Fujitsu Corporation

Nissan Motor Company Limited

Envision Aesc Japan Ltd.

Renault S.a.s.

Satoshi Yoshino

Akihiro Abe

Yoshinori Naruoka

Takashi Honda

Yoshinori Wada

Takehiro Maeda

Akinori Kamata

Hirotomo Terada

Keiko Nojiri

Satoshi Mifune

A secondary battery suppresses generation of wrinkle at the outer peripheral edge portion of a negative electrode plate due to expansion of a negative electrode active material layer with use. The secondary battery includes a positive electrode plate with a positive electrode active material layer disposed on a first current collector, and a negative electrode plate with a negative electrode active material layer having an area larger than an area of the positive electrode active material layer disposed on a second current collector. The negative electrode plate includes a facing portion facing the positive electrode active material layer and a non-facing portion. The negative electrode plate and a separator are bonded through a bonding layer. The bonding strength of a second bonding portion that bonds the non-facing portion to the separator is larger than the bonding strength of a first bonding portion that bonds the facing portion to the separator.

Secondary cell

A method for guiding a user of an electric vehicle to a charging facility includes: searching for charging facilities existing within a predetermined distance from the current position of the electric vehicle; when a high-output charging facility and a low-output charging facility in a predetermined positional relationship with the high-output charging facility are searched, calculating the estimated value of a remaining charged capacity of a battery of the electric vehicle; calculating the estimated value of a charging time if charging the battery of the electric vehicle from the estimated value of the remaining charged capacity of the battery to a predetermined charged capacity at each of the searched charging facilities; and when the difference between the estimated value of the charging times at the high-output charging facility and the low-output charging facility is a predetermined value or less, presenting the low-output charging facility to the user of the electric vehicle.

Method and apparatus for recommending charging facilities to users of electric vehicles

A spindle unit control method controls a plurality of spindle units which rotate in synchronism with each other, and comprises with respect to each of the spindle units a first step of obtaining a phase error by comparing phases of a detection signal indicating a rotary reference position of the spindle unit and a first clock signal, a second step of generating a second clock signal having a phase which is adjusted by delaying or advancing the phase of the first clock signal by the phase error, and a third step of controlling the rotation of the spindle unit by a phase locked loop based on the detection signal and the second clock signal. The first clock signal is used in common with respect to each of the spindle units, and the second clock signal is independent for each of the spindle units.

Spindle unit control method and image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive drum by a toner while rotating the photosensitive drum, transferring the toner image to a paper, and fixing the toner image on the paper. The photosensitive drum is rotated by a stepping motor, and an excitation circuit gradually increases an exciting current of a coil in each phase of the stepping motor to a predetermined value and thereafter gradually decreases. By this control of the exciting current, the stepping motor smoothly rotates without generating minute vibration, so that when the photosensitive drum is rotated by the stepping motor, there is no deleterious influence on an image. Use of the stepping motor enables a reduction in the size and the cost of the image forming apparatus.

Image forming apparatus having a stepping motor for rotating a

An impact printer which can detect halfway defects of printing coils such as partial short circuits is disclosed. The impact printer according to the present invention includes at least one printing coil for driving a printing element and driving transistor which controls the printing element by switching a current flowed through the printing coil, and further includes an inductance detection means for detecting whether or not said printing coil has an appropriate inductance.

Impact printer which can detect partial defects in coils

A shuttle printer having a print shuttle unit capable of reciprocating with a print head mounted thereon, and a balance shuttle unit capable of reciprocating to generate counterforce to momentum of the print shuttle unit. The shuttle printer includes a device for driving the print shuttle unit to reciprocate, and a device for driving the balance shuttle unit to reciprocate. The shuttle printer further includes a device for detecting the position of the print shuttle unit, and a device for synchronously controlling the two driving devices in response to a result of detection by the print shuttle unit position detecting device.

Shuttle printer

A line printer apparatus with which a printing control operation is carried out by using a printing mechanism and printing operation control unit in which the reversal of the motion of a printing unit is carried out in synchronization with the feeding of a paper to be printed. The apparatus includes a decision unit for deciding whether or not a shuttle carrying the printing unit should be stopped during the reversal of the motion in accordance with printing information supplied to a unit for controlling the driving of the shuttle and the condition of feeding of the paper; reversing motion stopping means for stopping the reversing motion of the printing unit and holding it in the stopped state by supplying reversing stopping information to the printing operation control means when the paper feeding time of the paper to be printed is greater than the time of the reversing motion of the printing unit; and releasing means for releasing the stopping of the reversing motion of the printing unit in relation to the timing of termination of paper feeding of the paper to be printed and restarting the printing from a printing starting position. Therefore, the printing operation is restarted immediately after the termination of a paper feeding operation even when the time of the paper feeding is longer than the time of reversing motion of the printing unit.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Satoshi Yoshino