What are Pneumatics for?

The system of Pneumatics is probably something that you came across at school. Once the lesson had finished, unless it was going to be featured in an exam, you probably didn’t need to give it any more thought. However, it is something that is worth knowing about. So much of our food and medicine is moved and stored in this way that a bit of background knowledge isn’t going to be a bad thing.

Image credit

Vacuum conveying is the only way that you can move certain items around a warehouse. Without the use of Vacuum conveying, it would take far too long, plus the quality of the product would go down considerably. For example, look at Coffee. Coffee is the most drunk drink in the world. It’s a simple beverage. You add it to hot water, milk and sugar to taste. However, it’s created from beans. These are either sold whole, or they are ground up and freeze-dried for the instant market or kept as a fine powder for coffee machines. It’s great stuff, but how do you move it around a warehouse when it’s time for it to go to the packaging factory?

Image credit

A vacuum at one end of a tube either pulls or pushes the grounds/beans into the waiting vans. Rather than shovelling the beans and grounds into sacks, the vacuum conveying systems limits the amount of touch by human hands. This is especially important for medical supplies that can’t have any human contact.