ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,492,755, issued on Dec. 9, 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 ten-way valve. The ten-way valve includes a lower body (first valve body), an upper body (second valve body), and a drive plate (third valve body). The switching device rotates each of the upper body and the drive plate relative to the lower body to switch an overlapping state in the Z direction (axial direction) between an opening (first opening) of each of the plurality of grooves (first grooves) of the lower body, a groove (second ...