ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,292,038, issued on May 6, was assigned to CAMBRIDGE MECHATRONICS Ltd. (Cambridge, Great Britain).
"SMA actuator assembly" was invented by Andrew Benjamin Simpson Brown (Cambridge, Great Britain) and Peter Van Wyk (Cambridge, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A shape memory alloy actuator assembly comprises a first part, including a surface, a second part which moves relative to the first part across the surface and a resilient biasing element that biases the second part into contact with the first part so as to generate frictional forces therebetween for retaining the second part on the surface. At least one shape memory alloy...