unit 13 in which the central position of the pocket 3 is calculated by using this data so that the following component 4 a single component 4 only in the pocket 3 can be gripped reliably by the suction gripper all the tolerances being eliminated the position of the pocket 3 in relation to the transport hole can change over a relatively long section of the belt in a further optical scanning unit not illustrated the position of the components removed on the suction gripper 9 is measured accurately in order to increase the placement accuracy in this way the sliding positional change of the pockets can be registered reliably and taken into account during operation in such a way that remeasurement of the belt 1 with the aid of the scanning optics 10 might only be required following a loss of data on the component placement device for example following an interruption for the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention reference has been made to the preferred embodiments illustrated in the drawings and specific language has been used to describe these embodiments however no limitation of the scope of the invention is intended by this specific language and the invention should be construed to encompass all embodiments that would normally occur to one of ordinary skill in the art the present invention may be described in terms of functional block components and various processing steps such functional blocks may be realized by any number of hardware and or software components configured to perform the specified functions for example the present invention may employ various integrated circuit components e g memory elements processing elements logic elements look up tables and the like which may carry out.