Ngk Insulators, Inc.

Masahiro Murasato

Takuya Ishihara

Nobuo Takahashi

Minoru Imaeda

Katsuhiro Imai

Manabu Isomura

Yuki Bessho

Yasuhiro Horiba

Ichiro Okazaki

Yuki Tsuji

Miho Kasahara

Takao Ohnishi

Tomonori Takahashi

Nobuyuki Kobayashi

Kazuhiro Nobori

Makoto Ito

Ryusuke Ushikoshi

Tatsuya Hishiki

Akihiko Honda

Koichi Umemoto

Yusuke Niiori

Atsushi Sakon

Tadanori Komoda

Keiichi Wakida

Toshihisa Yokoyama

Kazuyuki Tahara

An outer peripheral surface of a cylindrical cell is coated with a heat insulation material. A heat-resistant material is stacked radially outside the heat insulation material. An electrical insulation material is stacked radially outside the heat-resistant material. The order in which the heat insulation material, the heat-resistant material and the electrical insulation material are stacked one on top of another may be changed. A coating material other than the heat insulation material, the heat-resistant material and the electrical insulation material may be provided.

Coated cell and module battery

A sodium-sulfur battery according to the present invention is provided with a reservoir spacethat retains and solidifies a high-temperature molten material having flowed out of a cell, in order to prevent the high-temperature molten material from leaking out of a casing, even when an accident occurs to generate the high-temperature molten material inside the casing. The reservoir spacecan be formed along a perimeter of the casing, or alternatively, can be formed inside the casing. The reservoir spaceincludes, for example, a composite memberof a rigid member, a heat-insulating material, and a heat-resisting material

Sodium-sulfur battery

An NaS battery module includes a container, a plurality of cells for an NaS battery and sand. The side walls of the container partition the inside and outside of the container in a direction in which the arrangement plane of the cells extends. An upper wall and a lower wall of the container partition the inside and outside of the container in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the arrangement plane of the cells extends. The lower wall and the side walls are high heat insulating walls whereas the upper wall is a solid low heat insulating wall having a heat insulating property lower than that of the high heat insulating wall. The cells and the sand are housed inside of the container. A variable louver is disposed outside of the upper wall so as to cover the outer surface of the upper wall.

Secondary battery module

A method is provided for manufacturing a piezoelectric/electrostrictive film device including a ceramic substrate and a piezoelectric/electrostrictive operation portion including a lower electrode, a piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer, and upper electrode stacked on the substrate. The piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer is formed to extend beyond at least one of electrodes to form projected portions at its ends. The method includes the steps of forming the piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer so that ends of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer are projected to extend beyond ends of at least one electrode, applying a coating liquid in a sufficient amount so that the coating liquid permeates through a gap between at least the projected end portion of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer and the substrate, and so as to coat a predetermined portion of the at least one electrode, and drying the applied coating liquid to form a coupling member to couple the projected end portions of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer to the substrate.

Manufacturing method of piezoelectric/electrostrictive film type device

There is disclosed a piezoelectric/electrostrictive film device which has a flexural displacement and durability equal to or more than those of a related-art piezoelectric/electrostrictive film device and which has a remarkably high resonance frequency and which is superior in high-speed response. The piezoelectric/electrostrictive film device comprises: a substrate formed of ceramic; and a piezoelectric/electrostrictive operation portion including a lower electrode, piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer, and upper electrode which are successively stacked on the substrate and including a projecting end of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer with which an upper surface of the lower electrode and a lower surface of the upper electrode are coated, and a projecting portion of the piezoelectric/electrostrictive layer is a coupling member constituted of a hybrid material in which inorganic particles are scattered in a matrix of a polymer compound, and is coupled to the substrate.

Piezoelectric/electrostrictive film device, and manufacturing method of the device

In a process for producing a planar body of an oxide single crystal with a &mgr; pulling-down method, a shoulder portion having a larger width is grown without any polycrystal regions, cracks or crystal deteriorations in a central portion of the planar body. A raw material of the oxide single crystal is melted in a crucible. A seed crystal is contacted to a melt of the raw material near an opening of a nozzle of the crucible. Then, the melt is drawn from the opening by pulling down the seed crystal to form a planar body A. A temperature distribution of the nozzle in a direction perpendicular to the drawing direction B is controlled by supplying heat to the nozzle and/or by removing heat from the nozzle

Process and apparatus for producing a planar body of an oxide single crystal

A method for manufacturing a filter utilizing a porous ceramic membrane as a separation film is provided, comprising the steps of substituting the air inside fine-pores of the porous substrate with a liquid, isolating the porous substrate face to be provided with a separation film, the other face of the porous substrate face not provided with the separation film, continuously feeding a film deposition slurry containing ceramic framework particles to allow the slurry to contact the face of the porous substrate to be provided with the separation film, applying a differential filtration pressure between the faces of the porous substrate, and depositing the slurry on the surface of the porous substrate. An organic polymer for endowing the deposition film with filtration resistance is added to the slurry.

Method for manufacturing filter having ceramic porous film as separating film

A method for manufacturing a filter utilizing a ceramic porous membrane is provided, comprising the step of depositing a film deposition slurry containing ceramic framework particles on the surface of a porous substrate. The slurry contains an organic polymer for expanding gaps among the ceramic framework particles, and the micro-pore size of the porous membrane is controlled by adjusting the weight ratio between the framework particles and the organic polymer in the slurry, thereby enabling a porous membrane having a desired micro-pore size to be formed irrespective of the particle size of the framework particles.

In a process for producing a raw material powder including lithium potassium niobate for growing a single crystal of lithium potassium niobate, raw starting materials comprising lithium carbonate powder, potassium carbonate powder and niobium pentoxide powder are mixed in a solvent. The lithium carbonate powder and potassium carbonate powder are entirely dissolved into the solvent, and lithium carbonate and potassium carbonate are then deposited around the niobium pentoxide powder by spray-drying the mixture to obtain granulated powder, and then the granulated powder is thermally treated to produce the raw material powder.

Process for producing a raw material powder to grow a single crystal and the single crystal

A ceramic heater composed of a ceramic substrate and a resistant heating element embedded within the ceramic substrate along a predetermined planar pattern is obtained by holding a convolution of a spiral-coiled high melting metallic filament in the above predetermined planar pattern and heat-treating the convolution at a temperature not higher than a primary recrystallization commencement temperature of the high melting metal under a non-oxidative atmosphere to provide the resistant heating element, embedding the resulting resistant heating element within a ceramic shaped body, and then, sintering the ceramic shaped body. In a preferred embodiment, the resistant heating element is a convolution of a spiral coil, the number of coils per a unit length of said convolution is set at a predetermined value in each of defined domains of the ceramic heater, and when the number of coils per a unit length of the convolution is determined, the relation of the maximal value, the minimal value and the mean value, of all the determined numbers of coils in the above domains, satisfies the formula:

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Chita, Japan

Masahiro Murasato