Patents by Inventor Ken Namimatsu

Ken Namimatsu 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: 6216821
    Abstract: A lubricating apparatus for a ball screw which can sufficiently lubricate even in a high load usage is disposed between a ball nut and a screw shaft, and a polymer member containing a lubricant being mainly in slidable contact with an outer diameter portion of the screw shaft is mounted to at least any one of both ends of the ball nut and a space including a ball not-passing space in an inner portion of the ball nut. The polymer member prevents the lubricant attached to the thread groove of the screw shaft from being scraped off during oscillations of the screw shaft, such that the lubricant attached to the thread groove can be efficiently maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1998
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2001
    Assignee: NSK Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Namimatsu, Osamu Ideta, Kazuo Miyaguchi, Toshikazu Yabe
  • Patent number: 6023991
    Abstract: A ball screw comprising a screw shaft, a ball screw nut, a plurality of balls contained in the ball screw nut which is in threadable engagement with the shaft so that it is capable of relative movement in the linear axial direction as guided by the rolling of the balls, and a lubricant-containing polymer member that is installed in the ball screw nut in contact with the balls or in slidable contact with screw grooves in the screw shaft. The lubricant seeps out of the polymer member slowly and is supplied not only to the balls but also to the screw grooves, so that it maintains the desired lubricating effect in a consistent and automatic way over an extended period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2000
    Assignee: NSK Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshikazu Yabe, Ken Namimatsu
  • Patent number: 5906136
    Abstract: Nut 2 in threadable engagement with the screw shaft 1 of a feed screw apparatus is fitted with a lubricant supply device 30 which also serves as a seal. This device is made of a lubricant-containing rubber or synthetic resin and has a plurality or projections 31 in the inner surface that contact the outer circumference of the screw shaft 1. The lubricant in said rubber or synthetic resin slowly seeps out unoxidized for an extended period of time to perform effective lubrication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 25, 1999
    Assignee: NSK Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshikazu Yabe, Ken Namimatsu, Toru Tsukada
  • Patent number: 5749265
    Abstract: A ball screw device is designed such that a load axially applied to a ball nut is uniformly supported by balls of all ball screw groove portions. The design is such that a gap along a load acting line between a ball and a ball screw groove portion farther from an attachment portion of the ball nut is smaller than a gap between a ball and a ball screw groove portion closer to the attachment portion, by an amount corresponding to an elastic deformation caused in the corresponding screw groove portion of the ball nut by a load acting on the ball nut.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 12, 1998
    Assignee: NSK, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Namimatsu, Manabu Matsuura
  • Patent number: 5615955
    Abstract: In a self-lubrication linear guide apparatus including a guide rail, a slider and a plurality of rolling elements, the apparatus further includes a plurality of lubricant-containing polymer spacer balls which are interposed between the rolling elements inside the slider. A lubricant gradually exudes from the lubricant-containing polymer spacer balls as time elapses to be automatically supplied to the rolling elements, so that satisfactory self lubrication can be achieved over a long period of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 1995
    Date of Patent: April 1, 1997
    Assignee: NSK Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Namimatsu, Toru Tsukada, Toshikazu Yabe
  • Patent number: 5493929
    Abstract: In a thin-wall type ball nut of a light-weight type ball screw having a trunnion structure in which a pair of trunnion shafts are extended from the ball nut in the opposite directions; a pair of ribs for increasing the wall thickness of the ball nut are formed on both side surfaces of the ball nut in such a manner that the ribs are extended from the base portions of the trunnion shafts along the axis of the ball nut, so as to increase the rigidity of the portions of the nut body which are liable to be deformed, thereby to prevent the ball nut from deformation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 1994
    Date of Patent: February 27, 1996
    Assignee: NSK Ltd.
    Inventors: Ken Namimatsu, Nobuhide Kurachi