ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,322,934, issued on June 3, was assigned to Hivoduct AG (Kemptthal, Switzerland).

"Flange design for high-voltage gas-insulated switchgear (GIS), busbars and lines (GIL)" was invented by Walter Holaus (Glattfelden, Switzerland).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention relates to enclosures (1) for gas-insulated medium-voltage or high voltage apparatuses. A connection portion (4) between a first end (20) of the first enclosure tube (2) and a mating machined second end (30) of the second enclosure tube (3) has a gas-escape path (L) running from the inside (6) to the outside (7) of the enclosure tubes (2, 3). According to the invention, th...