Patents by Inventor Kazutaka Nakayama

Kazutaka Nakayama 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: 20190353226
    Abstract: A rotary axis module includes: an input shaft connected to a drive motor; an output shaft, an output shaft flange connected to the output shaft; parallel gears coupled to the output shaft flange; at least two double gears; and a transfer gear that transmits the power of the drive motor to the double gears. The at least two double gears and the transfer gear are disposed so as to surround the output shaft.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2019
    Publication date: November 21, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutaka Nakayama, Kenichirou Abe, Masahiro Morioka
  • Publication number: 20190344454
    Abstract: To simplify production, a hollow-structure robot link-constituting member is obtained by joining two or more formed members obtained by press-forming steel sheets. Compared to when the robot link-constituting member is formed of castings, the thickness can be easily reduced and high strength can be maintained by forming a hollow structure by joining at least two formed members obtained by press-forming steel sheets. In this manner, significant weight reduction can be achieved compared to iron castings, and occurrence of defects can be reduced compared to aluminum alloy castings.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 4, 2019
    Publication date: November 14, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20190346321
    Abstract: Provided is a torque sensor that includes: a bearing that is provided with an inner ring and an outer ring that are supported so as to be relatively movable only in the direction of rotation about a predetermined axis; a connecting member that is provided with fixing sections that are respectively fixed to the inner ring and the outer ring and a strain generation section that connects between the fixing sections; and a strain sensor that is disposed on the connecting member so as to be capable of detecting a strain at least in the circumferential direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 25, 2019
    Publication date: November 14, 2019
    Applicant: Fanuc Corporation
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Patent number: 10475176
    Abstract: Provided is an inspection system for a wire electrical discharge machine, capable of automatically performing inspection of a constituent element and the like. The inspection system for a wire electrical discharge machine is provided with the wire electrical discharge machine, a robot for inspecting the constituent element of the wire electrical discharge machine, an image pickup device provided on a movable part of the robot and configured to image the constituent element, an image processing unit configured to acquire an image of the constituent element by means of the image pickup device, and a maintenance necessity determination unit configured to determine the necessity of maintenance of the constituent element based on the image acquired by the image processing unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka Nakayama
  • Patent number: 10465768
    Abstract: A rotary axis module includes: an input shaft connected to a drive motor; an output shaft, an output shaft flange connected to the output shaft; parallel gears coupled to the output shaft flange; at least two double gears; and a transfer gear that transmits the power of the drive motor to the double gears. The at least two double gears and the transfer gear are disposed so as to surround the output shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutaka Nakayama, Kenichirou Abe, Masahiro Morioka
  • Patent number: 10456907
    Abstract: Provided is a robot arm that is provided with mounting interface portions at both ends of a long resin arm body. Each of the mounting interface portions is provided with: a connecting section that is formed of resin and that is connected to the arm body; and a metal member that is embedded in the resin, which forms the connecting section, and that forms a mounting surface. The metal member is provided with a through-hole that penetrates therethrough in the plate-thickness direction and through which a mounting screw passes, and is embedded in the resin while exposing the mounting surface and a seating surface, for the mounting screw, around the through-hole, the seating surface being located at the opposite side from the mounting surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutaka Nakayama, Kenichirou Abe, Masahiro Morioka
  • Patent number: 10442051
    Abstract: A processing system having a function for appropriately maintaining processing accuracy, without depending on a degree of abrasion of a tool. An unused tool used in a machine tool is captured by using a camera mounted on a robot, so as to obtain a reference image of the tool. Next, an image of the tool is captured after a predetermined number of processing operations carried out. An average amount of tool abrasion per one processing operation is calculated based on the two images, so as to estimate a current amount of tool abrasion. Based on the estimation result and a previously input limit amount of abrasion, the number of remaining possible processing operations of the tool is calculated and output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka Nakayama
  • Patent number: 10444098
    Abstract: Provided is a torque sensor that includes: a bearing that is provided with an inner ring and an outer ring that are supported so as to be relatively movable only in the direction of rotation about a predetermined axis; a connecting member that is provided with fixing sections that are respectively fixed to the inner ring and the outer ring and a strain generation section that connects between the fixing sections; and a strain sensor that is disposed on the connecting member so as to be capable of detecting a strain at least in the circumferential direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: Fanuc Corporation
    Inventor: Kazutaka Nakayama
  • Patent number: 10434665
    Abstract: A robot shares a work space with a person, to perform an operation. The robot includes a shock-absorbing member which covers the periphery of at least a base part of a working tool attached to an robot arm, a detector which is provided for the robot arm, to detect an external force input via the shock-absorbing member, and a robot control device which stops the robot when determining, based on information of the detected external force, that the working tool collides with the person. The external force is transmitted from the working tool to the robot arm, and is detected by the detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka Nakayama
  • Publication number: 20190299427
    Abstract: A robot wiring additional routing method that includes detaching some fasteners to detach a cover member from a housing member, thus forming a gap between the detached cover member and the housing member; disposing additional wiring at such a position as to be routed across an inside and an outside of the housing member via the formed gap; and, in a state in which a spacer that maintains the gap is sandwiched between the cover member and the housing member, attaching the detached cover member to the housing member by the detached fasteners or other fasteners.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2019
    Publication date: October 3, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20190299420
    Abstract: Provided is a robot system which includes: a robot; a controller controlling the robot and causing the robot to operate in a plurality of operation modes; and a display device attached on the robot and caused by the controller to operate in patterns in accordance with the operation modes, the patterns being different from one another. The display device includes: a sheet-like base part being deformable in a shape in accordance with an outer surface of the robot and having flexibility; one or more display parts fixed on the base part; and a fixture maintaining the base part in a state in which the base part is attached on the outer surface of the robot.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2019
    Publication date: October 3, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20190305618
    Abstract: A robot drive unit is provided with: a first member and a second member rotated about a axis; a housing fixed to the first member; an output shaft member supported by the housing so as to rotate about the axis and fixed to the second member; a hollow shaft fixed to the output shaft member, and supported by the housing so as to rotate about the axis; and rotating-body sealing members seal a gap between the housing and the output shaft member and a gap between the housing and the hollow shaft, respectively. The hollow shaft is provided with: a shaft body made of a non-ferrous material; and a contact-surface member made of a material having a higher surface hardness than the shaft body and forms a contact surface to be in contact with the corresponding rotating-body sealing member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 18, 2019
    Publication date: October 3, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tomoaki MIZUKOSHI, Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20190264721
    Abstract: Provided is an industrial machine including a base including a through hole vertically passing through the base and installed on an installation surface F using a fastener through the through hole and a friction reducing member configured to protrude from a bottom surface of the base to reduce friction between the base and the installation surface. The friction reducing member is lowered below the bottom surface of the base during relocation and raised to the same level as or above the bottom surface of the base during installation by a vertical force applied to the base using the through hole.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 13, 2019
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Applicant: Fanuc Corporation
    Inventors: Kazutaka Nakayama, Masahiro Morioka
  • Publication number: 20190264795
    Abstract: A relief unit that is attached to an attachment hole penetrating through a wall of a housing accommodating a power transmission mechanism of a robot together with lubricating oil in a sealed state, which includes a body that is provided with an attachment section attachable to the attachment hole and that forms a communication passage disposed at a position where an internal space of the housing and an external space are connected when the attachment section is attached to the attachment hole. An opening and closing mechanism that is provided in the communication passage, closes the communication passage in a sealed state when the opening and closing mechanism is closed, and that opens the communication passage when the opening and closing mechanism is opened. a catching part is disposed at an intermediate position of the communication passage that catches the lubricating oil.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2019
    Publication date: August 29, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20190193281
    Abstract: Provided is a strain sensor which includes: a linear bearing including a first member and a second member which are supported such that the first member and the second member are relatively movable only in an axial direction of a predetermined axis; a connecting member including fixed portions, which are respectively fixed to the first member and the second member, and a strain generation portion which connects the fixed portions with each other; and a strain detecting element disposed on the connecting member so as to be capable of detecting strain in at least a moving direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 28, 2018
    Publication date: June 27, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Patent number: 10323995
    Abstract: A force acting on a link is detected at low cost. Provided is a rotation-shaft joint structure including: a driving-force generating part including a fixed member that is fixed to a base member, and a movable member that is rotationally driven about a predetermined axis relative to the fixed member; a link member that is fixed to the movable member of the driving-force generating part; and a uniaxial strain sensor that is attached to the link member or the movable member, at a surface located in a space between a fixed area over which the link member is fixed to the movable member and the outer circumferential surface of the driving-force generating part about the axis, to detect the strain of the surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2019
    Assignee: Fanuc Corporation
    Inventors: Kazutaka Nakayama, Kenichiro Oguri
  • Publication number: 20190160695
    Abstract: Provided is a line-shaped-item securing method including an elastic-body disposing step of disposing an elastic body so as to surround the periphery of one or more line-shaped items; a compressing step of compressing the elastic body, disposed around the periphery of the line-shaped items in the elastic-body disposing step, in a direction perpendicular to the lengthwise direction of the line-shaped items to dimensions smaller than a gap in a robot, through which the line-shaped items are to be passed; a line-shaped-item inserting step of inserting a portion of the line-shaped items, surrounded by the elastic body compressed in the compressing step, into the gap; and an expanding step of releasing the elastic body from compression, with the line-shaped items inserted into the gap in the line-shaped-item inserting step, thereby expanding the elastic body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2018
    Publication date: May 30, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA, Yasuyoshi TANAKA, Satoshi ADACHI
  • Patent number: 10279448
    Abstract: Disclosed is a machining system wherein provisions are made to be able to remove machining chips reliably without requiring human intervention. The machining system includes: an image processing unit which detects the position and amount of machining chips by comparing images captured of a workpiece and a machining tool before and after execution of a machining step; a condition judging unit which, based on the detected amount of machining chips, determines whether or not there is a need to execute a removal step; and a result judging unit which judges the result of the removal step by comparing the images captured of the workpiece W and the machining tool before and after the execution of the removal step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2019
    Assignee: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka Nakayama
  • Publication number: 20190099882
    Abstract: A robot that includes a first shaft unit in which a first motor drives a second member relative to a first member; a second shaft unit in which a second motor drives a fourth member relative to a third member; and a securing member that is provided in a detachable manner between the second member and the third member and that integrally secures the second member and the third member to each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Publication date: April 4, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA
  • Publication number: 20190091854
    Abstract: A robot including a base having a flat mounting surface section to be set on an installation surface by a fixing part, and also including a movable unit that is movable relative to the base. The base includes a tip-over prevention member that is disposed in a switchable manner between a state where the tip-over prevention member at least protrudes forward from the mounting surface section in a moving direction when a relocating process is performed and a state where the tip-over prevention member does not protrude forward from the mounting surface section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Publication date: March 28, 2019
    Applicant: FANUC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazutaka NAKAYAMA, Kenichirou ABE, Masahiro MORIOKA