ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,544,881, issued on Feb. 10.
"Vacuum gripper" was invented by Nimrod Rotem (Sheung Wan, Hong Kong).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vacuum gripper comprises a rigid base element and a loop-shaped vacuum seal element. The base element has first and second opposite sides. The seal element is attached at least indirectly to the second side and protruding therefrom in a direction away from the first side. The seal element comprises a contact surface that at least partially contacts with an object surface and an encircling surface oriented transversely to the contact surface so as to define a chamber. The seal element is elastically deformable ...