Having Spring Return Patents (Class 396/470)
  • Patent number: 8596893
    Abstract: When a blade drive spring has been overcharged when a second cam gear has caused a drive lever to move to a position beyond a position of attraction of an armature by a yoke, a blade lever does not contact the drive lever even if the blade lever has been driven in a direction of opening an aperture by a first blade and a second blade with an urging force of a blade return spring. When the second cam gear has moved to the attraction position form the overcharged position, the blade lever contacts the drive lever before the yoke starts attracting the armature by the attractive force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tetsuya Nishio, Rentaro Imai
  • Patent number: 8550730
    Abstract: In a focal plane shutter according to the present invention, a support plate is placed while a plate plane of the support plate is parallel to a shutter base plate, a second blade-driving member is fitted to a shaft erectly provided on the shutter base plate, the second blade-driving member being rotated by the biasing force of a second blade-driving spring, an electromagnet for second blade is fitted to the support plate, the electromagnet attracting and holding an iron piece member fitted to the second blade-driving member, a printed wiring board on which a wiring pattern for supplying electric current to the electromagnet is formed is placed in a hole formed in the support plate, and terminal pins of the electromagnet are soldered to the both ends of a coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2013
    Assignee: Nidec Copal Corporation
    Inventors: Kenta Kawakami, Shigemi Takahashi
  • Patent number: 8496389
    Abstract: When a second cam gear and a first cam gear rotate one turn, a shutter device changes to a first state, a second state, and a third state in this order. In the first state, the second cam gear charges a mirror lever drive spring and a blade drive spring, so that the first cam gear holds the blade lever. In the second state, the second cam gear releases charging of the mirror lever drive spring and charges the blade drive spring, so that the first cam gear releases holding of the blade lever. In the third state, the second cam gear releases charging of the mirror lever drive spring and charging of the blade drive spring, so that the first cam gear releases holding of the blade lever.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroaki Inukai
  • Patent number: 8491204
    Abstract: A shutter base plate is formed with a first shaft parallel to an optical axis of a photographic light flux, and a drive lever rotates around the first shaft to drive a first blade and a second blade. A mirror lever rotates around a second shaft parallel to the first shaft to drive a main mirror. A second cam gear rotates around a third shaft parallel to the first shaft to charge a mirror lever drive spring and a blade drive spring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroaki Inukai
  • Patent number: 8491203
    Abstract: A shutter base plate is formed with a first shaft parallel to an optical axis of a photographic light flux, and a blade lever rotates about the first shaft to drive a first blade and a second blade. A drive lever rotates about the first shaft to drive the blade lever. A second cam gear rotates about a second shaft formed on the shutter base plate in parallel to the first shaft to charge a mirror drive spring. A first cam gear rotates about a third shaft formed on the shutter base plate in parallel to the first shaft to switch between a state in which the blade lever is held so that the first blade and the second blade close the aperture and a state in which holding of the blade lever is released.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 23, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroaki Inukai
  • Publication number: 20130136443
    Abstract: In a focal plane shutter according to the present invention, a support plate is placed while a plate plane of the support plate is parallel to a shutter base plate, a second blade-driving member is fitted to a shaft erectly provided on the shutter base plate, the second blade-driving member being rotated by the biasing force of a second blade-driving spring, an electromagnet for second blade is fitted to the support plate, the electromagnet attracting and holding an iron piece member fitted to the second blade-driving member, a printed wiring board on which a wiring pattern for supplying electric current to the electromagnet is formed is placed in a hole formed in the support plate, and terminal pins of the electromagnet are soldered to the both ends of a coil.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2012
    Publication date: May 30, 2013
    Applicant: NIDEC COPAL CORPORATION
    Inventor: NIDEC COPAL CORPORATION
  • Patent number: 8277133
    Abstract: A focal plane shutter for cameras includes: a shutter blade assembly; an electromagnet assembly; driving means that includes a mounting member mounted with an iron scrap member that cooperates with an iron core member of the electromagnet assembly; and a setting member that operates the driving means to a set position. The iron scrap member includes a shaft fitted in a mounting hole of the mounting member, an iron scrap portion provided at one end of the shaft and brought into contact with the iron core member, and a removal preventing flange provided at the other end of the shaft, a collar member is fitted to the shaft between the mounting hole and the flange, an edge of the mounting hole is formed to have an arcuate surface protruding toward the collar member, and the collar member is formed to have, on the edge side, an arcuate surface protruding toward the flange and substantially perpendicular to the arcuate surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Nidec Copal Corporation
    Inventors: Masakatsu Ichihara, Nobuyoshi Inoue
  • Publication number: 20120087646
    Abstract: A focal plane shutter includes: an electromagnet; a board including an opening; blades capable of opening and closing the opening; a drive member holding an iron piece adsorbed to the electromagnet and driving the blades, the drive member being movable such that the iron piece moves toward and away from the electromagnet and being biased by a spring such that the iron piece moves away from the electromagnet; and a holding board facing the board and including a pair of sandwiching portions elastically deformable and holding and sandwiching the electromagnet. The electromagnet includes a restriction portion engaging the board and restricting a movement of the electromagnet in a direction where the iron piece moves away from the electromagnet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2011
    Publication date: April 12, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO PRECISION INC.
    Inventors: Hiroshi TAKAHASHI, Yoichi Nakano
  • Publication number: 20110293263
    Abstract: A central shutter for camera objectives, said central shutter having a ring-shaped leaf carrier (1) surrounding the shutter aperture (2), on which leaf carrier at least two studs (13) are disposed arranged in a circularly symmetrical manner in relation to each other, on which studs sickle-shaped shutter leaves (14) are pivotably mounted, and having an electric motor drive pivoting the shutter leaves (14) over the shutter aperture (2), is distinguished in that the drive includes a motorized rotatable winding ring (3) which is realized as a flat ring disk and rests on the leaf carrier (1), a cam ring (7) realized as a flat ring disk is rotatably mounted in the winding ring (3), sawtooth-shaped cams (17) being provided on a ring surface thereof, wherein the winding ring (3) and the cam ring (7) are coupled to each other by means of at least one tension spring (9) that can be tensioned in the direction of rotation of the winding ring (3) and the pivoting movement of the shutter leaves (14) can be controlled by co
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2010
    Publication date: December 1, 2011
    Applicant: LEICA CAMERA AG
    Inventor: Konstantin Aab
  • Patent number: 6903777
    Abstract: A lens shutter has a diaphragm blade, a shutter blade, and a motor with a rotor reciprocatingly turned between an initial position and a final position by a current applied to a coil, to move the diaphragm blade to stop at an aperture regulating position and the shutter blade between an aperture open position and an aperture close position in cooperation with a first forcing member urging the diaphragm blade toward the aperture regulating position, a stopper for keeping the diaphragm blade at the aperture regulating position and a second forcing member urging the rotor against movement for the final position at least after the diaphragm blade abuts on the stopper. A magnetic device is provided to keep the rotor at positions where the aperture is fully opened and closed, respectively, even when the current to the coil is interrupted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2005
    Assignee: Nidec Copal Corporation
    Inventor: Kunio Arisaka
  • Patent number: 6536962
    Abstract: A focal-plane shutter for digital still cameras includes a first blade covering an exposure aperture only immediately before an exposure operation is performed; a driving member for the first blade having an iron piece member, actuated in an exposure operation; an electromagnet for the first blade for attracting and retaining the iron piece member of the driving member for the first blade and actuating the driving member for the first blade; a cocking member for the first blade, actuating the driving member for the first blade when actuated from the initial position to the cocked position and actuated from the cocked position to the initial position only immediately after the current is supplied to the electromagnet for the first blade; a second blade covering the exposure aperture when the power is turned off and immediately after the exposure operation is completed; a driving member for the second blade having an iron piece member, actuated in the exposure operation; an electromagnet for the second blade fo
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: Nidec Copal Corporation
    Inventor: Shigemi Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6443635
    Abstract: In an electromagnetic actuator, a rotor composed of a permanent magnet is mounted rotatably in two directions between a first end position and a second end position via an intermediate position. A coil is wound around the rotor to rotate the rotor in an energizing state where an electric current is applied to the coil. An auto-retaining device is provided for retaining the rotor at one of the intermediate position, the first end position and the second end position under a non-energizing state where the electric current is not applied to the coil. The auto-retaining device has an elastic member that regulates the rotor at the intermediate position by a mechanical elastic force, a first magnetic member that is opposed to the permanent magnet and that retains the rotor at the first end position by a magnetic attractive force, and a second magnetic member that is opposed to the permanent magnet and that retains the rotor at the second end position by a magnetic attractive force.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2002
    Assignee: Nidec Copal Corporation
    Inventors: Junichi Matsumoto, Kouichi Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 6394668
    Abstract: A shutter for a camera has a sector driven by a movable board having plural spiral-shaped coil patterns concentrically arranged thereon for generating a repulsive or attractive magnetic field with respect to fixed permanent magnets or coils confronting the movable board. A desired generated magnetic force can be obtained by setting the number and winding direction of the coils and combining coils in a desired manner. A drive circuit is connected to the coils for controlling the supply of electricity thereto such that repulsive magnetic forces are generated while opening the shutter and attractive magnetic forces are generated while closing the shutter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2002
    Assignee: Seiko Precision Inc.
    Inventor: Yoichi Nakano
  • Patent number: 6382848
    Abstract: A shutter for a camera having a small size is driven by coil patterns formed in a spiral shape on at least one of a fixed printed board and a movable printed board. On faces of a shutter base plate and a sector ring opposed to each other, a cam mechanism for making the sector ring progress and regress in an optical axis direction is provided. The cam mechanism comprises end face cams arranged in a concentric shape and cam followers corresponding thereto to facilitate pivoting of the sector ring in closing the shutter by moving the cam followers along downwardly inclined faces of the cams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2002
    Assignee: Seiko Precision Inc.
    Inventor: Yoichi Nakano
  • Patent number: 6071019
    Abstract: In a shutter device having a first driving lever which engages a shutter blade and which is given an urging force by a first spring and a second driving lever which is given an urging force by a second spring and which pushes the first driving lever from behind during an exposure action, the shutter device comprises a charge mechanism which, after the exposure action is performed by the shutter blade, causes the first spring and the second spring to be overcharged by moving the first driving lever and the second driving lever to an overcharging position and which, after that, returns to an initial position, wherein the first driving lever and the second driving lever are arranged to be moved from the overcharging position to an exposure start position by the urging forces of the first spring and the second spring, and wherein, after moving the first driving lever and the second driving lever to the overcharging position, the charge mechanism is urged toward the initial position by the urging force of the seco
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2000
    Assignee: Canon Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Fumio Shimada
  • Patent number: 5915141
    Abstract: A shutter device includes a base member, a plurality of shutter blades supported by the base member and each arranged to turn in opposite directions, a shutter blade driving lever having an engaging part which engages the plurality of shutter blades and arranged to turn so as to cause each of the plurality of shutter blades to turn in the opposite directions, an eccentric pin which is rotatable, and a spring having one end thereof connected to the shutter blade driving lever and the other end thereof connected to the eccentric pin, and arranged to drive the plurality of shutter blades by urging the shutter blade driving lever in one direction, wherein an urging force of the spring is adjustable by rotating the eccentric pin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 1997
    Date of Patent: June 22, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akihiko Ebe
  • Patent number: 5842070
    Abstract: A shutter for use in an electro-optical scanning device having an aperture and a CCD imager is provided. The shutter comprises a light barrier movable between a first position blocking light from passing through the aperture and a second position enabling light to pass through the aperture. The light barrier has a magnetic portion. An inductive coil is disposed relative to the magnetic portion of the light barrier to cause movement of the light barrier between the first and second positions by application of an electric current to the inductive coil. The inductive coil is disposed concentrically around the aperture, and the light barrier comprises a magnet that is coupled to a torsional wire disposed within the inductive coil. The torsional wire has a bias that returns the light barrier from the second position to the first position. Alternatively, the light barrier is moveable either pivotally, rotationally, or axially relative to the aperture, and further comprises a corresponding iris.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 24, 1998
    Assignee: Intermec Corporation
    Inventors: Kevork G. Arackellian, Craig J. Cornelius
  • Patent number: 5828920
    Abstract: A shutter is disclosed having a shutter blade frame comprised of two spaced apart rails, each rail incorporating at least one magnet section. Individual pairs of electromagnets are positioned for movement along the rails. At least one shutter blade, having an opening defined thereby, is connected to a pair of electromagnets for movement along the rails from a rest position to an open position. Application of current to the electromagnets causes the at least one shutter blade to travel along the rails causing an alignment of the defined opening with a selected light path to cause an exposure generally of an image sensor such as film. Springs are positioned on the shutter frame for urging the at least one shutter blade to the rest position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 27, 1998
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Thomas Michael Stephany, Edward Paul Furlani
  • Patent number: 5606387
    Abstract: An improved electromagnetic camera shutter incorporating an electrically conductive shutter blade having a hole there through that is connected in series to a pair of electrically conductive springs to urge the shutter blade into a first or a second position from a compressed position between the first and the second positions.A permanent magnet having a hole there through is positioned in proximity to the shutter blade such that the shutter covers the hole in the permanent magnet when the shutter is in the first or the second position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 25, 1997
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Edward P. Furlani, Thomas M. Stephany