The family of so-called large-area vacuum gripper systems manufactured by J. Schmalz GmbH in D-72293 Glatten presents a new scion at the CeMAT 2005.

With this new device, the vacuum specialists in the Black Forest underline their position as leading suppliers of powerful vacuum gripping systems for use with handling equipment, industrial robots and portals.

The range of Schmalz large-area gripping products is subdivided into three segments:

standard gripper modules FX/FM for the construction of individual gripping systems for product handling in in-house logistics applications, special layer grippers VacuBox/SBX for flexible use in the woodworking industry and the palletizers SPZ-S and SPZ-M for palleting and depalleting complete layers of products in stockrooms and for handling the pallets and intermediate layers of paper or cardboard.

The latest addition to the family is the Palletizer SPZ-M, which differs from the Palletizer SPZ-S in that it is equipped with auxiliary mechanical grippers. Both palletizers are delivered fully assembled and ready for connection.

The gripper module is supplied via a flexible hose with vacuum generated by one or more blowers, which must be installed outside the handling system. The large-area griper systems SPZ designed to handle all standard pallet sizes, but can also be adjusted to handle pallets of other sizes. The suction surface of the palletizer is divided into a large number of individual suction cells, each of which is connected to the vacuum supply via a check valve.

The use of check valves has the advantage that it permits the implementation of short machine cycles and that high holding forces are achieved very quickly. The gripper system is controlled in accordance with the customer's requirements.

It can, for example, be  controlled with the aid of pneumatic valves which provide both gripping and blowing-off functions in order to permit highly dynamic motion by fast gripping and release of the parts to be moved.

The interface between the gripper system and the product to be handled is a suction plate which, depending on the handling task, is made from a special, flexible foam-rubber material or is assembled from a number of individual grippers. In both cases, any suction cells not in contact with the object to be lifted are immediately switched off.

As mentioned above, the gripper version SPZ-M has an auxiliary mechanical gripper which holds the product layers on all four sides. This prevents the layers from slipping and supports the vacuum holding force during acceleration and fast movement, which means that operations can be executed faster and with more precise positioning on the pallet.

This auxiliary mechanical gripper is particularly useful when handling relatively soft packages, where it improves the process reliability.

To increase the range of possible applications, the palletizer is also available in a special version suitable for handling deep-frozen goods.

The large-area gripper systems Palletizer SPZ-S and SPZ-M can be used universally for palettizing/depalettizing, commissioning and stacking tasks. Without the need to change or convert the gripper, they are capable of a handling complete product layers, partial layers or packages in random positions on the pallet dynamically and safely, and they can also handle the actual pallets and the intermediate layers of paper or cardboard which have to be inserted to improve the stability of the stack.

The user needs to invest only once in a new gripper system, since only the suction plate needs to be changed or modified in the case of product changes or differing operating areas.