Patent ID: 8740506

Claim:
A positioning apparatus comprising: a stage having a surface that is flat and on which a thin plate-like object is set, the plate-like object being a piezoelectric element having a shape that is quadrangle and is to be attached to an attaching part of a head suspension, the stage's surface having a first area within which the piezoelectric element is roughly positioned and a second area within which the piezoelectric element is positioned at a target position corresponding to the attaching part; a stop unit receiving the piezoelectric element set on the stage in a planar direction of the piezoelectric element along the surface of the stage so that the piezoelectric element is positioned at the target position in the second area of the surface; and a pushing unit that blows a gas to push the piezoelectric element toward the stop unit in the planar direction so that the piezoelectric element slides on the stage; and wherein the stop unit has two stop faces corresponding to adjacent two sides of an outer periphery of the piezoelectric element; wherein the pushing unit has a single nozzle opening oriented in the planar direction toward a corner area between the two stop faces, so that the nozzle opening faces two side faces at an outer periphery of the piezoelectric element, said two side faces being distal to said corner area when the piezoelectric element is roughly positioned in the first area of the stage; and wherein the pushing unit blows the gas through the single nozzle opening toward the corner area between the two stop faces, whereby the blown gas hits said two end faces of the piezoelectric element that is roughly positioned in the first area of the stage and enters under the roughly-positioned piezoelectric element to slide the roughly-positioned piezoelectric element toward the target position in the second area.