ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,246,985, issued on March 11, was assigned to WHIRLPOOL Corp. (Benton Harbor, Mich.).
"Scratch-resistant coating for glass ceramic cooktop" was invented by Margherita Basso (Scorze, Italy), Luigi De Nardo (Milan) and Agnese D'Agostino (Gioia Sannitica, Italy).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Scratch-resistant coatings, especially for cooktops, and substrates or products having said scratch-resistant coatings and methods for the production thereof are described herein. More particularly, scratch-resistant coatings obtained via sol-gel approach and coated substrates having thereon a hard material layer comprising metal nitride(s) and/or metal...