US Patent Issued to SMC on Nov. 3 for "Cylinder device" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,781,775, issued on Nov. 3, was assigned to SMC Corp. (Tokyo).

"Cylinder device" was invented by Ken Tamura (Tsukubamirai, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cylinder device includes a guide member fixed to a body; a piston member displaced only in the axial direction; a piston rod displaceable in the circumferential direction and the axial direction; and a conversion mechanism that converts some of the displacement of the piston member to circumferential displacement. The conversion mechanism includes an L-shaped displacement switching groove provided to the guide member; a helical groove provided to the piston member and inclined wit...