Patents by Inventor Hisashi Kurokawa

Hisashi Kurokawa 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: 8092974
    Abstract: A production method of a toner includes a suspension process in which a polymerizable monomer composition is dispersed in an aqueous dispersion medium; and a polymerization process in which suspension polymerization is performed with the suspension in the presence of a polymerization initiator to obtain colored resin particles. In the suspension process an inhibitor of small diameter microparticle production is contained in the aqueous dispersion medium. A minimum reaction activation energy Emin of the inhibitor of small diameter microparticle production is 7 kcal/mol or less and an octanol-water partition coefficient log P is 2 or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Zeon Corporation
    Inventors: Hisashi Kurokawa, Michito Horie
  • Patent number: 8085140
    Abstract: A traveling information providing device is provided in which a surrounding information corrector acquires surrounding information on the condition surrounding a vehicle equipped with the device. An object extractor extracts a safety confirmation object the safety of which must be confirmed by a driver from the surrounding information acquired by the surrounding information collector. A line-of-sight detector detects a line-of-sight direction of the driver. A visibility calculator receives the extracted safety confirmation object and the line-of-sight direction of the driver and calculates visibility in consideration of the driver's peripheral vision with respect to the safety confirmation object according to the distance or the angle from the driver's line-of-sight direction to the object. An information presenter presents safety confirmation to the driver depending on the calculated visibility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Mochizuki, Hirofumi Nishimura, Hiroyuki Kubotani, Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 7884705
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide a safety-drive assistance device that can judge whether a driver recognizes an object to which a driver should pay an attention or not even if an accuracy of detecting a visual-line direction is almost equal to once degree. A traffic environment detecting unit 11 detects an object such as an automobile, a pedestrian, a road mark and a traffic signal. A watched target judging unit 12 judges a watched target among the objects, to which a driver pays attention. A visual-line direction detecting unit 13 detects a visual-line direction of a driver. A visual recognition judging unit 14 judges whether a driver visually recognizes the watched target or not, based on the watched target and a fluctuation pattern of a direction of either or both eyes of the driver. A non-safety recognition judging unit 15 judges whether a driver recognizes non-safety or not, based on the result of visual recognition judged by the visual recognition judging unit 14.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Hirofumi Nishimura, Hisashi Kurokawa, Makoto Mochizuki
  • Publication number: 20100319212
    Abstract: A production process of a toner, wherein wet colored resin particles are poured into a rotary vane type agitating device having a structure that an agitating vane fixed to a rotating drive shaft extending through a bottom wall of an agitation vessel is arranged at a bottom of the agitation vessel, and at least one gas inlet port and at least one gas outlet port are arranged at a lower portion of the agitation vessel and an upper portion of the agitation vessel, respectively, the wet colored resin particles are dried by a method, in which the wet colored resin particles are agitated by the rotary vane within the agitation vessel while supplying a heated gas, thereby forming a fluidized bed, and a mixed gas containing water is discharged from the gas outlet port to the outside, and at that time, drying conditions are controlled in such a manner that the temperature of the gas discharged falls within a range from 20 to 60° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 18, 2009
    Publication date: December 23, 2010
    Applicant: ZEON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi Iga, Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 7767375
    Abstract: In a process for producing a polymerized toner, comprising Step 1 of preparing a polymerizable monomer composition and Step 2 of polymerizing the polymerizable monomer composition with a polymerization initiator to form colored polymer particles, Step 1 comprises Step A of finely dispersing the colorant in a liquid mixture containing the polymerizable monomer and the colorant, and further Step A comprises Step A1 of feeding a liquid mixture containing a polymerizable monomer and a colorant, which has a volume average particle diameter of 20 ?m or larger and/or contains particles having a particle diameter of 51 ?m or larger in a volume percentage of 20% or higher, to a dispersing machine of the type that mechanical shearing force is applied by rotation of an agitating blade to preliminarily disperse the colorant, and Step A2 of feeding the liquid mixture containing the colorant preliminarily dispersed in Step A1 to a media type dispersing machine equipped with a media-separating screen to more finely disperse
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignee: Zeon Corporation
    Inventor: Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 7766110
    Abstract: A vehicle having in-wheel motors, wherein when the in-wheel motors are mounted on the vehicle driven by the torque of an internal combustion engine, the in-wheel motors are mounted on wheels on one side of the vehicle opposite to the other side on which the internal combustion engine is mounted. The non-rotating side of the motor and the knuckle are supported by a buffer mechanism having plates connected to each other by a direct-acting guide with springs composed of a direct-acting guide having a linear bearing and a rod and spring members moving in the vertical direction of the vehicle and mated with the direct-acting guide and a damper for interconnecting the plates, moving in the vertical direction of the vehicle to support the motor to either one or both of the unsprung mass of the vehicle and the car body by the buffer mechanism. Thus, the running ability and riding comfort of the vehicle having in-wheel motors can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2010
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone, Kayaba Industry Co., Ltd., Akebono Brake Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Katsumi Tashiro, Hisashi Kurokawa, Yoshinari Nakamura, Kimio Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20100081078
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide a method for producing a toner capable of sufficiently decreasing the percentage of moisture content of a wet cake in the process of obtaining colored resin particles in wet state (wet cake), capable of reducing the workload in the following drying process, and thus excellent in productivity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2009
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: ZEON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hisashi Kurokawa, Rei Katsuyama, Fuminari Oyama, Hiroto Kidokoro
  • Patent number: 7682768
    Abstract: A process for producing a polymerized toner, comprising the step of polymerizing a polymerizable monomer composition containing a polymerizable monomer and a colorant in the presence of a polymerization initiator in an aqueous dispersion medium to form colored polymer particles, the process comprising the steps of mixing the polymerizable monomer with the colorant to prepare a polymerizable monomer mixture having an initial viscosity of 10 to 3,000 mPa·s or 0.3 to 1 mPa·s as measured at 25° C. by a Brookfield type viscometer, and then feeding the polymerizable monomer mixture to a media type dispersing machine to finely disperse the colorant by the media type dispersing machine, thereby preparing a dispersed polymerizable monomer mixture having a viscosity after the dispersion, the ratio of increase in viscosity of which is 1.0 to 10 times or 100 to 2,000 times as high as the initial viscosity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Zeon Corporation
    Inventor: Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Publication number: 20090303078
    Abstract: Traveling information providing device for ensuring the safety of a traveling vehicle by correctly judging the driver's recognition of a safety confirmation object through not only driver's attentive viewing of the safety confirmation object but also his or her viewing of the surroundings. A surrounding information collecting section (120) acquires surrounding information on the condition surrounding the vehicle equipped with the device. An object extracting section (130) extracts a safety confirmation object the safety of which must be confirmed by the driver from the surrounding information acquired by the surrounding information collecting section (120). A line-of-sight detecting section (110) detects the line-of-sight direction of the driver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2007
    Publication date: December 10, 2009
    Applicant: PANASONIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto Mochizuki, Hirofumi Nishimura, Hiroyuki Kubotani, Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 7621357
    Abstract: A direct drive motor module has hollow disk-like plates (21, 22) for interconnecting the rotation side of an in-wheel motor (3) and a wheel (2) and a drive force transmission mechanism (20) comprising cross guides (23) for guiding the plates (21, 22) in the vertical direction. To mount the direct drive motor module to the wheel (2), attachment holes (2s) are formed in the spoke portions of the wheel (2), the fixing portions of connection pins (30) having a spherical pin head which is a mating portion are fitted in the attachment holes (2s), guide holes (40) having a predetermined clearance relative to the outer diameter of the pin head (33) are formed in the wheel side plate (22) supporting the wheel (2) sides of the cross guides (23), the pin heads of the connection pins (30) are mated with the guide holes (40), and the direct drive motor module is mounted to the wheel (2). The direct drive motor module can be reliably mounted to the wheel (2) even if assembly accuracy is not so high.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 24, 2009
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Katsumi Tashiro, Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 7556112
    Abstract: An in-wheel motor system, wherein the non-rotating side case of a motor and a knuckle are connected to each other by a motor attachment plate (11), a knuckle attachment place (12), and a damper (16) for interconnecting these plates (11) and (12), moving in the vertical direction of a vehicle. A first direct-acting guide (13) consisting of a linear bearing (13A) and a rod (13B) and a second direct-acting guide (14) consisting of a linear bearing (14A) and a rod (14B) are integrally attached to an attachment member (12m) installed on the side face of the knuckle attachment plate (12). Also, spring members (15) and (15) are installed between receiving members (11m) and (11m) for supporting both ends of the rod (14B) of the second direct-acting guide (14) installed on the motor attachment plate (11) and the fixing portion (12k) for fixing the second direct-acting guide 14 of the attachment member (12m).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2009
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone, Kayaba Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Katsumi Tashiro, Hisashi Kurokawa, Yoshinari Nakamura
  • Publication number: 20090128311
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide a safety-drive assistance device that can judges whether a driver recognizes an object to which a driver should pay an attention or not even if an accuracy of detecting a visual-line direction is almost equal to one degree. A traffic environment detecting unit 11 detects an object such as an automobile, a pedestrian, a road mark and a traffic signal. A watched target judging unit 12 judges a watched target among the objects, to which a driver pays attention. A visual-line direction detecting unit 13 detects a visual-line direction of a driver. A visual recognition judging unit 14 judges whether a driver visually recognizes the watched target or not, based on the watched target and a fluctuation pattern of a direction of either or both eyes of the driver. A non-safety recognition judging unit 15 judges whether a driver recognizes non-safety or not, based on the result of visual recognition judged by the visual recognition judging unit 14.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2006
    Publication date: May 21, 2009
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirofumi Nishimura, Hisashi Kurokawa, Makoto Mochizuki
  • Publication number: 20090004594
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing a toner for developing electrostatic image which inhibits the generation of small diameter microparticles as a by-product in the polymerization for the toner, which includes easy or simple washing treatment (washing/filtration/dehydration), and which is excellent in productivity. The method is a method for producing a toner for developing electrostatic image comprising a suspending step of suspending a polymerizable monomer composition containing at least a polymerizable monomer and a colorant into an aqueous dispersion medium containing a dispersion stabilizer to yield a suspension wherein droplets of the polymerizable monomer composition are dispersed, and a step of subjecting the suspension to suspension polymerization in the presence of a polymerization initiator to yield colored resin particles, wherein the colorant is a metal-containing organic pigment, and when the suspension polymerization is performed, the suspension contains 0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 26, 2008
    Publication date: January 1, 2009
    Applicant: ZEON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Publication number: 20080283315
    Abstract: A vehicle having in-wheel motors, wherein when the in-wheel motors are mounted on the vehicle driven by the torque of an internal combustion engine, the in-wheel motors (3) are mounted on wheels on one side of the vehicle opposite to the other side on which the internal combustion engine (51) is mounted. The non-rotating side of the motor and the knuckle (5) are supported by a buffer mechanism (10) having plates (11) and (12) connected to each other by a direct-acting guide (15) with springs composed of a direct-acting guide (13) comprising a linear bearing (13A) and a rod (14) and spring members 14 and 14 moving in the vertical direction of the vehicle and mated with the direct-acting guide (13) and a damper (16) for interconnecting the plates (11) and (12), moving in the vertical direction of the vehicle to support the motor (3) to either one or both of the unsprung mass of the vehicle and the car body by means of the buffer mechanism (10).
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2005
    Publication date: November 20, 2008
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Katsumi Tashiro, Hisashi Kurokawa, Yoshinari Nakamura, Kimio Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20080283314
    Abstract: A direct drive motor module has hollow disk-like plates (21, 22) for interconnecting the rotation side of an in-wheel motor (3) and a wheel (2) and a drive force transmission mechanism (20) comprising cross guides (23) for guiding the plates (21, 22) in the vertical direction. To mount the direct drive motor module to the wheel (2), attachment holes (2s) are formed in the spoke portions of the wheel (2), the fixing portions of connection pins (30) having a spherical pin head which is a mating portion are fitted in the attachment holes (2s), guide holes (40) having a predetermined clearance relative to the outer diameter of the pin head (33) are formed in the wheel side plate (22) supporting the wheel (2) sides of the cross guides (23), the pin heads of the connection pins (30) are mated with the guide holes (40), and the direct drive motor module is mounted to the wheel (2). The direct drive motor module can be reliably mounted to the wheel (2) even if assembly accuracy is not so high.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2005
    Publication date: November 20, 2008
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Katsumi Tashiro, Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Publication number: 20080085461
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide a method of producing a toner for developing an electrostatic image, in which less small diameter microparticles are produced as a by-product in polymerization of toner so that washing is easy leading to excellent productivity, and shelf stability at high temperature (preventing aggregation of the toner during storage) is excellent. Also, the present invention is to provide a method of producing a toner for developing an electrostatic image, in which residual amounts of a degradation product of a polymerization initiator and so on remained in the toner are reduced so that less odor is produced leading to no environmental deterioration, and a shelf stability at high temperature is excellent.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2007
    Publication date: April 10, 2008
    Applicant: ZEON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hisashi Kurokawa, Michito Horie
  • Publication number: 20070243485
    Abstract: In a process for producing a polymerized toner, comprising Step 1 of preparing a polymerizable monomer composition and Step 2 of polymerizing the polymerizable monomer composition with a polymerization initiator to form colored polymer particles, Step 1 comprises Step A of finely dispersing the colorant in a liquid mixture containing the polymerizable monomer and the colorant, and further Step A comprises Step A1 of feeding a liquid mixture containing a polymerizable monomer and a colorant, which has a volume average particle diameter of 20 ?m or larger and/or contains particles having a particle diameter of 51 ?m or larger in a volume percentage of 20% or higher, to a dispersing machine of the type that mechanical shearing force is applied by rotation of an agitating blade to preliminarily disperse the colorant, and Step A2 of feeding the liquid mixture containing the colorant preliminarily dispersed in Step A1 to a media type dispersing machine equipped with a media-separating screen to more finely disperse
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2005
    Publication date: October 18, 2007
    Inventor: Hisashi Kurokawa
  • Publication number: 20070199750
    Abstract: An in-wheel motor system, wherein the non-rotating side case of a motor and a knuckle are connected to each other by a motor attachment plate (11), a knuckle attachment place (12), and a damper (16) for interconnecting these plates (11) and (12), moving in the vertical direction of a vehicle. A first direct-acting guide (13) consisting of a linear bearing (13A) and a rod (13B) and a second direct-acting guide (14) consisting of a linear bearing (14A) and a rod (14B) are integrally attached to an attachment member (12m) installed on the side face of the knuckle attachment plate (12). Also, spring members (15) and (15) are installed between receiving members (11m) and (11m) for supporting both ends of the rod (14B) of the second direct-acting guide (14) installed on the motor attachment plate (11) and the fixing portion (12k) for fixing the second direct-acting guide 14 of the attachment member (12m).
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2005
    Publication date: August 30, 2007
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Katsumi Tashiro, Hisashi Kurokawa, Yoshinari Nakamura
  • Patent number: 7252920
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a polymerized toner comprising a process for forming fine droplets of a polymerizable monomer composition in an aqueous dispersion medium, and a process for polymerizing the polymerizable monomer composition after the process for forming fine droplets; wherein the process for forming fine droplets has the steps of: preparing an agitating apparatus having an agitator equipped with an agitating blade or rotor and a dispersion supply tank; providing a polymerizable monomer composition and an aqueous dispersion medium into the dispersion supply tank; then, mixing the polymerizable monomer composition and the aqueous dispersion medium by the agitator to obtain a dispersion of fine droplets; and the relationship between the peripheral velocity of the agitating blade or rotor of the agitator and the number of circulations of the dispersion is controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2007
    Assignee: Zeon Corporation
    Inventors: Hisashi Kurokawa, Makoto Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20070178401
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of producing a polymerized toner which is capable of dispersing a colorant in a polymerizable monomer finely and uniformly and is excellent in production efficiency, wherein a step of preparing a polymerizable monomer composition containing the polymerizable monomer and the colorant includes a dispersing process in which a polymerizable monomer mixture containing the polymerizable monomer and the colorant is supplied to a media type dispersing machine equipped with a media particle and a screen for media separation and the colorant is dispersed in the polymerizable monomer mixture to obtain a polymerizable monomer dispersion, wherein a media diameter of the media particle and an aperture ratio of the screen for media separation satisfy the following formulas 1 and 2: Formula ? ? 1 ? : 0.01 ? ? mm ? ( media ? ? diameter ) ? 0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2007
    Publication date: August 2, 2007
    Applicant: ZEON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hisashi Kurokawa