ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,510,194, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Mueller International LLC (Atlanta).
"Mechanical joint restraint" was invented by Aurelian Ioan Furcoiu (Oswego, Ill.) and David Edward Woollums (Signal Mountain, Tenn.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A mechanical joint restraint can include a one-piece, elastic gasket defining an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface defining a bore, the bore defining an axis therethrough, the gasket defining a first gasket end and a second gasket end, the gasket including: a main body positioned between the first gasket end and the second gasket end; a first stop lip extending radially inward f...