ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,352,373, issued on July 8, was assigned to TATA STEEL NEDERLAND TECHNOLOGY B.V. (Velsen-Noord, Netherlands).
"Expansion joint" was invented by Marcel Cruijff (Den Ilp, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An expansion joint for flexibly joining two tube segments for producing a tube for an evacuated tube transport system (ETT), wherein the expansion joint includes two annular rims and an annular flexible and airtight sleeve for rendering the expansion joint airtight wherein the sleeve includes two annular bead sections connected by an annular flexible carcass wherein each annular bead section includes a bead wire, and wherein the be...