Patent ID: 7752806

Claim:
A holding device for permitting alignment of rod-shaped components therein comprising: a foot part, a receiving part for the rod-shaped component arranged on the foot part, a plurality of holding elements pivotally attached to the holding device, the plurality of holding elements being arranged about an axis of symmetry of the receiving part, each of said plurality of holding elements moving between a plurality of incrementally changed discrete positions starting from: an open releasing position, in which the holding elements release the receiving part for inserting or taking out the rod-shaped component, a next contacting position in which the plurality of holding elements are brought into initial contact with the rod shaped component, then into an aligning position in which the plurality of holding elements more firmly contact the rod shaped component than in the contacting position yet allow a defined sliding movement of at least some of the holding elements along the rod shaped component, and finally into a fully closed holding position in which the plurality of holding elements tightly grip the rod shaped component so that there is no sliding movement there between, and a tensioning device fixed to the foot part by which each of the plurality of holding elements can be moved, using at least one connecting element, out of the releasing position, to the contacting position, then to the aligning position and into the holding position, with each of said plurality of holding elements being furnished with a contact region that becomes progressively in greater contact with the rod shaped component as the holding elements move from the contacting positions to the aligning positions and finally into the holding positions, said contact regions having a surface which is convexly arched towards the axis of symmetry and which is slide resistant when in the aligning positions in such a manner that it establishes a higher slide resistance to upwardly directed siding movement of the rod shaped component and a lesser slide resistance to downwardly directed sliding movement of the rod shaped component.