ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,287,051, issued on April 29, was assigned to REHAU INDUSTRIES SE & Co. KG (Rehau, Germany).
"Connecting device" was invented by Tobias Lipphardt (Hemhofen, Germany) and Jurgen Sieber (Herzogenaurach, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A connecting device for connecting a first and second tube has a sealing sleeve, support elements and first and second clamping bands. First and second end portions of the sealing sleeve receive tube end portions of the first and second tube, respectively. Deformable support elements are arranged on the outer face of the sealing sleeve without being connected to each other, such that first and second sup...