Patents by Inventor Kazuhisa Fukutani

Kazuhisa Fukutani 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: 11944944
    Abstract: A mixing apparatus includes a mixer configured to mix a material including a rubber or a resin in the presence of a working fluid that is in a supercritical state or a subcritical state. The mixer includes a chamber that forms a flow passage for the working fluid and the material, and a mixing blade disposed in the chamber and fixed to the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 2, 2024
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kosuke Higashi, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Patent number: 11931709
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a mixing apparatus. A production unit produces a working fluid that is in a supercritical state or a subcritical state. A storage unit stores a material. A dissolving unit dissolves the material in the working fluid. A mixer mixes the material together in the presence of the working fluid. A material feed valve opens or closes a flow passage through which the material is to pass to be fed from the storage unit into the dissolving unit. A working fluid inflow valve opens or closes a flow passage through which the working fluid is to pass to flow into the dissolving unit from the production unit. A mixer inflow valve opens or closes a flow passage through which the working fluid and the material are to pass to flow into the mixer from the dissolving unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2024
    Assignee: KOBE STEEL, LTD.
    Inventors: Kosuke Higashi, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Publication number: 20210187814
    Abstract: A screw extruder for extruding a kneaded material, includes: a pair of screws; a casing that houses the pair of screws and includes a supply port; and a roller-die. Each of the screws includes a shaft portion, and a spiral flight portion. The flight portion is formed into a shape in which a radial distance between the surface of the shaft portion and a tip of the flight portion decreases gradually toward a downstream end in an extrusion direction of a kneaded material. The casing has a tapered shape. Within a range between a downstream end of the supply port and a downstream end of the flight portion, a clearance between a top portion of the flight portion and an inner wall surface of the casing at the downstream end of the supply port is larger than a clearance at any other part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2019
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kosuke HIGASHI, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI
  • Patent number: 11027475
    Abstract: A screw extruder which extrudes a kneaded material includes a screw having a helical flight provided on an outer peripheral surface of a shaft portion thereof, and a chamber housing the screw. In the screw extruder, a flight thickening portion is provided at a part which is a tip portion of the flight and is on the reverse side of a rotation direction of the flight.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: KOBE STEEL, LTD.
    Inventors: Kazuhisa Fukutani, Kosuke Higashi
  • Publication number: 20200368958
    Abstract: A screw extruder with rollers includes a screw which extrudes a material; a casing which houses the screw and which is provided with a charging port for the material; and a pair of an upper roller and a lower roller which are arranged in front of the casing and mold the material extruded by the screw into a sheet, in which one of the upper roller and the lower roller has both end portions in an axial direction, and a main body portion between the both end portions, and a cross-section of the main body portion perpendicular to the axial direction has an oval shape.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2018
    Publication date: November 26, 2020
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kosuke HIGASHI, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI
  • Publication number: 20200330940
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a mixing apparatus. A production unit produces a working fluid that is in a supercritical state or a subcritical state. A storage unit stores a material. A dissolving unit dissolves the material in the working fluid. A mixer mixes the material together in the presence of the working fluid. A material feed valve opens or closes a flow passage through which the material is to pass to be fed from the storage unit into the dissolving unit. A working fluid inflow valve opens or closes a flow passage through which the working fluid is to pass to flow into the dissolving unit from the production unit. A mixer inflow valve opens or closes a flow passage through which the working fluid and the material are to pass to flow into the mixer from the dissolving unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Publication date: October 22, 2020
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kosuke HIGASHI, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI
  • Publication number: 20200276544
    Abstract: A mixing apparatus includes a mixer configured to mix a material including a rubber or a resin in the presence of a working fluid that is in a supercritical state or a subcritical state. The mixer includes a chamber that forms a flow passage for the working fluid and the material, and a mixing blade disposed in the chamber and fixed to the chamber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 24, 2018
    Publication date: September 3, 2020
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kosuke HIGASHI, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI
  • Publication number: 20200248975
    Abstract: A metal base plate material includes trip-shaped first regions each having a plurality of first ridges arranged substantially parallel to each other and at substantially equal intervals such that an angle of intersection with a longitudinal direction is greater than or equal to 10° and less than or equal to 25°. Strip-shaped second regions each have a plurality of second ridges arranged substantially parallel to each other and at substantially equal intervals and angled to face the plurality of the first ridges in a crosswise direction. The first regions and second regions are separated by a gap regions therebetween, at substantially equal intervals. First ends on a downstream side of the plurality of the first ridges and second ends on a downstream side of the plurality of the second ridges are positioned differently from each other in the longitudinal directions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2018
    Publication date: August 6, 2020
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
    Inventors: Keitaro TAMURA, Yoshio ITSUMI, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI, Akio OKAMOTO
  • Publication number: 20200031017
    Abstract: A screw extruder for extruding a kneaded material includes a screw and a casing housing the screw and having a material supply port on an upstream side in an extrusion direction of the kneaded material and a tip-side opening on a downstream side in the extrusion direction. A pressure sensor for measuring a pressure inside the casing is provided between a downstream end of the supply port and the tip-side opening of the casing. A rotational speed of the screw is controlled depending on the pressure measured by the pressure sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2017
    Publication date: January 30, 2020
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kazuhisa FUKUTANI, Kosuke HIGASHI
  • Publication number: 20190389114
    Abstract: A screw extruder for extruding a kneaded material, includes: a screw; and a casing housing the screw and having a material supply port on an upstream side. The screw has a shaft portion and a helical flight portion provided on an outer peripheral surface of the shaft portion. Regarding a clearance between a top portion of the flight portion and an inner wall surface of the casing, the clearance at a downstream side end of the flight portion is larger than the clearance at a downstream side end of the supply port. No area where the clearance decreases from the upstream side toward the downstream side is present between the downstream side end of the supply port and the downstream side end of the flight portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2018
    Publication date: December 26, 2019
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kazuhisa FUKUTANI, Kosuke HIGASHI
  • Publication number: 20190160722
    Abstract: A screw extruder which extrudes a kneaded material includes a screw having a helical flight provided on an outer peripheral surface of a shaft portion thereof, and a chamber housing the screw. In the screw extruder, a flight thickening portion is provided at a part which is a tip portion of the flight and is on the reverse side of a rotation direction of the flight.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2017
    Publication date: May 30, 2019
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Kazuhisa FUKUTANI, Kosuke HIGASHI
  • Patent number: 10160140
    Abstract: A sealed kneading machine includes a kneading chamber to which a material to be kneaded is supplied, and a rotor disposed in the kneading chamber to be able to rotate about a rotor shaft. The rotor includes a plurality of kneading blades for kneading the material to be kneaded, and the length of all the kneading blades in the rotor shaft direction of each thereof is 45% or less of the total length of the rotor in the rotor shaft direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2018
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Kameda, Yasuaki Yamane, Kazuo Miyasaka, Kazuhisa Fukutani, Kosuke Higashi
  • Patent number: 9463581
    Abstract: The degree of kneading of a material to be kneaded is to be capable of being adjusted with a high accuracy. A kneading degree adjusting mechanism is installed in a processing apparatus having a barrel and a kneading screw inserted into the barrel rotatably, the kneading screw having a kneading section and rotating within the barrel to knead a material continuously while feeding the material from an upstream side toward a downstream side. The kneading degree adjusting mechanism includes a push-back section for pushing back the material to the upstream side and thereby making the material stay around the kneading section, the push-back section being disposed downstream of the kneading section in the kneading screw; a kneading degree adjusting member having an opposed surface opposed to an outer periphery surface of the push-back section; and a drive section for actuating the kneading degree adjusting member so that the opposed surface moves toward and away from the push-back section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuo Yamaguchi, Yasuaki Yamane, Katsunori Takahashi, Taiji Orimo, Sayaka Yamada, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Publication number: 20160200001
    Abstract: A sealed kneading machine includes a kneading chamber to which a material to be kneaded is supplied, and a rotor disposed in the kneading chamber to be able to rotate about a rotor shaft. The rotor includes a plurality of kneading blades for kneading the material to be kneaded, and the length of all the kneading blades in the rotor shaft direction of each thereof is 45% or less of the total length of the rotor in the rotor shaft direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Publication date: July 14, 2016
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.)
    Inventors: Yasuhiro KAMEDA, Yasuaki YAMANE, Kazuo MIYASAKA, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI, Kosuke HIGASHI
  • Publication number: 20150369425
    Abstract: A vaporization device (10) for a low-temperature liquefied gas is provided with: a plurality of heat-transfer pipes (20) into which liquefied natural gas (LNG) is introduced; upper headers (24) which cause natural gas (NG) flowing out from the plurality of heat-transfer pipes (20) to converge; first troughs (28) which supply seawater to the plurality of heat-transfer pipes (20) such that the seawater flows down along outer surfaces of the plurality of heat-transfer pipes (20); and second troughs (36) which drop seawater onto the upper headers (24) from above such that the seawater flows down along outer surfaces of the upper headers (24). In the plurality of heat-transfer pipes (20), the LNG is heated by being subjected to heat exchange with the seawater. In the upper headers (24), vapourized NG which has been heated in the plurality of heat-transfer pipes (20) is heated by being subjected to heat exchange with the seawater flowing down along the outer surfaces of the upper headers (24).
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2014
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Applicant: (KABUSHIKI KAIS HA KOBE SEIKO SHO (KOBE STEEL, LTD.))
    Inventors: Shinji EGASHIRA, Yoshihiko TSURU, Yuji SUMIDA, Kazuhisa FUKUTANI, Kosuke HIGASHI
  • Patent number: 9033570
    Abstract: A mixing rotor includes: a rotor shaft portion that includes a cooling passageway formed therein, and a mixing blade portion that is formed in an outer circumferential portion of the rotor shaft portion, wherein each of the long blades of the mixing blade portion includes a land portion as an end surface of the long blade facing a radially outside of the mixing rotor, a length of each of the long blades in the axis direction is set to be 0.6 times or more as large as a length of the mixing blade portion in the axis direction, a biting angle of each of the long blades is set to an angle equal to or smaller than 31°, and a center angle with respect to a land width as a width of the land portion in the cross-section of each of the long blades orthogonal to the axis direction is set to an angle equal to or larger than 7°.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yusuke Tanaka, Norifumi Yamada, Yasuaki Yamane, Masaaki Uemura, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Patent number: 8926166
    Abstract: Provided is a kneading rotor, a batch kneader and a method of kneading materials capable of obtaining kneaded materials with higher quality in comparison to conventional kneaded materials when the materials to be kneaded are kneaded in a high temperature state. The kneading rotor comprises a rotor portion which is disposed in a kneading chamber of a chamber of a batch kneader, and applies shear force, by using a plurality of kneading blades, to materials to be kneaded which pass through a tip clearance. A first long blade of the plurality of kneading blades has an apex for forming, with the inner surface of the chamber forming the kneading chamber, three-staged tip clearances of different sizes configured from a combination of a large tip clearance, a mid tip clearance that is smaller than the large tip clearance, and a small tip clearance that is smaller than the mid tip clearance so as to be arranged in the longitudinal direction of the first long blade.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Norifumi Yoshida, Masaaki Uemura, Hiromi Nakano, Katsunobu Hagiwara, Kimio Inoue, Mika Nishida, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Publication number: 20140369843
    Abstract: A mixing rotor includes: a rotor shaft portion that includes a cooling passageway formed therein, and a mixing blade portion that is formed in an outer circumferential portion of the rotor shaft portion, wherein each of the long blades of the mixing blade portion includes a land portion as an end surface of the long blade facing a radially outside of the mixing rotor, a length of each of the long blades in the axis direction is set to be 0.6 times or more as large as a length of the mixing blade portion in the axis direction, a biting angle of each of the long blades is set to an angle equal to or smaller than 31°, and a center angle with respect to a land width as a width of the land portion in the cross-section of each of the long blades orthogonal to the axis direction is set to an angle equal to or larger than 7°.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Publication date: December 18, 2014
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel, Ltd.)
    Inventors: Yusuke Tanaka, Norifumi Yamada, Yasuaki Yamane, Masaaki Uemura, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Patent number: 8882337
    Abstract: A kneading rotor, in which the length L4 of a long blade in the direction of rotation of a rotor section is greater than one half of the total length L5 of a rotor section main body in the direction of rotation, and the long blades are arranged in such a manner that, in a case where a pair of the rotor sections are arranged mutually in parallel inside the chamber of the closed kneading machine and are rotated in mutually opposite directions, an end section on the rearward side in the direction of rotation of the rotor section, of the long blade of one of the rotor sections, and an end section on the forward side in the direction of rotation of the rotor section, of the long blade of the other one of the rotor sections, alternately repeat mutually an approaching action and a separating action, and in the state of approach, the end section on the forward side and the end section on the rearward side oppose each other in the direction of rotation of the rotor sections on a line which links the respective central
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Kobe Steel, Ltd.
    Inventors: Norifumi Yoshida, Masaaki Uemura, Hiromi Nakano, Katsunobu Hagiwara, Kimio Inoue, Mika Nishida, Kazuhisa Fukutani
  • Publication number: 20120269024
    Abstract: A kneading segment kneads materials such that insufficiently kneaded portions would not remain as gel. The kneading segment is rotatably disposed on a kneading screw housed in a barrel having an inner cavity, and is provided with a kneading flight which kneads the material in the barrel by rotating according to the kneading screw's rotation. The top surface of the kneading flight is formed with a concaved cutout section. The cutout section is surrounded by two side surfaces, which face the axial direction, and a bottom surface, which is disposed between the side surfaces. The bottom surface of the cutout section is formed in a tilted planar shape in relation to the top surface. The opening of the cutout section, which faces one side of the rotational direction of the kneading screw, has a larger area than the opening which faces the other side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2010
    Publication date: October 25, 2012
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Kobe Seiko Sho (Kobe Steel) Ltd
    Inventors: Naoki Kikuchi, Hodaka Miura, Kazuhisa Fukutani, Sayaka Yamada