ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,331,790, issued on June 17, was assigned to PIAGGIO & C. S.P.A. (Pontedera, Italy).
"Clutch" was invented by Marco Ghelardoni (Pontedera, Italy) and Francesco Mennella (Pontedera, Italy).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A clutch (1) includes a housing (3) connected to a drive input member (5). First friction discs (7) are mounted in the housing and rotate therewith. Second friction discs (9) are mounted on a driven member (11). A pressure plate (13) is elastically stressed toward the driven member to compress the first and the second friction discs (7, 9) against one another. Cam profiles (31, 33) integral with the driven member and with th...