ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,372,121, issued on July 29, was assigned to DANA BELGIUM N.V. (Bruges, Belgium).
"Friction assisted dog clutch" was invented by Filip D. Schacht (Meulebeke, Belgium) and Kurt Cattoor (Koolkerke, Belgium).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods are provided for a friction assisted dog clutch assembly, comprising: a piston; one or more pins, wherein the pins are adapted to be moved by the piston; one or more friction discs, wherein the friction discs have a number of slots and the plurality of pins pass through the slots; and an endplate, wherein the endplate has a number of recesses adapted to receive the pins."
The patent was ...