ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,275,467, issued on April 15, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).
"Ultrasonic wear measurement for a track pad" was invented by Benjamin Isaac Jones (Bartonville, Ill.) and Mircea Dumitru (Washington, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An onboard track machine wear measurement system has an ultra-sonic probe that is attached to an undercarriage of the machine that is disposed adjacent a track chain assembly, and a controller that is in communication with the ultra-sonic probe. The controller is configured to determine the thickness of a load bearing wall of a track component of the track chain assembly."
The patent was filed...