ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,619, issued on May 13, was assigned to Brandt Industries Canada Ltd. (Regina, Canada).
"Modular hydraulic thumb for excavator" was invented by Nolan Mitchell (Grand Coulee, Canada), Bryan Melnyk (Nisku, Canada) and David Germs (Sherwood Park, Canada).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A modular thumb for a bucket of an excavator arm having a thumb body rotating with respect to the excavator arm. The thumb body has a pair of spaced elongate members and a main body extending between the elongate members. The main body has a bucket side and a non-bucket side. A channel on the non-bucket side and along the elongate members receives at least o...