ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,356, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to Illinois Tool Works Inc. (Glenview, Ill.).
"Epicyclic gear train" was invented by Arnaud Birker (Dietwiller, France), Lionel Martin (Sallanches, France) and Xavier Bibollet (Bonneville, France).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A self-locking epicyclic gear train that includes a pinion with at least one helical gear tooth, a ring gear with a plurality of helical gear teeth and a plurality of planet gears between the pinion and the ring gear. Each planet gear comprises a plurality of helical gear teeth that engage the teeth of the ring gear and of the pinion. The helical gear teeth have a helix an...