ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,269,098, issued on April 8, was assigned to SUMITOMO ELECTRIC HARDMETAL CORP. (Itami, Japan).
"Cutting tool" was invented by Susumu Okuno (Itami, Japan), Takato Yamanishi (Itami, Japan), Masahito Hikiji (Itami, Japan) and Fumiyoshi Kobayashi (Itami, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cutting tool comprises a substrate and a coating provided on the substrate, the coating including: a first alumina layer, a titanium compound layer, and a second alumina layer; in which a portion adjacent to the titanium compound layer in the first alumina layer serves as an interface region, a portion that is not the interface region in the first alumin...