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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowCummins Inc. received 287 patents from the United States and other countries in 2017—a record for the manufacturer.
Last year marked the fifth straight increase in the number of patents the company received, starting in 2013 when Cummins earned 156 patents.
Cummins got its start as a diesel-engine maker, but today the company is working on a variety of powertrain technologies, including engines that run on biofuels or natural gas, as well as fully electric powertrains. The company is also developing its capabilities in telematics—engine components that generate a constant stream of data and communicate with online networks in real time.
“It can take several years to acquire a patent, so comparing numbers on a year-to-year basis is not a perfect measure,” Wayne Eckerle, Cummins vice president of research and technology, said in a prepared statement. “But we’ve seen a pretty consistent increase since 2013 as our engineering teams live the company’s vision of ‘innovating for our customers to power their success.’”•
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