ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,336,107, issued on June 17, was assigned to YAMAHA HATSUDOKI K.K. (Iwata, Japan).
"Component supply apparatus and component mounting apparatus" was invented by Yukinari Awano (Iwata, Japan) and Takahito Mikami (Iwata, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A component supply apparatus includes a sending part configured to send tape housing a component therein in a sending direction so as to supply the component to a component supply position; a main body having an opposed surface extending in the sending direction, which faces a lower surface of the tape being sent by the sending part; a leaf spring member extending in the sending directio...