Patents by Inventor Masamichi Makihara

Masamichi Makihara 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: 20060169507
    Abstract: A cooling structure includes a plurality of plate-shaped heat generating members such as battery parts, DC voltage converters and electrical member (e.g., relay). In the cooling structure, the heat generating members are arranged in a plate-thickness direction to have predetermined spaces for forming fluid passages each of which is provided between adjacent heat generating members, and the fluid passages are provided to pass a fluid for cooling the heat generating members. Accordingly, all the heat generating members can be effectively cooled while the cooling structure can be made compact.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 1, 2006
    Publication date: August 3, 2006
    Applicant: DENSO Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshimitsu Inoue, Masamichi Makihara, Takashi Yamanaka
  • Patent number: 7036567
    Abstract: In a heat exchanger for cooling air, tubes are disposed vertically and header tanks are connected to the ends of the tubes. The lower side header tank is formed with drains, which are depressions, at positions between the tubes so that condensed water, which accumulates on the lower side header tank, drains away through the drains. Each of the drains has substantially a V-shaped cross-section to facilitate drainage of the water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2006
    Assignee: DENSO Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Shimanuki, Eiichi Torigoe, Masamichi Makihara
  • Publication number: 20050011636
    Abstract: The present invention provides a heat exchanger which is assembled by brazing an aluminum fin material to the outer surface of an aluminum tube material formed by bending a sheet material, in particular, an aluminum heat exchanger which can be suitably used as an automotive heat exchanger such as a condenser or evaporator. The tube material is formed of a two-layer clad sheet which includes a core material and an Al—Zn alloy layer clad on the core material. The Al—Zn alloy layer is clad on the outer surface of the tube material and brazed to the aluminum fin material. The potential of the Al—Zn alloy layer in normal corrosive solution is 100 mV or more lower than the potential of the core material in the normal corrosive solution. The potential of the Al—Zn alloy layer in the normal corrosive solution is lower than the potential of the core material in high-concentration corrosive water. The normal corrosive solution refers to an aqueous solution containing 10 g/l of NaCl and 0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 3, 2004
    Publication date: January 20, 2005
    Inventors: Haruhiko Miyachi, Yoshiharu Hasegawa, Masamichi Makihara, Yasunaga Itoh, Naoki Yamashita, Toshihiko Fukuda
  • Publication number: 20040016535
    Abstract: In a heat exchanger for cooling air, tubes are disposed vertically and header tanks are connected to the ends of the tubes. The lower side header tank is formed with drains, which are depressions, at positions between the tubes so that condensed water, which accumulates on the lower side header tank, drains away through the drains. Each of the drains has substantially a V-shaped cross-section to facilitate drainage of the water.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2003
    Publication date: January 29, 2004
    Inventors: Hiroyasu Shimanuki, Eiichi Torigoe, Masamichi Makihara
  • Patent number: 6449979
    Abstract: An evaporator has plural tubes arranged in parallel with each other in a width direction perpendicular to an air flowing direction. The tubes are further arranged in two rows in the air flowing direction, and tank portions extending in the width direction are also arranged in the two rows in the air flowing direction to correspond to the tubes. A refrigerant inlet and a refrigerant outlet are provided in the tank portions, respectively, at one side end in the width direction, so that refrigerant flows through all one-row tubes after passing through the other-row tubes. In the evaporator, throttle holes are provided in a distribution portion of the tank portions, for distributing refrigerant, so that a refrigerant distribution within the tubes can be arbitrarily set. Thus, air temperature blown out from the evaporator can be made uniform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2002
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Toshiya Nagasawa, Eiichi Torigoe, Masamichi Makihara
  • Publication number: 20020078566
    Abstract: A manufacturing method for an evaporator made of aluminum alloy. First, a three-layer aluminum alloy plate having a core made of Al—Mn alloy, a sacrifice anode layer made of aluminum alloy which is electro-chemically base with respect to the core and clad on one side of the core, and a brazing layer made of Al—Si alloy and clad on the other side of the core is uniformly rolled to be work-hardened. Next, the thin work-hardened aluminum alloy plate is bent to form a tube so that the sacrifice anode layer is disposed outside the tube to face air and the brazing layer is disposed inside the tube to face refrigerant. Then, plural tubes and outer fins are alternately laminated and are integrally brazed to tanks to form the evaporator. As a result, a thickness of the tube is reduced without deteriorating corrosion resistance of the tube, thereby decreasing a weight and a size of the evaporator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2001
    Publication date: June 27, 2002
    Inventors: Eiichi Torigoe, Koji Hirao, Masamichi Makihara, Toshiya Nagasawa
  • Patent number: 6339937
    Abstract: In a refrigerant evaporator, plural tubes made of aluminum are arranged in a laminating direction perpendicular to an air flowing direction, and plural corrugated fins made of aluminum are disposed between adjacent tubes. In the evaporator, when a tube plate thickness TT of the tubes is set in a range of 0.10 mm-0.35 mm and a tube height TH of each tube in the laminating direction is set in a range of 1.5 mm-3.0 mm, pressure loss of refrigerant in a refrigerant passage becomes smaller, and a heat-conductive area of air becomes larger. Further, when a fin height FH of the corrugated fins is set in a range of 4.0-7.5 mm, fin effect of the corrugated fins is improved. As a result, heat-conductive performance of the evaporator is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2002
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Masamichi Makihara, Isao Kuroyanagi, Toshiya Nagasawa, Eiichi Torigoe
  • Patent number: 6308527
    Abstract: An evaporator includes a flat tube extending in a vertical direction and having a drain groove for guiding condensed water downward, at a middle portion thereof in an air flow direction. A corrugated fin joined to the tube is divided by a gap portion into an air upstream side first fin and an air downstream side second fin. The gap portion faces the drain groove of the tube. Accordingly, condensed water produced at the air upstream side first fin can be smoothly discharged from the evaporator through the drain groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2001
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Isao Kuroyanagi, Masamichi Makihara, Toshio Ohara
  • Patent number: 6272881
    Abstract: An evaporator has plural tubes arranged in parallel with each other in a width direction perpendicular to an air flowing direction. The tubes are further arranged in a plural rows in the air flowing direction, and tank portions extending in the width direction are arranged in the plural rows in the air flowing direction to correspond to the tubes. In the evaporator, refrigerant flows through a zigzag-routed refrigerant passage formed by the tank portions and the tubes. A partition wall defining adjacent two tank portions in the air flowing direction has plural bypass holes through which the adjacent two tank portions directly communicate with each other. Therefore, the zigzag-routed refrigerant passage of the evaporator is readily formed without an additional side passage or the like. Thus, the number of components of the evaporator is reduced thereby simplifying the structure of the evaporator, and pressure loss of refrigerant flowing in the evaporator is decreased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2001
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Isao Kuroyanagi, Masamichi Makihara, Toshio Ohara, Sadayuki Kamiya
  • Patent number: 5983937
    Abstract: First to third openings are formed stepwise in a rotor side wall portion of a flow control valve disposed in a hot water circuit. Third positions (a) and (b) are established between a first position in which a first communication passage for communication between inlet and outlet pipes of the flow control valve is fully closed and a second position in which the first communication passage is fully opened. A duty control is performed so that the rotor reciprocates repeatedly among the above four positions. In this way, in the flow control valve for controlling the amount of the fluid flowing in the fluid passage, the valve colliding noise, the water hammer noise, and the temperature variation in the heating heat exchanger can be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 16, 1999
    Assignee: Denso Corporation
    Inventors: Masamichi Makihara, Kiyoshi Usami, Yoshio Miyata