US Patent Issued to Altria Client Services on Feb. 3 for "Gas-based material compression and portioning" (Virginia Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,683, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to Altria Client Services LLC (Richmond, Va.).

"Gas-based material compression and portioning" was invented by Thien Nguyen (Glen Allen, Va.), Sean Sundberg (Richmond, Va.), Jeremy Straight (Midlothian, Va.), Berina Yerkic-Husejnovic (Richmond, Va.), Jarrod W. Chalkley (Mechanicsville, Va.), James D. Evans (Chesterfield, Va.), Christopher R. Newcomb (Powhatan, Va.), Robert V. Powell Jr. (Midlothian, Va.) and Gregory L. Nelson (Chester, Va.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus includes a fixed assembly and a reciprocating assembly. The fixed assembly includes a hopper, a first gas manifold, an...