ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,547,084, issued on Feb. 10, was assigned to DR. JOHANNES HEIDENHAIN GMBH (Traunreut, Germany).
"Positioning device" was invented by Arjan Bakker (Helenaveen, Netherlands) and Bart van Campen (Eindhoven, Netherlands).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A positioning device for positioning a stage relative to a tool mounted on a carrier device includes two intersecting linear axes disposed one above the other for pre-positioning the stage. A first magnetic levitation unit is configured to support the stage on one of the linear axes, the stage being actively movable for fine positioning in six degrees of freedom. A measuring head and first and se...