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[Supplementary Explanation]1. "Achievement Development Project"As one measure to make effective use of holding patents, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereinafter referred to as the "Atomic Energy Agency") assumed control of the "Achievement Development Project" from its predecessor, the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute. In the "Achievement Development Project," medium and small size companies propose product development activities using held patents, and the Atomic Energy Agency grants the companies the right to execute patents as a nonexclusive license and financially supports development activities (half of necessary expenses, up to 5 million yen). As for invitations for this fiscal year, the patents also held by the other predecessor of the Atomic Energy Agency, the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute includes the targeted uses to widely respond to various product development ideas of medium and small size companies. 2. Background of productization of Vacuum Thermobalance and Future Social Contributions The Atomic Energy Agency developed a gas analyzer "Gravimas" that uses nuclear fusion technology last November, and the associate developer NIKKIN FLUX INC. achieved commercialization of "Gravimas" and started a project to analyze gas contained in aluminum materials. As this company grasped the needs for weight measurement of contained gas by components in this project development, it considered that the needs can be met by practical application and productization of the vacuum thermobalance using the patent held by the Atomic Energy Agency, which resulted in this invitation to the "2006 Achievement Development Project." The Atomic Energy Agency judged that the contents would lead to development of core technology that could be applied to not only aluminum casting parts but also various raw materials, and adopted a proposal from that company and actively supported their productization. Along with productization of the gas analyzer Gravimas, development of the vacuum thermobalance is expected to bring3) a new dimension to gas analysis technology, for which gas chromatography has been mainstream, and to be used as standardized technology that can realize traceability (history management) in quality control of various raw materials. 3. Features of Vacuum Thermobalance This developed vacuum thermobalance consists of an electronic balance (commercialized by SHINKO DENSHI CO., LTD. of Ibaraki Prefecture using the patents held by the Atomic Energy Agency), vacuum exhauster, sample hanging portion, vacuum vessel, heater for sample heating and others. Installation of an off-the-shelf mass spectrometer in this device enables analysis of community gas components at the site. The technical feature of this balance is that zero-point stability was secured4) for an extended period of one month and longer and high-resolution measurement was realized5) by three new technology developments of the vacuum system, insulation technology and weighing. (1) Vacuum System Keeping the surroundings of a sample in a high vacuum6) of 10-4 Pa or below minimized the effect of buoyancy applied to the sample and prevented a change in quality of the sample due to remaining air. (2) Insulation Technology In the conventional technology, a sample is generally put on a scale. Therefore, when a sample is high in temperature, long stable measurement was impossible because of thermal conduction to the balance body. The sample hanging system is used for this device and a technology to shield heat emitted from a sample with a high temperature was developed to eliminate thermal influence on the electronic balance body. (3) Weighing An electronic balance that can realize the minimum weighing 100µg for the maximum 60g of sample weight was developed. Furthermore, this balance can be easily moved at measurement sites such as plants and has a structure that can prevent the effects of ground vibration.  BACK
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