Patents by Inventor Manabu Hirayama

Manabu Hirayama 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: 9989131
    Abstract: A chain guide is provided that allows for stable running of a chain, causes less wear or damage on the inner surface of mounting holes or on mounting shafts, and improves the durability without increasing production cost. The guide shoe includes a guide rail and a unit holding part that accommodates a reinforcing unit inserted thereinto from the backside of the guide rail. The reinforcing unit includes a plate and a spacer. The plate and spacer are aligned in a guide width direction, so that a plate through hole and a spacer through hole are continuous in the guide width direction, and are disposed in the unit holding part 22.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2018
    Assignee: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventors: Takahiro Matsushita, Manabu Hirayama, Ryo Segawa
  • Patent number: 9951849
    Abstract: A chain guide is provided, which can readily achieve, with a simple structure, both favorable attachability and tightness of a guide shoe relative to a base member, even though the base member has side wall ribs on both left and right side edges. A base member of a chain guide includes an upstream engagement portion and downstream engagement-portions, while a guide shoe includes an upstream hook and downstream hooks. Downstream engagement portions include restricting portions. The downstream hooks are hooked to the downstream engagement portions from an outer side in a guide width direction by twisting and elastically deforming the guide shoe in a state where the upstream hook is engaged with the upstream engagement portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2018
    Assignee: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventor: Manabu Hirayama
  • Patent number: 9777809
    Abstract: To provide a chain guide that implements stable running of a chain, causes less wear or damage on the inner surface of mounting holes or on mounting shafts, and improves the durability of a reinforcing plate thereof without increasing production cost. A guide shoe includes a guide rail and a plate holding part accommodating a reinforcing plate inserted thereinto from the backside of the guide rail. The reinforcing plate includes a tubular part integral with a first plate surface and protruding from the edge of a mounting hole that extends through the reinforcing plate in a guide width direction. In the chain guide, a plurality of surface irregular parts are provided on a peripheral outer side of the tubular part in stripes along a plurality of imaginary circles concentric to the tubular part on at least one of the first plate surface and a second plate surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Ryo Segawa, Kaori Mori
  • Publication number: 20170114874
    Abstract: A chain guide is provided that allows for stable running of a chain, causes less wear or damage on the inner surface of mounting holes or on mounting shafts, and improves the durability without increasing production cost. The guide shoe includes a guide rail and a unit holding part that accommodates a reinforcing unit inserted thereinto from the backside of the guide rail. The reinforcing unit includes a plate and a spacer. The plate and spacer are aligned in a guide width direction, so that a plate through hole and a spacer through hole are continuous in the guide width direction, and are disposed in the unit holding part 22.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2016
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Applicant: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventors: Takahiro Matsushita, Manabu Hirayama, Ryo Segawa
  • Publication number: 20170114873
    Abstract: To provide a chain guide that implements stable running of a chain, causes less wear or damage on the inner surface of mounting holes or on mounting shafts, and improves the durability of a reinforcing plate thereof without increasing production cost. A guide shoe includes a guide rail and a plate holding part accommodating a reinforcing plate inserted thereinto from the backside of the guide rail. The reinforcing plate includes a tubular part integral with a first plate surface and protruding from the edge of a mounting hole that extends through the reinforcing plate in a guide width direction. In the chain guide, a plurality of surface irregular parts are provided on a peripheral outer side of the tubular part in stripes along a plurality of imaginary circles concentric to the tubular part on at least one of the first plate surface and a second plate surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2016
    Publication date: April 27, 2017
    Applicant: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Ryo Segawa, Kaori Mori
  • Publication number: 20160290449
    Abstract: A chain guide is provided, which can readily achieve, with a simple structure, both favorable attachability and tightness of a guide shoe relative to a base member, even though the base member has side wall ribs on both left and right side edges. A base member of a chain guide includes an upstream engagement portion and downstream engagement-portions, while a guide shoe includes an upstream hook and downstream hooks. Downstream engagement portions include restricting portions. The downstream hooks are hooked to the downstream engagement portions from an outer side in a guide width direction by twisting and elastically deforming the guide shoe in a state where the upstream hook is engaged with the upstream engagement portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 1, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Applicant: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventor: Manabu Hirayama
  • Patent number: 8696500
    Abstract: In a pivoted tensioner lever extending upward from a pivot axis, both ends of boss through which a pivot shaft extends are provided with funnel-shaped grooves that guide oil adhering to the lever body into a region between the shaft and the inside of the boss. Oil guiding walls, continuous with the boss, and downwardly sloping reinforcing ribs with oil passages formed at their lower ends, increase flow of oil adhering to the lever body to the region between the shaft and the inside of the boss.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Toyonaga Saitoh
  • Patent number: 8454462
    Abstract: In a chain guide mechanism, fixed and movable guides are attached to a guide bridge by cooperation of bosses on the guides with boss-receiving holes formed in spaced-apart elements of arms of the bridge. A fixed guide is held against rotation by cooperation of a projection on its mounting boss with a notch in a boss-receiving hole in a guide bridge arm element. A base, extending from an intermediate location at which the arms come together has a pressing structure that engages bosses on a driving sprocket, and a groove for receiving teeth of the driving sprocket.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Masahiko Konno, Kaori Mori, Yuji Kurematsu, Akira Kobara, Manabu Hirayama
  • Patent number: 8007385
    Abstract: In a sliding contact chain guide of the kind used in the timing transmission of an internal combustion engine, the back of the guide shoe, which engages a metal guide base, is formed with two, spaced longitudinal ribs, having between them a set of ribs formed in a lattice. The longitudinal ribs are wider than the ribs of the lattice.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2011
    Assignee: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Toyonaga Saitoh, Kaori Mori, Fumio Asami
  • Publication number: 20110183796
    Abstract: In a ratchet-type tensioner having a toothed ratchet piston biased toward a rack of teeth formed on a protruding plunger in a direction transverse to the direction of plunger movement, the rack teeth and the ratchet teeth are mutually engageable and inclined at angles such that the biasing force urging the teeth of the ratchet piston into engagement with the rack teeth is sufficient to block retraction of the plunger during engine start-up but can be overcome when chain tension becomes excessive during engine operation following engine start-up.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Publication date: July 28, 2011
    Applicant: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.,
    Inventors: Yuji Kurematsu, Manabu Hirayama
  • Publication number: 20110105258
    Abstract: In a chain guide mechanism, fixed and movable guides are attached to a guide bridge by cooperation of bosses on the guides with boss-receiving holes formed in spaced-apart elements of arms of the bridge. A fixed guide is held against rotation by cooperation of a projection on its mounting boss with a notch in a boss-receiving hole in a guide bridge arm element. A base, extending from an intermediate location at which the arms come together has a pressing structure that engages bosses on a driving sprocket, and a groove for receiving teeth of the driving sprocket.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2010
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicant: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventors: Masahiko Konno, Kaori Mori, Yuji Kurematsu, Akira Kobara, Manabu Hirayama
  • Publication number: 20100298077
    Abstract: In a ratchet-type tensioner, a rocking ratchet pawl is released from a rack of teeth on a tensioner plunger following engine start-up by a hydraulically operated pin slidable in a pin hole and caused to protrude therefrom by oil under pressure received directly from an external oil supply, or alternatively from the tensioner's high pressure oil chamber through a passage in the tensioner housing. Optionally, an orifice can be provided within the pin hole to control flow of oil when the supply is excessive and to avoid leakage when the supply is insufficient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 19, 2010
    Publication date: November 25, 2010
    Applicant: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Takahiro Matsushita, Katsuya Nakakubo, Yuji Kurematsu, Osamu Yoshida, Shintarou Yoshimoto
  • Publication number: 20100298078
    Abstract: In a ratchet tensioner, a linearly moving ratchet for engagement with rack teeth on a plunger is operated a piston that is spring-biased in a direction to engage the ratchet teeth with the rack, and movable by oil pressure in a direction to disengage the ratchet teeth from the rack. The piston is located within a hole in the housing and, with that hole, forms a second high pressure oil chamber that can receive oil through an oil supply path independent of the oil supply path that carries oil to a first high pressure oil chamber formed by the plunger and the tensioner housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2010
    Publication date: November 25, 2010
    Applicant: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Takahiro Matsushita, Katsuya Nakakubo, Yuji Kurematsu, Osamu Yoshida, Shintarou Yoshimoto
  • Publication number: 20090247335
    Abstract: In a hydraulic tensioner having a hollow plunger that cooperates with a housing to form a high pressure oil chamber, the movable element of the check valve that allows oil to flow into the high pressure oil chamber is a bar-like element that extends into a coiled plunger-biasing spring and is biased into engagement with a valve seat by another coiled valve-biasing spring that extends into the plunger-biasing spring. The bar-like element has a larger diameter portion the diameter of which is slightly less than the inner diameter of the plunger-biasing spring, and a smaller diameter portion the diameter of which is slightly less than the inner diameter of the valve-biasing spring. The valve-biasing spring bears against a shoulder at the location at which the smaller and larger-diameter portions of the bar-like element meet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN CO.
    Inventors: Kaori Mori, Manabu Hirayama, Toyonaga Saitoh
  • Publication number: 20090036241
    Abstract: In a pivoted tensioner lever extending upward from a pivot axis, both ends of boss through which a pivot shaft extends are provided with funnel-shaped grooves that guide oil adhering to the lever body into a region between the shaft and the inside of the boss.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2008
    Publication date: February 5, 2009
    Applicant: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Toyonaga Saitoh
  • Publication number: 20060040774
    Abstract: In a sliding contact chain guide of the kind used in the timing transmission of an internal combustion engine, the back of the guide shoe, which engages a metal guide base, is formed with two, spaced longitudinal ribs, having between them a set of ribs formed in a lattice. The longitudinal ribs are wider than the ribs of the lattice.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2005
    Publication date: February 23, 2006
    Applicant: Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
    Inventors: Manabu Hirayama, Toyonaga Saitoh, Kaori Mori, Fumio Asami