ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,275,050, issued on April 15, was assigned to Whirlpool Corp. (Benton Harbor, Mich.).

"Machine compartment for a vacuum insulated structure" was invented by Jeffrey P. Beckner (Niles, Mich.), Paul B. Allard (Coloma, Mich.), Lynne F. Hunter (Dorr, Mich.), Gustavo Frattini (St. Joseph, Mich.) and Abhay Naik (Stevensville, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of forming a refrigerator cabinet includes a step where an external wrapper that defines a rear surface is provided. The rear surface of the external wrapper is deep-drawn to form a machine compartment that defines a top wall, a bottom wall, and an interior wall. An inner liner ...