US Patent Issued to Ford Global Technologies on Aug. 18 for "Power unit for front beam axle" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,709,146, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).

"Power unit for front beam axle" was invented by David Oh (Canton, Mich.), David Janson (Plymouth, Mich.) and Bryant Poynter (Redford, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methods and systems for configuring a four-wheel drive high gross weight vehicle are presented. In one non-limiting example, a traction battery covers a lateral expanse between a first frame rail and a second frame rail, thereby providing higher storage capacity for the traction battery even though the vehicle is configured for four-wheel drive."

The patent was filed on April 8...