ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,583,531, issued on March 24, was assigned to Honda Motor Co. Ltd. (Tokyo).
"Tunnel reinforcing structure" was invented by Yuki Muramatsu (Tokyo), Kota Fujisawa (Tokyo) and Shuma Yoshioka (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tunnel reinforcing structure includes a floor cross member that extends in a vehicle width direction and that couples a side sill on each side of the vehicle and a floor tunnel to each other, the floor tunnel being a tunnel in which an exhaust pipe is arranged in a tunnel interior opened toward the lower external side of a vehicle, seat brackets that are arranged in front of and behind the cross member in a vehicl...