ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,312,882, issued on May 27, was assigned to The Charles Machine Works Inc. (Perry, Okla.).
"Mechanical shuttle pipe gripper" was invented by Rick G. Porter (Perry, Okla.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A pipe shuttle for moving a pipe segment from an operating position to a pipe box. The pipe shuttle has a pair of gripper arms flanking a cradle. The cradle has a spring-loaded pad that has a concave surface for holding a pipe segment. As the pipe shuttle moves from underneath a pipe box to near a cradle, rollers are positioned to engage a guide plate. When the shuttle is underneath the pipe box, the rollers engage the guide plate to keep th...