Patents by Inventor Kouichi Mitsufuji

Kouichi Mitsufuji 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: 5769622
    Abstract: A gas combustion apparatus comprises a burner, a thermal electric power generation element that uses the burner's combustion to produce a thermoelectromotive force, a voltage boosting circuit that raises the voltage of the thermoelectromotive force by the oscillation of an oscillation unit and a storage battery that is charged by the voltage-increased thermoelectromotive force. The oscillation unit consists of free running multivibrators and oscillates in dependence on the resistance of a positive temperature coefficient thermistor. If the positive temperature coefficient thermistor reaches a prescribed temperature or shorts out and fails, its resistance value changes and the oscillator unit stops its oscillation, whereby in the voltage boosting circuit the voltage rise stops, and electromagnetic safety valve closes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 23, 1998
    Assignee: Paloma Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yutaka Aoki, Kouichi Mitsufuji, Tetsuya Ohara
  • Patent number: 5599181
    Abstract: A combustion apparatus has a built-in storage battery and has circuitry which restores a sufficient amount of stored electrical energy in the storage battery when the amount of electrical energy stored in the storage battery is lowered below a required level. A thermoelectric generator element is heated by combustion heat produced by a burner to generate a thermal electromotive force. A manual operation of a slide button causes an associated multi-contact switch to repetitively turn ON and OFF, such that a coil in a booster circuit boosts a voltage generated by the thermoelectric generator element. The boosted voltage is applied to an oscillator circuit in the booster circuit, so that the booster circuit is driven to boost the voltage from the thermoelectric generator element as well as to start powering the oscillator circuit and a storage battery. Consequently, a sufficient amount of stored electrical energy is restored in the storage battery.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 4, 1997
    Assignee: Paloma Industries Limited
    Inventors: Yutaka Aoki, Yuzuru Watanabe, Kouichi Mitsufuji