Research on the Lifting Forces of Industrial Plastic Vacuum Cups

Industrial vacuum cups are used for lifting, holding and moving a wide variety of automated applications for handling semi-finished products and parts made of a wide range of materials - metal, glass, plastic, paper, wood, etc. and are used in a variety of industries. This paper presents some of the authors theoretical and experimental research on the maximum lifting force that different types of vacuum cups can achieve. The study was carried out on the basis of sizing recommendations made by manufacturers and dealers of these types of vacuum cups. The specially designed experimental stand was installed on the universal material testing machine LBG 100 kN and allowed the practical determination of these lifting forces provided by various types of industrial vacuum cups. Lifting force measurements were carried out with the AXIS FB 1k digital dynamometer attached to the machine. Vacuum cups of 3 different shapes and made of 3 different materials were used, using different vacuum depressions - 0.3 bar, -0.5 bar, -0.7 bar and -0.9 bar. The research aimed to determine by measurement the maximum lifting force of these types of vacuum cups applied to steel parts. The results obtained for these forces were compared with the calculated theoretical values, with the manufacturer�s recommended dimensioning values, and comparative conclusions were also drawn on the maximum lifting force provided by the different types of industrial vacuum cups studied.