US Patent Issued to Illinois Tool Works on Sept. 9 for "Drive unit for actuating a plurality of functions of an air vent system of an air distribution system, and air vent system with a drive unit of this type" (German Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 10 -- United States Patent no. 12,410,851, issued on Sept. 9, was assigned to Illinois Tool Works Inc. (Glenview, Ill.).

"Drive unit for actuating a plurality of functions of an air vent system of an air distribution system, and air vent system with a drive unit of this type" was invented by Manfred Groben (Gau-Bickelheim, Germany) and Thomas Pacher (Semback, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A drive unit (1) for actuating a plurality of functions of an air vent system or of an air distribution system, having an electric motor drive (3) with a drive shaft which can be driven in a first rotational direction or in a second rotational direction, and a switching mechan...