ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,186, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to Aesculap AG (Tuttlingen, Germany).
"Electromechanical sterile separation" was invented by Roland-Alois Hoegerle (Tuttlingen, Germany) and Thorsten Ketterer (Constance, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A sterility separation element can be arranged between plug connectors of a plug connection/electro-mechanical lock to provide sterility separation of the plug connectors. The plug connection/electro-mechanical lock has at least one electrical contact pin that penetrates the sterility separation element such that the sterility separation element fits directly to the electrical contact pin over...