ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,134, issued on March 25, was assigned to Johnson & Johnson GmbH (Neuss, Germany).
"Tampon press" was invented by Nick Brooks (Warwick, Great Britain), David L. Kimball (Flemington, N.J.), Peter Morgan (Warwickshire, Great Britain) and James Stembridge (Warwickshire, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A press for shaping an absorbent tampon blank into a shaped tampon pledget includes a central cavity arranged and configured to accommodate an absorbent tampon blank having a front portion and a back portion. The main longitudinal axis of the press passes in the middle of the central cavity and a plurality of penetrating dies ...