract: Provided is an optical sorter including a chute arranged in an inclined manner such that objects to be sorted flow down, an optical detecting unit configured to detect the objects to be sorted at a detection position, and an ejector unit configured to sort and remove the objects to be sorted based on a result of detection obtained by the optical detecting unit. The optical detecting unit includes an illuminating unit configured to illuminate the detection position, and an imaging unit configured to image the objects to be sorted at the detection position. The chute is provided with an optical detection slit orthogonally crossing a flowing down direction of the objects to be sorted. The optical detecting unit images the objects to be sorted flowing down on the chute with the imaging unit using a position at which the optical detection slit is provided as the detection position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2020
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Tomoyuki MIYAMOTO
  • Patent number: 11512274
    Abstract: A microorganism sampling device includes: a head part that has a water supply channel to which a water supply pipe for supplying sample water can be connected; a housing part to an upper part of which the head part can be detachably attached; a frame-structured tube; a tubular filter that is arranged within the tubular body; a cup that communicates with the tubular filter and is attached to one end of the tube body; and a cap that has a channel communicating with the tubular filter and is attached to the other end of the tube body. The microorganism sampling device further includes a filter part housed in the housing part, in which a bottom part of the cup is supported by a bottom part of the housing part. The head part is attached to an upper part of the housing part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keisuke Orihashi, Yoshihisa Saita, Shuji Miyai
  • Publication number: 20220356958
    Abstract: A piezoelectric valve includes: a valve main part including a gas pressure chamber receiving compressed gas supplied from outside; a plate inside the valve main part, and an actuator fixed to the plate and inside the valve main part, which is a case with an opening on a front surface. The plate includes a gas discharge path and a valve seat coming into contact with a valve element of the actuator opening and closing the gas discharge path. A lid member that closes the opening of the case has a gas discharge opening communicating with the gas discharge path of the plate; is welded and fixed to a front surface of the plate, where the gas discharge path opens, on an annular welded part surrounding the gas discharge opening; and is welded and fixed to an end surface of the case on an annular welded part on the outer peripheral part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Publication date: November 10, 2022
    Applicants: SATAKE CORPORATION, MECHANO TRANSFORMER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi ITO, Tadashi MATSUSHITA, Toshiro HIGUCHI, Sze Keat CHEE, Yoshinobu MIZUNO, Toshitada HIRATA
  • Publication number: 20220331810
    Abstract: A hulling machine configured to perform hulling through a husking roll, a hulled-rice discrimination machine capable of examining hulled rice discharged from the hulling machine, and a hulling control unit capable of controlling the hulling machine in accordance with a result of the examination of the hulled rice at the hulled-rice discrimination machine are provided, and the hulling control unit includes a rotational speed change means configured to change a rotational speed of the husking roll in the hulling machine in accordance with the result of the examination of the hulled rice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2020
    Publication date: October 20, 2022
    Applicant: SATAKE CORPORATION
    Inventor: Minoru KOREDA
  • Publication number: 20220316617
    Abstract: Provided is a piezoelectric actuator that can reduce a risk of air leakage due to weakening of pressing force of a valve element against a valve seat surface and airtightness. The piezoelectric actuator is used for a piezoelectric valve that opens and closes a valve utilizing displacement of a laminated piezoelectric element. The piezoelectric actuator includes: a valve element; a laminated piezoelectric element that generates a driving force, required for operation of the valve element, as a displacement; and a displacement enlargement mechanism that enlarges a displacement of a laminated piezoelectric element and causes the enlarged displacement to act on the valve element. In the piezoelectric actuator, a surface of the valve element to be in contact with a valve seat of the piezoelectric valve is made flat and smooth in a state in which a tensile load is applied to the laminated piezoelectric element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2020
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Applicants: SATAKE CORPORATION, MECHANO TRANSFORMER CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takafumi ITO, Tadashi MATSUSHITA, Toshiro HIGUCHI, Sze Keat CHEE, Kunio EBIHARA, Toshitada HIRATA