US Patent Issued to Caterpillar on July 28 for "Space frame kinetic node casting" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,691,942, issued on July 28, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).

"Space frame kinetic node casting" was invented by David O. Zalanka (Mt Zion, Ill.), Thomas J. Rood (Oreana, Ill.) and Timothy D. Harman (Decatur, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A center upper frame node connector, which can be a casting, can comprise: a forward horizontal upper frame node oriented in a first forward direction; a rearward horizontal upper frame node oriented in a first rearward direction opposite the first forward direction; a rearward angular upper frame node oriented in a second rearward direction and a first downward direction; a vertica...