ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,326,197, issued on June 10, was assigned to Unibloc Hygienic Technologies US LLC (Chicago).
"Bi-directional relief valve" was invented by Joshua Hooper (Kennesaw, Ga.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A bi-directional valve has an inlet with an outlet that may interchangeably applied to a pressure source and still operate properly. A spring applies a bias to a concave diaphragm against a cover plate in a non-relieving configuration to seal an inlet relative to an outlet. The cover plate may have ports with a shallower attack angle than prior art designs. Those ports may also have different shapes to facilitate significantly more flow permit...