ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,259,023, issued on March 25, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Toyota, Japan).
"Spiral advance/retreat actuation device" was invented by Takeo Shirabe (Susono, Japan), Takatoshi Morimitsu (Toyota, Japan) and Hirotaka Komura (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The spiral advance/retreat actuation device includes a first strip material, a second strip material, an inner guide member as a strip material guide unit, an outer cylindrical wall, and a strip material storage container. The strip material storage container includes a first storage chamber that spirally stores a first strip material that has transitioned from a cylindrical c...