ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,441,487, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to United Launch Alliance LLC (Centennial, Colo.).
"Hydraulic over elastic separation mechanism" was invented by Christopher Sheridan Kelly (Colorado Springs, Colo.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system and method for testing the decoupling of fluid fittings utilizing a hydraulic circuit in combination with a biasing mechanism to emulate the separation forces experienced by such couplings is disclosed. The biasing mechanism is loaded with a predetermined force and the flow of hydraulic fluid within the hydraulic circuit is controlled to follow desired separation force profiles."
The patent was ...