ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,246,341, issued on March 11, was assigned to Hymmen GmbH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (Bielefeld, Germany).

"Method and device for manufacturing a base layer having different degrees of hardness and workpiece having different degrees of hardness" was invented by Rene Pankoke (Bielefeld, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and a device for manufacturing a base layer (3) having different degrees of hardness is disclosed. Further a workpiece with a base layer (3) manufactured by such method is disclosed."

The patent was filed on Sept. 28, 2021, under Application No. 17/630,952.

*For further information, including images, charts ...