US Patent Issued to TOYOTA JIDOSHA on Dec. 2 for "Switching device" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,486,914, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).

"Switching device" was invented by Tomoaki Suzuki (Nagoya, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The switching device includes a six-way valve. The six-way valve includes a lower body (first valve element), an upper body (second valve element), and a drive plate (third valve element). The switching device switches the overlapping state in the Z direction (axial direction) between the opening (first opening) of each of the plurality of groove portions (first groove portions) of the lower body, the groove portion of the upper body (second groove portion), and the...