Vacuum Table
16Pages

Vacuum Table Specification A e r o n a u t A u t o m a t i o n ~ 4 - 6 T e p k o R o a d T e rr e y H i l l s N S W 2 0 8 4 A u s tr a l i a Phone (61-2) 9450 0800. Fax (61-2) 9450 0477 eMail info@Aeronaut.org

Vacuum Table Configurations 4 Blast gates & vacuum plumbing 4 Width-ways vacuum zones 5 Positioning vacuum pumps 5 The size and Positioning of your vacuum table 7 Vacuum Plumbing Layout 10

Away Dead Zone Home Dead Zone X axis Guide Rail (40x40, Diagonal Bracing Perforated Table Side Profile Away side & E chain Vacuum Area Home Side Note: These pictures are for illustration purposes only. Your table may be longer, wider, have more less, no diago-

Table length Blast gates Aeronaut vacuum tables are almost all made-to-measure. They may vary in length from 1.2 metres long to over 40 metres long, so the configuration of elements like vacuum plumbing, blast gates, vacuum pumps etc., varies from table to table. Aeronaut vacuum tables have a vacuum cell length of 1200 mm. Every 1200 along the table there is a separate vacuum cell. This may be divided up width-ways into separate vacuum zones which are controlled by blast gates to section the vacuum areas. At the home and the away end of the table there are normally 150 and 600 mm dead zones...

Width-ways Most vacuum pumps used on Aeronaut vacuum tables are vacuum zones of European manufacture. Although there are Chinese and Taiwanese versions, they are generally not as powerful as the equivalent European pump. With export orders we frequently specify a vacuum pump, but do not always supply the actual pumps to save on freight and double handling. That being said, our buying power is often bet- ter than our customers, and in some countries the cost of sales is high enough that we can export pumps back to Europe for less than the local cost. Most Aeronaut vacuum tables are supplied...

Dead zones The plotter occupies about 450 mm of the vacuum table length. Normally the table is extended about 150 at the head of the table, and 600 mm at the away end of the table to allow the plotter to be able to cut the full vacuum area of the table, and park in the clear. The picture below shows the extent of the home end dead zone. If you do not have enough space to allow for dead zones, the vac- uum table can be made without dead zones. In this case you lose about 50 mm from the home end of the table and the parking dis- tance of the plotter (about 450 mm) from the away end of the...

The size and The amount of space a vacuum table takes up in your work Positioning of area is very important. In theory you need to be able to walk all your vacuum around your table. In practice this is not always possible, and we table have installed many tables in lofts where access was very tight, under sloping roofs and close to pillars. Normally you will have a vacuum table which is a little wider than your widest fabric... always bearing in mind that fabric seems to come in wider widths ever year... but the length of your table can vary due to budget, workroom space, and pattern size....

The picture above shows a 75 metre nest for a 12 metre table. The first 8 panels, highlighted, will fit in the first frame. If we select plot across frames, the plotter will plot the entire queue, frame by frame. If we select No plotting across frames, then the plotter will only plot these first 12 frames. The user then pulls the uncut edge of the fabric down to home. • Nest and Plot within frames. This is the most accurate, and the most wasteful of fabric. With this method, you nest so only pat- terns which fit completely into a frame are nested in each frame. After each cut, the fabric is...

Vacuum Under each vacuum panel there is a collector extrusion which chan- Plumbing neis the air sucked through the table top into the plumbing and to the vacuum pump. So you can shut off sections of the table, there is normally a series of blast gates in the system which segment the vacuum panels width ways. On smaller Aeronaut vacuum tables, the blast gates are normally fitted directly to the collection extrusion and there are normally two per panel. The blast gates can be operated either by hand using a simple rope-pull to open and shock chord to close. Or blast gates can be operated...

The above picture shows the general layout of a small table fitted with one vacuum pump and pneumatically operated blast gates. The main vacuum pipe runs down the centre line of the table, underneath the table decking. The main pipe branches under each panel and connects to blast gates fitted to the vacuum collection extrusion. Two, or in the cases of very wide tables, three blast gates and outlets can be fitted to each panel. Baffles within the collection extrusion divide the panel On larger tables with more than one vacuum pump the vacuum is done slightly differently. Each pump only...

Vacuum There are at least two types of pumps commonly fitted to vacuum Pumps tables, their suitability depending on the type of fabric you are cut- ting. Apart from the basic mechanical design, vacuum pumps vary in electrical power requirements, maxiumum airflow, maximum pressure differential, noise level etc. The size and number of pumps you use depends on all sorts of factors including budget, acceptable power use, noise, acceptable hold-down etc. I have seen saimakers use a 750 KVA pump on a 13 metre table, and have seen a 1.5 KVA on a 16 metre table which worked fine. On the other hand,...

You are never going to generate a vacuum. You are just generating a pressure difference between the outside air (1 Bar) and the inside Air pressure is very powerful and only a small pressure difference can generate enormous force over area. In practice, it is surprising how small a difference in pressure is necessary to hold firmly. Of course, if you are up a mountain, or work in a high-altitude area, you have less pressure to work with in the first place, so your vacuum pump specification will have to be more careful. At a normal atmospheric pressure of 1 Bar, the air pressure inside the...