ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,416,581, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to KRONES AG (Neutraubling, Germany).
"Support ring centering for closure inspection" was invented by Thomas Bock (Hemau, Germany) and Anton Niedermeier (Offenstetten, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for inspecting containers with closures with a cap portion and a circumferential edge extending around the mouth of the containers. The containers are transported along a transport path by a transport device. During transport, the mouth regions of the containers with closures are illuminated by an illumination device, and at least one image recording device records at least one image...