Vuototecnica octopus vacuum gripping system
The increasing demand of more and more flexible vacuum gripping systems by manufacturers of humanoid robots and palletisation systems, and our continuous strive for research and innovation, have led to the creation of the new OCTOPUS Bars.
In fact, the OCTOPUS bars allows gripping objects of any shape and nature, provided that they do not have excessive transpiration, without having to place or change vacuum cups, even when the surface occupies only 5÷10 % of the entire suction plate.
The working principle of the OCTOPUS bars is based on the vacuum differential created inside its base box when the vacuum generator’s capacity is higher than the amount of air suctioned through the holes of the suction plate. The suction plates are based on two different construction principles:
1° - Control and recovery of suction losses through micro-holes
In this case, the suction plate with micro-holes uniformly distributes the suction of the pump or vacuum generator, appropriately sized, ensuring a minimum vacuum level that is sufficient to lift the load, even when it only covers 5÷10 % of the plate surface. In the OCTOPUS bar, with a suction plate with micro-holes, the attainable vacuum level and; therefore, the gripping force, is directly proportional to the plate surface covered: as a matter of fact, the greater the surface covered by the load to be lifted, the greater the level of attainable vacuum. However, this principle implies higher energy consumption since a generator or vacuum pump, able to compensate for the loss of open micro-holes, up to 90 ÷ 95% of their total, is necessary in order to ensure a differential vacuum minimum, sufficient to lift the load with the least gripping surface.
2° - Exclusion of suction losses through self-closing valves
The self-closing valves with which this version of the suction plate is fitted, automatically eliminate the losses from the holes not covered by the load to be lifted, thereby, concentrating the suction of the generator or vacuum pump on the remaining covered holes. In this OCTOPUS bars, the attainable vacuum level is always the maximum of the pump or generator; it is constant over the entire surface covered by the load to be lifted, whether small or large, and is only affected by losses caused by the porosity of the load. This design principle offers significant energy savings since the self-closing valves, eliminating losses from the holes which are not under suction force, can significantly reduce the required capacity of the generator or vacuum pump.
