Suction Cups without Adapter
SMC's series ZP, ZP2 and ZP3 suction cups offer a complete line of cup options to meet all of your handling and transfer needs. A wide range of sizes, shapes and materials allow design engineers the flexibility to choose the appropriate pad configuration, making the ZP, ZP2, and ZP3 suitable for a variety of routine and unusual lifting applications.
ZP Suction Cup Only
SMC's series ZP, ZP2 and ZP3 suction cups offer a complete line of cup options to meet all the handling and transfer needs of professionals in general manufacturing, automotive assembly, consumer electronics, and metalworking facilities. Considered the baseline tool for routine material handling, and offering diameters from 2mm to 125mm in standard shapes and materials, the ZP series provides a reliable, cost-effective default option that solves more than 80% of standard lifting applications.
ZP2 Suction Cup Only
The ZP2 series meets the needs of engineers dealing with unusual, delicate, or difficult to grip workpieces that standard cups can't handle. This series takes the most common custom engineering requests and standardizes them into off the shelf products. Pad types include: miniature pads, compact pads, nozzle pads, multi-bellows pads, sponge pads, mark-free pads, oval pad variations, and heavy-duty pad variations. Customers choose this group when they need specialty solutions like multi-bellows for extreme angles, oval cups for narrow pipes, sponge pads for textured surfaces, heavy-duty variations for large payloads, or mark-free resin cups that leave no chemical halos on LCD screens.
ZP3 Cups without Adapter
Space-constrained automation designers and robotic integrators are the primary users of the ZP3 series. These miniaturized pneumatic vacuum cups are used in the semiconductor fabrication, medical device manufacturing, and printed circuit board (PCB) assembly industries, where robotic arms operate in extremely tight quarters. The ZP3 series is chosen because its optimized, low-profile design reduces vertical Z-axis clearance requirements. Compared to legacy standard cups, the ZP3 pad and associated buffer body are much shorter, allowing integrators to build denser, faster robotic cells where standard-sized cups would physically collide with the machinery or workpiece enclosures.
ZP3E Suction Cup Only
The ZP3E series is made of a silicone rubber that is compliant with FDA21CFRSS1772600. Production engineers managing high-speed automated transfer lines, metal stamping presses, and rapid injection molding use the ZP3E series because it excels in environments where workpieces are slick, thinly profiled, or coated in light manufacturing oils. Its internal friction grooves and optimized lip design prevent the workpiece from being sucked into the cup and deformed. Simultaneously, the grooves lock onto the part's surface to maximize lateral shear holding force and allow a robot arm to accelerate horizontally at higher speeds without a slick part sliding off the suction pad.
ZP3P, Pad Unit
The ZP3P series are molded from FDA compliant blue silicone rubber which allows optical vision systems to easily spot and reject a product if a piece of the suction cup tears off. Traditional vacuum pads tend to wrinkle, tear, or drop thin plastic films. This series is engineered to handle highly flexible, thin film packaging, such as bagged liquids, powder pouches, and soft blister packs. It features a unique sealing skirt and a central stopper support that gently holds the film flat, preventing wrinkling and vacuum leaks.
ZP3C Suction Cup Only
SMC's series ZP3C suction cups are deployed in end-of-line packaging, automated palletizing, and high-speed shipping fulfillment sectors. Engineers, logistics integrators, and e-commerce warehouse operators rely on the ZP3C series because corrugated cardboard is notoriously porous and fibrous, causing standard rubber cups to leak vacuum or suck in abrasive paper dust that damages downstream pneumatic valves. Customers choose the ZP3C because it uses a specialized fluoro-based rubber (FS61) that outlasts standard NBR on abrasive paper; and it features a built-in, tool-less replaceable mesh filter. This integrated filter traps paper fibers at the cup level, saving factories thousands of dollars in equipment damage.