ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,746,973, issued on Sept. 29, was assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA K.K. (Aichi-Ken, Japan).
"Vehicle floor structure" was invented by Nobuyuki Itai (Toyota, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A floor cross member is joined to an upper surface of a floor panel so as to traverse a raised tunnel portion of the floor panel. The floor cross member is composed of a cross member center component formed of an aluminum alloy cast and cross member side components formed of steel plates and arranged on left and right sides of the cross member center component, respectively. A recess is formed in an undersurface of the cross member center component to e...