Vac-Clamp. Industrial Vacuum Clamps

Powered by compressed air from your compressor.

Vac-Clamp. Industrial Vacuum Clamps deliver powerful, non-marring work-holding for woodworking, composites, and precision machining. Using vacuum “pressure” instead of mechanical clamps, Vac-Clamp systems hold your workpieces firmly in place—without damaging surfaces or blocking your tool path.

With a slim, low-profile design gives you unfettered 360° access to your material, making it perfect for routing, sanding, shaping, and assembly. Each clamp has a vacuum generator built into it which means that they operate completely independent of one another. That makes it very easy to build a clamping solution that can be tailored to your exact requirements, or grow as and when you need.

Each unit features:

• Replaceable EPDM rubber seals. Very easy to change when they finally wear out.
• Glass filled nylon main body, which makes them almost indestructible
• Solid brass internal components that resist corrosion and ageing.
• High efficiency, high vacuum vacuum generator built into the clamp

The built in vacuum generators used in the clamps are a balance between air consumption, vacuum level and workpiece porosity. In simple terms it means you can successfully clamp workpieces that have some porosity, such as chipboard panels and some MDF panels. Non porous items are clamped with a shocking amount of force.

Vac-Clamps have been designed to permit complete freedom of work holding for non-porous and low porosity substrates. The configurability of a single clamp allows pieces as narrow as 60mm to be held. Using multiple clamps almost any shape or size can be securely and accurately clamped.

Vac-Clamp Genesis

The first Vac-Clamp was made for a home built CNC router because vacuum clamping was expensive. It was made from scrap plastic, and a very noisy and inefficient venturi, but it did quite a reasonable job. A cabinetmaker friend noticed the vacuum clamp and borrowed the clamp, and never gave the thing back.

This meant that a second clamp had to be built, but not just for computer controlled routers. It also had to use less air, and be a whole lot less noisy. A cast aluminium base was made, and a more efficient venturi was added. A rubber seal was glued to the top, and VC1 was made. This was very expensive, but worked very well.

VC2 was machined on a CNC machine in engineering grade plastic, and had the venturi built into the body. This bolt down item also allowed configuration of the clamped area which is identical to current day clamps

VC3 was the double sided version of the VC2, and both clamps were hand assembled. There are still many of these in use.

Injection moulded clamp bodies brought the current model VC4 and VC5 to the market. The face plug kits were developed for CNC machines to give better lateral work holding and give a better edge finish

These products are now available worldwide via many resellers