ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,553,096, issued on Feb. 17, was assigned to NIPPON STEEL Corp. (Tokyo).
"Blank and structural member" was invented by Yasuhiro Ito (Tokyo), Takashi Yasutomi (Tokyo) and Soma Sonobe (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A blank (100) includes a main portion (110) that is made of steel having a tensile strength of 1450 MPa or more and a softened portion (120), the ratio of Vickers hardness of the softened portion (120) to the Vickers hardness of the main portion (110) is 0.7 or more and 0.95 or less, and the softened portion (120) is disposed at a position different from a position of the main portion (110) in an in-plane direction. A stru...