Patents by Inventor Hirofumi Watanaba

Hirofumi Watanaba 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: 6135513
    Abstract: An operational apparatus for a vehicle slide door comprises an outer open lever connected to an outside handle of the door, an inside handle of the door rotatable in door-opening and door-closing directions, an inner open lever connected to the inside handle, a child-proof mechanism, a powered closing unit for closing the door from a half-latched position to the full-latched position, a fail-safe lever for interrupting an operation of the powered closing unit, a sub inner lever connected to the inside handle. The inner open lever transmits a door-closing rotation of the inside handle to the fail-safe lever without through the child-proof mechanism. The sub inner lever transmits a door-opening rotation of the inside handle to the fail-safe lever without through the child-proof mechanism. The fail-safe lever is moved in the same direction by either of the door-opening and the door-closing rotations of the inside handle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2000
    Assignee: Mitsui Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshikazu Hamada, Mitsuhiro Watanabe, Hirofumi Watanaba
  • Patent number: 5867940
    Abstract: A powered sliding device for sliding a vehicle door comprises a base plate, a wire drum rotatably mounted on the base plate by a drum shaft and rotated by a motor, a wire cable for pulling the door in an opening direction or in a closing direction when the wire drum rotates, a tension shaft slidably mounted on the base plate in a given direction and having a tension roller, a movable member slidably mounted on the base plate in a direction perpendicular to the given direction, and a coupling member having one end rotatably connected to the tension shaft and the other end rotatably connected to the movable member. The given direction coincides with a radial direction of the drum shaft. Each side of a contact portion of the wire cable relatively to the tension roller extends straight toward the wire drum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 1997
    Date of Patent: February 9, 1999
    Assignee: Mitsui Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirofumi Watanaba, Manabu Nakajima