ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,384,054, issued on Aug. 12, was assigned to AMADA Co. LTD. (Kanagawa, Japan).
"Vacuum gripper and workpiece sucking and holding method" was invented by Yuuki Takahashi (Kanagawa, Japan), Masataka Ishida (Kanagawa, Japan) and Hiroshi Iwanaga (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A plurality of first vacuum pads for suctioning a workpiece are directly or indirectly attached to a main body. A slider is configured to slide in an outward direction of the main body. When the slider slides to protrude in the outward direction of the main body while the first vacuum pads are suctioning the workpiece, a sensor detects an end portion of ...