Patent ID: 8403388

Claim:
A device to be used in conjunction with a pick and place machine to pick up and place very small components of a given width and length, comprising: a. a hybrid nozzle including the use of both vacuum and mechanical gripping components; b. the hybrid nozzle including a hollow tube of rigid material having a first end and a second end, having an inside diameter and an outside diameter with a through slot of a given width cut into the first end and extending into the tube that terminates in a circular opening in the tube with a larger diameter than the width of the slot, the circular opening functioning as a hinge point, the circular opening having a to diameter approximately equal to the inside diameter of the tube, the first end of the tube having an additional notch sized for a width of a component to be picked up, the outer diameter of the nozzle tube being at least as long as a length of a component to be picked up; c. a flexible sleeve placed over the tube to completely cover the slot and circular opening but leave the first end of the tube with the notch uncovered; d. the second end of the tube is adapted to fit a pick tooling of a pick and place machine; and e. when a vacuum is applied to the second end of the tube through the pick and place machine, the vacuum pulls the small component into the notch in the first end of the tube sealing the inside of the tube from an atmosphere so that the atmospheric pressure then forces the notched end of the hybrid nozzle to close on the sides of the captured component so that the component is held by both vacuum and mechanical mechanisms.