US Patent Issued to Engineered Controls International on Sept. 30 for "Rapid-connect coupler and receptacle having anti-rotation feature" (North Carolina Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,429,156, issued on Sept. 30, was assigned to Engineered Controls International LLC (Elon, N.C.).

"Rapid-connect coupler and receptacle having anti-rotation feature" was invented by Tracy N. Tickle (Gibsonville, N.C.), Jeffrey S. Howard (Elon, N.C.) and Chad Thomas (Summerfield, N.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rapid-connect coupler having an anti-rotation feature is disclosed. A coupler includes a housing, a probe configured to translate longitudinally within the housing, a ball cage, a plurality of balls disposed in the ball cage, and a slidable sleeve coupled to the probe and configured to translate longitudinally with the probe....