ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,703,427, issued on Aug. 11, was assigned to Shape Corp. (Grand Haven, Mich.).
"Vehicle front rail" was invented by Joseph Matecki (Allendale, Mich.), Jeffrey McHenry (Norton Shores, Mich.), Endry Gardian (Taufkirchen, Germany), Matthew Kuipers (Holland, Mich.) and Zehua Qin (Norton Shores, Mich.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A front rail configured to be supported by a vehicle frame includes a tubular body formed by a roll-formed high-strength metal and configured to undergo axial loading during a front vehicle impact. The high-strength metal sheet defines a cross-sectional shape along a length of the tubular body. The tubular body incl...