Design of spring-suspended suction cup based on the air inflow change with inside negative pressure

Abstract

The safety of working on walls has been improved by several adsorption mechanisms most of which sustain the absorption by pumps or other actuators. This research proposes an alternative method (a spring-suspended suction cup with a buckled plate spring) that can be attached for long durations without any vacuum pumping system. The negative pressure of the spring suspended suction cup is analyzed and the buckled plate spring is appraised by the energy efficiency and force over long adsorption times of the suction cup. The adhesion time of the suction cup is calculated and compared with that of the volume-fixed suction cup. Under high air inflow conditions, the spring-suspended suction cup adhered to the test surface for longer than the fixed-volume cup. The advantages of the spring-suspended suction cup were verified in experiments on a developed prototype.