ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,914, issued on May 13, was assigned to GEA Tuchenhagen GmbH (Buchen, Germany).
"Gate valve" was invented by Jens Burmester (Grambek, Germany) and Jorg Pieplow (Rondeshagen, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A gate valve includes a housing, a first port, a second port, a passage between the ports, a valve seat formed at the passage, a closing element, which has a closure member that can be brought into sealing contact with the valve seat and has a valve stem, and a seal that cooperates with a seat. To improve the cleanability of the seal, the seat includes a closed position seat mounted on a component that is displaceable relativ...