ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,460,392, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).
"Front access for bit retention" was invented by David Bruno Parzynski Jr. (Peoria, Ill.), Thomas Marshall Congdon (Dunlap, Ill.) and Corey Michael Wells (East Peoria, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A spring clip defines an axis of movement, and includes a handle portion disposed at a first end along the axis of movement, and a tool bit engaging portion disposed at a second end along the axis of movement. Also, an adapter board engaging portion is disposed at least partially between the handle portion, and the tool bit engaging portion along the axis of movem...