ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,441,044, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to 3M Innovative Properties Co. (St. Paul, Minn.).
"Apparatus for dispensing a composition" was invented by Thomas Q. Chastek (St. Paul, Minn.), Garth V. Antila (Hudson, Wis.), Ilya A. Salnikov (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.), Richard P. Lovelien (Baldwin, Wis.) and Gibson L. Batch (St. Paul, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided are an apparatus and methods for dispensing a composition, the apparatus includes a barrel (120) having an inlet (128) and an outlet (129), a screw (122) received in the barrel, and a drive mechanism operatively coupled to a shank end (134) of the screw to rotate the...