ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,949, issued on May 13.
"In-pipe device catcher" was invented by Craig Loren Champlin (Golden, Colo.) and Erik Karl Charrier (Arvada, Colo.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed is a mechanism for extracting smaller than pipe diameter (STPD) devices which are freely moving through a pipeline. While other functions are possible, current state of the art uses STPD balls to inspect difficult to inspect pipelines. Disclosed is a novel means for extracting these STPD devices once their mission within the pipe is complete. Since the mechanism collapses during the insertion and retrieval phases, it is able to extract a STPD device from an...