ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,304,565, issued on May 20, was assigned to Shape Corp. (Grand Haven, Mich.).
"Rocker component with tapered shape" was invented by Takashi Matsui (Toyota, Japan), Kazutoyo Fujikawa (Atsugi, Japan), Matthew Kuipers (Holland, Mich.) and Zehua Qin (Norton Shores, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rocker component for a vehicle includes a tubular beam having a transverse cross-sectional shape extending continuously along a length of the tubular beam. The transverse cross-sectional shape of the tubular beam includes an inboard portion that has an inboard height dimension and an outboard portion that has an outboard height dimension. The ...