US Patent Issued to Caterpillar on Sept. 8 for "Idler wheel with tapered webbing" (American, Japanese, Indian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,728,940, issued on Sept. 8, was assigned to Caterpillar Inc. (Peoria, Ill.).

"Idler wheel with tapered webbing" was invented by Brian B. Umbach (Peoria, Ill.), Martin Tagore Joseph Xavier (Tamil Nadu, India) and Seiji Iijima (Akashi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An idler wheel may include an annular rim portion, an annular hub portion configured to be positioned about an axle, a webbing extending from an outer surface of the hub portion to an inner surface of the rim portion, the webbing including a first radius portion converging with the inner surface of the rim portion, a second radius portion converging with the outer surface...