US Patent Issued to Fisher Controls International on April 29 for "Methods and apparatus to automatically determine friction of a control valve" (Iowa Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,287,255, issued on April 29, was assigned to Fisher Controls International LLC (Marshalltown, Iowa).

"Methods and apparatus to automatically determine friction of a control valve" was invented by Michael Fontaine (Marshalltown, Iowa) and David Smid (Marshalltown, Iowa).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for automatically determining friction of a control valve. An example method includes measuring first and second pressures corresponding to respective first and second positions of a valve while stroking the valve in a first direction, measuring third and fourth pressures cor...