Patents by Inventor Makoto Ichikawa

Makoto Ichikawa 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: 20180057294
    Abstract: Provided is a bag making and packaging machine having superior workability in film joining work. A bag making and packaging machine is a bag making and packaging machine that uses film having at least one character or a figure printed on its front side, and is equipped with a film roll support unit, a conveyance unit, a bag making unit, and a light emitting component. The film roll support unit supports a film roll in which the film is wound in a roll. The bag making unit processes the film to make bags. The conveyance unit is positioned between the film roll support unit and the bag making unit. The conveyance unit feeds the film to the bag making unit. The light emitting component illuminates, from the direction of the front side of the film, the film positioned between the film roll support unit and the conveyance unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2016
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Applicant: ISHIDA CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Makoto ICHIKAWA, Satoshi HASHIMOTO
  • Patent number: 9579239
    Abstract: Disposable wearing articles having a liquid-absorbent structure which is sufficiently thin to ensure a comfortable wear feeling and adapted to eliminate the possibility that the appearance of the absorbing region after absorption of the bodily fluids might be visually recognized from the outside. A liquid-absorbent structure including absorbent materials is attached to a chassis by means of a liquid-absorbent structure bonding region formed on a skin-facing side. The liquid-absorbent structure bonding region includes opposite end bonding zones serving to fix first and second end segments of the liquid-absorbent structure and opposite lateral bonding zones serving to fix opposite lateral segments of the liquid-absorbent structure and a central non-bonding region is defined by a region surrounded by the opposite end bonding zones and the opposite lateral bonding zones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2017
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenichi Sasayama, Makoto Ichikawa, Kunihiko Katsuragawa
  • Publication number: 20160332755
    Abstract: A bag making and packaging machine includes a cutter fixed to a sealing member that cuts a laterally sealed portion of a film using pressure force with which a pair of sealing members sandwiches the film during lateral sealing. The bag making and packaging machine further includes a pair of sealing jaws, a knife, a pressurization mechanism, and a pressurization mechanism control part. The knife fixed to one sealing jaw, fusion-cuts the laterally sealed portion of the film. The pressurization mechanism exerts pressure force on one sealing jaw towards the other sealing jaw so that the pair of sealing jaws sandwiches and laterally seals the film therebetween, and the knife comes into contact with a laterally sealed portion and fusion-cuts the laterally sealed portion. The pressurization mechanism control part causes the pressurization mechanism to cease exerting pressure force based on error information pertaining to the film or the goods.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2014
    Publication date: November 17, 2016
    Inventors: Takahiro YASUDA, Makoto ICHIKAWA
  • Patent number: 9480607
    Abstract: A pants-type wearing article in which at least a central segment of a crotch region has a desired degree of flexibility and a portion of a crotch region close to a front waist region has a desired degree of tensile strength. The front and rear waist regions and at least a portion of the crotch region close to the front waist region define a multilayer zone composed of a base sheet and a front waist sheet layered with each other and a central segment of the crotch region defines a monolayer zone formed of the base sheet alone. The multilayer zone includes corners each surrounded by a boundary, an inner end of the front waist region, a joint region in which a liquid-absorbent structure is bonded to a chassis and a concave lateral edge of the crotch region and the boundary extends across the joint region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2016
    Assignee: Unicharm Corporation
    Inventors: Makoto Ichikawa, Nobuhiro Tagawa
  • Publication number: 20160297554
    Abstract: A form-fill-seal machine is configured to adjust for changes in the thickness of bags within a short time, and is provided with seal jaws, gas removal members, an air cylinder, and a control unit. The seal jaws transverse-seal a cylindrical film in a widthwise direction forming a bag. The gas removal members come into contact against the bag prior to transverse sealing of an upper edge part, discharging a gas upward from the bag. The air cylinder moves the gas removal members, switching the position of the gas removal members between a first position and a second position with respect to the seal jaws. The control unit, in a time slot just prior to the start of a transverse sealing action performed by the seal jaws, changes the timing of switching between the first position and the second position, and adjusts the amount of gas discharged from the bag.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2014
    Publication date: October 13, 2016
    Inventors: Satoshi HASHIMOTO, Makoto ICHIKAWA, Takahiro YASUDA, Shinji KOIKE
  • Patent number: 9434494
    Abstract: A bag making and packaging machine sandwiches a tubular film between a first horn and a first anvil and ultrasonically transversely seals it. The bag making and packaging machine includes: a knife disposed in an anvil-side knife movement space formed in the first anvil; a knife-driving part, and guides provided to each of two ends of the first anvil, on which guide spaces, by which movement of the knife is guided when the knife is driven by the air cylinder, are formed. The width of the guide spaces with respect to a direction orthogonal to both a length direction and a movement direction of the knife is less than the width of the anvil-side knife movement space with respect to the same direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: ISHIDA CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi Shimoda, Makoto Ichikawa
  • Publication number: 20160194100
    Abstract: A packaging machine, includes a pair of sealing jaws that sandwiches and seals a sealed portion of a tubular film. The packaging machine is provided with a first rotating shaft for supporting one sealing jaw, a second rotating shaft for supporting the other sealing jaw, a rotary encoder, and an entrapment determination part. When the first rotating shaft and the second rotating shaft approach or move away, the rotary encoder measures the movement amount of the first rotating shaft in relation to the second rotating shaft in an approaching direction or a moving away direction. The entrapment determination part determines whether or not articles are present in the sealed portion based on the movement amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Publication date: July 7, 2016
    Inventors: Takahiro YASUDA, Makoto ICHIKAWA, Satoshi HASHIMOTO, Shinji KOIKE
  • Publication number: 20160194103
    Abstract: A bag making and packaging machine sandwiches a tubular film between a first horn and a first anvil and ultrasonically transversely seals it. The bag making and packaging machine includes: a knife disposed in an anvil-side knife movement space formed in the first anvil; a knife-driving part, and guides provided to each of two ends of the first anvil, on which guide spaces, by which movement of the knife is guided when the knife is driven by the air cylinder, are formed. The width of the guide spaces with respect to a direction orthogonal to both a length direction and a movement direction of the knife is less than the width of the anvil-side knife movement space with respect to the same direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2014
    Publication date: July 7, 2016
    Inventors: Takafumi SHIMODA, Makoto ICHIKAWA
  • Publication number: 20160128875
    Abstract: A disposable pull-on diaper that keeps in close contact with a wearer's crotch region includes a lower torso cover and an absorbent chassis. The absorbent chassis has a front end portion overlapping a front waist region of the lower torso cover and a front end portion of the front end portion is joined to an elastic region in the lower torso cover. A front end adjoining portion of the front end portion is not joined to the elastic region. An area in the absorbent chassis being adjacent the front end adjoining portion on the side of the crotch region is joined to an inelastic region defined on the side closer to the crotch region than to the elastic region. The absorbent body contained in the absorbent chassis extends at least from the crotch region to the front end adjoining portion. The front end portion in the front end portion of the absorbent chassis is defined by a portion of the cover sheet wrapping the absorbent body which extends outward beyond the absorbent body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 19, 2014
    Publication date: May 12, 2016
    Applicant: Unicharm Corporation
    Inventor: Makoto Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 9321547
    Abstract: A packaging machine includes a pair of brushes that hold a tubular film (Fm) therebetween while rotating and impeding the advancement of packaged articles. Consequently, an elongated stream of packaged articles aggregate at the leading end of the pair of brushes. When the pair of brushes release the tubular film, the packaged articles are again conveyed in a more closely aggregated state than the aggregated state thereof when the advancement of the packaged articles was temporarily impeded. The rotational axis of each brush is also biased a predetermined distance from the central axis of a core thereof. Since the brushes swing in conjunction with the rotation thereof, small vibrations and large swings cause the gaps between packaged articles to be readily filled and reduce the space occupied by the packaged articles. As a result, the bag size can be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: ISHIDA CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideshi Miyamoto, Masashi Kondo, Makoto Ichikawa
  • Publication number: 20160107774
    Abstract: A packaging device is configured to implement a packing method that prevents a bridge from being generated inside a chute which supplies goods into a bag with a tube shape. In the packing method, goods dropped from above are accommodated in a chute with a funnel shape. The chute is then lowered while accelerating in a state where a discharge opening of the chute is open, and subsequently movement of the chute is suddenly reversed and the chute is raised so that the goods collected in the chute are discharged into a bag with a tube shape while being accelerated. The packaging device is provided with a cylinder which packs dropped goods into the bag with a tube shape, and the chute is raised and lowered in the cylinder.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2014
    Publication date: April 21, 2016
    Inventors: Masashi KONDO, Makoto ICHIKAWA, Satoshi NISHITSUJI
  • Patent number: 9155667
    Abstract: A pant-type wearing article comprises a front panel, a rear panel and a central panel. The front panel cooperates with the rear panel to form a waist region. The central panel includes a front end portion separably joined to the outer side of the waist region and a rear end portion separably joined to the outer side of the waist region. Side edges of the front end portion opposed to each other in the transverse direction are formed with front side corner regions and side edges of the rear end portion opposed to each other in the transverse direction are formed with rear side corner regions. At least one of the paired front side corner regions and the paired rear side corner regions is not joined to the outer surface of the waist region to form a gripper region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto Ichikawa, Kenichi Sasayama, Kunihiko Katsuragawa
  • Patent number: 9107778
    Abstract: A disposable wearing includes a crotch chassis having a liquid-impervious sheet. The crotch chassis has a main region and opposite lateral portions lying outboard of the main region in the transverse direction and provided with leg elastic elements extending in the longitudinal direction. The opposite lateral portions respectively have fold lines extending in the longitudinal direction, outer side zones lying outboard of the respective fold lines in the transverse direction and inner side zones lying inboard of the respective fold lines in the transverse direction. The outer side zones of the respective lateral portions are folded inward and fixed to the associated inner side zones via associated bond zones extending in the longitudinal direction to form a pair of elastic lateral portions having folded back regions, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kenichi Sasayama, Makoto Ichikawa, Kunihiko Katsuragawa
  • Patent number: 9107777
    Abstract: Embodiments of this invention provide a disposable wearing article facilitating even an aged person having relatively weak forth to pull a waist-opening periphery in the transverse direction to widen the waist-opening to a desired size, despite this and the waist region should not slip down during use of the wearing article. Waist elastic elements (36) are stretched in the transverse direction X at a stretch ratio in a range of about 2.5 to about 3.0 and having fineness in a range of about 800 to about 1000 dtex, a dimension between the waist elastic elements (36) adjacent in the transverse direction X is in a range of about 5.5 to about 6.0 mm and each of waist elastic regions (38) in which the waist elastic elements (36) are present has a tensile stress at a moment of 255% stretching in the transverse direction X in a range of about 4.5 to about 6.0N/35 mm and a tensile stress at a moment of 167% stretching in the transverse direction is in a range of about 1.7 to about 2.1N/35 mm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Akiyoshi Kinoshita, Maiko Suzuki, Kazuya Fujimoto, Yusuke Kawakami, Makoto Ichikawa, Nobuhiro Tagawa
  • Publication number: 20150223994
    Abstract: A pants-type wearing article in which at least a central segment of a crotch region has a desired degree of flexibility and a portion of a crotch region close to a front waist region has a desired degree of tensile strength. The front and rear waist regions and at least a portion of the crotch region close to the front waist region define a multilayer zone composed of a base sheet and a front waist sheet layered with each other and a central segment of the crotch region defines a monolayer zone formed of the base sheet alone. The multilayer zone includes corners each surrounded by a boundary, an inner end of the front waist region, a joint region in which a liquid-absorbent structure is bonded to a chassis and a concave lateral edge of the crotch region and the boundary extends across the joint region.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2012
    Publication date: August 13, 2015
    Inventors: Makoto Ichikawa, Nobuhiro Tagawa
  • Patent number: 9101511
    Abstract: Disclosed is a disposable pants-type wearing article improved to prevent panels joined to one another from being peeled off from each other. A disposable pants-type wearing article includes a front panel 7, a rear panel 8 and a intermediate panel 6 joined to respective outer surfaces of these two panels 7, 8. Opposite lateral portions 34 of the intermediate panel 6 are formed by joining a pair of sheets together with a second hot melt adhesive 62. Zones coated with the second hot melt adhesive 62 include high density coated zones 72 formed by relatively large application quantity per 1 m2 and low density coated zones 71 formed by relatively small application quantity per 1 m2. Opposite end regions 36, 37 of the intermediate panel 6 joined to the front panel 7 and the rear panel 8 are at least partially formed with the high density coated zones 72.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto Ichikawa, Kenichi Sasayama, Hiroki Yamamoto, Kazuo Ukegawa, Akihide Ninomiya
  • Patent number: 9084698
    Abstract: A diaper has an outer sheet and a crotch member which includes a pair of skin-contactable sheets spaced from each other in a transverse direction. Inner side edges of the respective skin-contactable sheets cooperate with respective second ends of front and rear waist members to define an opening. A plurality of crotch elastic members is attached to the inner side edges. Under the effect of these crotch elastic members, a length dimension of the skin-contactable sheets is substantially reduced. The inner side edges of the skin-contactable sheets are spaced from the outer sheet in a thickness direction to form a space between the skin-contactable sheets and the outer sheet. A liquid-absorbent structure is provided in the space and includes a fold formed by folding the structure along a folding line. A top of the fold is bonded to the inner side edges of the respective skin-contactable sheets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto Ichikawa, Kenichi Sasayama
  • Patent number: 9072635
    Abstract: An absorbent article is formed by interposing superabsorbent polymer particles between overlapping two sheets. The pad-shaped absorbent article is composed of superabsorbent polymer particles bonded to the sheet with a hot melt adhesive, absorbing areas where the sheets are not bonded and sealing areas where the sheets are bonded together and surrounding the absorbing areas. Opposed two adjacent bonding areas of the absorbing areas have the sealing areas in between and facing edges which has the sealing areas in between. One of the facing edges is defined by a wavy line having crest and trough portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kunihiko Katsuragawa, Kenichi Sasayama, Makoto Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 9072807
    Abstract: An absorbent article having a pad configuration, including superabsorbent polymer particles. Superabsorbent polymer particles are interposed between opposed surfaces of first and second layers overlapping with each other to form an absorbent article. The article includes an absorbing region and a sealing region. In the absorbing region, the superabsorbent polymer particles are bonded to the second layer with a hot melt adhesive. In the sealing region, the first layer and the second layer are joined to each other to surround the absorbing region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kunihiko Katsuragawa, Kenichi Sasayama, Makoto Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 9060901
    Abstract: A diaper includes front and rear waist members and a crotch member. The front and rear waist members are respectively formed with first narrowly-spaced elastic zones, widely-spaced elastic zones and second narrowly-spaced elastic zones adjacent one to another. Front and rear ends of the crotch member are bonded to respective sides of the front and rear waist members so that the crotch member's front and rear ends may positionally correspond to the second narrowly-spaced elastic zones. Cover sheets are attached to the side of the crotch member to cover the crotch member's front and rear ends respectively. A length dimension of the cover sheet in the longitudinal direction is set to be smaller than those of the front and rear waist members and a length dimension of the cover sheet in the transverse direction is substantially equal to those of the front and rear waist members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: UNICHARM CORPORATION
    Inventors: Makoto Ichikawa, Kenichi Sasayama, Kunihiko Katsuragawa