ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,449,000, issued on Oct. 21, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).
"Compact actuated shear pin" was invented by Riley A. Albers (Sugar Grove, Ill.) and David M. Worth (Naperville, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An actuated shear pin includes an actuator and pin body coupled to the actuator. The actuator selectively configures the pin body in a locking configuration or a stowed configuration. In the locking configuration, the pin body is placed in a travel path of two components configured to move relative to each other, to inhibit such relative movement. In the stowed configuration, the pin body is out of the travel path, ...