US Patent Issued to Crown Equipment on Dec. 30 for "Steering shaft assembly for a materials handling vehicle" (North Carolina Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,509,337, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Crown Equipment Corp. (New Bremen, Ohio).

"Steering shaft assembly for a materials handling vehicle" was invented by John Tinker (Greenville, N.C.) and Clinton Reges (Greenville, N.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A steering shaft assembly including an adapter plate; a steer housing spaced apart from and secured to the adapter plate and including a boss extending toward the adapter plate; a bearing secured within the boss; a steering shaft coupled to the bearing to allow rotation about a steering axis; and one or more friction and/or spring discs positioned about the steering shaft between the...