ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,497,981, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Vortex Pipe Systems LLC (Austin, Texas).
"Material flow amplifier" was invented by Paul Wayne Schmidt (Carlton, Ore.) and Avijit Ghosh (Austin, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Material flow amplifiers overcome drawbacks associated with known adverse flow conditions (e.g., surface erosion and head losses) that arise from flow of certain types of materials (e.g., fluids, slurries, particulates, flowable aggregate, and the like) through a material flow conduit. Such material flow amplifiers provide for flow of flowable material within a flow passage of a material flow conduit (e.g., a portion...