Ngk Insulators, Inc.

Yuji Asai

Takeyuki Ishii

Keiji Matsumoto

Makoto Nakajo

Makoto Tani

Osamu Imai

Yoshihiko Ishida

Hisakazu Okajima

Eiji Ito

Susumu Matsuoka

Masanobu Yamamoto

Tsutomu Hirota

Makoto Furutani

An undried honeycomb formed bodyis subjected to high-frequency heating in an atmosphere where humidity and temperature are maintained at 30 to 65% and 75 to 130&#xb0; C., respectively, such that 50 to 99 mass % of water contained in the undried honeycomb formed bodyis evaporated at the end of high-frequency heating, whereby the amount of water vaporized from the outer part of the undried honeycomb formed bodyis increased, thereby reducing a difference between amount of water vaporized from the inner part of the undried honeycomb formed bodyand that of water vaporized from the outer part thereof as well as reducing a difference between drying degree of the inner part of the undried honeycomb formed bodyand that of the outer part thereof, thereby producing a dried honeycomb formed bodyin which deformation of the partition walls is suppressed. The invention provides a honeycomb formed body drying method which prevents deformation of partition walls of the honeycomb formed body during drying thereof.

Method and apparatus for drying honeycomb formed body

The invention provides a honeycomb formed structure drying method including causing undried honeycomb formed structuresplaced on standsto pass through a drying apparatus, thereby drying the undried honeycomb formed structures through high-frequency heating, to thereby form dried honeycomb formed structures; removing the dried honeycomb formed structuresfrom the stands; cooling the standswhich have been heated dried in the drying apparatusare cooled to a temperature lower than the gelation temperature of the undried honeycomb formed structures; placing newly formed undried honeycomb formed structureson the cooled stands; drying the undried honeycomb formed structures by passing through the drying apparatus; and repeating these operations. The honeycomb formed structure drying method prevents deformation such as warpage of partition walls of honeycomb formed structures during drying thereof.

Method for drying honeycomb formed structure

An apparatus for molding a honeycomb structure provided with an extruder for the honeycomb structure capable of extruding a honeycomb structure in the gravity direction or an oblique direction at an angle of smaller than 30&#xb0; with the gravity direction and at least one cradle, said apparatus being provided with a means of being able to place the honeycomb structure extending in length with progress of extrusion on the cradle with cell opening end faceof the honeycomb structure being pressure contacted with the cradle under a pressure smaller than the compressive strength at the end face and then to move the cradle at a speed capable of keeping the pressure contact state and in the same direction as the lengthwise direction of the honeycomb structure.

Equipment and method for manufacturing honeycomb structural body

There are here disclosed a method for removing a titanium-based film from a honeycomb-molding die having on the surface of a base material coated with the titanium-based film, and a method for removing an oxide of titanium from a honeycomb-molding die having the oxide of titanium adhered/deposited on the surface of a base material. In each method, a removing solution comprising a mixture of an acid and hydrogen peroxide is used. According to the methods for removing the titanium-based film and the oxide of titanium, a large amount of the titanium-based film as well as the oxide of titanium adhered/deposited on the base material of a honeycomb-molding die can be removed by use of a small amount of the removing solution without corroding the base material of honeycomb-molding die while re-deposition of dissolved titanium ions on the base material is prevented.

Method for removing titanium based coating film or oxide of titanium

An apparatus for producing a honeycomb structure having an extruder, at least one cradle and a cutting device comprising a small-gage wire for cutting the honeycomb structure and a notching member; said cradle is provided with a means capable of moving the honeycomb structure extruded from the extruder in the lengthwise direction of the honeycomb structure at nearly the same speed as the extrusion speed of the honeycomb structure, said cutting device is constructed so that the cutting small-gage wire is moved to the honeycomb structure side on the same plane as the plane of stretched small-gage wire, a cutting induction groove is formed on the outer peripheral side surface of the honeycomb structure by the notching member, and immediately thereafter the cutting small-gage wire is positioned in the induction groove, and the cutting small-gage wire is pressed into the honeycomb structure to cut the honeycomb structure.

A method of manufacturing a honeycomb extrusion die has the steps of: preparing a die base metal in which a plurality of intersecting slits are arranged in a front surface thereof and a plurality of raw material feeding holes communicated with the slits are arranged in a back surface thereof; forming a plating layer on the die base metal by means of electrolytic plating; (1) and forming a TiCN layer on the plating layer by means of CVD (chemical vapor deposition); or (2) forming a TiN layer on the plating layer by means of CVD (chemical vapor deposition); and forming a TiCN layer on the TiN layer by means of CVD. In this manner, the honeycomb extrusion die is obtained.

Method of manufacturing honeycomb extrusion die and die manufactured according to this method

A piezoelectric semiconductor is a single crystal composed mainly of ZnO having properties such as electrical conductivity of 10.sup.-11 .about.10.sup.-3 1/.OMEGA..multidot.cm suitable for use as an acoustoelectric element, by adding a given amount of H.sub.2 O.sub.2 to the alkali solvent, or by using NH.sub.4 OH in the alkali solvent, or by doping the ZnO single crystal with Li or a trivalent metal. The piezoelectric semiconductor can be suitably used as a ultrasonic transducer material of acoustoelectric type and can also be used as a material for ultrasonic amplification, an surface acoustic wave filter, a piezoelectric transducer, a fluorescent material for emitting a low-velocity electron beam, etc.

Piezoelectric semiconductor

An optical magnetic-field sensor includes a base fixed relative to distal ends of optical fibers inserted in the sensor, optical parts and an optical element for transmitting optical signals between the distal ends of the optical fibers. The optical signals are collimated between the optical parts and the distal ends of the optical fibers. The optical magnetic-field sensor further includes spherical lenses optically aligned with the distal ends of the optical fibers for collimating the optical signals, and synthetic resin members filled in clearances between the distal ends of the optical fibers and the spherical lenses, respectively. With the above arrangement, it is possible to effect the alignment of optical axes of the optical fibers and the spherical lenses easily with high accuracy in a short period of time.

Optical magnetic-field sensor having spherical lenses for light

A phase-insensitive ultrasonic transducer has a zinc oxide single crystal as a piezoelectric semiconducting acoustoelectric element, providing high sensitivity and operable over a range of wavelengths of the ultrasonic waves. The electrical conductivity of said zinc oxide single crystal may be selected in the range 10.sup.-8 to 10.sup.-2 .OMEGA..sup.-1.cm.sup.-1. The single crystal can have an attenuation rate for ultrasonic waves of 10 MHz of at least 0.8 cm.sup.-1.

Ultrasonic transducer

An optical sensor including a plurality of optical elements such as lenses, a polarizer, and analyzer, optical fibers, and a Pockels element or Faraday element. Light from a light source is transmitted through the optical elements of the optical sensor to optically measure applied voltage or an electric field acting upon the Pockels Faraday element on the basis modulation of the light received by a light receiver. The optical sensor includes a first synthetic resin interposed between adjacent optical elements in close contact with the optical elements without gaps, and a second synthetic resin of the same material as the first synthetic resin filled around the optical elements. The optical elements may be bonded to a base plate for adjusting optical axes of the optical elements, and the second synthetic resin may be filled around the optical elements and the base plate.

Growing community of inventors

Chita, Japan

Yuji Asai