ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,280,420, issued on April 22, was assigned to ERG Aerospace Corp. (Oakland, Calif.).

"Method of making an inorganic reticulated foam structure" was invented by Mitchell Hall (Reno, Nev.), Mark Benson (Carmel, Calif.), Metodi Zlantinov (San Francisco), Alex Parke (Sparks, Nev.) and Denver Schaffarzick (Pacifica, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A new method of manufacturing a dual investment reticulated solid mold for producing reticulated metal foam, that includes 3D printing of a wax or resin reticulated precursor prior to pre-investment with a pre-investment plaster or pre-investment ceramic plaster, and removal of the precursor bef...