US Patent Issued to Vulcan Industrial Holdings on Dec. 16 for "Gradient material structures and methods of forming the same" (Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,498,051, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Vulcan Industrial Holdings LLC (Houston).

"Gradient material structures and methods of forming the same" was invented by Zhiyue Xu (Cypress, Texas) and Jason David Smith (Porter, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A valve seat for a pumping assembly. The valve seat includes a body including a gradient material structure that defines a strike face for the valve seat. The gradient material structure has a first material, a second material spaced from the first material, and a smooth compositional transition between the first material and the second material. In addition, the valve seat includes...