ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,584,561, issued on March 24, was assigned to NORITZ Corp. (Hyogo, Japan).
"Distribution valve" was invented by Ryoji Ouchi (Hyogo, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A distribution valve includes a cylindrical valve body rotatably fitted into a valve main body having a first outlet, a second outlet, and an inlet, and a driver for rotating the valve body, and the distribution valve distributes fluid flowing from the inlet into the valve body to the first and second outlets. The valve body has a peripheral wall portion and a bottom surface portion that function as seal surface portions to close the first and second outlets and the inlet...