ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,546,586, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to MITUTOYO Corp. (Kanagawa, Japan).
"Non-contact probe and profile measurement apparatus" was invented by Toshihisa Takai (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A non-contact probe includes an irradiating part that radiates a laser beam, an irradiating mirror that reflects the laser beam from the irradiating part toward a workpiece, a light-receiving mirror that reflects the reflected light from the workpiece, and a galvano motor capable of swinging both the irradiating mirror and the light-receiving mirror. The irradiating mirror is provided at one axial end of the motor shaft that exte...