ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,296,452, issued on May 13, was assigned to Hilti AG (Schaan, Liechtenstein).
"Pyrotechnic driving device" was invented by Karl Franz (Oppenweiler, Germany), Matthias Blessing (Frastanz, Austria), Peter Bruggmueller (Bludesch, Austria) and Dennis Muentener (Schiers, Switzerland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A driving device, comprising a hand-held housing with a piston element arranged therein for transmission of energy to a fastening element to be driven in a driving direction, a propellant charge, and a combustion chamber, which is arranged between the propellant charge and the piston element and extends around a central axis, and an a...