ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,252,998, issued on March 18, was assigned to Ormat Technologies Inc. (Reno, Nev.).
"Maintenance minimizing turbine apparatus and method therefor" was invented by Alex Katz (Yavne, Israel), Yossi Siman Tov (Yavne, Israel) and Oren Ram (Yavne, Israel).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Turbine apparatus includes turbine wheels by which introduced motive fluid is expanded; a horizontally disposed turbine shaft which is rotatably supported by inlet-side and outlet-side bearings, such that the turbine wheels are fixedly connected to the turbine shaft between the inlet-side and outlet-side bearings; a turbine housing by which the turbine wheels an...