ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,667,939, issued on June 30.
"Workpiece-clamping element" was invented by Martin Zimmer (Rheinau, Germany) and Gunther Zimmer (Rheinau, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A workpiece-clamping element has a cylinder and a lifting rod assembly guided in the cylinder with an annular piston and with an inner tube. The lifting rod assembly carries a suction plate having a workpiece support surface. A workpiece table has a plurality of workpiece-clamping elements of this type. A cylinder bottom of the cylinder penetrated by the lifting rod assembly, the lifting rod assembly and a cylinder jacket tube of the cylinder delimit a pressure chamb...