ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,508,724, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to SMC Corp. (Tokyo).
"Vacuum pad swing prevention mechanism" was invented by Masaru Saitoh (Tsukubamirai, Japan) and Yukiya Goto (Tsukubamirai, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vacuum pad includes a support member that includes a vacuum passage and a bellows that is attached to the support member, and the cover body includes a cylindrical body portion, an attaching portion projecting from one end of the body portion, and a flange portion projecting radially outward from another end of the body portion. The cover body covers the outside of the bellows when the bellows contracts and holds a w...