Roto-GimVac™ Gripper - CNC Vacuum Spindle Gripper (FloLink™+Orient)
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Description
Our Patent-Pending Gimbel VacGrabber Spindle Gripper (with Bypass) is the only solution on the market that turns your CNC Machine into an automated loading cell with little to no adjustment. The proprietary Venturi Generator creates up to 12 PSI of vacuum, and is turned on by simply turning on your machine's Through Spindle Air Blast.
The addition of our patent-pending Rotary Bypass system enables the use of M19 Spindle Orientation while feeding in air through a spindle-mounted external Bypass Block, getting rid of the requirement for Through Spindle Air to use our Gimbel Automation Vacuum Part Grabber.
Technical Specs & Downloads
Downloads
Technical Specs
| Technical Specs | |
|---|---|
| Max Vacuum Achievable |
12 PSI |
| Vacuum Port Size | 1/8" NPT |
| Shank Diameter |
3/4" |
| Air Pressure Required |
75-140 PSI |
These are excellent for very tiny or very large parts. Since vacuum is equal to vacuum force across an area, a large suction cup can load and unload very heavy or cumbersome components automatically.
FAQs
A CNC Vacuum Grabber, also known as CNC Vacuum Gripper, Part-Tending Vacuum, or CNC Spindle Vacuum, is just like a CNC Spindle Gripper, except that it uses vacuum created by the Venturi effect to grab parts for CNC Machine Tending instead of a physical gripper. Spindle Grippers and Vacuum Grabbers are by far the most cost-effective and easiest-to-implement form of CNC Machine Tending Automation.
Unlike many other forms of Machine Tending Automation, CNC Spindle Grippers and CNC Vacuum Grabbers are the only form of CNC Machine Tending Automation that uses your CNC Machine itself to accomplish the movement of your components to be machined into and out of the workholding. CNC Vacuum Grabbers are even easier to setup and use than CNC Spindle Grippers (which is already incredibly easy compared to other forms of CNC Machine Tending Automation).
Just like our CNC Spindle Grippers, CNC Vacuum Grabbers are there to free up machine operators and let the machine tend itself automatically. Instead of eating up an operator’s entire day loading and unloading parts, the CNC Machine itself is able to load and unloads its own components, allowing operators to focus on process improvements, QC, and programming. While no form of CNC Machine Tending Automation eliminates the need for skilled operators, CNC Spindle Grippers often allow an operator to monitor and maintain five to six machines instead of only one.
Programming your CNC Vacuum Grabber for Automated Machine Tending is surprisingly easy. Check out our Programming Article for complete instructions. Since this was the biggest hurdle for our customers, we created a Program Generator to allow you to generate programs fully-automatically for single operation machine tending automation. For two-operation automation, such as what you might use with our Two-Op Automation Pallet, we provide you with a free comprehensive template, which makes programming parts to run fully automatically as simple as programming a single two-operation part.
Our CNC Vacuum Grabber is available in two variants:
- Universal Vacuum Grabber for Machines with Through Spindle Air
- Rotary Bypass Vacuum Grabber (Compatible with Haas, Brother, and Fanuc CAT40 & BT30) for Machines without Through Spindle Air
In short, if you have Through Spindle Air on your machine, our standard Vacuum Grabber is the correct choice for you. You just need to provide a tool-holder that can grab onto and seal against the 3/4 shank and integrated O-Ring. We typically recommend Hydraulic holders if you are providing your own tool holder.
Yes, you can do this using M19 Spindle Orient with our Rotary Bypass Vacuum Grabber or our Universal Through Air Model.
Our Vacuum Grabber generates approximately 10psi of vacuum. This results in a maximum pull-force of of 10 pounds multiplied by the surface area of the suction cup used. To add a safety margin, we recommend assuming 8psi of vacuum for your calculations. Therefore, the largest included two-inch diameter suction cup can safely move is 8psi multiplied by the area of the circle (area of a circle is pi multiplied by the radius squared). Therefore:
(8psi)*(π*(2/2)^2) = 25 pound part.
As you can see, the vacuum grabber can handle very large part weights. The biggest constraint is usually the stability of large parts, as you want to make sure part are not swinging from their own inertia during automated CNC Machine Tending. This can be made less of an issue by limiting rapid speeds on your machine.
Our Vacuum Grabber is used in facilities all over the world, and is most commonly used for blank stock, very small/light parts, or very large/heavy parts. As you can see from the FAQ directly above, the Vacuum Grabber can generate very large suction forces using a large suction cup. With a small suction cup, the force generated is exponentially smaller, but you can grab onto miniscule components. For instance, using the included 0.40” Suction Cup, the safe moving force can be calculated as:
(8psi)*(π*(0.400/2)^2) = 1 pound part.
For such a small diameter area, this is still excellent part-moving capability. You can provide any Suction Cup you want to move around arbitrarily small components.
Absolutely! The Vacuum Part Grabber has a 1/8” NPT threaded hole that can accept any commercially-available suction cup. We recommend buying from Anver or McMaster-Carr.