ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,435,903, issued on Oct. 7, was assigned to TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY SYSTEM (Lubbock, Texas).
"Electroactive polymer valve" was invented by Shakil Ahmad Shimul (Lubbock, Texas) and Wei Li (Lubbock, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fluidic valve system comprises a housing, a shell mounted to the housing, a vent for allowing fluid to enter the housing in a high pressure zone, at least one Dielectric Elastomer Actuator (DEA) flap forming a seal with the shell, wherein applying a voltage to the DEA flap causes the DEA flap to open the seal with the shell so that fluid can exit through a low pressure zone created between the shell and the DE...