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US 6,065,789 AGranted
Suction apparatus
AssigneeSMC Corporation
InventorsShigekazu Nagai, Masayoshi Yamamoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A suction apparatus includes an opening/closing valve for supplying a negative pressure fluid to a pad section when one end of a valve rod abuts against a workpiece to make a change from a valve-closed state into a valve-opened state, and a lead switch for detecting that the opening/closing valve is changed from the valve-closed state into the valve-opened state. Once the lead switch is in the ON state, it is possible to detect that the workpiece is certainly attracted by the pad section.
Claims9
A suction apparatus comprising:
- a pad section for attracting a workpiece as a result of a negative pressure of a fluid applied to said pad section;
- an opening/closing valve with a valve rod provided in a fluid passage for supplying the fluid having a negative pressure to the pad section, wherein a valve plug formed at the valve rod is separated from or seated on a seat section so as to open/close the fluid passage;
- and
- a detecting section comprising a detecting element for detecting a change in one of a magnetic field and an electric current provided integrally with the pad section, for detecting, as a result of said change in the magnetic field or said electric current, that the opening/closing valve is changed from a valve-closed state to a valve-opened state by displacement of the valve rod when a projection formed at one end of the valve rod abuts against the workpiece.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.