ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,528,109, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to SMS group GmbH (Dusseldorf, Germany).

"Coilbox and method for the operation thereof" was invented by Frank Theobald (Siegen, Germany) and Bernhard Ehls (Hilchenbach, Germany).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A coilbox is provided for winding a metal strip to form a coil and for unwinding the metal strip from the coil. In order to further develop a known coilbox in such a manner that the position of the coil is known at all times, in particular during its passive transfer from the winding station to the unwinding station, at least one additional roller rotatably mounted on the frame is provided." ...