ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,240,215, issued on March 4, was assigned to ZEPHYROS INC. (Romeo, Mich.).
"Hybrid reinforcement structure" was invented by Henry E. Richardson (Washington, Mich.), Xuping Qian (Novi, Mich.) and Gary Hulett (Memphis, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A structural reinforcement for insertion into a cavity of a vehicle structure including a base reinforcing portion, an expandable material and a localized reinforcement is disclosed. The localized reinforcement is placed within the structural reinforcement at a location of anticipated increased deformation during vehicle impact in an effort to reduce deformation and control the load distri...