US Patent Issued to Illinois Tool Works on Nov. 11 for "Container carrier applicating machine" (South Carolina Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,466,593, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to Illinois Tool Works Inc. (Glenview, Ill.).

"Container carrier applicating machine" was invented by Jimmy D. Whitten (Westminster, S.C.), Sam Lockaby (Easley, S.C.), Charles Bryan Shiflet (Anderson, S.C.) and Brian Williams (Simpsonville, S.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system, method and apparatus for applying container carriers to unitize a plurality of containers. An applicating drum applies each container carrier to a group of containers and a push down wheel subsequently firmly engages the container carrier to the group of containers so that each applied container carrier is engageabl...