Hitachi, Ltd.

Stanley Electric Co., Ltd

Kenji Mitani

Yusuke Takagi

Yoshio Kojima

Katsuya Ebara

Nobuo Hamano

Kuniyoshi Tsubouchi

Tetsuo Yamada

Akira Ashida

Tsutomu Okusawa

Hideaki Kurokawa

Yoichi Yoshinaga

Masaki Umemoto

A vehicle lamp fixture is disclosed in which a truncated bowl-shaped reflector is formed as a single unit in front of each respective LED . Each reflector is formed from a transparent substance and has an aperture in the front surface. Each reflector also has a reflective surface that totally reflects light from the LED and a light conductive member that conducts at least a portion of light reflected by the reflective surface toward the front of the light fixture. A transparent front lens can thereby be used that does not include light-distributing facets.

Vehicle lamp fixture and method of use

A distillation apparatus includes a distillation unit for distilling feed water. The distillation unit includes an evaporation part, a condensation part and a hydrophobic porous membrane interposed between the evaporation part and the condensation part, which are integrated with one another. A heating unit for heating the feed water and a cooling portion for cooling distillate produced by distillation of the feed water are provided apart from the distillation unit. One or both of the heating unit and the cooling unit are provided with a heat pump. With this construction, an additional heater does not need to be provided, and the distillation unit and both of the heating unit and the cooling unit can be changed in size and performance independently of each other, so that the overall size of the distillation apparatus can be reduced.

Distillation apparatus with porous membrane and heat pump

Method of opening and closing a fluid passage comprises the steps of freezing fluid in the fluid passage by first cooling the fluid to a temperature below the freezing point of the fluid to close the fluid passage and after the fluid passage is closed, raising the temperature of the fluid close (or just below) to the freezing point of the fluid, whereby the fluid passage is maintained in a closed state with a small power supply and the responsiveness in opening the fluid passage is enhanced.

Shut off apparatus for a fluid passage, method for controlling the same,

An apparatus for controlling the opening and closing of a channel for a liquid is arranged such that a liquid channel is closed by causing a controller to control one heat absorbing and generating part of a cooling/heating element to execute heat absorption and cooling a heat transmitting element to solidify the liquid in the channel. The apparatus is also arrangement such that the channel is opened first by causing the controller to control the same heat absorbing and generating part to execute heat generation and heating the heat transmitting element to melt the liquid solidified in the channel. A method of controlling the opening and closing of a channel according to the invention includes the steps of: solidifying a liquid in a channel by cooling it from the outside to close the channel; and opening the channel thus closed by melting the liquid solidified in the channel by the application of heat.

Apparatus for and method of controlling the opening and closing of

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Yokohama, Japan

Kenji Mitani