Apparatus and method of feeding arbitrarily thin wire with controlled tension

Abstract

A method of aligning a wire with a pathway inlet includes directing a feeding end of a wire toward a pathway inlet of a feed pathway, creating a pressure differential between the pathway inlet and a pathway outlet of the feed pathway thus creating a pressure-driven gas flow around the wire and into the pathway inlet. The wire is urged along the feed pathway toward the pathway outlet via the shear force of the gas flow created by the pressure differential. A method of preventing stiction of a wire with an inner wall of a thin pathway includes creating a pressure differential between a pathway inlet and a pathway outlet thus creating a pressure-driven gas flow around a feeding end of the wire and into the pathway inlet of the pathway, and inducing one of a flutter or vibration in the wire at the feeding end of the wire.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.