US Patent Issued to Caterpillar on Oct. 7 for "Heel shroud having stress concentration reduction geometry and enhanced durability" (American, Indian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,435,495, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).

"Heel shroud having stress concentration reduction geometry and enhanced durability" was invented by Brandon Hammig McCaffrey (St. Louis) and Ezhil Valavan Karunakaran (Ariyalur, India).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A heel shroud includes a bottom leg, and a side leg extending orthogonally from the bottom leg, forming an interior corner with the bottom leg. The heel shroud defines a first lateral surface, a second lateral surface, and the bottom leg includes a curved interior surface extending from the first lateral surface to the second lateral surface at least p...