ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,510,142, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to GKN Automotive Ltd. (Birmingham, Great Britain).
"Axle assembly with differential and clutch" was invented by Kevin P. Horak (Clarkston, Mich.) and Kazunobu Takeshita (West Bloomfield, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An axle assembly includes a gear train having multiple outputs that rotate at different speeds. A differential is engaged with a first output at a first speed, and a clutch is engaged with a second output at a second speed, and the second speed is lower than the first speed. The first output may be radially spaced from the second output, relative to axes of rotation of the dif...