ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,377,455, issued on Aug. 5, was assigned to Battelle Memorial Institute (Richland, Wash.).

"Functionally graded coatings and claddings" was invented by Vineet V. Joshi (Richland, Wash.), Glenn J. Grant (Benton City, Wash.), Curt A. Lavender (Richland, Wash.), Scott A. Whalen (West Richland, Wash.), Saumyadeep Jana (Kennewick, Wash.), David Catalini (Hyattsville, Md.) and Jens T. Darsell (West Richland, Wash.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A shear assisted extrusion process for producing cladded materials wherein a cladding material and a material to be cladded are placed in sequence with the cladded material positioned to contact a rotatin...