Patents by Inventor Masamichi Utsunomiya

Masamichi Utsunomiya 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: 20240246336
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes: a head including a nozzle surface; and a robot changes a relative position of the head with respect to a workpiece, in which a first printing operation of performing printing on the workpiece is executed by causing the head to eject the liquid, and when a timing at which the first printing operation is started is set as a first timing, a timing at which the first printing operation ends is set as a second timing, a timing between the first timing and the second timing is set as a third timing, and a distance between the plurality of nozzles and the workpiece along a normal direction of the nozzle surface is set as an ejection distance, the ejection distance at one or both of the first timing and the second timing is more than the ejection distance at the third timing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2024
    Publication date: July 25, 2024
    Inventors: Masamichi SUZUKI, Kohei UTSUNOMIYA, Yoshinori NAKAJIMA, Masaru KUMAGAI, Yuki ISHII
  • Publication number: 20240154133
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an electrode substrate that maintains electrical conductivity and achieves both a high drainage performance and any one of a high gas diffusivity and spring property. To achieve the above-described object, an electrode substrate according to the present invention is an electrode substrate including a carbon fiber sheet having pores filled with a fluoropolymer and carbon fine powder, wherein, in terms of a fluorine/carbon ratio (F/C), the ratio of the smallest value (F/Cmin) to the largest value (F/Cmax) of the average value (F/C-1) in one surface of the electrode substrate, the average value (F/C-2) in the central plane in the thickness direction, and the average value (F/C-3) in the other surface is 0.80 or more, and wherein, in a pore size distribution, the electrode substrate has at least a first peak present in the range of pore size of 0.5 ?m or more and less than 120 ?m and a second peak present in the range of pore size of 10 nm or more and less than 0.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 22, 2022
    Publication date: May 9, 2024
    Applicant: TORAY Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Hiroaki OTAKE, Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Fumitaka WATANABE
  • Publication number: 20240030461
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to shorten the aging time for a fuel cell. To achieve the object, a gas diffusion electrode medium product according to the present invention includes sulfuric acid in an amount of 1.1 ?g/cm2 or less. In addition, a polymer electrolyte fuel cell according to the present invention has the gas diffusion electrode medium product according to the present invention incorporated therein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 25, 2021
    Publication date: January 25, 2024
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Hiroaki OTAKE, Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Fumitaka WATANABE
  • Patent number: 11757103
    Abstract: In order to provide a gas diffusion electrode medium having high thermal conductivity despite having low density and excellent both in handleability and cell performance, provided is a gas diffusion electrode medium including carbon fiber felt including carbon fibers having an average fiber diameter of 5 to 20 ?m, wherein at least a part of the carbon fibers that constitute the carbon fiber felt have a flat part in which, in a plane view of a surface of the carbon fiber felt, a maximum value of a fiber diameter is observed to be 10 to 50% larger than the average fiber diameter, and a frequency of the flat parts at the surface of the carbon fiber felt is 50 to 200/mm2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Satoru Shimoyama, Fumitaka Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11749810
    Abstract: A gas diffusion layer comprises a carbon sheet and a microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the carbon sheet, and meeting the requirement “C is equal to or greater than 0”, wherein: C, referred to as “index for simultaneous realization of a required in-plane oxygen permeation coefficient and electrical resistance”, is calculated by subtracting the product of B multiplied by 60 from A and adding 310 to the difference, A, is the rate of oxygen permeation in an in-plane direction in a gas diffusion layer that occurs when a pressure of 0.5 MPa is applied in the through-plane direction to a surface of the gas diffusion layer to compress an arbitrarily selected region having a width of 10 mm and a depth of 3 mm in the gas diffusion layer, and B is the “electrical resistance” that occurs when the gas diffusion layer is compressed by applying a pressure of 2 MPa in the through-plane direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Umi Yamamoto, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Isamu Shigemoto, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 11710831
    Abstract: A fuel cell with high productivity, high power generation performance and high durability is described, along with a gas diffusion electrode base material having a microporous layer on one side of an electrically conductive porous base material, where the electrically conductive porous base material contains carbon fiber and resin carbide and has a density of 0.25 to 0.39 g/cm3 and a pore mode diameter in a range of 30 to 50 ?m. The microporous layer contains a carbonaceous powder and a fluororesin and has a surface roughness of 2.0 to 6.0 ?m, a porosity of 50 to 95%, and a pore mode diameter of 0.050 to 0.100 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Fumitaka Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20230128336
    Abstract: The objective of the present invention is to provide a method which is for producing a gas diffusion electrode substrate having a high conductivity and a chemical resistance, and by which an increase in production cost can be suppressed. The present invention is a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode substrate in which a microporous layer is formed in a conductive porous body formed by bonding carbon fibers to each other by means of a cured product of a binder resin, the method having, in the following order: a binder resin impregnation step in which a carbon fiber structure is impregnated with a binder resin composition to obtain a pre-impregnated body; a coating step in which the surface of the pre-impregnated body is coated with a microporous layer coating solution; and a heat treatment step in which the pre-impregnated body that has been subjected to the coating step is heat-treated at a temperature of at least 200° C.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2021
    Publication date: April 27, 2023
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Hiroaki OTAKE, Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Fumitaka WATANABE
  • Patent number: 11621426
    Abstract: The present invention provides a micro-porous layer which provides a fuel battery having high productivity, high power generation performance, and high durability. The present invention provides a micro-porous layer including fibrous carbohydrate having a fiber diameter of 5 nm-10 ?m and an aspect ratio of 10 or more. The carbohydrate has an oxygen/carbon element ratio of 0.02 or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Kentaro Kajiwara, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 11430995
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode is provided that enables the achievement of a fuel cell which has high drainage performance and maintains good power generation performance, while exhibiting high power generation performance particularly at a low temperature (40° C.), if used in the fuel cell. The gas diffusion electrode includes a microporous layer on at least one surface of a conductive porous substrate, wherein the microporous layer has a fluorine compound region having a length of 3-10 ?m and a void having a length of 3-10 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kazuyo Shigeta, Masamichi Utsunomiya
  • Publication number: 20220200012
    Abstract: In order to provide a gas diffusion electrode medium having high thermal conductivity despite having low density and excellent both in handleability and cell performance, provided is a gas diffusion electrode medium including carbon fiber felt including carbon fibers having an average fiber diameter of 5 to 20 ?m, wherein at least a part of the carbon fibers that constitute the carbon fiber felt have a flat part in which, in a plane view of a surface of the carbon fiber felt, a maximum value of a fiber diameter is observed to be 10 to 50% larger than the average fiber diameter, and a frequency of the flat parts at the surface of the carbon fiber felt is 50 to 200/mm2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2020
    Publication date: June 23, 2022
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Satoru SHIMOYAMA, Fumitaka WATANABE
  • Patent number: 11329293
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode base which enables the achievement of a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane; and a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane. For the purpose of achieving the above-described purpose, the present invention has the configuration described below. Namely, a specific gas diffusion electrode base which has a carbon sheet and a microporous layer, and wherein the carbon sheet is porous and the DBP oil absorption of a carbon powder contained in the microporous layer is 70-155 ml/100 g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Yasuaki Tanimura, Toshiya Kamae
  • Patent number: 11309546
    Abstract: A low-cost gas diffusion electrode is described that overcomes defects of conventional techniques, that achieves both dry-up resistance and flooding resistance, and that has satisfactory power generation performance, where the gas diffusion electrode includes a conductive porous substrate, and a microporous layer containing conductive fine particles and provided on at least one surface of the conductive porous substrate. The gas diffusion electrode has, based on the number of fine pores having an area of 0.25 ?m2 or more that are observed in a cross section of the microporous layer in a thickness direction, a percentage of fine pores having a circularity of 0.5 or more of 50% or more and 100% or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Yasutaka Okano, Masamichi Utsunomiya
  • Patent number: 11302951
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used as a liquid flow-through device electrode and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode essentially consisting of a carbon fiber nonwoven fabric, having a thickness of more than 0.40 mm, and having a through-hole disposed therein, or a non-through-hole disposed on one surface or both surfaces of the electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kentaro Kajiwara, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Publication number: 20220037674
    Abstract: A gas diffusion layer comprises a carbon sheet and a microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the carbon sheet, and meeting the requirement “C is equal to or greater than 0”, wherein: C, referred to as “index for simultaneous realization of a required in-plane oxygen permeation coefficient and electrical resistance”, is calculated by subtracting the product of B multiplied by 60 from A and adding 310 to the difference, A, is the rate of oxygen permeation in an in-plane direction in a gas diffusion layer that occurs when a pressure of 0.5 MPa is applied in the through-plane direction to a surface of the gas diffusion layer to compress an arbitrarily selected region having a width of 10 mm and a depth of 3 mm in the gas diffusion layer, and B is the “electrical resistance” that occurs when the gas diffusion layer is compressed by applying a pressure of 2 MPa in the through-plane direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Publication date: February 3, 2022
    Applicant: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Umi Yamamoto, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Isamu Shigemoto, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Publication number: 20220029170
    Abstract: A fuel cell with high productivity, high power generation performance and high durability is described, along with a gas diffusion electrode base material having a microporous layer on one side of an electrically conductive porous base material, where the electrically conductive porous base material contains carbon fiber and resin carbide and has a density of 0.25 to 0.39 g/cm3 and a pore mode diameter in a range of 30 to 50 ?m. The microporous layer contains a carbonaceous powder and a fluororesin and has a surface roughness of 2.0 to 6.0 ?m, a porosity of 50 to 95%, and a pore mode diameter of 0.050 to 0.100 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Publication date: January 27, 2022
    Applicant: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Fumitaka Watanabe
  • Publication number: 20220006097
    Abstract: A low-cost gas diffusion electrode is described that overcomes defects of conventional techniques, that achieves both dry-up resistance and flooding resistance, and that has satisfactory power generation performance, where the gas diffusion electrode includes a conductive porous substrate, and a microporous layer containing conductive fine particles and provided on at least one surface of the conductive porous substrate. The gas diffusion electrode has, based on the number of fine pores having an area of 0.25 ?m2 or more that are observed in a cross section of the microporous layer in a thickness direction, a percentage of fine pores having a circularity of 0.5 or more of 50% or more and 100% or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Publication date: January 6, 2022
    Applicant: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Yasutaka Okano, Masamichi Utsunomiya
  • Publication number: 20210305584
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode base which enables the achievement of a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane; and a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane. For the purpose of achieving the above-described purpose, the present invention has the configuration described below. Namely, a specific gas diffusion electrode base which has a carbon sheet and a microporous layer, and wherein the carbon sheet is porous and the DBP oil absorption of a carbon powder contained in the microporous layer is 70-155 ml/100 g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Yasuaki TANIMURA, Toshiya KAMAE
  • Patent number: 10950867
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used for a liquid flow-through device and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of the surface of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode to be used for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode including a plurality of sheets of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric each having irregularities on a surface of the sheet of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric being stacked or each having a through-hole on the carbon fiber sheet being stacked, and having inside of the electrode a plurality of gaps which is formed by recesses of the irregularities or the through-hole and is not opened in a thickness direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kentaro Kajiwara, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 10950868
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode in which a microporous layer is provided on at least one surface of a conductive porous substrate, wherein the areas obtained by dividing the cross section perpendicular to the plane of the microporous layer into three equal parts in the thickness direction are a first area, a second area, and a third area, with respect to the conductive porous substrate side, the fluorine strength of the third area being 0.8 to 1.2 times the fluorine strength of the second area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kazuyo Shigeta, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Yasutaka Okano, Yasuaki Tanimura, Toshiya Kamae
  • Patent number: 10854887
    Abstract: A porous carbon sheet includes a carbon fiber and a binding material, wherein when in a measured surface depth distribution, a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 ?m or less in a measured area of one surface is a surface layer area ratio X, and a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 ?m or less in a measured area of another surface is a surface layer area ratio Y, the surface layer area ratio X is larger than the surface layer area ratio Y, and a difference between the surface layer area ratios is 3% or more and 12% or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Takashi Chida, Toru Sugahara, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Toshiya Kamae, Katsuya Sode, Takashi Ando