US Patent Issued to VMI HOLLAND on Feb. 18 for "Gripper, gripper station and method for gripping an annular tire component" (Dutch Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,226,970, issued on Feb. 18, was assigned to VMI HOLLAND B.V. (Netherlands).

"Gripper, gripper station and method for gripping an annular tire component" was invented by Timen Anton Van Werven (Epe, Netherlands), Robin Nusselder (Epe, Netherlands) and Willem Marinus Van Beek (Epe, Netherlands).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A gripper, a gripper station and a method for gripping an annular tire component, wherein the gripper has a plurality of gripper members distributed in a circumferential direction about a gripper axis and movable with at least a vector component in a radial direction perpendicular to the gripper axis over a main range w...