Journal of Textile Research ›› 2026, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (05): 236-243.doi: 10.13475/j.fzxb.20250904901

• Machinery & Equipment • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Design of non-contact pneumatic suction cup for garment fabrics

WANG Qing, ZHAO Shihang(), LIU Jiayi, WU Jiahui, LI Xi   

  1. School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Polytechnic University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710048, China
  • Received:2025-09-12 Revised:2026-03-14 Online:2026-05-15 Published:2026-07-10
  • Contact: ZHAO Shihang E-mail:Zsh18191252275@163.com

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Abstract:

Objective With ongoing advances in intelligent manufacturing, reliable, non-damaging pick-and-place of flexible textile fabrics remains a critical bottleneck for automated garment production, directly affecting the throughput and product quality. Existing grippers-rigid jaws, soft contact hands, and electrostatic systems-either damage fabrics because of grippers' poor adaption to planar deformable sheets, or suffer from charge hysteresis causing dust attraction. This study designs a Bernoulli-based non-contact pneumatic suction cup to achieve stable, damage-free fabric handling for intelligent garment manufacturing.

Method Based on the Bernoulli principle, a non-contact pneumatic suction cup with double-stage stepped exhaust holes and circumferential guide ribs was designed to achieve gap-maintained non-contact gripping. ANSYS Fluent was utilized to analyze internal flow characteristics. A suction-force test rig was built, and a single-variable method was adopted to study influences of disc gap distance, hole gap height, bottom curvature and air pressure on suction force. Gripping tests with various garment fabrics were carried out to verify suction performance, adaptability and stability of the suction cup.

Results Simulation and experimental results demonstrated that the proposed suction cup structure, integrating double-stage stepped exhaust holes and circumferential guide ribs, enabled the airflow beneath the suction cup to be dominated by transverse flow with negligible axial impact. As a result, a relatively large and uniformly distributed negative-pressure region was formed on the outlet surface, generating a large suction force and ensuring stable grasping. Regarding structural parameters, the disc gap distance, hole gap height, and bottom curvature were found to significantly influence the suction force with an increase-decrease trend. The suction force reached its optimum when the disc gap distance was approximately 0.4 mm, the hole gap height was about 1.5 mm, and the bottom curvature was around 5°. In addition, the air pressure showed an approximately positive correlation with the suction force, and increasing the pressure within an appropriate range enabled effective regulation of the suction force to satisfy the grasping requirements of different target objects. Gripping experiments were conducted using garment fabrics with different air permeabilities as well as cartons, and the results indicated that the proposed suction cup was able to achieve stable and damage-free gripping of various planar flexible fabrics under appropriate supply pressures. Comprehensive simulation and experimental results further revealed that the suction cup exhibits good adaptability, promising application potential in the non-contact gripping of garment fabrics.

Conclusion A non-contact pneumatic suction cup based on the Bernoulli principle was proposed and designed to achieve stable non-contact gripping of flexible fabrics through the structural configuration of double-stage stepped exhaust holes and circumferential guide ribs. The results show that optimizing structural parameters and adjusting the air pressure can effectively improve suction performance and satisfy the gripping requirements of different target objects. Gripping experiments further demonstrate that the suction cup exhibits good adaptability and stability when handling various garment fabrics. This study provides a feasible solution for automated fabric handling in garment manufacturing and offers a reference for the application of non-contact pneumatic gripping devices in the manipulation of planar flexible materials.

Key words: non-damaging gripping, non-contact pneumatic suction cup, double-stage stepped jet, flow field characteristic analysis, suction force testing platform, garment fabric gripping

CLC Number: 

  • TS112.7

Fig.1

Common structures of suction cups. (a) Porous suction cup; (b) Baffle suction cup"

Fig.2

Structural diagram of non-contact pneumatic suction cup. (a) Structure of suction cup; (b) Cross-sectional view of suction cup"

Fig.3

Simulation calculation flow field domain model"

Fig.4

Simulation results diagrams. (a) Pressure contour map of suction surface; (b) Pressure contour map of piled surface; (c) Velocity vector diagram of symmetry surface"

Tab.1

Research plans for parameter influence investigation"

方案 空腔高度h1/mm 底面曲度α1/(°) 压强P1/MPa 圆盘间隙距离h2/mm 孔径间隙高度h3/mm
基准方案 20 8 0.4 0.4 1.25
方案1 20 8 0.4 0.1、0.2、0.3、0.5、0.6、0.7 1.25
方案2 20 8 0.4 0.4 0.5、0.75、1.0、1.5、1.75、2
方案3 20 0、3、5、10 0.4 0.4 1.25
方案4 20 8 0.2、0.3、0.5 0.4 1.25

Fig.5

Suction force test platform (a) and pneumatic suction cup (b)"

Fig.6

Curve of influence of disc gap distance on suction force"

Fig.7

Curve of influence of hole gap height on sunction force"

Fig.8

Curve of influence of disc curvature on suction force"

Fig.9

Curve of influence of air pressure on suction force"

Fig.10

Target objects for gripping experiments. (a) Carton; (b) Woven fabric; (c) Mesh fabric with regular textures; (d) Mesh fabric with large hole diameter"

Fig.11

Gripping results diagrams. (a) Carton; (b) Woven fabric; (c) Mesh fabric with regular textures; (d) Small-area mesh with large holes; (e) Large-area mesh with large holes"

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