ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,393,170, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to FIELDCOMM GROUP INC. (Austin, Texas).
"Digital safety locks in industrial process plants" was invented by Wallace A. Pratt Jr. (Pflugerville, Texas) and Mark J. Nixon (Thorndale, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A digital safety lock of a field device or other process plant equipment activates in response to receiving a request from a locking party, thereby placing the device into a locked mode. While the device is in the locked mode, only the locking party may perform maintenance activities on, or otherwise functionally control, the device. While locked, the device may provide an indicatio...