US Patent Issued to Kohler on June 3 for "Axially compressible bearing" (Wisconsin Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 4 -- United States Patent no. 12,320,385, issued on June 3, was assigned to Kohler Co. (Kohler, Wis.).

"Axially compressible bearing" was invented by Jacob R. Frye (Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) and Gabriel M. Niederlander (Sheboygan, Wis.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed is a bearing configured to couple a faucet spout to a faucet body. The bearing includes a plurality of fingers extending parallel to a central axis of the bearing. The plurality of fingers is configured to engage with the faucet spout at an intermediate position between a first end of the bearing and a second end of the bearing. The fingers are configured to exert an outward pressure to the faucet spou...