ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,290,872, issued on May 6, was assigned to Bollhoff Verbindungstechnik GmbH (Bielefeld, Germany).

"Element supply apparatus for a setting welding device, an element nest and a retrofit kit for the setting welding device as well as corresponding supply methods of a welding auxiliary joining part" was invented by Dennis Schroder (Herford, Germany), Bernd Haesler (Halle, Germany), Kilian Doedtmann (Bramsche, Germany), Stefan Rehling (Buckeburg, Germany), Sergej Hartwig-Biglau (Hiddenhausen, Germany), Wilhelm Westermann (Bielefeld, Germany) and Oliver Schienstock (Delbruck, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus of a setting weld...