ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,396,387, issued on Aug. 26, was assigned to Deere & Co. (Moline, Ill.).
"Automated lockout system for header" was invented by Shreyas P. Modak (Thane, India), Alex A. Brimeyer (Bettendorf, Iowa) and Michael L. Vandeven (Leclaire, Iowa).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Systems and methods for automatically configuring a cutterbar between a flexible configuration and a rigid configuration in response to actuation of a gauge wheel are disclosed. The cutterbar is coupled to the gauge wheel such that extension of the gauge wheel causes the cutterbar to move into the rigid configuration and retraction of the gauge wheel causes the cutterbar to mo...