ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 24 -- United States Patent no. 12,584,558, issued on March 24, was assigned to Woodward Inc. (Fort Collins, Colo.).
"Hybrid butterfly-ball flow control valve" was invented by Daniel B. Mastbergen (Loveland, Colo.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The subject matter of this specification can be embodied in, among other things, a flow control valve that includes a gate element formed as a spherical segment having a semispherical peripheral edge, a substantially planar face bounded by a substantially elliptical edge at the semispherical peripheral edge, and a channel defined in the substantially planar face and having a first end proximal to a midpoint of the substantially pl...