ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,571, issued on May 13, was assigned to ROHR INC. (Chula Vista, Calif.).

"Systems and methods for spray cleaning needles for through thickness reinforcement of resin-infused fabrics" was invented by Christopher C. Koroly (Spring Valley, Calif.), Katherine E. Waugh (San Diego) and Vijay V. Pujar (San Diego).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An end effector for the through thickness reinforcement of a fibrous preform includes a plurality of spray nozzles configured to direct a needle cleaning fluid to a needle to clean resin from the needle between through thickness reinforcement operations. The plurality of spray nozzles may extend from a ...