ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,459,791, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).
"Lifting eyes for counterweights" was invented by Simon Tabutin (Annecy, France) and Sean D. Lawson (East Peoria, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In some implementations, a counterweight assembly, for a lifting machine, includes a plurality of counterweight slabs, including first and second outer counterweight slabs, and one or more inner counterweight slabs sandwiched between inner lateral surfaces of the first and second outer counterweight slabs. A center slab, of the one or more inner counterweight slabs, includes a lifting eye embedded in a body of the ce...