US Patent Issued to Lockheed Martin on June 30 for "Automated pre-weld tube cleaning using laser ablation" (Texas Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,667,869, issued on June 30, was assigned to Lockheed Martin Corp. (Bethesda, Md.).

"Automated pre-weld tube cleaning using laser ablation" was invented by Cameron Alexander Wichman (Fort Worth, Texas), David Haynes Coleman (Fort Worth, Texas), Jeffrey P. Langevin (Fort Worth, Texas) and Ethan Louis Torres (Fort Worth, Texas).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system includes a laser drive assembly and a computer system. The laser drive assembly includes a laser that emits a laser beam to clean an end of a tube, a first motor that changes an angle of the laser beam with respect to the end of the tube, a second motor that moves the laser late...