ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,382, issued on April 29, was assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Co. (St. Paul, Minn.).
"Granules" was invented by Robert P. Brown (Hudson, Wis.), Taisiya Skorina (Woodbury, Minn.), Rebecca L. A. Everman (Falcon Heights, Minn.), Jean A Tangeman (Minneapolis) and Kenton D. Budd (Woodbury, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Plurality of granules comprising a ceramic core having an outer surface and a shell on and surrounding the core, wherein the shell comprises ceramic particles bound together with an inorganic binder, the inorganic binder comprising reaction product of at least alkali silicate and hardener, wherein the ceramic part...