US Patent Issued to OLYMPUS on April 15 for "Rigidity variable apparatus, and manufacturing method for rigidity variable apparatus" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,276,267, issued on April 15, was assigned to OLYMPUS Corp. (Tokyo).

"Rigidity variable apparatus, and manufacturing method for rigidity variable apparatus" was invented by Tatsuhiko Okita (Akiruno, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rigidity variable apparatus includes: one or a plurality of coil units including a spiral-shaped coil portion in which a plurality of SMA element wires made of a shape-memory alloy are wound around an axis at a first pitch in a state where the SMA element wires are overlapped with each other in a predetermined axis direction, each of the SMA element wires memorizing a spiral shape with a pitch narrower tha...