ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,600,577, issued on April 14, was assigned to SHINMAYWA INDUSTRIES LTD. (Hyogo, Japan).
"Rubber plug supply device" was invented by Nozomi Shimizu (Takarazuka, Japan) and Masaru Hisano (Takarazuka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A rubber plug supply device 10 places a rotating body 40 in a first rotation position R1 when it is detected by a sensor 25 that the orientation of a rubber plug 5 supplied is a first orientation, and places the rotating body 40 in a second rotation position R2 when it is detected that the orientation of the rubber plug 5 is a second orientation, and then supplies the rubber plug 5 to a first accommodating ...