ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,496,992, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc (Fairview, Ore.).
"Fuel cell and H 2 storage impact protection system for vehicles" was invented by Joost Hoogduin (Nijmegen, Netherlands), Menno de Lint (Oud Gastel, Netherlands) and Bram Kuipers (Velp, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An impact protection structure includes an impact frame and one or more impact bars connected to the impact frame through one or more impact buffers. The impact buffers are configured to linearly absorb an impact force over a predetermined displacement distance. The impact bars can include slotted holes for receiving ...