ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,606,018, issued on April 21, was assigned to Illinois Tool Works Inc. (Glenview, Ill.).
"Covering device for a vehicle and actuator" was invented by Zsolt Wilke (Bad Mergentheim, Germany), Andreas Rudolf (Wurzburg, Germany), Christian Beck (Rottingen, Germany) and Matthias Hegwein (Ippesheim, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A covering device for a vehicle, includes: a cover; a drive element formed to enable a movement of the cover, wherein the drive element brings about a force which acts on the cover. The covering device has a force-limitation apparatus which limits the force brought about by the drive element to a limit force s...