ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,788, issued on June 17, was assigned to LIST AG (Arisdorf, Switzerland) and BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany).

"Process for connecting functional elements to a shaft" was invented by Oskar Stephan (Hockenheim, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method for connecting functional elements (14) to a shaft (10, having the following steps: (a) forming elevations (12) for receiving the functional elements (14), said elevations (12) being machined out of the shaft (10) by removing material, and (b) welding the functional elements (14) to the elevations (12) on the shaft (10)."

The patent was filed on Jan. 20, 2020, under Application No....