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).
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Patent number: 11915409Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: February 17, 2021Date of Patent: February 27, 2024Assignee: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.Inventors: Takafumi Terahai, Ryota Kurahashi, Yoshihiro Sato
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Publication number: 20240020820Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 29, 2023Publication date: January 18, 2024Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.Inventors: Takafumi TERAHAI, Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO
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Patent number: 11796441Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: December 21, 2020Date of Patent: October 24, 2023Assignee: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.Inventors: Ryota Kurahashi, Yoshihiro Sato, Takafumi Terahai
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Patent number: 11662293Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: February 25, 2021Date of Patent: May 30, 2023Assignee: 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
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Patent number: 11499921Abstract: 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 fromType: GrantFiled: March 17, 2021Date of Patent: November 15, 2022Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.Inventors: Ryota Kurahashi, Yoshihiro Sato, Takafumi Terahai
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Publication number: 20210302296Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: February 25, 2021Publication date: September 30, 2021Applicant: 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
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Publication number: 20210304399Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: February 17, 2021Publication date: September 30, 2021Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.Inventors: Takafumi TERAHAI, Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO
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Publication number: 20210302326Abstract: 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 fromType: ApplicationFiled: March 17, 2021Publication date: September 30, 2021Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.Inventors: Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO, Takafumi TERAHAI
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Publication number: 20210302298Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: December 21, 2020Publication date: September 30, 2021Applicant: NGK INSULATORS, LTD.Inventors: Ryota KURAHASHI, Yoshihiro SATO, Takafumi TERAHAI
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Patent number: 10475177Abstract: 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: GrantFiled: September 6, 2017Date of Patent: November 12, 2019Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.Inventors: Ryota Kurahashi, Akihiro Mizutani, Takafumi Terahai
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Publication number: 20170365050Abstract: 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: ApplicationFiled: September 6, 2017Publication date: December 21, 2017Applicant: NGK Insulators, Ltd.Inventors: Ryota KURAHASHI, Akihiro Mizutani, Takafumi Terahai