Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Other

Casio Computer Co., Ltd.

Advanced Softmaterials Inc.

Hiromitsu Takeuchi

Kazumasa Baba

Yoshiki Tsunekawa

Masahiro Okumiya

Takanori Nakai

Naoto Kuriyama

Takeshi Miyazaki

Takashi Maeno

Hiroaki Ando

Yoji Kimura

Yutaka Tsuchikawa

Masahiko Ishii

Toru Kobayashi

Naotsugu Ogura

Yukihisa Ueno

Changming Zhao

Hiroshi Nakamura

Katsunari Inoue

Christian Ruslim

Yuji Yonehara

Tamotsu Sasada

Yutaka Kawai

An optical device includes: a piezoelectric element of a sheet shape; a restriction section attached to the piezoelectric element, the restriction section configured to restrict a movable area in the piezoelectric element to a polygonal predetermined region; an optical element attached to the movable area of the piezoelectric element; and a plurality of electrodes disposed on the piezoelectric element, the plurality of electrodes configured to be applied with voltage independently, wherein: the electrodes are disposed at adjacent two comers in the movable area; and the piezoelectric element expands and contracts based on voltage applied to the electrodes in a manner that a periphery of the corner where the electrode is disposed in the movable area expands and contracts in multiple directions including two directions along two sides forming the corner.

Optical device

An optical device includes: an optical element; a housing unit configured to accommodate the optical element; a support part configured to pivotally support the optical element to be tiltable with respect to the housing unit; a piezoelectric element configured to connect the optical element and the housing unit to each other; and an electrode arranged at the piezoelectric element.

Optical device and optical apparatus

A composition includes a polyrotaxane (A) which includes cyclodextrin as a ring molecule and polyethylene glycol as a linear molecule, and in which a blocking group is arranged at both ends of the linear molecule; a block copolymer (B) including polysiloxane; and a polymer (C) including no polysiloxane.

Composition including polyrotaxane and product including the same

A projection apparatus includes a light source to emit a light beam, an image display element to provide image information to the light beam, and a noise reduction mechanism disposed between the light source and the image display element. The noise reduction mechanism includes an optical element to transmit the light beam emitted from the light source, a dielectric elastomer fixed to the optical element, and first and second electrodes provided on first and second surfaces of the dielectric elastomer, respectively. The dielectric elastomer is deformed in accordance with the application of a voltage across the first and second electrodes to moves the optical element.

Projection apparatus including a noise reduction mechanism provided between a light source and an image display element

Finger parts flex and extend about joint sections. A wire is arranged along each finger part through the joint sections. A motor winds the wires to pull the wires in the flexing direction and cause the finger parts to flex. A polymer actuator arranged to correspond to a part of each wire is formed in an elongated shape of a polymer material and elastically deforms in response to an application of voltage and performs extension and contraction in the axial direction by being restored to the original shape in response to stoppage of the voltage application. A lock mechanism restricts relative movement between the wire and the motor after the wire has been wound up by the motor. The polymer actuator performs extension and contraction while relative movement is restricted by the lock mechanism, thereby pulling the wire in the flexing direction.

Electrically driven artificial hand

A portable device includes a case having wall portions, a battery arranged within the case, and a polymer membrane arranged between at least one of the wall portions and the battery. The polymer membrane couples the battery to the at least one of the wall portions. The polymer membrane has a property of elastically changing at least one of the thickness and the length in a planar direction by being deformed in response to voltage application and restoring its original shape in response to the stoppage of the voltage application. The battery is caused to reciprocate by applying a voltage that changes periodically to the polymer membrane.

Portable device

A movable side mounting portion transmits extension and contraction of a polymer actuator to an electric prosthetic hand. The polymer actuator deforms elastically in accordance with voltage application and returns to its original shape in accordance with stoppage of voltage application. A rear end of the polymer actuator is fixed and a front end of the polymer actuator is movable. When one of a pair of electrodes of the polymer actuator is electrically connected to the fixed side mounting portion, the fixed end is fastened by a bolt to the fixed side mounting portion. Also, when the other electrode is electrically connected to the movable side mounting portion, the movable end is fastened by a bolt to the movable side mounting portion.

Mounting structure for polymer actuator

An actuator includes a sheet having dielectric elastomer layers and conductive rubber layers provided on the front and back faces of each dielectric elastomer layer. The sheet is wrapped and rolled about a coil spring. The actuator expands the rolled sheet along an expansion direction of the coil spring by applying a voltage to the conductive rubber layers on the front and back faces of the dielectric elastomer layer, and contracts the rolled sheet along a contraction direction of the coil spring by stopping the application of the voltage. The actuator further includes a fiber layer located between the coil spring and the rolled sheet wrapped about the coil spring.

Actuator

An actuator manufacturing method includes alternately stacking a plurality of dielectric elastomer layers and a plurality of conductive rubber layers along the direction of thickness to form a sheet, and wrapping the sheet formed about a core to form a rolled sheet. When the sheet formed in the step of alternately stacking is wrapped about the core, the sheet is formed by the dielectric elastomer layers and the conductive rubber layers. Therefore, even if the dielectric elastomer layers in the sheet are made to be thin, the thickness of the entire sheet is prevented from being excessively thin.

Actuator manufacturing method

A dielectric actuatorof the present invention has a structure in which an elastic, high-dielectric material portionis held by elastic insulating material portionsandand the elastic insulating material portions are held by electrodesandfrom the outside. A base material for the elastic, high-dielectric material portionis formed of a silicon rubber and a graphite powder is mixed therein to apply a conductive property.

Dielectric actuator

An actuator includes a spirally rolled cylindrical sheet body. The sheet body is formed by attaching an electrode on each side of a dielectric elastomer layer. When a voltage is applied to the electrodes, the sheet body is contracted along the direction of its thickness, and expanded in directions perpendicular to its thickness. The actuator is actuated by applying a voltage to the electrodes and stopping the voltage application, so that the cylindrical sheet body is extended and contracted along the direction of the axis. The material forming the dielectric elastomer layer has a low strain region, where the value of a strain based on a stress acting on the dielectric elastomer layer varies from zero to a value that is greater than and close to zero, and a high strain region, where the value of the strain is greater than that in the low strain region. The Young's modulus in the low strain region is less than the Young's modulus in the high strain region.

Elastomer actuator

An infrared reflecting device includes a multi-layer infrared reflecting body composed of a plurality of superimposed infrared reflecting members, and temperature-sensitive members positioned surrounding the side faces of the multi-layer infrared reflecting body. The infrared reflecting member includes colloidal crystal particles arrayed at regular lattice spacing, and a filler interposed between the colloidal crystal particles. Depending on temperature, the temperature-sensitive members supply the filler with moisture, and the lattice spacing of the colloidal crystal particles changes due to swelling of the filler. Since lattice spacing changes the reflected wavelength from the ultraviolet region to the infrared region on the basis of Bragg's law and Snell's law, the amount of transmitted infrared radiation can be adjusted efficiently.

Infrared reflecting device

A picture display device includes display elements reflecting specific wavelengths of visible light; and shape deformation portions for inducing elastic deformation of the display elements. The individual display elements have colloidal particles arrayed at regular spacing, and an elastically deformable filler material intervening between the colloidal particles. The shape deformation portion includes a shape retention component formed of a material capable of reversible plastic deformation by external force.

Picture display unit

A method and apparatus for forming a layer of plating on a base material and a method for manufacturing a three dimensional object. The plating apparatus includes a nozzle for delivering a stream of plating fluid and an electric source for applying a voltage between the base material and the nozzle. The nozzle has an outer wall and a stem located at its center. The nozzle delivers plating fluid from the opening of the nozzle in an annular manner to produce a stream that has a substantially uniform flow velocity when the stream hits the base material. In an another embodiment, the nozzle has surrounding conduit for conducting air. The air increases the velocity of a peripheral portion of the stream. To manufacture a three dimensional object, a plating layer is deposited, and the nozzle is moved to form a desired shape while piling the layer.

Plating method and apparatus

A method of making a composite structure including at least a plating film disposed on a substrate having at least a surface portion formed from a metallic base material. The method includes the steps of discharging a composite plating solution containing insoluble particles from a nozzle and impacting the composite plating solution on the surface portion of the substrate at a predetermined flow rate. During at least a portion of the discharging and impacting steps, the surface portion of the substrate is abraded with the insoluble particles in the plating solution discharged from the nozzle. A voltage can be applied between the base material and the nozzle, which are electrically connected by the plating solution, to thereby deposit a plating film on the surface portion of the substrate by electroplating.

Growing community of inventors

Kiyosu, Japan

Hiromitsu Takeuchi