ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,319,998, issued on June 3, was assigned to Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (Shanghai).

"Vacuum coating device" was invented by Sanbing Ren (Shanghai), Junfei Fan (Shanghai), Shanqing Li (Shanghai), Chunwei Zhang (Shanghai) and Xiaoli Jin (Shanghai).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention discloses a vacuum coating device, comprising: a crucible; an induction heater provided on the periphery of the crucible; a flow distribution box connected to the top of said crucible via a steam pipe. Wherein said flow distribution box is provided inside with a horizontal pressure stabilizing plate, said flow distribution box is connected on th...