ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,636,643, issued on May 26, was assigned to PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT Co. LTD. (Osaka, Japan).
"Water softener" was invented by Juri Mukai (Tokyo), Yui Matsumoto (Aichi, Japan), Hiroki Ishikawa (Aichi, Japan) and Yoshihiro Tsuji (Aichi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Water softening system includes water softening tank, neutralization tank, electrolysis tank, and treatment tank. Water softening tank softens raw water containing a hardness component with weakly acidic cation exchange resin. Neutralization tank neutralizes a pH of soft water that has flowed through water softening tank with weakly basic anion exchange ...