Patents by Inventor Tsutomu Kawashima

Tsutomu Kawashima 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: 20080305384
    Abstract: An electrode-membrane-frame assembly for a polyelectrolyte fuel cell which is held between one pair of separators and constitutes an electric cell module in the fuel cell is constituted of a membrane electrode assembly, a first frame body which has a separator-side surface on which a sealing member for sealing between the member and one separator and a membrane-side surface located on one surface of the peripheral edge portion of the membrane electrode assembly and is formed of a thermoplastic resin material, and a second frame body that has a separator-side surface on which a sealing member for sealing between the member and the other separator and a membrane-side surface located on the other surface of the peripheral edge portion of the membrane electrode assembly and is formed of a thermoplastic resin material and fitted to the first frame body holding the peripheral edge portion of the membrane electrode assembly between the second frame body and the first frame body.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 10, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventors: Tsutomu KAWASHIMA, Norihiko Kawabata, Toshihiro Matsumoto, Atsushi Murata, Takashi Morimoto
  • Patent number: 7393012
    Abstract: A knee bolster structure includes a vehicle-side member, a knee-receiving member, an impact-absorbing section for absorbing an input energy from knees of a driver or front-seat passenger when the knees hit the knee-receiving section, and a knee-receiving member movement section for moving the knee-receiving member to a knee-receiving position for the driver or front-seat passenger, said knee-receiving member being attached to the vehicle-side member via the impact-absorbing section and the knee-receiving member movement section, the impact-absorbing section being structurally separated from the knee-receiving member movement section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2008
    Assignee: Calsonic Kansei Corporation
    Inventors: Kazuki Funakura, Nobuhiro Nagata, Tsutomu Kawashima
  • Publication number: 20080113243
    Abstract: In a fuel-cell stack in which a plurality of cells are stacked, each of the cells including a membrane electrode assembly which is composed of a polyelectrolyte membrane and a pair of electrodes sandwiching the polyelectrolyte membrane, and a pair of separators by which the membrane electrode assembly is sandwiched, where the electrodes each have a catalytic layer brought into contact with the polyelectrolyte membrane and a gas diffusion layer brought into contact with the separator, and where a material of the gas diffusion layers is formed from carbon fiber woven cloth. In this fuel-cell stack, the warp direction and weft direction of the carbon fiber woven cloth are so set as to be uniform in all the cells with respect to the primary direction of the gas flow passages of the separators.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 13, 2006
    Publication date: May 15, 2008
    Inventors: Tsutomu Kawashima, Toshimasa Osumi, Masatoshi Teranishi, Toru Sukawa
  • Patent number: 7185917
    Abstract: A knee bolster structure includes an upper shock-absorbing member adapted for absorbing input force of knees of an occupant who has an average physical constitution and a lower shock-absorbing member adapted for absorbing input force of knees of an occupant who is small in stature, and a difference in strength between the upper shock-absorbing member and the lower shock-absorbing member is provided such that receiving strength of the upper shock-absorbing member is larger and receiving strength of the lower shock-absorbing member is smaller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Assignee: Calsonic Kansei Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Nagata, Tomiyuki Yasuno, Tsutomu Kawashima
  • Publication number: 20050287415
    Abstract: A separator for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell, which contains electrically conductive carbon and a binder that binds the electrically conductive carbon, comprises a reaction gas passage formed on at least a main surface thereof, wherein a water droplet falling angle of a surface the reaction gas passage is not less than 5 degrees and not more than 45 degrees when a water droplet of not less than 50 ?L and not more than 80 ?L is dropped under a condition in which ambient temperature is not lower than 50° C. and not higher than 90° C. and relative humidity is not less than 70% and not more than 100%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 31, 2005
    Publication date: December 29, 2005
    Inventors: Kazuhito Hatoh, Teruhisa Kanbara, Soichi Shibata, Eiichi Yasumoto, Shigeyuki Unoki, Tatsuo Nagasaki, Masatoshi Teranishi, Tsutomu Kawashima, Toru Sukawa, Yasuo Takebe
  • Publication number: 20050110250
    Abstract: A knee bolster structure includes a vehicle-side member, a knee-receiving member, an impact-absorbing section for absorbing an input energy from knees of a driver or front-seat passenger when the knees hit the knee-receiving section, and a knee-receiving member movement section for moving the knee-receiving member to a knee-receiving position for the driver or front-seat passenger, said knee-receiving member being attached to the vehicle-side member via the impact-absorbing section and the knee-receiving member movement section, the impact-absorbing section being structurally separated from the knee-receiving member movement section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2004
    Publication date: May 26, 2005
    Inventors: Kazuki Funakura, Nobuhiro Nagata, Tsutomu Kawashima
  • Publication number: 20050062276
    Abstract: A knee bolster structure includes an upper shock-absorbing member adapted for absorbing input force of knees of an occupant who has an average physical constitution and a lower shock-absorbing member adapted for absorbing input force of knees of an occupant who is small in stature, and a difference in strength between the upper shock-absorbing member and the lower shock-absorbing member is provided such that receiving strength of the upper shock-absorbing member is larger and receiving strength of the lower shock-absorbing member is smaller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2004
    Publication date: March 24, 2005
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Nagata, Tomiyuki Yasuno, Tsutomu Kawashima
  • Publication number: 20040164524
    Abstract: An airbag apparatus comprises an airbag lid (5) which is provided by a fragile line (3) on a resin instrument panel (2) and a door for holding (8) disposed in the back surface of the airbag lid (5) by fixing a boss (15) projected from the back surface of the airbag lid (5), and the holding door (8) includes an door body portion (9), an installation portion (10), and a hinge portion (11). In the airbag apparatus, a longitudinal bead (21) extending from the hinge portion (11) side to the leading end side of the door body portion (9) is provided, and lateral beads (22, 23) positioned between the hinge portion (11) and an installation portion (hole 16) to the boss disposed in the vicinity of the hinge portion (11) are provided; furthermore, the damage between the holding door and the airbag lid at the time of expanding the airbag can be prevented by constructing the longitudinal bead (21) and the lateral beads (22, 23) to be crossed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2003
    Publication date: August 26, 2004
    Applicant: CALSONIC KANSEI CORPORATION
    Inventors: Kazumi Ono, Tsutomu Kawashima, Nobuhiro Nagata, Hiroaki Yamagishi
  • Publication number: 20030027030
    Abstract: A fuel-cell separator is formed with a mixture composition of a thermoplastic resin and graphite particles and is provided with grooves for moving fluid, and has a gas permeability coefficient in a range of not less than 1×10−16 mol/m·Pa·s and not more than 1×10−14 mol/m·Pa·s, a volume specific electric resistance in the thickness direction in a range of not less than 1 m&OHgr;·cm and not more than 50 m&OHgr;·cm, and a density in a range of not less than 1.8 g/cm3 and not more than 2.1 g/cm3, which is uniform throughout the grooves and ribs between the grooves.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2002
    Publication date: February 6, 2003
    Applicant: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tsutomu Kawashima, Tetsuo Fukushima
  • Patent number: 6098848
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to simplify the process of connecting a reservoir for charging and discharging 2 or more fluids with a pipeline for conveying said fluid and to assist the automation of this process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2000
    Assignees: Nisso Engineering Co., LTD, Kanto Kagaku Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsutomu Kawashima, Koji Ueda, Tsugio Saito, Kenji Kageyama
  • Patent number: 5990618
    Abstract: To increase heat dissipation from a plasma display panel, a heat sinking unit 2 bonded to a curved back surface 11 of a panel unit includes a large number of fin blocks 21 arranged spaced apart from each other by a prescribed distance and a flexible thin-wall portion 22, and a joining section 221, which consists of fin anchoring portions 212 and thin-wall portions 22, is capable of being bent between the fin blocks 21, thus allowing the heat sinking unit 2 to conform to the curvature of the panel unit back surface 11.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 23, 1999
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Morita, Takashi Ichiyanagi, Junji Ikeda, Naomi Nishiki, Takao Inoue, Daido Komyoji, Tsutomu Kawashima
  • Patent number: 5831374
    Abstract: To increase heat dissipation from a plasma display panel, a heat sinking unit 2 bonded to a curved back surface 11 of a panel unit includes a large number of fin blocks 21 arranged spaced apart from each other by a prescribed distance and a flexible thin-wall portion 22, and a joining section 221, which consists of fin anchoring portions 212 and thin-wall portions 22, is capable of being bent between the fin blocks 21, thus allowing the heat sinking unit 2 to conform to the curvature of the panel unit back surface 11. When using a heat sinking unit not structured to conform to the curvature of the panel unit back surface 11, a high-orientation graphite film as a heat equalizing layer is interposed between the panel unit back surface and the heat sinking unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 3, 1998
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Makoto Morita, Takashi Ichiyanagi, Junji Ikeda, Naomi Nishiki, Takao Inoue, Daido Komyoji, Tsutomu Kawashima
  • Patent number: 5470421
    Abstract: A method for purifying an etching solution consisting of an aqueous phosphoric acid solution which has been used in etching of a silicon nitride film. In the process, hydrogen fluoride is added to an etching solution consisting of an aqueous phosphoric acid solution which has been used for etching of a silicon nitride film, and the resulting solution is heated to remove fluorides of silicon as reaction products of hydrogen fluoride with silicon compounds which have been contained in the etching solution together with vaporized water.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 28, 1995
    Assignee: Nisso Engineering Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akira Nakada, Akira Yoneya, Noriyuki Kobayashi, Mamoru Katayanagi, Tsutomu Kawashima, Hiroshi Yoshida
  • Patent number: 4980017
    Abstract: A method for recirculating a high-temperature etching solution according to the present invention comprises the steps of continuously removing, from a bath for etching a wafer for a semiconductor device, a portion of an etching solution contained in the etching bath, injecting a predetermined amount of pure water for adjusting the concentration of the etching solution into the removed etching solution, heating the resulting solution to a predetermined temperature, and recirculating the heated solution into the etching bath.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 1989
    Date of Patent: December 25, 1990
    Assignee: Nisso Engineering Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshimitsu Kaji, Tadao Takeuchi, Tsutomu Kawashima, Eiichi Miyakoshi, Yasukatsu Nishikata, Yasuya Hisatome