The humble suction cup rarely receives the attention it deserves as a modern invention. Before the invention of the suction cup, attaching something to a flat vertical surface usually involved driving a nail into the surface or using a permanent adhesive like glue. With the invention of the regular passive suction cup, however, people now had a way to temporarily attach items to smooth vertical surfaces like glass or tiled walls. The pneumatic suction cup later proved to be the perfect solution to certain industrial and manufacturing problems such as glass handling. Convum suction cups and Convum vacuum pads have found particular niches in industrial applications and are used throughout the country.

Glass Handling
One of the tasks that stumped modern industrialists was how to automate the handling of glass. Glass was discovered relatively early in human history, certainly before the invention of pneumatic technology. As industrialization overtook the developed nations, however, industrialists encountered a problem when attempting to automate the production of glass. There was just no way to build machinery that would be able to handle glass effectively. The problem was the fragility of the glass and the relative clumsiness of mechanical grippers and other handling mechanisms.

When the pneumatic suction cup was first developed, industrialists realized that it was the perfect tool for manipulating glass panels. Instead of actively gripping and exerting force on the glass panels that would cause them to break, the suction cups would simply stick to the glass and lift it through the strength of the vacuum. This led to much greater efficiency in the glass manufacturing industry and can certainly be considered a triumph of modern industrialization.

Food Handling
While the problem with glass handling was that glass panels, while fragile, were also relatively heavy and thus required a more delicate handling mechanism than mechanical grippers and other mechanical lifters. With food the problem is quite different, and the problem is not so much the need for a strong yet delicate touch is necessary as the need for an extremely delicate touch. Food is much lighter than glass, and the problem with food handling is that it is all too easy to crush or otherwise deform foods.

One industry that has made ingenious use of pneumatic suction cups is the baking industry. Breads that are mass created need to be lifted off of oven trays and moved onto conveyer belts while maintaining their shape. Any sort of mechanical grip would crush or at least dent the bread, making it unsuitable for sale to consumers. With active vacuum cups, however, the bread can be picked up without exerting any downward pressure on it at all. Instead, the bread is pulled gently upward towards the suction cup, thus ensuring that the bread retains its shape perfectly.

Delicate Handling
Convum suction cups and Convum vacuum pads are particularly effective when it comes to handling delicate items, as the above examples show. They are easily integrated into existing pneumatic systems and function effectively with automated processes.

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For jobs that require automated yet delicate handling, then the Convum suction cups and Convum vacuum pads available from DAS Services Inc are your absolute best option!