ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,253,154, issued on March 18, was assigned to GKN Automotive Ltd. (Birmingham, Great Britain).
"Differential with auxiliary gear" was invented by David E. Gall (Clarkston, Mich.), Kevin J. Kaplan (Macomb, Mich.), Mark A. Heinze (Tecumseh, Canada) and Rick Ohsiek (Sterling Heights, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle differential includes a housing, an input gear mounted to the housing so that the housing and input gear rotate together, a pinion shaft mounted in the housing, first and second pinion gears mounted on the pinion shaft, first and second side gears within the housing and engaged with the pinion gears, and a second g...