ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,228,234, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to IBCO PTY LTD (Coromandel East, Australia).
"Inflatable sleeve and method of manufacturing same" was invented by Ian Roger Bateman (Coromandel East, Australia).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An inflatable sleeve including one or more tubular portions including zones having different dimensions (e.g. thickness and/or diameter) and/or physical properties (e.g. elastic modulus) to enable control over the inflation characteristics of each zone, and a method of manufacturing same. The present invention further relates to a pipe junction sealing packer incorporating such an inflatable sleeve."
The pat...