ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,358,163, issued on July 15, was assigned to FANUC Corp. (Yamanashi, Japan).
"Suction nozzle device" was invented by Chao Pan (Yamanashi, Japan) and Yoshio Motowaki (Yamanashi, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A suction nozzle device includes a large-diameter pipe, a large-diameter nozzle, a small-diameter pipe, a small-diameter nozzle, and a support mechanism for supporting the large-diameter and small-diameter pipes so as to be movable relative to each other. As the large-diameter and the small-diameter pipes move relative to each other, the large-diameter nozzle and the small-diameter nozzle selectively protrude. A nozzle can be se...