Patents by Inventor Tetsuro Okazono

Tetsuro Okazono 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: 11118551
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a pump unit, a lid unit and a strut linking unit. The pump unit is located on a bottom of a fuel tank for discharging fuel from the fuel tank to an outside thereof. The lid unit is attached to an upper wall of the fuel tank to close an opening formed in the upper wall. The lid unit has a fuel discharge port. The strut linking unit connects the lid unit to the pump unit. The strut linking unit includes an upper-side strut member, which is formed as an independent component from the lid unit. The strut linking unit includes a lower-side strut member, which is movably connected to the upper-side strut member in a vertical direction. The upper-side strut member is connected to the lid unit by a snap-fit connection. A connecting portion between the upper-side strut member and the lid unit has a stress concentration portion, which is preferentially damaged when an external force is applied to the strut linking unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Norihiro Hayashi, Tetsuro Okazono, Teppei Matsumoto, Yoshihisa Sanami, Kazuaki Ae
  • Patent number: 11007864
    Abstract: A vehicle structure includes a fuel tank configured to store a fuel supplied to an internal-combustion engine of a vehicle and a battery configured to store an electric power supplied to an electric motor of the vehicle to drive the vehicle. A gravity center of the battery is lower than a gravity center of the fuel tank, and at least a part of the fuel tank overlaps with the battery in a top plan view of the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2021
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Norihiro Hayashi, Tetsuro Okazono
  • Publication number: 20210033053
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a pump unit, a lid unit and a strut linking unit. The pump unit is located on a bottom of a fuel tank for discharging fuel from the fuel tank to an outside thereof. The lid unit is attached to an upper wall of the fuel tank to close an opening formed in the upper wall. The lid unit has a fuel discharge port. The strut linking unit connects the lid unit to the pump unit. The strut linking unit includes an upper-side strut member, which is formed as an independent component from the lid unit. The strut linking unit includes a lower-side strut member, which is movably connected to the upper-side strut member in a vertical direction. The upper-side strut member is connected to the lid unit by a snap-fit connection. A connecting portion between the upper-side strut member and the lid unit has a stress concentration portion, which is preferentially damaged when an external force is applied to the strut linking unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2020
    Publication date: February 4, 2021
    Inventors: Norihiro HAYASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Teppei MATSUMOTO, Yoshihisa SANAMI, Kazuaki AE
  • Patent number: 10801451
    Abstract: A housing has an inner passage to communicate with both a fuel passage, which is to conduct fuel from a fuel pump, and a return passage, which is to return fuel a fuel tank. A valve body is movable in the housing to change a minimum flow passage cross-sectional area of the inner passage. A spring is connected to the valve body and changes its biasing load in correspondence with a fuel temperature to move the valve body. The spring moves the valve body such that the minimum flow passage cross-sectional area, when the fuel temperature is equal to or higher than a predetermined vapor generation temperature, is larger than the minimum flow passage cross-sectional area when the fuel temperature is lower than the vapor generation temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takemasa Fujiseki, Tetsuro Okazono, Shinji Noda, Norihiro Hayashi, Hajime Danjo, Shinichi Morita
  • Patent number: 10794342
    Abstract: A pump unit includes an insertion guide member that extends in a longitudinal direction of the pump unit and is used to guide the pump unit at a time of inserting the pump unit into an opening portion of a fuel tank. The insertion guide member includes a stopper portion and a guide portion that are arranged along an edge part of the insertion guide member. When the pump unit is projected in the longitudinal direction onto a plane of projection, the stopper portion protrudes outward from an imaginary circle, which has a fitting portion's diameter, on the plane of projection. The guide portion guides the pump unit in a rotational direction relative to a stay. A cross section of the pump unit taken along a guide portion orthogonal plane is set to be within the imaginary circle, which has the fitting portion's diameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Koji Maruyama, Shingo Fukuoka, Rui Adachi, Tetsuro Okazono, Norihiro Hayashi, Atsushi Kamiyama, Junichi Takatsuji
  • Patent number: 10669976
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes: a cover attached to an upper wall of a fuel tank; a pump unit disposed on a bottom wall of the fuel tank; and a connecting strut that connects the cover and the pump unit with each other. The pump unit includes: a unit body supported by the connecting strut in a radial direction and a thrust direction, and a fuel pump arranged on the unit body to pump fuel drawn from the fuel tank toward an internal-combustion engine. The fuel pump is located offset toward the connecting strut from a width center of a width from a thrust support part where the unit body is supported by the connecting strut to an end part of the unit body opposite from the connecting strut in a specific transverse direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2020
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Shingo Fukuoka, Norihiro Hayashi, Tetsuro Okazono
  • Publication number: 20200114750
    Abstract: A vehicle structure includes a fuel tank configured to store a fuel supplied to an internal-combustion engine of a vehicle and a battery configured to store an electric power supplied to an electric motor of the vehicle to drive the vehicle. A gravity center of the battery is lower than a gravity center of the fuel tank, and at least a part of the fuel tank overlaps with the battery in a top plan view of the vehicle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2019
    Publication date: April 16, 2020
    Inventors: Norihiro HAYASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO
  • Publication number: 20200095963
    Abstract: A housing has an inner passage to communicate with both a fuel passage, which is to conduct fuel from a fuel pump, and a return passage, which is to return fuel a fuel tank. A valve body is movable in the housing to change a minimum flow passage cross-sectional area of the inner passage. A spring is connected to the valve body and changes its biasing load in correspondence with a fuel temperature to move the valve body. The spring moves the valve body such that the minimum flow passage cross-sectional area, when the fuel temperature is equal to or higher than a predetermined vapor generation temperature, is larger than the minimum flow passage cross-sectional area when the fuel temperature is lower than the vapor generation temperature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2019
    Publication date: March 26, 2020
    Inventors: Takemasa FUJISEKI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Shinji NODA, Norihiro HAYASHI, Hajime DANJO, Shinichi MORITA
  • Publication number: 20190178211
    Abstract: A pump unit includes an insertion guide member that extends in a longitudinal direction of the pump unit and is used to guide the pump unit at a time of inserting the pump unit into an opening portion of a fuel tank. The insertion guide member includes a stopper portion and a guide portion that are arranged along an edge part of the insertion guide member. When the pump unit is projected in the longitudinal direction onto a plane of projection, the stopper portion protrudes outward from an imaginary circle, which has a fitting portion's diameter, on the plane of projection. The guide portion guides the pump unit in a rotational direction relative to a stay. A cross section of the pump unit taken along a guide portion orthogonal plane is set to be within the imaginary circle, which has the fitting portion's diameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Publication date: June 13, 2019
    Inventors: Koji MARUYAMA, Shingo FUKUOKA, Rui ADACHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Norihiro HAYASHI, Atsushi KAMIYAMA, Junichi TAKATSUJI
  • Publication number: 20190032614
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes: a cover attached to an upper wall of a fuel tank; a pump unit disposed on a bottom wall of the fuel tank; and a connecting strut that connects the cover and the pump unit with each other. The pump unit includes: a unit body supported by the connecting strut in a radial direction and a thrust direction, and a fuel pump arranged on the unit body to pump fuel drawn from the fuel tank toward an internal-combustion engine. The fuel pump is located offset toward the connecting strut from a width center of a width from a thrust support part where the unit body is supported by the connecting strut to an end part of the unit body opposite from the connecting strut in a specific transverse direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 24, 2017
    Publication date: January 31, 2019
    Inventors: Shingo FUKUOKA, Norihiro HAYASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO
  • Patent number: 10145342
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a fuel pump, a filter case, a fuel passage, a discharge passage, and a residual pressure holding valve. A communication port opens at a shifted position of the fuel passage that is positionally shifted from the residual pressure holding valve toward the discharge passage. The fuel passage includes an outside passage part through which fuel flows from the communication port toward the discharge passage, and an inside passage part that throttles a flow of fuel flowing from the communication port toward the residual pressure holding valve more than the outside passage part. When a passage cross-sectional area of the inside passage part is converted into a passage cross-sectional area of a circular pipe, D which is a passage diameter of the circular pipe, and L which is a length of the inside passage part satisfy a relational expression of L/D?3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2018
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, KYOSAN DENKI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideto Takahashi, Masaharu Oohashi, Tetsuro Okazono, Hironobu Oki
  • Publication number: 20180257006
    Abstract: A suction filter which filters fuel inside a fuel tank of a vehicle to let a fuel pump draw filtered fuel into an inlet port includes a filter element disposed inside the fuel tank and filtering stored fuel stored in the fuel tank by allowing the stored fuel to pass through to an inner space, and a partition wall element disposed in a posture with which to divide the inner space to a first space where filtered fuel filtered at the filter element flows in and a second space where the inlet port into which the filtered fuel is drawn opens, and allowing the filtered fuel in the first space to pass through to the second space. The partition wall element is provided in a form of a partition film dividing the inner space to the first space on an upper side and the second space on a lower side.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2016
    Publication date: September 13, 2018
    Inventors: Norihiro HAYASHI, Shinobu OIKAWA, Kiyoshi NAGATA, Tetsuro OKAZONO
  • Patent number: 10054089
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a sub-tank, a pump unit, a jet pump, and a connection structure connected with the pump unit and the jet pump. The connection structure has a guide part that is provided to the pump unit and guides the pressurized fuel toward the bottom in an axial direction, a pressurizing part that is provided to the jet pump and is fitted to the guide part from a side of the bottom in an axially slidable manner, to which the pressurized fuel is guided from the guide part, a shock-absorbing member that has a low spring constant that is predetermined and mitigates an axial impact between the guide part and the pressurizing part, and a sealing member that has a high spring constant higher than the low spring constant of the shock-absorbing member and radially seals a space between the guide part and the pressurizing part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, KYOSAN DENKI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideto Takahashi, Masaharu Oohashi, Tetsuro Okazono, Hironobu Oki
  • Patent number: 10054088
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a fuel pump, a filter case that houses a fuel filter, and a port member joined to the filter case, a fuel pumped by the fuel pump from inside a fuel tank is filtered by the fuel filter and supplied from inside the filter case toward an internal combustion engine, and the port member integrally includes a plurality of fuel ports that communicate from inside of the filter case to outside of the filter case.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2018
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, KYOSAN DENKI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yutaka Niwa, Hideto Takahashi, Tetsuro Okazono, Hironobu Oki, Akihiro Ishitoya, Akinari Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 10024282
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a fuel pump and a filter case that houses a fuel filter, a fuel pumped by the fuel pump from inside a fuel tank is filtered by the fuel filter and supplied from inside the filter case toward an internal combustion engine, and the filter case includes a case body having a closed bottom shape that forms a housing chamber of the fuel filter, a case cap that covers an aperture of the case body by being joined to the case body, and a residual pressure retention valve that, when the fuel pump is stopped, retains a pressure of the fuel supplied from inside the filter case toward the internal combustion engine, the residual pressure retention valve being disposed at a joint boundary of the case body and the case cap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignees: DENSO CORPORATION, KYOSAN DENKI CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yutaka Niwa, Hideto Takahashi, Tetsuro Okazono, Hironobu Oki, Akinari Sugiyama, Akihiro Ishitoya
  • Publication number: 20170314522
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a sub-tank, a pump unit, a jet pump, and a connection structure connected with the pump unit and the jet pump. The connection structure has a guide part that is provided to the pump unit and guides the pressurized fuel toward the bottom in an axial direction, a pressurizing part that is provided to the jet pump and is fitted to the guide part from a side of the bottom in an axially slidable manner, to which the pressurized fuel is guided from the guide part, a shock-absorbing member that has a low spring constant that is predetermined and mitigates an axial impact between the guide part and the pressurizing part, and a sealing member that has a high spring constant higher than the low spring constant of the shock-absorbing member and radially seals a space between the guide part and the pressurizing part.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2015
    Publication date: November 2, 2017
    Inventors: Hideto TAKAHASHI, Masaharu OOHASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Hironobu OKI
  • Publication number: 20170254302
    Abstract: A communication port opens at a shifted position of a fuel passage that is positionally shifted from an inside residual pressure holding valve toward an outside residual pressure holding valve. The fuel passage includes an outside passage part through which the fuel to be discharged into an internal-combustion engine flows from the communication port toward the outside residual pressure holding valve, and an inside passage part that throttles a flow of fuel flowing from the communication port toward the inside residual pressure holding valve more than the outside passage part. When a passage cross-sectional area of the inside passage part is converted into a passage cross-sectional area of a circular pipe, D which is a passage diameter of the circular pipe, and L which is a length of the inside passage part satisfy a relational expression of L/D?3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2015
    Publication date: September 7, 2017
    Inventors: Hideto TAKAHASHI, Masaharu OOHASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Hironobu OKI
  • Publication number: 20170254303
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a fuel pump, a filter case, a fuel passage, a discharge passage, and a residual pressure holding valve. A communication port opens at a shifted position of the fuel passage that is positionally shifted from the residual pressure holding valve toward the discharge passage. The fuel passage includes an outside passage part through which fuel flows from the communication port toward the discharge passage, and an inside passage part that throttles a flow of fuel flowing from the communication port toward the residual pressure holding valve more than the outside passage part. When a passage cross-sectional area of the inside passage part is converted into a passage cross-sectional area of a circular pipe, D which is a passage diameter of the circular pipe, and L which is a length of the inside passage part satisfy a relational expression of L/D?3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2015
    Publication date: September 7, 2017
    Inventors: Hideto TAKAHASHI, Masaharu OOHASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Hironobu OKI
  • Publication number: 20160265494
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a fuel pump and a filter case that houses a fuel filter, a fuel pumped by the fuel pump from inside a fuel tank is filtered by the fuel filter and supplied from inside the filter case toward an internal combustion engine, and the filter case integrally includes, offset to a specific location of a circumferential direction, a fuel passage that allows fuel to flow downstream from the fuel filter, a discharge passage that discharges flowing fuel in the fuel passage toward the internal combustion engine, and a plurality of opening and closing valves that open and close the fuel passage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Applicant: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yutaka NIWA, Hideto TAKAHASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Hironobu OKI, Akinari SUGIYAMA, Akihiro ISHITOYA
  • Publication number: 20160252060
    Abstract: A fuel supply device includes a fuel pump, a filter case that houses a fuel filter, and a port member joined to the filter case, a fuel pumped by the fuel pump from inside a fuel tank is filtered by the fuel filter and supplied from inside the filter case toward an internal combustion engine, and the port member integrally includes a plurality of fuel ports that communicate from inside of the filter case to outside of the filter case.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 3, 2014
    Publication date: September 1, 2016
    Applicants: DENSO CORPORATION, KYOSAN DENKI COL, LTD.
    Inventors: Yutaka NIWA, Hideto TAKAHASHI, Tetsuro OKAZONO, Hironobu OKI, Akihiro ISHITOYA, Akinari SUGIYAMA