ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,300,412, issued on May 13, was assigned to Yokogawa Electric Corp. (Tokyo).

"Magnetizing apparatus and magnetizing method" was invented by Shoichi Shiosaki (Musashino, Japan), Shinya Mito (Musashino, Japan) and Shoma Takeda (Musashino, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A magnetizing apparatus (1) includes an openable and closeable annular portion (3) formed by a magnet (2). The annular portion (3) includes a lock mechanism (4) configured to hold the annular portion (3) in a closed state. A magnetizing method includes an attaching step of placing an object inside the annular portion (3) by opening and closing the annular portion (3) an...