ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,540,647, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to NSK LTD. (Tokyo).
"Power transmission path switching device and two-speed transmission" was invented by Akihiro Yamamoto (Fujisawa, Japan) and Hirotaka Kishida (Fujisawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided are a friction engagement device connected by pressing a friction plate and a separate plate against each other and disconnected by releasing the force pressing them; a rotation transmission state switching device having at least a free mode in which rotation of a first member relative to a second member is allowed and a lock mode in which rotation of the first member relative to the...