Patents by Inventor Michitoshi Tanimoto

Michitoshi Tanimoto 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: 20240082900
    Abstract: Provided is a welding monitoring apparatus that monitors a welding state of a V-convergence region in which a strip-shaped metal sheet is converged in a V-shape, when the metal sheet is cylindrically formed while being conveyed, and both side edges of the metal sheet are heated and melted in a manner of being butted each other while being converged in the V-shape, such that an electric resistance welded steel pipe is manufactured. This welding monitoring apparatus includes an image capturing unit that captures images of a region including the V-convergence region in time series; and an image processing unit that extracts a welding point based on the images captured in time series and detects the presence or absence and a position of irregular arcing at the welding point or on an upstream side of the welding point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 25, 2023
    Publication date: March 14, 2024
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noboru HASEGAWA, Michitoshi TANIMOTO, Michimasa MUKAI
  • Publication number: 20190201957
    Abstract: Provided is a welding monitoring apparatus that monitors a welding state of a V-convergence region in which a strip-shaped metal sheet is converged in a V-shape, when the metal sheet is cylindrically formed while being conveyed, and both side edges of the metal sheet are heated and melted in a manner of being butted each other while being converged in the V-shape, such that an electric resistance welded steel pipe is manufactured. This welding monitoring apparatus includes an image capturing unit that captures images of a region including the V-convergence region in time series; and an image processing unit that extracts a welding point based on the images captured in time series and detects the presence or absence and a position of irregular arcing at the welding point or on an upstream side of the welding point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2016
    Publication date: July 4, 2019
    Applicants: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION, NIPPON STEEL & SUMIKIN PIPE CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Noboru HASEGAWA, Michitoshi TANIMOTO, Michimasa MUKAI
  • Patent number: 10262412
    Abstract: A welded state monitoring system according to an aspect of the present invention is a welded state monitoring system used for plasma shielded electric resistance welding in which electric resistance welding is performed while irradiating a weld zone of a steel sheet with plasma, and is provided with a plasma irradiation device which irradiates the weld zone with plasma, a first image capturing device which captures an image of the weld zone from above and has an image sensor capable of detecting light having a wavelength of 850 nm or more, a first wavelength region limiting device which limits light incident on the first image capturing device to a wavelength region of 850 nm or more, and an image processing device which subjects the image captured by the first image capturing device to image processing and analyzes the welded state of the weld zone thereby being able to analyze the welded state without being affected by the plasma.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2019
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noboru Hasegawa, Hideki Hamatani, Yoshifumi Karube, Manabu Ueda, Michitoshi Tanimoto, Takashi Oosawa
  • Publication number: 20160350902
    Abstract: A welded state monitoring system according to an aspect of the present invention is a welded state monitoring system used for plasma shielded electric resistance welding in which electric resistance welding is performed while irradiating a weld zone of a steel sheet with plasma, and is provided with a plasma irradiation device which irradiates the weld zone with plasma, a first image capturing device which captures an image of the weld zone from above and has an image sensor capable of detecting light having a wavelength of 850 nm or more, a first wavelength region limiting device which limits light incident on the first image capturing device to a wavelength region of 850 nm or more, and an image processing device which subjects the image captured by the first image capturing device to image processing and analyzes the welded state of the weld zone thereby being able to analyze the welded state without being affected by the plasma.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Publication date: December 1, 2016
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Noboru HASEGAWA, Hideki HAMATANI, Yoshifumi KARUBE, Manabu UEDA, Michitoshi TANIMOTO, Takashi OOSAWA
  • Patent number: 9050681
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of production of electric resistance welded steel pipe able to stably reduce weld defects due to oxides by firing plasma and furthermore able to reduce plasma jet noise and comprises shaping steel plate 1 into a tube and electric resistance welding the abutting end faces 4 during which blowing on at least the abutting end faces 4a in the region 6 at the welding upstream side from the weld point 9 where the temperature becomes 650° C. or more a reducing high temperature (pseudo) laminar plasma obtained by applying voltage to a reducing gas containing H2 gas: 2 to 50 vol % to which is added a balance of Ar gas alone or a mixed gas of Ar gas to which N2 gas, He gas, or both are added. At that time, it is preferable to make the applied voltage over 120V and the make the plasma blowing conditions satisfy the following formula (1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hideki Hamatani, Shinji Kodama, Nobuo Mizuhashi, Sunao Takeuchi, Tomohiro Nakaji, Takashi Miyakawa, Hitoshi Asahi, Michitoshi Tanimoto, Michimasa Mukai
  • Publication number: 20100104888
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method of production of electric resistance welded steel pipe able to stably reduce weld defects due to oxides by firing plasma and furthermore able to reduce plasma jet noise and comprises shaping steel plate 1 into a tube and electric resistance welding the abutting end faces 4 during which blowing on at least the abutting end faces 4a in the region 6 at the welding upstream side from the weld point 9 where the temperature becomes 650° C. or more a reducing high temperature (pseudo) laminar plasma obtained by applying voltage to a reducing gas containing H2 gas: 2 to 50 vol % to which is added a balance of Ar gas alone or a mixed gas of Ar gas to which N2 gas, He gas, or both are added. At that time, it is preferable to make the applied voltage over 120V and the make the plasma blowing conditions satisfy the following formula (1).
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Inventors: Hideki Hamatani, Shinji Kodama, Nobuo Mizuhashi, Sunao Takeuchi, Tomohiro Nakaji, Takashi Miyakawa, Hitoshi Asahi, Michitoshi Tanimoto, Michimasa Mukai