US Patent Issued to Caterpillar on April 15 for "Scallop-resistant track link and method of making same" (Illinois Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,275,468, issued on April 15, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).

"Scallop-resistant track link and method of making same" was invented by Kevin Steiner (Tremont, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A track link includes an elongate link body formed of a link body material that varies in hardness to form a first lower hardness zone, a second lower hardness zone, and a higher hardness zone. The higher hardness zone includes an upper rail surface of the elongate link body and extends substantially throughout the elongate link body outside of the first and second lower hardness zones, which surround the track pin bores. Related m...