Patents by Inventor Motoharu Muto

Motoharu Muto 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: 11878396
    Abstract: An impact rotary tool includes a motor, a hammer, an anvil, a sensor, a circuit board, and an isolator. The hammer is configured to receive rotational force around an axis from the motor and output striking rotational force which is obtained by converting part of the rotational force into striking force around the axis. The anvil to which a tip tool is to be attached is configured to rotate, together with the tip tool, around the axis in response to the striking rotational force received from the hammer. The sensor is disposed in a vicinity of the anvil and is configured to sense a change in a state of the anvil, the change being according to the striking rotational force. The circuit board is configured to receive a sensing result by the sensor. The isolator isolates contact portions of the hammer and the anvil from at least the circuit board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: PANASONIC HOLDINGS CORPORATION
    Inventors: Fumiaki Sawano, Hiroaki Murakami, Motoharu Muto, Masanori Nakamoto
  • Publication number: 20230158648
    Abstract: An impact rotary tool includes a motor, a hammer, an anvil, a sensor, a circuit board, and an isolator. The hammer is configured to receive rotational force around an axis from the motor and output striking rotational force which is obtained by converting part of the rotational force into striking force around the axis. The anvil to which a tip tool is to be attached is configured to rotate, together with the tip tool, around the axis in response to the striking rotational force received from the hammer. The sensor is disposed in a vicinity of the anvil and is configured to sense a change in a state of the anvil, the change being according to the striking rotational force. The circuit board is configured to receive a sensing result by the sensor. The isolator isolates contact portions of the hammer and the anvil from at least the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 17, 2022
    Publication date: May 25, 2023
    Inventors: Fumiaki SAWANO, Hiroaki MURAKAMI, Motoharu MUTO, Masanori NAKAMOTO
  • Publication number: 20230158647
    Abstract: An impact rotary tool includes a motor, an output shaft configured to hold a tip tool and configured to rotate by a motive power of the motor, an impact mechanism configured to perform an impact operation to repeatedly generate, from the motive power of the motor, impact force acting on the output shaft, and a seating detector configured to detect a seating of a fastener component which is a state where the fastener component rotated by the tip tool is just seated on a work target. The seating detector has a plurality of seating detection modes. The impact rotary tool further includes an acquirer configured to acquire information indicative of one seating detection mode selected from the plurality of seating detection modes. The seating detector is configured to detect the seating of the fastener component based on the one seating detection mode indicated by the information acquired by the acquirer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2022
    Publication date: May 25, 2023
    Inventors: Hiroaki MURAKAMI, Masanori NAKAMOTO, Motoharu MUTO
  • Patent number: 11632017
    Abstract: A motor for electric power tools according to an embodiment includes: a rotor having a rotational shaft; a stator having a coil to rotate the rotor; a first substrate mounting a sensor element to detect a rotational position of the rotor; and a second substrate mounting a switching element to change, based on a result of detection by the sensor element, a conducting direction in which a current flows with respect to the coil. The first substrate and the second substrate are arranged side by side along, and intersect at right angles with, the rotational shaft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Itaru Murui, Masari Muramatsu, Motoharu Muto, Kota Kitamura
  • Publication number: 20200313511
    Abstract: A motor for electric power tools according to an embodiment includes: a rotor having a rotational shaft; a stator having a coil to rotate the rotor; a first substrate mounting a sensor element to detect a rotational position of the rotor; and a second substrate mounting a switching element to change, based on a result of detection by the sensor element, a conducting direction in which a current flows with respect to the coil. The first substrate and the second substrate are arranged side by side along, and intersect at right angles with, the rotational shaft.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2020
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Inventors: Itaru Murui, Masari Muramatsu, Motoharu Muto, Kota Kitamura
  • Patent number: 10530224
    Abstract: A motor includes: a stator; a rotor axially aligned with the stator; a circuit board; and a heat dissipating plate. The stator includes: an iron core including teeth; an insulator covering one end surface, in the axial direction, of the iron core; and a coil wound around the teeth. The insulator includes an electrically insulating material having a lower rate of heat transfer than a material included in the iron core. The heat dissipating plate is attached to the insulator in a state in which the heat dissipating plate is in contact with the insulator without being in contact with the iron core, and the circuit board is attached to the heat dissipating plate in a state in which the circuit board is in contact with the heat dissipating plate without being in contact with the iron core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2020
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kota Kitamura, Hidenori Shimizu, Atsushi Takeyama, Motoharu Muto, Daiju Kinoshita
  • Patent number: 10355538
    Abstract: A brushless motor includes: a stator core having a cylindrical yoke portion and a teeth portion having a shape protruding from an inner circumferential surface of the yoke portion; and a rotor that is disposed inside the stator core, spaced apart from the teeth portion, and uses a center axis of the yoke portion as an axis of rotation. The yoke portion includes, on its outer circumferential surface, a notch portion at a position on the back side of the teeth portion. The notch portion has a circumferential width smaller than a circumferential width of the teeth portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kota Kitamura, Hidenori Shimizu, Atsushi Takeyama, Motoharu Muto, Hiroyuki Tsubakimoto, Koichi Hashimoto
  • Publication number: 20170358961
    Abstract: A brushless motor includes: a stator core having a cylindrical yoke portion and a teeth portion having a shape protruding from an inner circumferential surface of the yoke portion; and a rotor that is disposed inside the stator core, spaced apart from the teeth portion, and uses a center axis of the yoke portion as an axis of rotation. The yoke portion includes, on its outer circumferential surface, a notch portion at a position on the back side of the teeth portion. The notch portion has a circumferential width smaller than a circumferential width of the teeth portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2015
    Publication date: December 14, 2017
    Applicant: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LT D.
    Inventors: Kota KITAMURA, Hidenori SHIMIZU, Atsushi TAKEYAMA, Motoharu MUTO, Hiroyuki TSUBAKIMOTO, Koichi HASHIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20170353085
    Abstract: A motor includes: a stator; a rotor axially aligned with the stator; a circuit board; and a heat dissipating plate. The stator includes: an iron core including teeth; an insulator covering one end surface, in the axial direction, of the iron core; and a coil wound around the teeth. The insulator includes an electrically insulating material having a lower rate of heat transfer than a material included in the iron core. The heat dissipating plate is attached to the insulator in a state in which the heat dissipating plate is in contact with the insulator without being in contact with the iron core, and the circuit board is attached to the heat dissipating plate in a state in which the circuit board is in contact with the heat dissipating plate without being in contact with the iron core.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 9, 2015
    Publication date: December 7, 2017
    Inventors: Kota KITAMURA, Hidenori SHIMIZU, Atsushi TAKEYAMA, Motoharu MUTO, Daiju KINOSHITA
  • Patent number: 9257853
    Abstract: The battery pack includes: a charging terminal receiving power from a charger while connected to the charger; a battery connected to the charging terminal and recharged by power from the charger via the charging terminal; a protective circuit performing a protective operation of detecting an overcharge of the battery by using power from the battery while receiving a driving signal, and terminating the protective operation when receiving no driving signal; an activation terminal receiving an activation signal from the charger while connected to the charger; an activation circuit connected to the activation terminal and configured to output the driving signal to the protective circuit while receiving the activation signal from the charger via the activation terminal; and an auxiliary activation circuit connected to the charging terminal and configured to provide the driving signal to the protective circuit while the battery receives power from the charger via the charging terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2016
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masaaki Okada, Masaki Ikeda, Norihiro Iwamura, Motoharu Muto
  • Patent number: 8963458
    Abstract: The electric tool is powered by a secondary battery as a power source, and includes: an output section configured to be transmitted thereto a rotation of a motor directly or through a decelerator; a voltage measurement section that measures a battery voltage; a storage means that stores, as a reference voltage, a voltage value of the battery voltage measured preliminarily when a motor-lock is occurring; and a control means that controls a driving of the motor. The control means is configured to decide that the motor is being locked and then stop or decelerate the motor upon detecting that the battery voltage measured through the voltage measurement section is maintained lower than or equal to the reference voltage stored in the storage means for a predetermined period of time during the driving of the motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Motoharu Muto, Masamichi Nakamura, Masaki Ikeda
  • Patent number: 8643339
    Abstract: A battery pack includes a status detection unit for detecting a status of a battery; a switch unit for interrupting a discharging path of the battery; a notification unit for notifying a user of the status of the battery; an operation unit operable by the user; and control unit for opening and closing the switch unit. The control unit is configured to have the switch unit interrupt the discharging path of the battery when the status of the battery detected by the status detection unit is abnormal. Further, the control unit is configured to have the notification unit notify the user of the availability to restart a discharging operation and close the switch unit in response to an operation signal inputted from the operation unit to make the battery pack dischargeable when the status of the battery detected by the status detection unit is recovered from the abnormal status.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Norihiro Iwamura, Motoharu Muto, Masaki Ikeda, Naoki Shimizu, Atsumasa Kubota, Masaaki Okada, Tatsuya Miwa
  • Publication number: 20130229151
    Abstract: The battery pack includes: a charging terminal receiving power from a charger while connected to the charger; a battery connected to the charging terminal and recharged by power from the charger via the charging terminal; a protective circuit performing a protective operation of detecting an overcharge of the battery by using power from the battery while receiving a driving signal, and terminating the protective operation when receiving no driving signal; an activation terminal receiving an activation signal from the charger while connected to the charger; an activation circuit connected to the activation terminal and configured to output the driving signal to the protective circuit while receiving the activation signal from the charger via the activation terminal; and an auxiliary activation circuit connected to the charging terminal and configured to provide the driving signal to the protective circuit while the battery receives power from the charger via the charging terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2011
    Publication date: September 5, 2013
    Applicant: Panasonic Corporation
    Inventors: Masaaki Okada, Masaki Ikeda, Norihiro Iwamura, Motoharu Muto
  • Publication number: 20130193881
    Abstract: The electric tool is powered by a secondary battery as a power source, and includes: an output section configured to be transmitted thereto a rotation of a motor directly or through a decelerator; a voltage measurement section that measures a battery voltage; a storage means that stores, as a reference voltage, a voltage value of the battery voltage measured preliminarily when a motor-lock is occurring; and a control means that controls a driving of the motor. The control means is configured to decide that the motor is being locked and then stop or decelerate the motor upon detecting that the battery voltage measured through the voltage measurement section is maintained lower than or equal to the reference voltage stored in the storage means for a predetermined period of time during the driving of the motor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 12, 2011
    Publication date: August 1, 2013
    Applicant: PANASONIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Motoharu Muto, Masamichi Nakamura, Masaki Ikeda
  • Patent number: 8092407
    Abstract: A massage machine using a small size and high torque brushless DC motor includes a driving unit moved up and down along guide rails of a chair and a first motor for moving the driving unit up and down. A pair of treatment head bases are driven reciprocally in opposite directions to each other; and a second motor reciprocally drives the treatment head bases in opposite directions to each other. Treatment heads are respectively supported by the treatment head bases; and a third motor drives the treatment heads in a plane substantially perpendicular to a backrest. A control circuit drives the respective motors respectively independently of one another. Each motor is a brushless motor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2012
    Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Daisuke Tsukada, Motoharu Muto, Satoshi Kajiyama, Hiroki Inoue, Masayuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7892192
    Abstract: A massaging device having an applicator driven by a plurality of driving unit to move along two or more different axes to generate a combined massaging action to be applied to the user's body. A controller holds individual speed data each defining a speed at which each of the driving units reciprocates the applicator along each of the different axes, and to control the driving units to reciprocate the applicator in accordance with the associated speed data. The controller controls the speed of the applicator along one of the axes independently from the speed of the applicator moving along another of the axes. Accordingly, the applicator's movements along the different axes can be free from being interfered with each other even being subject to a load, thereby assuring to continue the combined massaging action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2011
    Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Daisuke Tsukada, Motoharu Muto, Takayoshi Tanizawa, Satoshi Kajiyama, Masamichi Miyaguchi, Hiroyuki Inoue, Masatoshi Dairin, Munekiyo Ikebe, Yoshiharu Hayashi, Masaki Nagano, Takashi Yukawa
  • Patent number: 7703330
    Abstract: A power tool includes a driving unit for performing screw tightening operations; a motor for rotatably driving the driving unit; a trigger switch for turning on and off the motor; and a control circuit, accommodated in a main body of the power tool, for monitoring the screw tightening operations. The control circuit having a screw tightening completion detection unit for detecting completion of a screw tightening operation, a screw tightening count unit for counting the number of detected tightening operations, a screw tightening number setting unit for presetting the number of screws to be tightened, a screw tightening completion notifying unit for notifying completion of the screw tightening operations when the number of detected tightening operations reaches the preset number of screws.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Miyazaki, Naotake Tanaka, Motoharu Muto
  • Publication number: 20090243545
    Abstract: A battery pack includes a status detection unit for detecting a status of a battery; a switch unit for interrupting a discharging path of the battery; a notification unit for notifying a user of the status of the battery; an operation unit operable by the user; and control unit for opening and closing the switch unit. The control unit is configured to have the switch unit interrupt the discharging path of the battery when the status of the battery detected by the status detection unit is abnormal. Further, the control unit is configured to have the notification unit notify the user of the availability to restart a discharging operation and close the switch unit in response to an operation signal inputted from the operation unit to make the battery pack dischargeable when the status of the battery detected by the status detection unit is recovered from the abnormal status.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2009
    Publication date: October 1, 2009
    Applicant: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Norihiro Iwamura, Motoharu Muto, Masaki Ikeda, Naoki Shimizu, Atsumasa Kubota, Masaaki Okada, Tatsuya Miwa
  • Patent number: 7566312
    Abstract: A massage machine is provided, which can efficiently create a massage program to meet the user's preference by reflecting a change in massage parameter performed during an execution of the massage program on the next execution of the massage program. This massage machine comprises an input unit configured to input the change in massage parameter, first memory for temporarily storing the change in massage parameter input by the input unit in a desired massage stage during the execution of the massage program, second memory for storing the change in massage parameter provided from the first memory after the completion of the massage program, and a control unit configured to modify the desired massage stage according to the change in massage parameter stored in the second memory at the next execution of the massage program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2009
    Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayoshi Tanizawa, Masamichi Miyaguchi, Fumihiro Nishio, Daisuke Tsukada, Yuichi Nishibori, Motoharu Muto
  • Patent number: 7429251
    Abstract: A massaging device gives different massaging patterns to different parts of a user's body for enhanced and pleasant massaging effect. The device includes an applicator applying a massage force to the user, and at least two driving units for driving the applicator to make different reciprocating movements respectively in different directions from each other. The least two driving units is controlled to reciprocate the applicator for providing the massaging force in different massaging patterns. A sensor is provided to acknowledge the position of the applicator. A massage pattern selector is provided to select one of the massaging patterns depending upon the position of the applicator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 30, 2008
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takayoshi Tanizawa, Masamichi Miyaguchi, Fumihiro Nishio, Daisuke Tsukada, Yuuichi Nishibori, Motoharu Muto