ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,228,159, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.) and Semblex Corp. (Elmhurst, Ill.).
"Flow drill screw and tip configuration" was invented by Nicholas Dornik (Canton, Mich.), Amanda Kay Freis (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Garret Sankey Huff (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Brandt J. Ruszkiewicz (Cumming, Ga.) and Stephen J. Crockett (Bartlett, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A screw includes a head portion, an externally threaded shank extending from the head portion, the externally threaded shank having an external surface, and a flow-hole-forming tip disposed at a distal end portion of the externally threaded sha...