ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,168, issued on May 27, was assigned to Daifuku Co. Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).
"Transfer device" was invented by Hiroaki Nakamura (Hinocho, Japan), Masashige Iwata (Hinocho, Japan) and Kazunari Kimura (Hinocho, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A transfer device includes a first hook and a second hook. The first hook has a first side-edge section, which is an end edge on a second side in the width direction in a first retreat position. A partial region of the first side-edge section that includes at least a first leading-end section has a shape that is curved or bent to gradually extend toward the first side in the width direction while ...