ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,558,836, issued on Feb. 24, was assigned to Kobe Steel Ltd. (Hyogo, Japan).
"Fiber-reinforced resin strand additive manufacturing method" was invented by Taka Ando (Hyogo, Japan) and Makoto Takenaka (Hyogo, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fiber-reinforced resin strand used as a manufacturing material for a 3D printer, the fiber-reinforced resin strand containing: a base material containing a thermoplastic resin; and at least one fiber or fiber bundle disposed in the base material and extending in a strand-axial direction. Twisting is applied to the fiber or the fiber bundle along the strand-axial direction, and the number of times...