ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,521,283, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to Ruggli AG (Koblenz, Switzerland).
"Device for forming and/or smoothing a tampon end" was invented by Marco Auer (Leibstadt, Switzerland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A device and a corresponding method for shaping and/or smoothing at least one end of a tampon blank, in particular an axial end of a tampon blank, includes a guide unit driven by at least one shaft. The guide unit includes first and second conveyor planes. The device also includes shaping sleeves on the second conveyor plane for receiving at least one respective tampon blank, and rotatable shaping caps on the first conveyor plane,...