Section 1. The Inventions and Ideas of Sakichi Toyoda

Item 2. Overview of Sakichi Toyoda's Inventions

Breakdown of inventions

Although Sakichi Toyoda attained a patent for his wooden hand loom, his ultimate aim was to design a power loom.

The first power loom invented in Japan was the device awarded patent No. 3173 "Loom" in August 1898. The Toyoda Power Loom, based on this patent, was a wood-iron composite power loom which featured a wooden frame combined with iron gears and shafts in the power transmission mechanism.

During his lifetime, Sakichi was awarded a total of 45 industrial property rights, including 40 patents and five utility model rights. Furthermore, he filed eight of his Japanese patents in 19 countries outside Japan, obtaining 62 overseas patents in total1, including a circular loom2, a thread reeler and automatic stoppage device3, and an automatic shuttle changing mechanism (push-up mechanism).4

Of the 45 industrial property rights awarded to Sakichi, 38-the majority-were looms or loom-related mechanisms. Of his other inventions, four were devices related to fabric preparation, including a yarn-winding machine and a weft winding machine, while three were related to a circular single flow motor (rotary steam engine).

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1
Although there are documents which state that Sakichi Toyoda acquired more than 100 patents, this number is a total which includes the industrial property rights acquired in Japan and overseas. The number of Sakichi's inventions and designs that are classed as industrial property rights total 45.
2
A method of three dimensional weaving in which the warp thread is arranged in a circular pattern and distributed in vertically, while a shuttle inserts the weft thread in a circular motion in between to form a cylindrical shaped cloth
3
The thread reeler and automatic stoppage device was a mechanism for delivering warp thread at a constant tension in order to ensure evenness in the woven fabric
4
A device which removed the old shuttle when it ran out of thread and replaced it with a new one. The new shuttle was pushed upwards to replace the used shuttle.