Vacuum cup venturi assembly and blow off silencer

Claim 1

In a vacuum cup assembly including a body having a vacuum chamber, a flexible vacuum cup mounted upon said body in communication with said vacuum chamber for supporting a workpiece, a venturi jet assembly sealed within said body connected to a source of pressurized air and to said vacuum chamber, and an air outlet connected to said venturi jet assembly; a blow-off silencer including a cylindrical barrel having an axial inlet bore at one end receiving and mounted upon said air outlet; a transverse apertured web in said barrel communicating with said inlet bore, there being a silencer chamber within said barrel at its other end communicating with said inlet bore and outletting to atmosphere; a porous air silencer assembly within said silencer chamber; there being an axial bore extending into said web communicating with said inlet bore; a reciprocal poppet valve guidably nested within said axial bore for movements between an advanced rest position and a retracted air blocking position in registry with and closing said air outlet, and defining with said web a poppet pressure chamber; an air valve connected to a source of pressurized air and in a first position continuously delivering pressurized air to said venturi jet assembly; a ported pressure fitting upon said barrel connected to said poppet pressure chamber, said air valve in a second position additionally connected to said pressure fitting for pressurizing said poppet pressure chamber, retracting said poppet valve to its air blocking position; the pressurized air within said jet assembly being by-passed through said vacuum chamber for blowing off the workpiece from said vacuum cup.