The large-area vacuum grippers from the vacuum specialist J. Schmalz GmbH in D-72293 Glatten are today used in all areas of the woodworking industry and by artisans. The types FX and FM are designed for the safe and precise handling of workpieces which have already been machined, even if these have opening and holes. The extremely robust VacuBox, in contrast, is ideal for the handling of long, heavy and warped sheets and planks, and is intended more for very rough operations.

The gap between these two application areas is now filled by the type SBX, a flexible vacuum beam for medium to rough operations. The new SBX vacuum beam can safely and reliably handle rough-sawn wood, building timber, warped beams and planks, and is equally suitable for the handling of new and used wooden pallets. The possible range of applications is thus extended to include the area of material flow, store-room technology, commissioning and packing, where pallets need to be changed, positioned and loaded with the aid of industrial robots.

The SBX vacuum beam, which is available in four standard sizes, is a compact unit with a low weight, which can easily be installed and integrated into existing work processes. It can be combined very well with fast handling devices or industrial robots, where its light weight minimises the effects on the dynamic motion of such devices. If necessary, several such vacuum beams can be mounted on a cross-beam to form a flexible gripper system capable, for example, of handling wooden workpieces of many different sizes and shapes without the need for specific conversion for each workpiece. Furthermore, the SBX vacuum beam can be used to handle both single workpieces or complete layers.

The vacuum for the SBX can be generated either by an integrated ejector or by an external vacuum pump or blower. Extremely high holding forces are achieved by the use of a pump or an ejector, since these reach a maximum vacuum value of -0.85 bar, compared with the value of -0.45 bar reached with a conventional blower. This high vacuum value results in an explosive flow of air during evacuation, which ensures that even badly warped planks or sheets are gripped safely. The short cycle times which can be achieved with the vacuum beam SBX minimise the non-productive times during handing of the parts, permitting more efficient and economical utilisation of the machine tools.

The SBX utilises the same valve technology as the other large-area vacuum grippers from Schmalz, where it has proved its value and demonstrated that it is unaffected by dirt. The same applies to the special sealing mats, which permit virtually no leaks and thus ensure high efficiency at low energy consumption.