US Patent Issued to NGK SPARK PLUG on May 20 for "Noble metal tip for spark plug, electrode for spark plug, and spark plug" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,308,619, issued on May 20, was assigned to NGK SPARK PLUG Co. Ltd. (Nagoya, Japan).

"Noble metal tip for spark plug, electrode for spark plug, and spark plug" was invented by Osamu Yoshimoto (Nagoya, Japan), Tomoo Tanaka (Nagoya, Japan) and Kengo Hattori (Nagoya, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A noble metal tip for a spark plug according to the present invention contains iridium (Ir) in an amount of 50 mass % or more and aluminum (Al) in an amount of 0.1 mass % or more and 5 mass % or less, and further contains rhodium (Rh), wherein a metallographic structure comprised of fiber-like elements R is observed, and the fiber-like elemen...