Patents by Inventor Hideo Funahashi

Hideo Funahashi 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).

  • Patent number: 10449498
    Abstract: A continuous kneading device including a pair of kneading rotors, capable of increasing mesh between the kneading rotors while also suppressing a kneading load applied to the kneading rotors. The continuous kneading device including a barrel and a pair of kneading rotors housed in the barrel. The kneading rotors rotate in mesh in directions different from each other. Each kneading rotor includes a plurality of kneading flights for kneading a material supplied into the barrel. The material is fed axially from the upstream kneading section to the downstream kneading section to be sequentially kneaded. The kneading flight constituting the downstream kneading section has a rotational outer diameter larger than a rotational outer diameter of the kneading flight constituting the upstream kneading section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2019
    Assignee: KOBE STEEL, LTD.
    Inventors: Kazuo Yamaguchi, Yoshinori Kuroda, Hideo Funahashi, Tsugushi Fukui
  • Publication number: 20170173543
    Abstract: A continuous kneading device (1) includes a pair of kneading rotors (3), being capable of increasing mesh between the kneading rotors (3) while suppressing a kneading load applied to the kneading rotors (3). The continuous kneading device (1) includes a barrel (2) and a pair of kneading rotors (3) housed in the barrel (2) and rotating in mesh in directions different from each other. Each kneading rotor (3) includes a plurality of kneading flights (11, 15) for kneading a material supplied into the barrel (2). The kneading flights (11, 15) and respective portions of the barrel (2) housing the kneading flights (11, 15) respectively configure a plurality of kneading sections aligned axially of the kneading rotors (3). The material is fed axially from the upstream kneading section to the downstream kneading section to be sequentially kneaded.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2014
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kazuo YAMAGUCHI, Yoshinori KURODA, Hideo FUNAHASHI, Tsugushi FUKUI
  • Patent number: 8876511
    Abstract: A system for kneading and extruding a material includes a crusher for crushing the material into coarse particles, an extruder for conveying and extruding the material crushed by the crusher, a gear pump for receiving and discharging the material extruded from the extruder, and a kneading and extruding apparatus for kneading the material discharged from the gear pump and continuously extruding the kneaded material. Therefore, a material is accurately quantified and highly uniform, resulting in reduced product variations and ensured consistent quality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Yamane, Hideo Funahashi, Koichi Miyake
  • Patent number: 8753002
    Abstract: A kneading segment includes plural wing portions integrally formed along an axis such that angles, around the axis, of the plural wing portions are shifted. At a part of a leading end of each wing portion where a wing leading end surface and a wing surface connect with each other, a first flow surface facilitates flow of material between the wing leading end surface and the wing surface. At a part of a base end of each wing portion where a wing surface and a wing side surface of another wing portion adjacent to each wing portion connect with each other, a second flow surface facilitates flow of material between the wing surface and the wing side surface. Since such a configuration prevents material from staying between parallel kneading segments, impurities are prevented and will not mix into normally kneaded material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2014
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tatsuo Gennai, Shigehiro Kasai, Hideo Funahashi
  • Publication number: 20120195155
    Abstract: A kneading segment includes plural wing portions integrally formed along an axis such that angles, around the axis, of the plural wing portions are shifted. At a part of a leading end of each wing portion where a wing leading end surface and a wing surface connect with each other, a first flow surface facilitates flow of material between the wing leading end surface and the wing surface. At a part of a base end of each wing portion where a wing surface and a wing side surface of another wing portion adjacent to each wing portion connect with each other, a second flow surface facilitates flow of material between the wing surface and the wing side surface. Since such a configuration prevents material from staying between parallel kneading segments, impurities are prevented and will not mix into normally kneaded material.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 10, 2012
    Publication date: August 2, 2012
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
    Inventors: Tatsuo GENNAI, Shigehiro Kasai, Hideo Funahashi
  • Patent number: 7419295
    Abstract: An extruder includes a barrel and a kneading screw extending through the barrel in a rotatable fashion. The kneading screw is provided with a devolatilization portion. The devolatilization portion includes a kneading flight that is twisted in a direction for transferring a material downstream. The kneading flight kneads the material while transferring the material downstream and separates a volatile component from the material. Impregnation sections, which allow the kneading chamber to be impregnated with the material, are respectively disposed adjacent to an upstream side and a downstream side of the devolatilization portion so that the air-tightness of the devolatilization portion of the extruder is maintained. Accordingly, an efficient devolatilization operation of the material is achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 2, 2008
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
    Inventors: Kimio Inoue, Shigehiro Kasai, Hideo Funahashi, Kazuhisa Fujisawa, Hironobu Nakanishi
  • Patent number: 7322738
    Abstract: In a conical twin-screw extruder in which two rotor shafts having flights on the outer peripheral surfaces thereof and being adjacent to each other in the lateral direction are accommodated in a barrel having a raw material supply port on one side and a raw material discharge port on the other side, and the distance between the rotor shafts and the outside diameters of the flights thereof are gradually reduced from the supply port side to the discharge port side, characteristically, the barrel is provided with a water-removing port for removing water contained in a raw material supplied through the raw material supply port, out of the barrel. The extruder can be applied to raw materials various shapes, sizes, and properties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2008
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho
    Inventors: Yasuaki Yamane, Koichi Miyake, Hideo Funahashi, Masao Murakami
  • Publication number: 20060003042
    Abstract: An extruder includes a barrel and a kneading screw extending through the barrel in a rotatable fashion. The kneading screw is provided with a devolatilization portion. The devolatilization portion includes a kneading flight that is twisted in a direction for transferring a material downstream. The kneading flight kneads the material while transferring the material downstream and separates a volatile component from the material. Impregnation sections, which allow the kneading chamber to be impregnated with the material, are respectively disposed adjacent to an upstream side and a downstream side of the devolatilization portion so that the air-tightness of the devolatilization portion of the extruder is maintained. Accordingly, an efficient devolatilization operation of the material is achieved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2005
    Publication date: January 5, 2006
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
    Inventors: Kimio Inoue, Shigehiro Kasai, Hideo Funahashi, Kazuhisa Fujisawa, Hironobu Nakanishi
  • Publication number: 20050219943
    Abstract: In a conical twin-screw extruder in which two rotor shafts having flights on the outer peripheral surfaces thereof and being adjacent to each other in the lateral direction are accommodated in a barrel having a raw material supply port on one side and a raw material discharge port on the other side, and the distance between the rotor shafts and the outside diameters of the flights thereof are gradually reduced from the supply port side to the discharge port side, characteristically, the barrel is provided with a water-removing port for removing water contained in a raw material supplied through the raw material supply port, out of the barrel. The extruder can be applied to raw materials various shapes, sizes, and properties.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 10, 2005
    Publication date: October 6, 2005
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho(Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
    Inventors: Yasuaki Yamane, Koichi Miyake, Hideo Funahashi, Masao Murakami
  • Publication number: 20050006813
    Abstract: A system for kneading and extruding a material includes a crusher for crushing the material into coarse particles, an extruder for conveying and extruding the material crushed by the crusher, a gear pump for receiving and discharging the material extruded from the extruder, and a kneading and extruding apparatus for kneading the material discharged from the gear pump and continuously extruding the kneaded material. Therefore, a material is accurately quantified and highly uniform, resulting in reduced product variations and ensured consistent quality.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2004
    Publication date: January 13, 2005
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho
    Inventors: Yasuaki Yamane, Hideo Funahashi, Koichi Miyake
  • Patent number: 5947593
    Abstract: A kneaded product of a desired state of kneading is available by causing a material to be kneaded to flow in tip clearances between rotor segments 1b and 1b of screw sets 1 and 1 and an inner wall surface of a chamber 4 while rotating the screw sets 1 and 1 provided to the right and the left of the chamber 4, and imparting a shearing force for dispersion. Each rotor segment 1b has a plurality of kneading blade 7 having different distances between the segment center and the top, so as to achieve a plurality of tip clearances different at least in the circumferential direction when the segment center is aligned with the chamber center.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: September 7, 1999
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho
    Inventors: Kimio Inoue, Katsunori Takahashi, Tatsuya Tanaka, Masahiko Kashiwa, Shigehiro Kasai, Yoshinori Kuroda, Hideo Funahashi, Yasuaki Yamane, Koichi Miyake, Masashi Konno, Akira Nishiyama