Patents by Inventor Ryota KURAHASHI

Ryota KURAHASHI 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: 11915409
    Abstract: An inspection method for determining a presence of a defect on a sides surface of a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure including generating strip-shaped images by repeatedly capturing the side surface part by part with an area camera while relatively moving the area camera with respect to the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure; determining the presence or absence of defects based on the strip-shaped images when a number of the strip-shaped images generated is sufficient to cover the entire side surface; a shutter speed when the area camera captures a part of the side surface for generating a single strip-shaped image is 10 to 1000 ?sec; and each of the strip-shaped images has a length covering the entire height of the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure in a longitudinal direction, and a length of 1 to 10 mm in a width direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2024
    Assignee: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi Terahai, Ryota Kurahashi, Yoshihiro Sato
  • Publication number: 20240020820
    Abstract: An inspection system for carrying out an inspection method for a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure, the inspection system including: a robot arm with a robot hand at a tip of the robot arm, the robot hand comprising a pair of gripping surfaces capable of gripping the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure from the first end surface and the second end surface, the pair of gripping surfaces being configured to be able to rotate the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure at a predetermined rotational speed while gripping the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure from the first end surface and the second end surface; the area camera for the side surface; a screen that can display the strip-shaped images; and a controller that can at least set a rotation speed of the pair of gripping surfaces and the shutter speed of the area camera for the side surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2023
    Publication date: January 18, 2024
    Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi TERAHAI, Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO
  • Patent number: 11796441
    Abstract: A method for inspecting a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure including the steps of: imaging a pattern of transmitted light from the second end face according to arrangement of the plugged portions of first cells and second cells, with a camera via a light diffusing film placed parallel to a second end face of the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure in a non-contact state with the second end face, which pattern is obtained by irradiating a first end face with light; and detecting a defective plugged portion(s) of the second cells based on an image of the pattern of transmitted light imaged with the camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Ryota Kurahashi, Yoshihiro Sato, Takafumi Terahai
  • Patent number: 11662293
    Abstract: An inspection method for a pillar-shaped honeycomb filter having a honeycomb-shaped first end face and a honeycomb-shaped second end face, including: allowing gas containing fine particles to flow into the first end face; imaging the entire second end face covered with the sheet-like light using a camera while the gas that has flowed into the first end face flows out of the second end face through the filter, and generating an image of the entire second end face covered with the sheet-like light; selecting an inspection area of the second end face and measuring information concerning a sum of luminance of all pixels in the inspection area; and determining quality of the filter based on at least the information concerning the concentration of the fine particles in the gas before the gas flows into the first end face and the information concerning the sum of luminance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Sato, Takakazu Koyama, Yuji Watanabe, Yutaka Ishii, Takaaki Kanemitsu, Makoto Murai, Masanari Iwade, Takafumi Terahai, Ryota Kurahashi, Akinari Fukaya, Kenji Ebisutani
  • Patent number: 11499921
    Abstract: A method for inspecting a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure includes steps of: capturing a pattern of reflected light from an end face with a camera and generating an image data of the pattern of the reflected light; distinguishing positional information of each of cells adjacent to an outer peripheral side wall and cells that are not adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the image data of the pattern of the reflected light, and storing the distinguished positional information in a memory; capturing a pattern of transmitted light from the end face with the camera and generating an image data of the pattern of the transmitted light; measuring intensity of each transmitted light from the cells adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall to detect the cells having defective plugged portions that are adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the generated image data of the pattern of the transmitted light and the positional information; and measuring intensity of each transmitted light from
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryota Kurahashi, Yoshihiro Sato, Takafumi Terahai
  • Publication number: 20210302296
    Abstract: An inspection method for a pillar-shaped honeycomb filter having a honeycomb-shaped first end face and a honeycomb-shaped second end face, including: allowing gas containing fine particles to flow into the first end face; imaging the entire second end face covered with the sheet-like light using a camera while the gas that has flowed into the first end face flows out of the second end face through the filter, and generating an image of the entire second end face covered with the sheet-like light; selecting an inspection area of the second end face and measuring information concerning a sum of luminance of each pixel in the inspection area; and determining quality of the filter based on at least the information concerning the concentration of the fine particles in the gas before the gas flows into the first end face and the information concerning the sum of luminance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Yoshihiro SATO, Takakazu KOYAMA, Yuji WATANABE, Yutaka ISHII, Takaaki KANEMITSU, Makoto MURAI, Masanari IWADE, Takafumi TERAHAI, Ryota KURAHASHI, Akinari FUKAYA, Kenji EBISUTANI
  • Publication number: 20210304399
    Abstract: An inspection method for a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure including a step A of generating strip-shaped images by repeatedly capturing the side surface part by part with an area camera while relatively moving the area camera with respect to the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure; and a step B of determining presence or absence of defects on the side surface based on the strip-shaped images obtained in the step A; wherein a number of the strip-shaped images generated in the step A is sufficient to cover the entire side surface; a shutter speed when the area camera captures a part of the side surface for generating a single strip-shaped image is 10 to 1000 ?sec; and each of the strip-shaped images has a length covering the entire height of the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure in a longitudinal direction, and a length of 1 to 10 mm in a width direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Takafumi TERAHAI, Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO
  • Publication number: 20210302326
    Abstract: A method for inspecting a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure includes steps of: capturing a pattern of reflected light from an end face with a camera and generating an image data of the pattern of the reflected light; distinguishing positional information of each of cells adjacent to an outer peripheral side wall and cells that are not adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the image data of the pattern of the reflected light, and storing the distinguished positional information in a memory; capturing a pattern of transmitted light from the end face with the camera and generating an image data of the pattern of the transmitted light; measuring intensity of each transmitted light from the cells adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall to detect the cells having defective plugged portions that are adjacent to the outer peripheral side wall based on the generated image data of the pattern of the transmitted light and the positional information; and measuring intensity of each transmitted light from
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO, Takafumi TERAHAI
  • Publication number: 20210302298
    Abstract: A method for inspecting a pillar-shaped honeycomb structure including the steps of: imaging a pattern of transmitted light from the second end face according to arrangement of the plugged portions of first cells and second cells, with a camera via a light diffusing film placed parallel to a second end face of the pillar-shaped honeycomb structure in a non-contact state with the second end face, which pattern is obtained by irradiating a first end face with light; and detecting a defective plugged portion(s) of the second cells based on an image of the pattern of transmitted light imaged with the camera.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.
    Inventors: Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO, Takafumi TERAHAI
  • Patent number: 10475177
    Abstract: An inspection method for a surface of a ceramic body capable of determining any crack more reliably than conventionally done is provided. The method includes a step of performing image capturing of an illuminated region of an inspection surface being illuminated with at least one of first and second illumination light from mutually different directions sandwiching an image capturing means, a step of generating a determination image, and a step of performing determination. When a first determination image is generated based on a first image capturing result obtained under illumination at least with the first illumination light, and a second determination image is generated based on a second image capturing result under illumination at least with the second illumination light, those images are generated so that determination of the presence or absence of any crack can be performed based on a difference between formation manners of shadow regions in those images.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryota Kurahashi, Akihiro Mizutani, Takafumi Terahai
  • Publication number: 20170365050
    Abstract: An inspection method for a surface of a ceramic body capable of determining any crack more reliably than conventionally done is provided. The method includes a step of performing image capturing of an illuminated region of an inspection surface being illuminated with at least one of first and second illumination light from mutually different directions sandwiching an image capturing means, a step of generating a determination image, and a step of performing determination. When a first determination image is generated based on a first image capturing result obtained under illumination at least with the first illumination light, and a second determination image is generated based on a second image capturing result under illumination at least with the second illumination light, those images are generated so that determination of the presence or absence of any crack can be performed based on a difference between formation manners of shadow regions in those images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2017
    Publication date: December 21, 2017
    Applicant: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Ryota KURAHASHI, Akihiro Mizutani, Takafumi Terahai