US Patent Issued to The Heil on Jan. 13 for "Deformable gripper arm" (Tennessee Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 13 -- United States Patent no. 12,521,896, issued on Jan. 13, was assigned to The Heil Co. (Chattanooga, Tenn.).

"Deformable gripper arm" was invented by Bryan Stewart (Chattanooga, Tenn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A refuse collection vehicle includes a refuse grabber assembly, a lift arm coupled to the refuse grabber assembly, and a hopper configured to receive refuse from the refuse container. The lift arm is operable to position the refuse grabber assembly. The refuse grabber assembly includes a first grabber arm and a second grabber arm that are configured to cooperate to engage the refuse container. The first grabber arm includes a first gripper and a first supp...