Patents by Inventor Seiji Furusako

Seiji Furusako 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: 20240123539
    Abstract: A resistance spot welded joint according to an aspect of the present invention includes: a plurality of overlapping steel sheets; and a weld having a nugget by which the steel sheets are joined, and having a corona bond and a heat-affected zone formed around the nugget, in which one or more of the plurality of steel sheets are high strength steel sheets having a tensile strength of 780 MPa or more, one or more of the plurality of steel sheets are plated steel sheets having a zinc-based plating, the high strength steel sheet and the zinc-based plating are adjacent to each other on a contact surface, a diameter of the heat-affected zone is 1.5 times or more a diameter of the nugget, in the heat-affected zone, carbides having a circle equivalent diameter of 0.1 or more are distributed at a number density of 40/100 ?m2 or more, and in the corona bond, an amount of an ? phase of the zinc-based plating is 20 area % or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 5, 2021
    Publication date: April 18, 2024
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji FURUSAKO, Satoshi HIROSE, Chisato YOSHINAGA
  • Patent number: 11628511
    Abstract: Art for spot welding able to suppress penetration of hydrogen, one of the factors behind delayed fracture, at the time of spot welding, that is, a spot welding method in which at one or both of the surfaces of the steel sheets becoming the facing surfaces of the overlaid steel sheets, a location where the steel sheets contact each other to form a contact part at the time of initial squeezing of the spot welding is worked in advance to form a plurality of lines running through the contact part and connected to the outside of the contact part and the spot welding is performed at the location of the contact part and also a steel sheet in which the plurality of lines are formed in advance at the location becoming a contact part when steel sheets contact each other at the time of initial squeezing in the spot welding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sho Matsui, Masahiro Saito, Seiji Furusako, Yasunobu Miyazaki
  • Publication number: 20220177994
    Abstract: Provided is a steel sheet having a predetermined chemical composition and structure wherein (Fe, Mn)2 B precipitates having a circle equivalent diameter of 50 to 300 nm are present in a number density of 1/500 ?m2 or more in a surface layer region down to a depth of 100 ?m from the surface in the sheet thickness direction. Further, provided is a method for producing a steel sheet comprising continuously casting a molten steel having a predetermined chemical composition to form a steel slab, wherein the continuously casting includes introducing more than 10 ppm and less than 100 ppm of oxygen into the surface layer of the steel slab, hot rolling including finish rolling the steel slab, wherein a completion temperature of the finish rolling is 650 to 950° C., coiling the obtained hot rolled steel sheet at a coiling temperature of 400 to 700° C., and cold rolling the hot rolled steel sheet, then annealing it.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2019
    Publication date: June 9, 2022
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kengo TAKEDA, Yuya SUZUKI, Toyomitsu NAKAMURA, Seiji FURUSAKO
  • Patent number: 11027361
    Abstract: By obtaining a spot-welded joint being a spot-welded joint formed by overlapping a plurality of pieces of steel plates (1A, 1B) and performing spot welding on the steel plates, including a high-strength steel plate whose tensile strength is 750 (MPa) to 2500 (MPa), being at least one piece of steel plate out of the plurality of pieces of steel plates, in which a carbon equivalent Ceq of the high-strength steel plate is 0.20 mass % to 0.55 mass %, and ten or more of iron-based carbides in each of which a length of a longest portion is 0.1 (?m) or more exist in a square region 103 within a heat-affected zone 4 of a cross section that passes through a center of a welding mark, and is cut along a plate thickness direction of the steel plates (1A, 1B), a cross tensile strength of the spot-welded joint to be formed is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Chisato Wakabayashi, Fuminori Watanabe, Seiji Furusako, Yasunobu Miyazaki, Hiroyuki Kawata, Tohru Okada, Hideki Hamatani
  • Patent number: 10994364
    Abstract: A spot welded joint in which a high CTS is obtained even if including one or more high strength steel sheets and a method of welding of the same, that is, a spot welded joint 1 including a plurality of steel sheets, wherein one or more steel sheets is a tensile strength 750 to 2500 MPa high strength steel sheet and, at a cross-section in the sheet thickness direction of the steel sheets, when defining superposed surfaces of a high strength steel sheet S1 arranged at an outermost side and another steel sheet 1B as the “plane A” and defining a plane passing through a point of one-half of a distance between a nugget end position E of a high strength steel sheet S1 side on the line L1 in the sheet thickness direction and a crossing point O of the plane A and the line L1 and parallel to the plane A as the “plane B”, at a square area SA of sides of 30 ?m centered about a crossing point X of a line L2, which is separated by 250 ?m to the heat affected zone side from a tangent at any position on a nugget end line NEL
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Chisato Yoshinaga, Seiji Furusako, Fuminori Watanabe, Yasunobu Miyazaki, Tohru Okada
  • Patent number: 10933488
    Abstract: A resistance spot welding method able to form a welded joint having delayed fracture resistance, includes, in order, applying a pressing force P1 (kN) to the plurality of steel sheets by welding electrodes while supplying a supplied current I1 (kA), while applying the pressing force P1, supplying a current Ic (kA) during a cooling time tc (s), repeating two times or more a pressure force raising and lowering cycle of supplying a supplied current I2 (kA) to the welding electrodes while applying a pressing force P2 (kN) to the plurality of steel sheets by the welding electrodes during a pressing time tf (s), then immediately applying a pressing force P3 (kN) during a pressing time ti (s), applying the pressing force P2 during the pressing time tf, and releasing the pressing force and ending the supply of current, satisfying 0?Ic<I1, 0.3?I2/I1<1.0, P2/P1?2, tf?0.2, P3<P2, and ti?0.2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventor: Seiji Furusako
  • Publication number: 20200361021
    Abstract: The method for the production of a resistance spot welded joint according to the present invention can suppress the occurrence of spatter and can stably ensure nugget diameter in the spot welding of steel sheets in which a material having a high electrical resistance is present on the surface layer thereof. The method for the production of a welded joint according to the present invention is characterized by a tip diameter of the electrode, which is the diameter of a circle which is equivalent in area to a region in which a surface region of a tip surface of the electrode having a radius of curvature of 40 mm or more is projected onto a surface perpendicular to a direction of pressure of the electrode, is 8.0 mm or more, the method including a preliminary conduction step of applying a direct current Ia(t) (kA) for a conduction time ta seconds so as to satisfy formulas (1) and (2) below while pressing the electrode with a pressure of 5.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2018
    Publication date: November 19, 2020
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji FURUSAKO, Masanori YASUYAMA
  • Patent number: 10828717
    Abstract: A lap welding method of a steel sheet includes spot welding in a state in which the flange portion of a second steel sheet member having the flange portion and a standing wall portion is overlapped with the first steel sheet member, thereby forming a nugget between a first steel sheet member and a flange portion; and, after the spot welding, laser welding a region between an R stop of the standing wall portion and the nugget, thereby forming a weld bead, and, in the weld bead, a length dimension is equal to or longer than a diameter of the nugget, and a width dimension is 0.5 to 3.0 mm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji Furusako, Tohru Okada, Koichi Sato, Yasunobu Miyazaki
  • Publication number: 20200316707
    Abstract: The spot welding method of the present invention has steps of preliminary conduction, first conduction, second conduction, and third conduction: Preliminary conduction: Conduction method aimed at improving closeness of contact surfaces of steel sheets and reducing sheet gaps by gradually increasing the welding current (for example, upslope conduction). If rapidly applying current, current would be locally carried and that part would melt resulting in expulsion, so this is a conduction method gradually running current (for example upslope conduction) to avoid local heating. First conduction: Conduction method running a constant welding current and using the heat generated by the electrical contact resistance between steel sheets to cause the formation of a nugget when preliminary conduction results in close contact surfaces between the steel sheets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2020
    Publication date: October 8, 2020
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji FURUSAKO, Yasunobu MIYAZAKI, Hitomi NISHIBATA, Yasuo TAKAHASHI
  • Publication number: 20200269341
    Abstract: Art for spot welding able to suppress penetration of hydrogen, one of the factors behind delayed fracture, at the time of spot welding, that is, a spot welding method in which at one or both of the surfaces of the steel sheets becoming the facing surfaces of the overlaid steel sheets, a location where the steel sheets contact each other to form a contact part at the time of initial squeezing of the spot welding is worked in advance to form a plurality of lines running through the contact part and connected to the outside of the contact part and the spot welding is performed at the location of the contact part and also a steel sheet in which the plurality of lines are formed in advance at the location becoming a contact part when steel sheets contact each other at the time of initial squeezing in the spot welding.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 5, 2018
    Publication date: August 27, 2020
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sho MATSUI, Masahiro SAITO, Seiji FURUSAKO, Yasunobu MIYAZAKI
  • Patent number: 10730134
    Abstract: The spot welding method of the present invention has steps of preliminary conduction, first conduction, second conduction, and third conduction: Preliminary conduction: Conduction method aimed at improving closeness of contact surfaces of steel sheets and reducing sheet gaps by gradually increasing the welding current (for example, upslope conduction). If rapidly applying current, current would be locally carried and that part would melt resulting in expulsion, so this is a conduction method gradually running current (for example upslope conduction) to avoid local heating. First conduction: Conduction method running a constant welding current and using the heat generated by the electrical contact resistance between steel sheets to cause the formation of a nugget when preliminary conduction results in close contact surfaces between the steel sheets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2020
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji Furusako, Yasunobu Miyazaki, Hitomi Nishibata, Yasuo Takahashi
  • Patent number: 10722935
    Abstract: Provided is a mechanical joining apparatus enabling stable riveting when joining metal sheets even when the sheets are large in deformation resistance, the apparatus comprising a punch and die, blank holder and power device, wherein the punch and die are arranged facing each other, the holder is configured by an electrode material able to push against and electrically heat the sheets by one end of the holder, the punch is comprised of a material able to drive in a rivet, the die is comprised of an electrode material able to support and electrically heat the sheets, and the power device is configured to start supply of current through the holder and die so as to raise the temperature of the sheets at the same time as the start of driving in of the rivet and to continue to supply current until the end of driving in of the rivet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji Furusako, Tohru Okada, Yasunobu Miyazaki, Fuminori Watanabe, Yoshiaki Nakazawa
  • Patent number: 10668557
    Abstract: A spot welding electrode of a donut-shaped electrode wherein even when a welded member of a steel sheet is slanted with respect a plane perpendicular to an axis of the spot welding electrode, a cross tensile strength (CTS) of the spot welded joint can be improved. The donut shape spot welding electrode according to the present invention has an electrode tip and an electrode support. The electrode tip contacts the electrode support to be able to move. Due to this, it is possible to strikingly raise the ability of the donut-shaped electrode to track a steel sheet and make the entire surface of the donut shape contact-and-conduction part contact the steel sheet, so it is possible to secure a high CTS value even if the steel sheet is slanted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Fuminori Watanabe, Tohru Okada, Seiji Furusako
  • Patent number: 10603743
    Abstract: There is provided a power supply device that supplies an output current to an electric processing device which performs electric processing on workpieces. The device includes: a first power supply; a magnetic energy recovery switch that receives a current supplied from the first power supply, and converts the received current into the output current; and a control unit that controls the magnetic energy recovery switch such that an electric current frequency of the output current includes a first electric current frequency and a second electric current frequency which are different from each other within a one-time electric processing time using the electric processing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2020
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Fuminori Watanabe, Kazuhiko Fukutani, Seiji Furusako, Chisato Yoshinaga, Tohru Okada
  • Patent number: 10603713
    Abstract: Provided is a mechanical joining apparatus enabling reduction of breakage of the area around a rivet of a joint obtained by riveting, the apparatus comprising a punch and die, blank holder, first power device, second power device and cooling device, wherein the first power device is configured to start supply of current through the holder and die so as to raise the temperature of the sheets before the punch drives in the rivet, the second power device is configured to start supply of current through the punch and die so as to supply current through and heat treat the rivet after the punch drives in the rivet, and the cooling device is connected to the punch and is configured to cool the rivet after the rivet is heat treated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2020
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Seiji Furusako, Tohru Okada, Yasunobu Miyazaki, Fuminori Watanabe, Yoshiaki Nakazawa
  • Patent number: 10500681
    Abstract: An arc spot welding method able to give a predetermined weld bead diameter or excess metal height in a back surface weld bead of arc spot welding and able to give a welded joint excellent in both strengths of TSS and CTS and a welding apparatus for working the same are provided. Steel sheets containing carbon in 0.2 mass % or more and having sheet thicknesses “t” or more are arranged overlaid. A backing plate including a non-contact part and a contact part maintaining the back surface of the lower side steel sheet is provided. An arc generation and short-circuit conduction where the welding voltage between the welding wire and upper side steel sheet becomes 10V or less are alternately repeated so that the time period of the short-circuit conduction becomes over 30% to less than 60% per cycle to thereby weld the steel sheets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shinji Kodama, Seiji Furusako, Yasunobu Miyazaki
  • Publication number: 20190240768
    Abstract: A resistance spot welding method able to form a welded joint having delayed fracture resistance, comprising, in order, a step of applying a pressing force P1 (kN) to the plurality of steel sheets by welding electrodes while supplying a supplied current I1 (kA), a step of, while applying the pressing force P1, supplying a current Ic (kA) during a cooling time tc (s), a step of repeating two times or more a pressure force raising and lowering cycle of supplying a supplied current I2 (kA) to the welding electrodes while applying a pressing force P2 (kN) to the plurality of steel sheets by the welding electrodes during a pressing time tf (s), then immediately applying a pressing force P3 (kN) during a pressing time ti (s), a step of applying the pressing force P2 during the pressing time tf, and a step of releasing the pressing force and ending the supply of current, satisfying 0?Ic<I1, 0.3?I2/I1<1.0, P2/P1?1.2, P3<P2, and ti?0.2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2016
    Publication date: August 8, 2019
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION
    Inventor: Seiji FURUSAKO
  • Patent number: 10350701
    Abstract: A spot welding method able to simply prevent liquid metal embrittlement cracks in spot welding of plated steel sheets, comprising, before spot welding, removing the plating at least in a zone including the inside of a circle centered at a scheduled location where the center of the nugget is formed and having an outer circumference of the inside of the outer edge of a weld affected zone or a zone at the mated surfaces of the steel sheets to be welded at the inside of a circle sharing a center of a scheduled location becoming the center of the nugget formed at the mated surfaces of the steel sheets and having an outer circumference of the inside of the outer edge of a weld affected zone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: NIPPON STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasunobu Miyazaki, Fuminori Watanabe, Chisato Wakabayashi, Kunio Hayashi, Hiroyuki Kawata, Seiji Furusako, Sho Matsui
  • Publication number: 20190030637
    Abstract: By obtaining a spot-welded joint being a spot-welded joint formed by overlapping a plurality of pieces of steel plates (1A, 1B) and performing spot welding on the steel plates, including a high-strength steel plate whose tensile strength is 750 (MPa) to 2500 (MPa), being at least one piece of steel plate out of the plurality of pieces of steel plates, in which a carbon equivalent Ceq of the high-strength steel plate is 0.20 mass % to 0.55 mass %, and ten or more of iron-based carbides in each of which a length of a longest portion is 0.1 (?m) or more exist in a square region 103 within a heat-affected zone 4 of a cross section that passes through a center of a welding mark, and is cut along a plate thickness direction of the steel plates (1A, 1B), a cross tensile strength of the spot-welded joint to be formed is improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Publication date: January 31, 2019
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Chisato WAKABAYASHI, Fuminori WATANABE, Seiji FURUSAKO, Yasunobu MIYAZAKI, Hiroyuki KAWATA, Tohru OKADA, Hideki HAMATANI
  • Publication number: 20180304396
    Abstract: A spot welded joint in which a high CTS is obtained even if including one or more high strength steel sheets and a method of welding of the same, that is, a spot welded joint 1 including a plurality of steel sheets, wherein one or more steel sheets is a tensile strength 750 to 2500 MPa high strength steel sheet and, at a cross-section in the sheet thickness direction of the steel sheets, when defining superposed surfaces of a high strength steel sheet S1 arranged at an outermost side and another steel sheet 1B as the “plane A” and defining a plane passing through a point of one-half of a distance between a nugget end position E of a high strength steel sheet S1 side on the line L1 in the sheet thickness direction and a crossing point O of the plane A and the line L1 and parallel to the plane A as the “plane B”, at a square area SA of sides of 30 ?m centered about a crossing point X of a line L2, which is separated by 250 ?m to the heat affected zone side from a tangent at any position on a nugget end line NEL
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 16, 2015
    Publication date: October 25, 2018
    Applicant: NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Chisato YOSHINAGA, Seiji FURUSAKO, Fuminori WATANABE, Yasunobu MIYAZAKI, Tohru OKADA