ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,370,618, issued on July 29.

"System and method for determining weld cooling rate in-situ" was invented by Constance T. Reichert LaMorte (Columbus, Ohio) and Tom McGaughy (Hilliard, Ohio).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for determining the cooling rate of a weld, comprising locating at least one non-consumable thermal sensor at a predetermined location from a weld pool generated during an active welding process, wherein the thermal sensor is located within the same plane of travel as a welding device creating the weld pool; determining the travel speed of the welding device; using the at least one non-consumable thermal sensor to g...