ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,595,838, issued on April 7, was assigned to TSUBAKIMOTO CHAIN Co. (Osaka, Japan).
"Chain" was invented by Yuhi Hirata (Osaka, Japan) and Kazuyuki Ebinuma (Osaka, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A chain with excellent wear resistance, which minimizes chain elongation, reduces vibration and noise, and improves drive efficiency; the chain includes at least a plurality of link plates and a plurality of pins as chain components. The pins and mutually sliding chain components sliding against the pins are formed with a hardened surface layer containing one of Cr carbide, Ti carbide, V carbide, Nb carbide, Cr nitride, Ti nitride, V nitride,...