ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,851, issued on July 1, was assigned to Unirac Inc. (Albuquerque, N.M.).
"Universal end clamp" was invented by Brian Wares (Sacramento, Calif.) and Ethan M. Ely (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An end clamp for installation of a solar module includes a cap member that is installed in an opening of a rail. The end clamp also includes an assembly having a slider member and a base member, and also includes a fastener that attaches the assembly to the cap member. The slider member moves relative to the base member to clamp down on a flange of the solar module based on tightening of the fastener."
The patent was filed on Se...