US Patent Issued to Bridgestone Bandag on July 28 for "Versatile sipe machine" (Iowa Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,691,652, issued on July 28, was assigned to Bridgestone Bandag LLC (Nashville, Tenn.).

"Versatile sipe machine" was invented by Troy A Kost (Muscatine, Iowa), Jim L. Jones (Muscatine, Iowa), Robert G. Otting (Muscatine, Iowa) and Logan M. Koepke (Muscatine, Iowa).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method of cutting a sipe pattern into a tire tread includes feeding the tire tread through a leading roller assembly and toward a plunge cutting assembly along a tread plane, actuating the plunge cutting assembly to cut a first sipe at a first angle and a first depth using a blade, the blade operably coupled to the plunge cutting assembly, and act...