ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,435,629, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to KOMATSU LTD. (Tokyo).
"Tunnel excavation device" was invented by Naoki Sekiyama (Tokyo), Taku Arakawa (Tokyo), Hiroshi Asano (Tokyo), Shinichi Terada (Tokyo) and Eiichi Morioka (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tunnel excavation device includes a front body section and a rear body section. The front body section includes a cutter head, a cutter head support, peripheral plates, a roof shoe, and side shoes. The cutter head includes a plurality of roller cutters. The cutter head support supports the cutter head. The peripheral plates, the roof shoe, and the side shoes are provided to the outer...