ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,490,877, issued on Dec. 9, was assigned to NINGBO FUJIA INDUSTRIAL Co. LTD. (Ningbo, China).

"Mop unit lifting device and cleaning machine" was invented by Jianqiang Fang (Zhejiang, China) and Xu Wang (Zhejiang, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A mop unit lifting device and a cleaning machine are provided. The mop unit lifting device includes a mop unit, a lifting mechanism for lifting the mop unit; and a driving mechanism for driving the mop unit to rotate. The driving mechanism is a first driving mechanism that is configured not to be lifted together with the mop unit, and the lifting mechanism and the mop unit are formed in one pie...