ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,980, issued on April 29.
"Method for hydraulically lowering tools onto a surface of an object" was invented by Thomas Locher (Steinberg/OT Wildenau, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Hydraulic fluid is fed to a hydraulic cylinder via a feed line, and the hydraulic cylinder raises and lowers a mechanical device with a tool, where a lowering motion of the tool is reached by closing a second valve. Thereby, a third valve and a first valve are opened so that a first pressure is set between the first valve and the third valve, which corresponds to a pressure in the feed line and the cylinder at which the predetermined pressure or forc...