In order to block the impurities and dust produced during the packaging of bulk products, even the finest particles, Vuototecnica offers FCL in line suction filters with paper cartridges.

These filters offer a wide range of advantages, including a compact size, visual inspection facilitated by a transparent Plexiglas body, interchangeable threaded connection flanges in anodized aluminium, and the maintenance of flow capacity even with the partial obstruction of the filter cartridge itself.

FCL filters are unlike any other filter currently available on the market. In fact, they’re designed specifically for handling vacuum operations and, thanks to their internal geometry, are even capable of ensuring a much greater cross-section and suction flow than any other in-line filter.

The complete visibility afforded by the Plexiglas allows for the cartridge’s clogging status to be assessed instantaneously. And even more importantly, these filters can be fully inspected. In fact, they can be opened at any time and the paper cartridge can be easily cleaned using compressed air.

These products offer clear advantages when compared to the single-use disposable filters normally used with packaging machinery. Even in terms of reduced maintenance time.

With FCL filters, you’ll always have everything under control. Based on the user’s specific requirements, these filters can be installed directly upon the vacuum piping near vacuum cups, vacuum clamping systems and various other utilities. The end user can even realize ad hoc configurations thanks to the various types of threading available for the aluminium cylinder heads.

Giuliano Bosi
e Jonathan Plumb

Vuototecnica UK, starting in 2007, endured a difficult economic period but despite all it managed to overcome it thanks to the quality of its products and the orientation to problem solving. The UK operation is based in the centre of the UK in Northamptonshire providing excellent connections to all parts of the mainland and Ireland. Now in its 6th year of trading, Vuototecnica has accelerated growth by FULLY understand vacuum as a technology supported by the most comprehensive product range available. There is no limit to the applications of vacuum: from robotics to packaging, from food industry to scientific applications, from the assembly line to the pallet.

Jonathan Plumb,
UK Divisional Manager with over 30 years Air and Vacuum industry experience explains:  “Vacuum is commonly referred to as a Smoke and Mirrors technology with many end users and supply companies not fully understanding the application or solutions to specific needs. Vuototecnica is unique in the market and does offer an unrivalled technical knowledge across a comprehensive range of products and applications. Solutions to vacuum problems or new applications require specific vacuum experience to fully understand and advise a cost effective and reliable outcome. Many users state they need more vacuum because of a perceived problem with flow and usually the manufacturers respond with a sale without really understanding how or why a problem exists… after all a sale is a sale. This is not the approach of Vuototecnica”, says Jonathan. The most important thing, for Vuototecnica, is to meet the needs of end customers to be truly useful and provide true cost savings and unparalleled efficiency. Jonathan Plumb states: “Our aim is simple: to provide the best solution for the application and to guarantee product performance. Customers can be confident that any products purchased provide a total solution to the need to which we, the manufacturer, standby”.

For more information about the work of Vuototecnica UK, visit http://www.vuototecnica.co.uk

Vacuum technology is a crucial element of the forming machines used to create cardboard packaging elements for the packaging industry.

Vuototecnica designs and manufactures flat elliptical vacuum cups, as well as the relative supports, to be lodged within the working surfaces of these forming machines. These units are capable of holding one of the cardboard’s sides stationary while the forming takes place on the opposite side using traditional vacuum cups. These vacuum cups can nevertheless also be used for manipulating and handling small objects made of plastic or cardboard.

Thanks to their reduced internal volumes, these vacuum cups offer exceptional gripping stability and, more importantly, provide for simple and cost-effective maintenance. Once consumed, in fact, it is sufficient to replace the lips of the vacuum cups themselves, which are available in various compounds based on the gripping surface, the working environment and the required operating cycles.

With Vuototecnica’s elliptical vacuum cups, you’ll never have to replace an entire vacuum cup and vulcanized metal support again, thus ensuring optimal savings in terms of both time and money.

To find out more about the available compounds or to request a custom product, please visit  www.vuototecnica.net

P.C.A. Pneumo Center Autom. S.r.l and P.C.A. Est are two of Vuototecnica’s of long standing distributors. Today we interviewed Mr. Ezio Boer, the company’s owner:

P.C.A. was originally established in 1978 as a sole proprietorship company under the name of Pneumo Center Automazioni di Boer Ezio, and in 1989 became P.C.A. Pneumo Center Automazioni Srl, based at Pordenone’s Wholesale Centre. P.C.A.’s customers operate in a wide range of sectors, including the wood, mechanical, chemical, electrical and electronics industries. They range from small craftsmen to large companies. And each receives the same attention. During this era of computers, email and social networks, we consider our focus upon interpersonal relationships to be fundamental, not to mention extremely rewarding. Most of our clients are located in the provinces of Pordenone, Treviso, Belluno and Vicenza.

P.C.A. EST was founded in 1998 with headquarters in Buttrio, and has always been dedicated to serving the provinces of Udine, Trieste and Gorizia, as well as the nations of Slovenia and Croatia.

How did your partnership with Vuototecnica arise?

Our partnership with Vuototecnica began several decades ago, but was officially consolidated in 2012. P.C.A. has always provided pre-and post-sales services to its customers via an efficient technical support service.

Vacuum technology is still on the rise and its application is sometimes rather tricky, but in Vuototecnica we found an ideal supplier who has always been able to resolve every critical situation brilliantly for us when it comes to vacuum technologies in the field of automation. The value chain that we offer to the end customer is comprised of skill, quality products and human relationships, and these three factors have always distinguished our company on a nation-wide basis.

As official Vuototecnica partners, we are part of a network of distributors who are aware of the potential that vacuum technology has to offer, above all in terms of the solutions offered by Vuototecnica.

For businesses, saving energy has now become a primary necessity. And the automotive industry, in which operational performance goes hand in hand with the need for energy efficiency, is a perfect example. These requirements must be taken into account for the robotic handling of sheet metal, glass and plastic automotive parts.

Vuototecnica fully satisfies these requirements with the AVG (automotive vacuum generator), which is designed to be mounted directly upon the robots themselves, even the smallest and most flexible models.

Due to specific industry requirements, the AVG has been specially equipped with single stage ejectors in order to ensure faster vacuum generation within the vacuum cups mounted upon the gripping elements.

Thanks to the AVG’s adjustable and integrated pneumatic vacuum switch, companies can enjoy a compressed air savings of up to 40%. In fact, the AVG unit is designed to interrupt the compressed air flow when it reaches the predetermined maximum vacuum level, and only reactivates it when the vacuum level falls below the minimum threshold.

The AVG even continues to save energy, as described above, in the total absence of electrical power, or rather in the event of a power failure or line disconnection. Thanks to this essential energy saving feature, the AVG has succeeded in distinguishing itself from its various competitors throughout the industry.

In fact, the standard venturi tubes installed upon the grippers of the automotive industry’s robots are generally supplied by normally open solenoid compressed air valves which, due to their configuration, continue to remain open (and consume compressed air), even when the power supply is not present.  The AVG, on the other hand, maintains its power-saving functionality even when its miniature pneumatic solenoid valve is disconnected from the electrical electrical power supply.

A second miniature pneumatic solenoid valve is mounted on board the AVG for injecting compressed air into the vacuum circuit, thus ensuring the rapid recovery of the atmospheric pressure inside the vacuum cups, as well as the thorough cleaning of the vacuum pipes.

Thanks to its larger and high-performance SSX series free-flow exhaust mufflers, the AVG will not cause increased noise pollution at the workplace. The unit can be equipped with a 12 05 11 series micro digital vacuum switch, and is even available in the AVG..P configuration, which guarantees the jolt and impact protection required by the automotive industry.

The AVG range is currently made up of the following models: The AVG18  and the AVG25

The attached video shows the AVG vacuum generator assisting a group of MAXIGRIP CUPS vacuum cups in gripping a piece of irregular sheet metal.

To find out more about the technical specifications, download the on-line catalogue or contact the Vuototecnica technical office.

The Vuototecnica commitment has always been to ensure its customers efficiency and energy savings. In this same vein, Vuototecnica has been designing and manufacturing self-closing valves for application on various types of suction cups since the 1980s.

These special one-way valves, when the object to be taken is missing, are able to automatically and hermetically close the suction part of the cup, in this way allowing the flow field of the vacuum source to concentrate only on the gripping suction cups, without undesirable reduction of the degree of vacuum.

For years now, Vuototecnica has been successfully working on suction manipulators for gripping sheeting, glass or marble slabs, wood panels or, in any case, where there is a need for maximum operational flexibility on grippers, for differing shape and size products arriving in the withdrawal area.

In addition, the 14..05/10/15 series valves are characterised by the fact that they can be calibrated in operational sensitivity by means of an adjustment screw that acts on the opposing force of the springs contained in it. This option provides the user the opportunity to adjust the self-closing valves depending on the volume of the suction cup associated with it.

For different reasons during in-line manipulation, suction cups may not properly grip the object to be withdrawn. The need remains, however, for the safety of a non-lowering of the degree of vacuum in the network and the opportunity to retry the suction cup gripping, simply moving it closer to the surface to be gripped.

Vuototecnica has also thought of this possibility and proposes their 14..11 series self-closing valves with the same functions as those just described but with controlled loss. The grip shutter of these valves allows for minimum suction even when closed, thus allowing the suction cup grip to simply rest again on the surface of the object to be withdrawn. The lowering of the degree of the vacuum, in the absence of an object to be withdrawn, remains controlled and recovered by the flow field of the vacuum source.

All Vuototecnica self-closing valves can work in any position and are made completely of anodized aluminium.

The Vuototecnica technical office is available to customers for suggestions regarding the best application solutions of the two types of valves and for calculating the correct flow field, pump and vacuum generator, and for the correct operating trigger for the same.

To find out about the technical specifications, download the catalogue pdf from the website or via iPad and iPhone applications.

“Maximum care” is the watchword when it comes to handling fragile or deformable food products.

To prevent fragile or lightweight products from breaking, Vuototecnica has BEC suction cups for non-contact handling.

The cups are based on the Bernoulli theorem, and allow products to be lifted without the need for contact.

A few months ago we featured fragile crackers on the blog, showing how the BEC cups delicately handled these oven-baked food items.

Now it is time to show puff pastry, a food that is quite delicate and easily deformed when handled.

The BEC also have spacers made of silicone and antistatic rubber for foods that keep the gripped object from moving side to side.

To get to know the technical specifications of the product and to stay informed about handling solutions for the food industry, visit www.vuototecnica.net

When choosing suction cups, clamping and handling systems, pumps and vacuum generators, a company goes through several stages of research.

First of all one must consider the characteristics of the load that needs to be handled, its nature, size and shape, the surface roughness, the permeability, but also the variety of details regarding the environments in which the company operates.

It is only once a company has this information that it can decide upon the number of cups to use, their diameter, the material and shape. The company can then choose the pump or vacuum generator that is most suited.

In order to help designers with their work, ensuring maximum effectiveness of the products that are to be utilized, Vuototecnica decided to create a handbook, which is a technical tool that has conversions, data, graphs, tables, memos, and technical specifications to choose the most appropriate equipment.

In the Vacuum Solutions catalogue the designer will find concrete help and solutions to various issues, and will be able to independently assess which is the most suitable product, in total safety, for the perfect realization of each automation.

For grip and release applications at very high frequencies in any application requiring considerable speed, Vuototecnica proposes single-stage vacuum generators with ejector 15 02 10.

These single-stage Venturi ejectors have the special characteristic of being equipped with a compressed air storage chamber which is loaded during the ejector supply phase, to then be automatically discharged inside the sucker cup to generate a counter blow to facilitate the release of the object picked up.

In the following video, you can have a look at one of the many uses of the vacuum generator 15 02 10 and see the fast operating speeds permitted by this instrument for extreme cycles, like with the rate of 23,000 cycles/h shown in the footage.

To find out about the technical specifications, see the Vacuum Solutions catalogue.

On 12, 13 and 14 February Vuototecnica met with its partner-distributors that had arrived from all over Italy.

It was an occasion to take stock of the situation and to review the results obtained following the strategy implemented in 2012 as well as to discuss the objectives for 2013.

An active collaboration and with well defined roles between the company and its partner- distributors.

A dual strategic approach that focuses on the same objective, namely to communicate to the end customer the existence of a single value chain that combines business skills and extensive technical knowledge in order to offer the best pre- and post sales service.

The meetings with the partners were an occasion to exchange information and case histories that had been solved using Vuototecnica components. There is undoubtedly a bond and important team work not only between Vuototecnica and its partners but also between the same distributors.

A strong team spirit that is and will be the cement of this operational network that instils trust and makes the value chain that unites the company, distributors and end customers even more convenient and possible. With consequent benefits for all.