Patents by Inventor Fumio Kato

Fumio Kato 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).

  • Publication number: 20110143210
    Abstract: The present invention provides a mercury-free alkaline dry battery which is improved in discharge characteristic at low cost. The mercury-free alkaline dry battery includes: a positive electrode; a negative electrode; and a separator, wherein a negative electrode active material contains short fibrous zinc particles, and each of the short fibrous zinc particles has a length of 1 mm to 50 mm, both inclusive, a major diameter of 2 ?m to 1 mm, both inclusive, and a specific surface area of 50 cm2/g to 1000 cm2/g, both inclusive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2009
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Inventors: Harunari Shimamura, Jun Nunome, Fumio Kato
  • Publication number: 20110123847
    Abstract: An alkaline battery which is superior in high-rate discharge characteristics and in moderate- and low-rate discharge characteristics is provided. An alkaline battery according to the present invention includes a closed-end cylindrical battery case 8 housing a hollow cylindrical positive electrode 2, a negative electrode 3 disposed in a hollow portion of the positive electrode 2, a separator 4 sandwiched between the positive electrode 2 and the negative electrode 3, and an alkaline electrolyte. The negative electrode 3 includes a zinc porous body. The alkaline electrolyte includes 0.1% to 2% by mass, both inclusive, of a surfactant having an average molecular weight of 120 to 350, both inclusive, with respect to a mass of zinc in the negative electrode 3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Publication date: May 26, 2011
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Jun Nunome, Harunari Shimamura
  • Patent number: 7897282
    Abstract: An AA alkaline battery according to the present invention includes: a positive electrode; a negative electrode; a separator; an alkaline electrolyte; and a negative electrode current collector. The negative electrode contains zinc, indium, and bismuth. The weight of zinc is 4.0 g or more, and the total weight of indium and bismuth is 450 ppm or less with respect to the weight of zinc. The negative electrode current collector contains copper. Tin is provided on at least part of the surface of the negative electrode current collector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuhiko Bito, Fumio Kato, Harunari Shimamura
  • Patent number: 7896163
    Abstract: A sifter comprising: a receiver having a supply chamber; a sieve assembly having a sieving chamber coupled to the supply chamber; a rotator having a rotating shaft laterally arranged to pass through the supply chamber and the sieving chamber; a drum having a circular cross-section and having a larger diameter than the diameter of the rotating shaft, the drum being extended in at least space of the sieving chamber and arranged coaxially with the sieve; a cylindrical sieve located inside the sieving chamber and arranged coaxially with the rotating shaft; a stirring rotor located in an inner area of the sieving chamber inside the sieve comprising a rotating blade attached to the rotating shaft; an extraction member; and an outlet for discharging powder passing through the sieve from the inner area to the outer area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2011
    Assignee: Tsukasa Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Fumio Kato
  • Publication number: 20110031280
    Abstract: A table feeder 1 has a bottom assembly 3 of a particulate material processing vessel 2, a discharger 4 provided in the bottom assembly 3 to discharge a particulate material P kept in the vessel 2, a bottom plate 5 included in the bottom assembly 3, a rotating shaft 6 provided vertically to a main face 5a of the bottom plate 5 to rotate on the center of the bottom plate 5, rotary vanes 7 to discharge the particulate material P kept in the particulate material processing vessel 2 via the discharger 4 and a drive device 8 configured to drive and rotate the rotary vanes 7. A cone 10 having a smaller diameter than a diameter of the rotary vanes 7 is provided in the space above the rotary vanes 7 coaxially with the rotary vanes 7 to extend over a central area of the rotary vane 7.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2010
    Publication date: February 10, 2011
    Applicant: TSUKASA CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Fumio KATO
  • Publication number: 20110005980
    Abstract: A sifter comprising: a receiver having a supply chamber; a sieve assembly having a sieving chamber coupled to the supply chamber; a rotor having a rotating shaft laterally arranged to pass through the supply chamber and the sieving chamber; a drum having a circular cross-section and having a larger diameter than the diameter of the rotating shaft, the drum being extended in at least space of the sieving chamber and arranged coaxially with the sieve; a cylindrical sieve located inside the sieving chamber and arranged coaxially with the rotating shaft; a stirring rotor located in an inner area of the sieving chamber inside the sieve comprising a rotating blade attached to the rotating shaft; an extraction member; and an outlet for discharging powder passing through the sieve from the inner area to the outer area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2010
    Publication date: January 13, 2011
    Applicant: TSUKASA CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Fumio KATO
  • Publication number: 20100203382
    Abstract: An alkaline battery includes: a positive electrode 3 including a positive electrode active material; a negative electrode 6 including a negative electrode active material; a separator 4; and an alkaline electrolyte. The negative electrode active material includes zinc alloy powder containing calcium and bismuth. The zinc alloy powder contains from 10% to 60%, both inclusive, by weight, of calcium with respect to bismuth, from 0.004% to 0.02%, both inclusive, by weight, of bismuth, and at least 11%, by weight, of particles with particle sizes of 75 ?m or less. With this configuration, high-power pulse discharge performance of the alkaline battery can be sufficiently enhanced without problems such as a rapid temperature rise in a short circuit and leakage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2008
    Publication date: August 12, 2010
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Harunari Shimamura, Jun Nunome, Yasuhiko Bito
  • Publication number: 20100183916
    Abstract: An alkaline primary battery provided with a positive electrode containing a positive electrode active material and graphite, a negative electrode containing a negative electrode active material, a separator, and an alkaline electrolyte, the positive electrode active material containing manganese dioxide, the alkaline electrolyte containing zinc oxide, and the positive electrode containing metatitanic acid. Due to this, in a battery in which an alkaline electrolyte contains zinc oxide, productions of hetaerolite and the like at the positive electrode and depositions of titanium compound, zinc oxide, and the like on the inner face of a battery case are suppressed, and thus, excellent discharge performance and storage characteristics can be obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2008
    Publication date: July 22, 2010
    Inventors: Harunari Shimamura, Jun Nunome, Fumio Kato, Yasuhiko Bito
  • Publication number: 20100129716
    Abstract: A mercury-free alkaline battery which can sufficiently suppress generation due to zinc corrosion and Fe contamination, and can exhibit a small amount of a voltage drop after pulse discharge in a low-temperature atmosphere, is provided. The mercury-free alkaline battery includes a positive electrode material mixture pellet 3 and a gelled negative electrode 6. The gelled negative electrode 6 is formed by mixing and dispersing zinc alloy particles, as a negative electrode active material, in a gelled alkaline electrolyte (i.e., a dispersion medium). An anionic surfactant and a quaternary ammonium salt cationic surfactant are added to the negative electrode 6, thereby suppressing both gas generation in the negative electrode and a voltage drop after pulse discharge at low temperatures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 13, 2008
    Publication date: May 27, 2010
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Jun Nunome, Harunari Shimamura
  • Patent number: 7718315
    Abstract: There is disclosed an alkaline battery including a positive electrode material mixture, a negative electrode, a separator interposed between the positive electrode material mixture and the negative electrode, and an alkaline electrolyte, wherein the positive electrode material mixture includes a first active material comprising nickel oxyhydroxide and a second active material comprising manganese dioxide, the nickel oxyhydroxide includes a ?-type crystal structure, the content of nickel in the nickel oxyhydroxide is not less than 45 wt %, and the average particle diameter on a volume basis of the nickel oxyhydroxide measured with a laser diffraction particle size distribution analyzer is 3 to 20 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Katsuya Sawada, Hidekatsu Izumi, Yasuo Mukai, Shigeto Noya
  • Patent number: 7699178
    Abstract: The purpose of the invention is to prevent accumulation of particulates on the outside of a net body of a particulate sifter having a cylindrical net body and to extend the lifetime of the net body. To achieve the purpose, in a particulate sifter which is provided with a sieve 21 having a cylindrical net body 26 extending in a horizontal direction and a booster having rotating blades which rotate along the inner surface of the net body 26 and which separates particulates that pass through the net body 26 from particulates and/or foreign substances that do not pass through the net body 26 while agitating the particulates that have flowed inside the sieve 21 with the booster, the sieve 21 is located rotatably around the central axis of the cylindrical net body 26. The sieve 21 may be rotated forcibly by an electric motor as a driving source or may be rotated by kinetic energy of particulate-air mixture agitated by rotating blades without a driving source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2010
    Assignee: Tsukasa Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Teruo Inoue, Yoshio Sakakibara, Sinsaku Kamimura
  • Patent number: 7691531
    Abstract: This invention relates to an alkaline battery including spherical nickel oxyhydroxide that includes crystals having a ?-type structure. In a powder X-ray diffraction profile of the spherical nickel oxyhydroxide obtained using a Cu target, a half-width W of a diffraction peak P derived from a (001) plane is 0.6° or less. The ratio H/W of a height H of the peak P to the half-width W is 10,000 or more. The nickel contained in the spherical nickel oxyhydroxide has a mean valence of 2.95 or more. The use of such nickel oxyhydroxide in an alkaline battery results in a battery having excellent heavy-load discharge characteristics and improved energy densities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Shigeto Noya
  • Publication number: 20100068620
    Abstract: An alkaline battery includes a positive electrode containing as a positive electrode active material manganese dioxide and nickel oxyhydroxide, and when the manganese dioxide is heated, a weight reduction percentage of the manganese dioxide at a temperature within a range of 100° C. or more and 400° C. or less is 3.8 wt % or more. When the manganese dioxide is subjected to X-ray powder diffraction measurement, a peak position of a diffraction plane with Miller indices of (110) is 20.5 degrees or more and 21.7 degrees or less and a ratio (I(130)/I(021)) of a peak intensity I (130) of a diffraction plane with miller indices (130) to a peak intensity I(021) of a diffraction plane with Muller indices of (021) is 0.1 or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 12, 2007
    Publication date: March 18, 2010
    Inventors: Jun Nunome, Fumio Kato, Harunari Shimamura
  • Publication number: 20090269660
    Abstract: An alkaline dry battery includes a positive electrode 2 containing manganese dioxide, a negative electrode 3 containing zinc, and an electrolyte containing a potassium hydroxide aqueous solution, which are encased in a cylindrical battery case 1 with a bottom. Among X-ray CT images scanned from part of the battery holding the positive electrode by slicing the battery by planes perpendicular to a center axis of the battery case 1 with intervals of 0.2 mm, CT images in which at least one crack is detected in a region of the positive electrode constitute 10% to 80% by number of the total X-ray CT images, the crack being identified by a brightness of 98% or less of that of part of the positive electrode region surrounding the crack.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2009
    Publication date: October 29, 2009
    Inventors: Harunari Shimamura, Jun Nunome, Fumio Kato
  • Publication number: 20090263710
    Abstract: In an AA alkaline battery, an opening of a battery case is sealed by a gasket. The battery case houses a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator, and an alkaline electrolyte. The positive electrode contains manganese dioxide having a potential of higher than or equal to 270 mV measured by using mercurous oxide (Hg/HgO) as a reference electrode in 40 wt % of a potassium hydroxide aqueous solution. The negative electrode contains 4.0 g or more of zinc. The gasket has a hydrogen gas permeability coefficient, per one gasket, in the range from 6×10?10 (cm3H2(STP)/sec·cmHg) to 3×10?9 (cm3H2(STP)/sec·cmHg), both inclusive.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Publication date: October 22, 2009
    Inventors: Fumio KATO, Jun Nunome, Harunari Shimamura
  • Publication number: 20090263720
    Abstract: An AA alkaline battery includes a positive electrode containing larger than or equal to 9.30 g of manganese dioxide. The cumulative pore volume of pores having diameters from 0.97 ?m to 10.2 ?m, both inclusive, is in the range from 0.0035 ml/g to 0.0070 ml/g, both inclusive, in measurement of pore size distribution in the positive electrode performed by mercury intrusion porosimetry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2009
    Publication date: October 22, 2009
    Inventors: Jun NUNOME, Fumio Kato, Harunari Shimamura
  • Publication number: 20090197169
    Abstract: An alkaline battery comprising a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode; and an alkaline electrolyte, wherein the positive electrode includes manganese dioxide and graphite; the cumulative pore volume of pores with diameters of 3 to 5 nm in the manganese dioxide is X (cm3/g), and the weight loss rate of the manganese dioxide when heated from 150 to 400° C. is Y (%), X and Y satisfying 0.005?X?0.011, 3.4?Y?3.9, and ?16.7X+3.58?Y?66.7X+3.17; the negative electrode includes zinc; and the alkaline electrolyte includes an aqueous potassium hydroxide solution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2008
    Publication date: August 6, 2009
    Inventors: Jun Nunome, Fumio Kato, Harunari Shimamura
  • Patent number: 7569306
    Abstract: An alkaline battery of the present invention includes a positive electrode material mixture including nickel oxyhydroxide. The nickel oxyhydroxide includes a secondary particle with a crystal structure mainly composed of ?-type at least a portion of the surface layer of the secondary particle, and with a crystal structure mainly composed of ?-type in the inner portion of the secondary particle. Based on the present invention, the advantage of the alkaline battery, i.e., excellence in discharge performance under high-load, can be kept and the conventional problem of storage characteristics can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2009
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Katsuya Sawada, Tadaya Okada, Yasuo Mukai, Shigeto Noya
  • Publication number: 20090181307
    Abstract: An AA alkaline battery according to the present invention includes: a positive electrode; a negative electrode; a separator; an alkaline electrolyte; and a negative electrode current collector. The negative electrode contains zinc, indium, and bismuth. The weight of zinc is 4.0 g or more, and the total weight of indium and bismuth is 450 ppm or less with respect to the weight of zinc. The negative electrode current collector contains copper. Tin is provided on at least part of the surface of the negative electrode current collector.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2008
    Publication date: July 16, 2009
    Inventors: Yasuhiko BITO, Fumio Kato, Harunari Shimamura
  • Publication number: 20090181293
    Abstract: An AA alkaline battery includes: a positive electrode; a negative electrode; a separator; and an alkaline electrolyte. The negative electrode contains 4.0 g or more of zinc as an active material and an indium compound in the range from 50 ppm to 1000 ppm, both inclusive, with respect to the weight of zinc. Zinc contained in the negative electrode includes zinc particles which has a size of 200 meshes or less and is in the range from 20 wt. % to 50 wt. %, both inclusive, with respect to the weight of zinc contained in the negative electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2008
    Publication date: July 16, 2009
    Inventors: Fumio Kato, Hidekatsu Izumi