ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,781, issued on July 1, was assigned to AMADA Co. LTD. (Kanagawa, Japan).

"Bending system and correcting method for tool misalignment" was invented by Masaaki Sato (Kanagawa, Japan) and Yohei Yamaguchi (Kanagawa, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In a case where a vacant space exists on only one side in a holder area of a stocker positioned at an exchange position, a first upper tool exchange unit is first moved in the left-right direction, and located in the vicinity of the vacant space. Next, the first upper tool exchange unit is moved forward and thereafter moved to the left, so that a tool retention member of the first upper too...