Pneumatic cups and lifters frequently influence you, but you may not even know it. First it's important to understand how they work and what they are. Pneumatic systems work when air from a closed volume is used to create a pressure difference between that volume and the surrounding atmosphere. If the closed volume of air is protected by the surface of the pneumatic cup or lifter and a work piece, the atmospheric pressure created will effectively press both surfaces together.
The pneumatic force holding the two objects together depends on the surface area shared by the objects relative to the vacuum's power, but as a tool in many industries, pneumatic cups are used with great success to achieve a wide variety of goals. With most industrial pneumatics, an advanced system is used to add and remove air from the entire system to create the necessary pressure differential.
But how are pneumatic cups used? Have you seen pictures or videos of daredevils climbing large vertical building with what appears to be suction cups? Quickly moving up the side of the glass building foot by foot, all the while relieving on the vacuum pressure created between a simple hand operated suction cup and the building's surface? Vacuum suction cups , pneumatic cup sand lifters work in a somewhat similar (while far less dangerous) way.
For the manufacturing industry, pneumatic cups and lifters are used as a means of quickly, safely, and effortlessly lifting, picking, and placing for many applications. Additionally, pneumatic lifters can range in diversity from simple mechanical hooks to fully customized pneumatic suction lifters for delicate electronic equipment. This makes it possible to quickly manufacture, inspect, and package a wide variety of things, like compact discs and small depleate electronics components. Or, for many applications that create products within a mold or casting, a pneumatic suction cup or lifter is the perfect solution to quickly and conveniently lift the product out of the cast or mold.
Like the earlier example of a dimming climber using suction cups to scale a building, many pneumatic cups and lifters are designed for use on glass, with design and features geared towards safely and effectively moving glass without disturbing the surface or – most importantly -dropping the Raised object.
While you might seldom (or never) think about how a product, part, or component gets from point "A" (the factory) to point "B" (the consumer), pneumatic cups and lifters are one of the unsung heroes of the Manufacturing process, making it faster and easier to bring a product to market. For you, this translates into lower costs for consumers overall. So as you can see, pneumatic suction cups and lifters are often a critical step between the actual creation of the products and parts and their actual delivery to the places you can find them every day.