ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,486,638, issued on Dec. 2, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).
"Protected spring clip for retaining bits" was invented by David Bruno Parzynski Jr. (Peoria, Ill.) and Thomas Marshall Congdon (Dunlap, Ill.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An adapter board has an upper moldboard interfacing portion including a rear flat surface, a front surface, and a plurality of retaining spring clip receiving apertures extending from the front surface to the rear flat surface. A lower tool bit attachment portion of the adapter board terminates in a lower adapter board free end defining a bottom surface that defines a plurality of shank receivi...