ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,982, issued on April 29, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).
"Modular hydraulic manifold" was invented by John Ferraz Jr. (Itasca, Ill.), William O'Neill (Eureka, Ill.) and Michael Thomas Jackson (Hanna, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "This disclosure describes a modular hydraulic manifold for controlling an operation of a hydraulic actuator for an earthmoving machine. The manifold has a spool chamber and a load sensing passageway. The body also has a spool positioned axially within the spool chamber. The spool is spring-biased by an end cap. The module also has a pair of spool actuators that are located at a second e...