ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,259,044, issued on March 25, was assigned to ASAHI YUKIZAI Corp. (Nobeoka, Japan).
"Butterfly valve" was invented by Kotaro Matsushita (Nobeoka, Japan) and Kensuke Masuda (Nobeoka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A butterfly valve includes a valve body, a valve stem rotatably supported by the valve body, a valve element rotatably supported by the valve body, and a bushing externally fitted around the valve stem. The valve element is configured by a core member and a contour member formed of a resin material and surrounding the core member to define a contour of the valve element, the valve element is formed with valve-stem holes th...