A Patent for LeTourneau University

LONGVIEW — LeTourneau University has been issued a U.S. Patent for a closed-loop microwave joining device. It can weld ceramics to metals and has the potential to be used in numerous industries. Two engineering professors, Dr. Yoni Adonyi and Dr. Seung Kim, along with two LETU engineering alumni, Alan Worchester and Ithamar Glumac, are co-inventors of the patent, number 9,374,853. All four names appear on the patent, which marks the first U.S. patent awarded to full time LETU faculty working with full time students since the school was founded in 1946. Potential uses for the device are where critical joints between advanced metals, ceramics and composites cannot be made any other way in the electronics, defense and aerospace industries. While the vast majority of microwave joining applications focus on polymers, or plastics, this invention tackles the other two major material types, advanced manufacturing of metals and ceramics.