ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,351,996, issued on July 8, was assigned to Graco Minnesota Inc. (Minneapolis).
"Road taping machine" was invented by Roland M. Bedard (Lindstrom, Minn.), John M. Bryce (Andover, Minn.), Todd B. Hillukka (Clearwater, Minn.), Dennis Kemmetmueller (Rogers, Minn.), August F. Legatt (Maple Lake, Minn.), Joshua Roden (Dayton, Minn.), Daniel D. Rohling (Corcoran, Minn.) and Anthony J. Shakal (Rogers, Minn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A road taping machine is configured to unspool road marking tape from a spool and tamp that tape onto pavement via a tamping roller. Tape is cut using a blade assembly, and aligned with several alignment rollers....