ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,467,772, issued on Nov. 11, was assigned to MITUTOYO Corp. (Kawasaki, Japan).
"Optical encoder with a beam-shaping element" was invented by Akihide Kimura (Saitama, Japan), Kimitoshi Ono (Kanagawa, Japan) and Keitaro Koyatsu (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical encoder includes: a scale having a scale grating; a light source that emits light; and a light-receiving device that receives light that has passed through the scale. The optical encoder also has a shielding plate that shapes the beam shape, which is the shape of the light emitted from the light source. The shielding plate is disposed between the light source...