ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,305,924, issued on May 20, was assigned to Columbia Machine Inc. (Vancouver, Wash.).
"Method and apparatus for hardening mold grids using clamp quenching" was invented by Josef Ott (Hagerstown, Md.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and apparatus for treating a workpiece such as a mold grid includes moving the workpiece laterally along a conveyor assembly into a furnace for heating in a carbon-rich atmosphere to form a heated workpiece. The heated workpiece is then received from the furnace onto the conveyor assembly in an enclosed vestibule whereupon it is clamped under pressure between an overhead mechanical press and the conveyor...