Patents by Inventor Akira Kazama
Akira Kazama has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 9389169Abstract: A surface inspection method for a steel sheet coated with a resin, includes irradiating the steel sheet with sheet-like light, which has been linearly polarized at a predetermined polarization angle, at an incidence angle different from Brewster's angle of the coating by a predetermined angle or greater; and imaging linearly-polarized light of a polarization angle of 0 degrees at an acceptance angle different from a regular reflection angle of incident light by a predetermined angle. Accordingly, it is not necessary to change the incidence angle and the acceptance angle depending on resin components and it is possible to inspect a substrate steel surface of the steel sheet highly accurately without observing abnormalities in the coating itself.Type: GrantFiled: February 25, 2011Date of Patent: July 12, 2016Assignee: JFE STEEL CORPORATIONInventors: Akira Kazama, Kaoru Tanaka, Jun Sakai
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Publication number: 20130050470Abstract: A surface inspection method for a steel sheet coated with a resin, includes irradiating the steel sheet with sheet-like light, which has been linearly polarized at a predetermined polarization angle, at an incidence angle different from Brewster's angle of the coating by a predetermined angle or greater; and imaging linearly-polarized light of a polarization angle of 0 degrees at an acceptance angle different from a regular reflection angle of incident light by a predetermined angle. Accordingly, it is not necessary to change the incidence angle and the acceptance angle depending on resin components and it is possible to inspect a substrate steel surface of the steel sheet highly accurately without observing abnormalities in the coating itself.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 25, 2011Publication date: February 28, 2013Applicant: JFE STEEL CORPORATIONInventors: Akira Kazama, Kaoru Tanaka, Jun Sakai
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Patent number: 7599052Abstract: A defect marking device includes a flaw inspection device which has a plurality of light-receiving parts that identify reflected lights coming from an inspection plane of a metal strip under two or more of optical conditions different from each other; a signal processing section that judges the presence/absence of surface flaw on the inspection plane based on a combination of reflected light components identified under these optical conditions different from each other; and a marking device which applies marking that indicates information relating to the flaw on the surface of the metal strip.Type: GrantFiled: August 13, 2008Date of Patent: October 6, 2009Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Mitsuaki Uesugi, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masaichi Inomata, Tsutomu Kawamura, Takahiko Oshige, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Akira Kazama, Tsuneo Suyama, Yasuo Kushida, Shuichi Harada, Hajime Tanaka, Osamu Uehara, Shuji Kaneto, Masahiro Iwabuchi, Kozo Harada, Shinichi Tomonaga, Shigemi Fukuda
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Publication number: 20090086209Abstract: A defect marking device includes a flaw inspection device which has a plurality of light-receiving parts that identify reflected lights coming from an inspection plane of a metal strip under two or more of optical conditions different from each other; a signal processing section that judges the presence/absence of surface flaw on the inspection plane based on a combination of reflected light components identified under these optical conditions different from each other; and a marking device which applies marking that indicates information relating to the flaw on the surface of the metal strip.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 13, 2008Publication date: April 2, 2009Applicant: NKK CorporationInventors: Mitsuaki Uesugi, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masaichi Inomata, Tsutomu Kawamura, Takahiko Oshige, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Akira Kazama, Tsuneo Suyama, Yasuo Kushida, Shuichi Harada, Hajime Tanaka, Osamu Uehara, Shuji Kaneto, Masahiro Iwabuchi, Kozo Harada, Shinichi Tomonaga, Shigemi Fukuda
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Patent number: 7423744Abstract: A defect marking device includes a flaw inspection device which has a plurality of light-receiving parts that identify reflected lights coming from an inspection plane of a metal strip under two or more of optical conditions different from each other; a signal processing section that judges the presence/absence of surface flaw on the inspection plane based on a combination of reflected light components identified under these optical conditions different from each other; and a marking device which applies marking that indicates information relating to the flaw on the surface of the metal strip.Type: GrantFiled: October 24, 2006Date of Patent: September 9, 2008Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Mitsuaki Uesugi, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masaichi Inomata, Tsutomu Kawamura, Takahiko Oshige, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Akira Kazama, Tsuneo Suyama, Yasuo Kushida, Shuichi Harada, Hajime Tanaka, Osamu Uehara, Shuji Kaneto, Masahiro Iwabuchi, Kozo Harada, Shinichi Tomonaga, Shigemi Fukuda
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Patent number: 7248366Abstract: The defect marking method comprises the steps of: installing a surface defect tester to detect surface flaw and a marker device to apply marking at defect position, in a continuous processing line of steel sheet; detecting the surface flaw on the steel sheet using the surface defect tester; determining defect name, defect grade, defect length, and defect position in the width direction of the steel sheet, on the basis of thus detected flaw information, further identifying the defect in terms of harmful defect, injudgicable defect, and harmless defect; applying tracking of the defect position for each of the harmful defect and the injudgicable defect; and applying marking to the defect position. The defect marking device comprises a defect inspection means having plurality of light-receiving parts and a signal processing section, and a marking means.Type: GrantFiled: September 17, 2001Date of Patent: July 24, 2007Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Mitsuaki Uesugi, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masaichi Inomata, Tsutomu Kawamura, Takahiko Oshige, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Akira Kazama, Tsuneo Suyama, Yasuo Kushida, Shuichi Harada, Hajime Tanaka, Osamu Uehara, Shuji Kaneto, Masahiro Iwabuchi, Kozo Harada, Shinichi Tomonaga, Shigemi Fukuda
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Publication number: 20070052964Abstract: A defect marking device includes a flaw inspection device which has a plurality of light-receiving parts that identify reflected lights coming from an inspection plane of a metal strip under two or more of optical conditions different from each other; a signal processing section that judges the presence/absence of surface flaw on the inspection plane based on a combination of reflected light components identified under these optical conditions different from each other; and a marking device which applies marking that indicates information relating to the flaw on the surface of the metal strip.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 24, 2006Publication date: March 8, 2007Applicant: NKK CorporationInventors: Mitsuaki Uesugi, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masaichi Inomata, Tsutomu Kawamura, Takahiko Oshige, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Akira Kazama, Tsuneo Suyama, Yasuo Kushida, Shuichi Harada, Hajime Tanaka, Osamu Uehara, Shuji Kaneto, Masahiro Iwabuchi, Kozo Harada, Shinichi Tomonaga, Shigemi Fukuda
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Publication number: 20020154308Abstract: The defect marking method comprises the steps of: installing a surface defect tester to detect surface flaw and a marker device to apply marking at defect position, in a continuous processing line of steel sheet; detecting the surface flaw on the steel sheet using the surface defect tester; determining defect name, defect grade, defect length, and defect position in the width direction of the steel sheet, on the basis of thus detected flaw information, further identifying the defect in terms of harmful defect, injudgicable defect, and harmless defect; applying tracking of the defect position for each of the harmful defect and the injudgicable defect; and applying marking to the defect position. The defect marking device comprises a defect inspection means having plurality of light-receiving parts and a signal processing section, and a marking means.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 17, 2001Publication date: October 24, 2002Applicant: NKK Corporation, a Japanese CorporationInventors: Mitsuaki Uesugi, Shoji Yoshikawa, Masaichi Inomata, Tsutomu Kawamura, Takahiko Oshige, Hiroyuki Sugiura, Akira Kazama, Tsuneo Suyama, Yasuo Kushida, Shuichi Harada, Hajime Tanaka, Osamu Uehara, Shuji Kaneto, Masahiro Iwabuchi, Kozo Harada, Shinichi Tomonaga, Shigemi Fukuda
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Patent number: 5835220Abstract: A method for detecting a surface flaw which includes the steps of (i) irradiating polarized light to a surface of a sample to be inspected and determining ellipso-parameters (.PSI., .DELTA.) of reflected light from the surface of the sample; (ii) irradiating light to a same position as irradiated by the polarized light and determining the intensity (I) of reflected light from the surface of the sample; and (iii) determining a type and grade of a flaw on the surface of the sample based on the ellipso-parameters (.PSI.,.DELTA.) and the reflected light intensity (I). A surface flaw detecting apparatus includes (i) a first measuring device for irradiating polarized light to a surface to be inspected and measuring ellipso-parameters (.PSI.,.DELTA.Type: GrantFiled: October 27, 1995Date of Patent: November 10, 1998Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Akira Kazama, Takahiko Oshige, Tsutomu Kawamura, Yuji Matoba
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Patent number: 5438415Abstract: An ellipsometer has a nonpolarization beam splitter (18) for dividing reflected light (17) from an object to be measured (16) into portions traveling along first and second optical paths (18a, 18b), an analyzer (19) for passing the polarized light component in a reference direction of the reflected light portion traveling along the first optical path, and a polarization beam splitter (20) for dividing the reflected light portion traveling along the second optical path into two polarized light components in different directions with respect to the reference direction. The light beams passing through the analyzer (19) and polarization beam splitter (20) are sensed by first, second and third photodetectors (21a, 21b, 21c), respectively. In a coating thickness control method, first and second ellipsometers (35a, 35b) are placed before and after a coating apparatus (36) provided along the transport path of a belt-like plate to be coated (31). A first ellipsoparameter (.DELTA.1,.psi.Type: GrantFiled: September 22, 1992Date of Patent: August 1, 1995Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Akira Kazama, Takahiko Oshige, Yoshiro Yamada, Takeo Yamada, Takeshi Yamazaki, Takamitsu Takayama, Shuichiro Nomura
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Patent number: 5335066Abstract: Movable optical parts included in an ellipsometer are omitted to increase the measurement speed and maintain constant, high measurement precision in film thickness measurement processing. A beam is radiated from a light source section onto a measurement target. A reflected beam having an elliptically polarized beam reflected by the measurement target is divided into four light components polarized in different directions. The optical intensities of the respective polarized light components are detected. Of the four detected optical intensities, one having the minimum value is omitted, and ellipsometric parameters .psi. and .DELTA. are calculated by using the remaining three optical intensities having the largest values. The ellipsometer comprises only stationary optical parts without using any movable optical parts. The polarization directions of the respective polarized light components, from which four optical intensities are obtained, are set at angles of 90.degree., 0.degree., +45.degree., and -45.degree.Type: GrantFiled: October 7, 1993Date of Patent: August 2, 1994Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Takeo Yamada, Akira Kazama, Takahiko Oshige
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Patent number: 5311285Abstract: Movable optical parts included in an ellipsometer are removed to increase the measurement speed, and a specific quadrant to which a phase difference .DELTA. as an ellipsometric parameter belongs is determined by one measuring operation. A beam is radiated from a light source section onto a measurement target, and the reflected beam having an elliptically polarized beam, which is reflected by the target, is divided into four different polarized light components. The optical intensities of the respective light components are then detected. Ellipsometric parameters .psi. and .DELTA. are calculated on the basis of the detected four optical intensities. In addition, the above-mentioned four different polarized light components are obtained by using a wave plate. Furthermore, the polarization directions of the four polarized light components whose optical intensities are obtained are respectively set at angles -45.degree., +45.degree., 90.degree., and 0.degree. with respect to a reference direction.Type: GrantFiled: December 31, 1991Date of Patent: May 10, 1994Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Takahiko Oshige, Takeo Yamada, Akira Kazama
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Patent number: 5126114Abstract: According to the present invention, the inside of a crucible in which a molten raw material is placed is partitioned off with a partition ring so that a pulled single crystal is surrounded and the molten raw material may be moved and granular silicon is supplied to the outside of the partition ring, thereby to form the whole surface of outside molten liquid as a granular silicon soluble region so as to maintain the molten liquid surface on the inside of the partition ring at almost a constant level, and also to set the temperature of the molten liquid on the outside of the partition ring higher than the temperature of the inside thereof at least by 10.degree. C. or higher by covering the partition ring and the molten liquid surface on the outside thereof with a heat keeping board.Type: GrantFiled: January 3, 1990Date of Patent: June 30, 1992Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Hiroshi Kamio, Kenji Araki, Yoshinobu Shima, Makoto Suzuki, Akira Kazama, Shigetake Horie, Yasumitsu Nakahama
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Patent number: 5087321Abstract: Method for manufacturing a large columner silicon single crystal having a diameter of 12 cm-30 cm by pulling up a crystal, growing, and rotating it in one direction, from molten silicon material in a quartz crucible rotating in the other direction. The inside of the quartz crucible is divided into two sections--the peripheral section for feeding and melting raw materials and the central section for growing and pulling the crystal--by means of a cylindrical partition. The material feeding and melting section and the partition are sufficiently covered by an insulating board to reduce radiant energy heat loss and to keep the temperature at least above the freezing point of the molten materials in order to prevent the molten materials from solidifying at or around the inner wall of the cylindrical partition.Type: GrantFiled: January 3, 1990Date of Patent: February 11, 1992Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Hiroshi Kamio, Kenji Araki, Yoshinobu Shima, Makoto Suzuki, Akira Kazama, Shigetake Horie
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Patent number: 5087429Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for manufacturing silicon single crystals by the Czochralski method, including the steps of dividing a crucible containing molten silicon into an inner single crystal growing section and an outer material feeding section to allow said molten silicon to move slowly, and pulling a silicon single crystal from said single crystal growing section while continuously feeding silicon starting material to said material feeding section, the improvement wherein temperatures of said material feeding section and said molten silicon are maintained higher than a melting point of silicon by at least more than 12.degree. C.Type: GrantFiled: April 26, 1989Date of Patent: February 11, 1992Assignee: NKK CorporationInventors: Hiroshi Kamio, Kenji Araki, Yoshinobu Shima, Makoto Suzuki, Akira Kazama, Shigetake Horie, Yasumitsu Nakahama