US Patent Issued to Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment on Sept. 30 for "System and method for joining power rail segments" (Arizona Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,428,789, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to Caterpillar Global Mining Equipment LLC (Denison, Texas).

"System and method for joining power rail segments" was invented by Igor Strashny (Tucson, Ariz.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A modular structure supports elevated rail segments for delivering electrical power to a moving work machine, such as a hauler at a mining site. End portions of rail segments having narrower widths than body portions of the rail segments are joined within a split fishplate. Laterally opposing faces within the narrowed end portions form a longitudinal overlap, and connectors underneath the rail segments pull th...