ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,583,094, issued on March 24, was assigned to MTS MASCHINENBAU GMBH (Mengen, Germany).
"Contactless locking of ratchet columns" was invented by Eckhard Laible (Leinfelden-Schlechtenmuhle, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In an automatically operable rack for storing workpieces in ratchet columns with side walls (1.1, 1.2), between which movable ratchets (5) are arranged which serve to hold the workpieces, wherein the ratchets (5) can be brought from a rest position into a working position in which they hold the workpiece, and a locking/unlocking unit is assigned to the last ratchet (5.2), the locking being affected by a rotary move...