ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,486,910, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).
"Eight-way valve" was invented by Tomoaki Suzuki (Nagoya, Japan) and Hiroshi Yamamoto (Toyota, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An eight-way valve including a housing and a rotary member is provided. The housing includes an annular wall, a first chamber, a second chamber, a third chamber, and a fourth chamber. The annular wall is provided with 16 upper-tier openings and 16 lower-tier openings. The rotary member includes an upper-tier switching part configured to switch between opening and closing of each of the 16 upper-tier openings, and a lower-tier swit...