Patents by Inventor Akira Matsunaga
Akira Matsunaga 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: 11936265Abstract: A rotating electrical machine includes an annular coil connection body provided coaxially with a stator. The coil connection body has, in a groove provided on a holder, an overhang portion for restricting an axial-direction movement of a terminal, and a positioning projection for restricting a radial-direction movement of the terminal. The positioning projection positions the terminal such that a part of the terminal overlaps the overhang portion in the axial direction. In this structure, when the terminal moves in a direction from a terminal holding portion toward a groove opening, the terminal comes into contact with a side surface of the overhang portion, whereby lifting and coming-off of the terminal can be prevented.Type: GrantFiled: August 17, 2018Date of Patent: March 19, 2024Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric CorporationInventors: Takashi Yamamoto, Akira Kimishima, Toshihiro Matsunaga, Kengo Fujimoto
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Patent number: 11929230Abstract: A large current electron beam is stably emitted from an electron gun of a charged particle beam device. The electron gun of the charged particle beam device includes: a SE tip 202; a suppressor 303 disposed rearward of a distal end of the SE tip; a cup-shaped extraction electrode 204 including a bottom surface and a cylindrical portion and enclosing the SE tip and the suppressor; and an insulator 208 holding the suppressor and the extraction electrode. A shield electrode 301 of a conductive metal having a cylindrical portion 302 is provided between the suppressor and the cylindrical portion of the extraction electrode. A voltage lower than a voltage of the SE tip is applied to the shield electrode.Type: GrantFiled: April 18, 2019Date of Patent: March 12, 2024Assignee: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATIONInventors: Keigo Kasuya, Akira Ikegami, Kazuhiro Honda, Masahiro Fukuta, Takashi Doi, Souichi Katagiri, Aki Takei, Soichiro Matsunaga
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Patent number: 11890581Abstract: A membrane defect inspection method is for a membrane module set including a plurality of membrane modules connected in parallel under a straight pipe portion of gas detection piping extending in a horizontal direction and communicating with primary spaces in the plurality of membrane modules to which raw water is supplied or secondary spaces. The method includes a gas injection process where gas is injected into spaces opposite to the primary spaces or the secondary spaces communicating with the gas detection piping while the gas detection piping is filled with water, and an echo detection process where an ultrasonic sensor is brought into contact with an end portion of the straight pipe portion of the gas detection piping, and a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave transmitted from the ultrasonic sensor is detected.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2019Date of Patent: February 6, 2024Assignee: KUBOTA CORPORATIONInventors: Keishi Watanabe, Shintaro Nishimoto, Tetsuya Uenaka, Fang Zhao, Akira Matsunaga
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Publication number: 20220111336Abstract: A membrane filtration device includes a plurality of membrane separation units vertically disposed in multiple stages. The membrane separation unit has a primary side communicating with a backwash drainage system and a flushing-air supply system to receive supplied raw water and a secondary side communicating with a backwash-water supply system to collect permeate. The backwash-water supply system includes a backwash-water main pipe and a plurality of backwash-water branch pipes to feed the backwash water into the membrane separation units. The backwash drainage system includes a plurality of backwash-drainage branch pipes and a backwash-drainage main pipe connected in parallel to the backwash-drainage branch pipes. The flushing-air supply system includes an air main pipe for passing flushing air upward and a plurality of air branch pipes for feeding flushing air into the membrane separation units, the air branch pipes being connected in parallel to the air main pipe.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 12, 2019Publication date: April 14, 2022Applicant: KUBOTA CORPORATIONInventors: Shintaro NISHIMOTO, Keishi WATANABE, Tetsuya UENAKA, Fang ZHAO, Akira MATSUNAGA
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Publication number: 20220023802Abstract: A membrane defect inspection method that can detect damage in a filtrate membrane and can detect presence or absence of damage or a seal defect in a membrane module; and the method is for a membrane module set including multiple membrane modules connected under gas detection piping communicating with primary spaces of the multiple membrane modules where raw water is supplied or secondary spaces in multiple membrane modules where treated water is extracted after the raw water is filtrated by membranes. The method includes a gas injection process where gas is injected into spaces opposite the primary or secondary spaces communicating with gas detection piping in the multiple membrane modules while the gas detection piping is filled with water, and a vibration detection process where a vibration sensor is brought into contact with a protrusion protruding outward from the gas detection piping to detect vibration of the gas detection piping.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 3, 2019Publication date: January 27, 2022Applicant: KUBOTA CORPORATIONInventors: Keishi WATANABE, Shintaro NISHIMOTO, Tetsuya UENAKA, Fang ZHAO, Akira MATSUNAGA
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Publication number: 20210394123Abstract: A membrane defect inspection method is for a membrane module set including a plurality of membrane modules connected in parallel under a straight pipe portion of gas detection piping extending in a horizontal direction and communicating with primary spaces in the plurality of membrane modules to which raw water is supplied or secondary spaces. The method includes a gas injection process where gas is injected into spaces opposite to the primary spaces or the secondary spaces communicating with the gas detection piping while the gas detection piping is filled with water, and an echo detection process where an ultrasonic sensor is brought into contact with an end portion of the straight pipe portion of the gas detection piping, and a reflected wave of an ultrasonic wave transmitted from the ultrasonic sensor is detected.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 3, 2019Publication date: December 23, 2021Applicant: KUBOTA CORPORATIONInventors: Keishi WATANABE, Shintaro NISHIMOTO, Tetsuya UENAKA, Fang ZHAO, Akira MATSUNAGA
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Patent number: 9895858Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus includes a processing unit, a sheet discharge unit, a determination unit, and a control unit. The processing unit performs crease processing on a sheet. The sheet discharge unit discharges a sheet having been subjected to the crease processing by the processing unit. The determination unit determines whether a number of the discharged sheets having been subjected to the crease processing exceeds a predetermined number of sheets. The control unit performs control to cause the discharge unit to discharge a sheet. In a case where the determination unit determines that the number of the discharged sheets having been subjected to the crease processing exceeds the predetermined number of sheets, the control unit performs control to cause the discharge unit to not discharge sheets having been subjected to the crease processing onto the discharge destination.Type: GrantFiled: February 24, 2015Date of Patent: February 20, 2018Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Akira Matsunaga
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Publication number: 20150239705Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus includes a processing unit, a sheet discharge unit, a determination unit, and a control unit. The processing unit performs crease processing on a sheet. The sheet discharge unit discharges a sheet having been subjected to the crease processing by the processing unit. The determination unit determines whether a number of the discharged sheets having been subjected to the crease processing exceeds a predetermined number of sheets. The control unit performs control to cause the discharge unit to discharge a sheet. In a case where the determination unit determines that the number of the discharged sheets having been subjected to the crease processing exceeds the predetermined number of sheets, the control unit performs control to cause the discharge unit to not discharge sheets having been subjected to the crease processing onto the discharge destination.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 24, 2015Publication date: August 27, 2015Inventor: Akira Matsunaga
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Patent number: 8940933Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether carboxylic acid and a salt thereof, including supplying polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether, oxygen, and water to a continuous stirred tank reactor containing a noble metal catalyst to oxidize the polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether with oxygen, in which the molar ratio of the salt of polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether carboxylic acid to the polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether in the continuous stirred tank reactor is controlled to 0.33 to 49.Type: GrantFiled: December 22, 2010Date of Patent: January 27, 2015Assignee: Kao CorporationInventors: Takeshi Shirasawa, Yasuo Amishige, Kaoru Omae, Akira Matsunaga, Akira Sakaguchi
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Patent number: 8663858Abstract: A fuel cell system which prevents the deterioration of the fuel cell stack when feeding of the oxidant gas is paused under a load to perform a fuel conservation operation. Controller shuts down oxidant gas compressor and cooling water circulating pump to execute fuel conservation operation at a low fuel cell system load. The controller gives a current draw instruction to electric power controller. In the fuel conservation operation, electric power controller draws a current larger than zero from fuel cell stack, and keeps the total charge drawn per unit time constant or substantially constant.Type: GrantFiled: June 18, 2008Date of Patent: March 4, 2014Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yoshitaka Ono, Takahiro Fujii, Takashi Iimori, Akira Matsunaga, Ryoichi Shimoi, Kazuo Saito, Hitoshi Igarashi
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Patent number: 8534662Abstract: An image forming apparatus which includes a plurality of feeding units each formed by an exchangeable part, and selects one of the plurality of feeding units based on priority levels of the plurality of feeding units in a feed operation, comprises: a monitoring unit which monitors a consumed level of the part forming the feeding unit; a notification unit which sends a notification to a user in a case where the monitoring unit detects that a life-time of the part has been reached; an ordering unit which orders the part before the monitoring unit detects that the life-time of the part has been reached; and a changing unit which changes the priority level of the feeding unit formed by the part being ordered to be lower than the priority levels of other feeding units.Type: GrantFiled: December 5, 2012Date of Patent: September 17, 2013Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Akira Matsunaga
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Publication number: 20120296115Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether carboxylic acid and a salt thereof, including supplying polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether, oxygen, and water to a continuous stirred tank reactor containing a noble metal catalyst to oxidize the polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether with oxygen, in which the molar ratio of the salt of polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether carboxylic acid to the polyoxyalkylene alkyl ether in the continuous stirred tank reactor is controlled to 0.33 to 49.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 22, 2010Publication date: November 22, 2012Applicant: KAO CORPORATIONInventors: Takeshi Shirasawa, Yasuo Amishige, Kaoru Omae, Akira Matsunaga, Akira Sakaguchi
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Patent number: 8304575Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing an ether carboxylate which includes the steps of (1) reacting an aliphatic monohydric alcohol with an alkylene oxide in the presence of an alkali catalyst; (2) neutralizing a reaction solution obtained in the step (1) with an acid such as hydroxycarboxylic acids to obtain an ether alcohol; and (3-1) reacting the obtained ether alcohol with a monohalogenofatty acid or a salt thereof and an alkali metal hydroxide, or (3-2) subjecting the obtained ether alcohol to catalytic oxidation reaction in the presence of a catalyst. The obtained ether carboxylate has a less odor and a high quality and is therefore suitably used in the applications such as cosmetics and toiletries.Type: GrantFiled: April 3, 2008Date of Patent: November 6, 2012Assignee: Kao CorporationInventors: Akira Matsunaga, Kaoru Ohmae
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Patent number: 8067123Abstract: At shutdown of a fuel cell system, a system-shutdown controller is configured to cause a current extraction device to extract current from a fuel cell in a state where a supply of a fuel gas through a fuel supply system is continued and a supply of an oxidant gas through an oxidant supply system is stopped, and the system-shutdown controller is configured to airtightly close fresh-air control valves after increasing pressure of the fuel gas in a fuel electrode to not less than atmospheric pressure and not less than pressure of the oxidant gas in an oxidant electrode.Type: GrantFiled: June 30, 2008Date of Patent: November 29, 2011Assignee: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Mitsunori Kumada, Ryoichi Shimoi, Hayato Chikugo, Takashi Fukuda, Kazuhiro Kageyama, Akira Matsunaga
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Publication number: 20100203408Abstract: A fuel cell system which prevents the deterioration of the fuel cell stack when feeding of the oxidant gas is paused under a load to perform a fuel conservation operation. Controller shuts down oxidant gas compressor and cooling water circulating pump to execute fuel conservation operation at a low fuel cell system load. The controller gives a current draw instruction to electric power controller. In the fuel conservation operation, electric power controller draws a current larger than zero from fuel cell stack, and keeps the total charge drawn per unit time constant or substantially constant.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 18, 2008Publication date: August 12, 2010Applicant: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.Inventors: Yoshitaka Ono, Takahiro Fujii, Takashi Iimori, Akira Matsunaga, Ryoichi Shimoi, Kazuo Saito, Hitoshi Igarashi
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Publication number: 20100081716Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing an ether carboxylate which includes the steps of (1) reacting an aliphatic monohydric alcohol with an alkylene oxide in the presence of an alkali catalyst; (2) neutralizing a reaction solution obtained in the step (1) with an acid such as hydroxycarboxylic acids to obtain an ether alcohol; and (3-1) reacting the obtained ether alcohol with a monohalogenofatty acid or a salt thereof and an alkali metal hydroxide, or (3-2) subjecting the obtained ether alcohol to catalytic oxidation reaction in the presence of a catalyst. The obtained ether carboxylate has a less odor and a high quality and is therefore suitably used in the applications such as cosmetics and toiletries.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 3, 2008Publication date: April 1, 2010Applicant: KAO CORPORATIONInventors: Akira Matsunaga, Kaoru Ohmae
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Publication number: 20090035630Abstract: At shutdown of a fuel cell system, a system-shutdown controller is configured to cause a current extraction device to extract current from a fuel cell in a state where a supply of a fuel gas through a fuel supply system is continued and a supply of an oxidant gas through an oxidant supply system is stopped, and the system-shutdown controller is configured to airtightly close fresh-air control valves after increasing pressure of the fuel gas in a fuel electrode to not less than atmospheric pressure and not less than pressure of the oxidant gas in an oxidant electrode.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 30, 2008Publication date: February 5, 2009Inventors: Mitsunori KUMADA, Ryoichi SHIMOI, Hayato CHIKUGO, Takashi FUKUDA, Kazuhiro KAGEYAMA, Akira MATSUNAGA
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Patent number: 7196213Abstract: Provided are a process for producing a phosphate and a process for stabilizing a phosphate, the phosphate being an acid-form phosphate wherein an organic hydroxy compound is an alkylene oxide adduct. A production process of a phosphate and a stabilization process of a phosphate, including the step 1 of reacting an organic hydroxy compound represented by the following general formula (I) with a phosphorylating agent: R1—O—(AO)n—H??(I) wherein R1 represents a straight or branched alkyl group or alkenyl group having 6 to 36 carbon atoms, AO represents an oxyalkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms, and n is a number of 0.1 to 100 on the average; the step 2 of purifying the reaction product obtained in the step 1 until the content of the organic hydroxy compound that has not yet reacted becomes 2% or less by weight; and the step 3 of adding water to the purified product obtained in the step 2 at such a ratio that the content of water in the final product is from 0.5 to 10% by weight.Type: GrantFiled: December 23, 2003Date of Patent: March 27, 2007Assignee: Kao CorporationInventors: Akira Matsunaga, Satoru Kijima
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Publication number: 20040186309Abstract: Provided are a process for producing a phosphate and a process for stabilizing a phosphate, the phosphate being an acid-form phosphate wherein an organic hydroxy compound is an alkylene oxide adduct.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 23, 2003Publication date: September 23, 2004Applicant: Kao CorporationInventors: Akira Matsunaga, Satoru Kijima
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Patent number: 6478947Abstract: Glycerin is effectively produced from a waste oil by a method comprising adding a strongly alkaline reducing water obtained by electrolyzing water containing sodium chloride to a waste oil selected from the group consisting of a waste edible oil, a fossil fuel waste oil and a mixture thereof, and extracting natural glycerin or synthetic glycerin by chemical reaction. Further, reusable edible oil is produced from a waste edible oil by a method comprising electrolyzing an aqueous solution having an electrolyte in an electrolytic cell, mixing a strongly alkaline reducing water generated at a cathode side of the electrolytic cell with a waste edible oil under ordinary temperature condition, and conducting oil/water separation, thereby purifying the waste edible oil to an extent such that it can be edible.Type: GrantFiled: January 12, 2001Date of Patent: November 12, 2002Assignee: Komeisha CorporationInventors: Kohji Nagasaku, Akira Matsunaga, Sungrak Jang