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Suction Cups

A brief history of the powerful Sticky Pod suction cups and how they came to become a Sticky Pod suction cup for our car camera mounts.

Sticky Pod camera mounts rely on highly refined heavy duty suction cups that can withstand the harsh environment caused by the forces placed on it while driving at high speeds.  Unlike most other car camera mounts, the Sticky Pod uses suction cups and not vacuum cups.  The principle behind how they work is the same, but their function is completely different.

Principles of a Vacuum

Suction cups and vacuum cups both use the same principle.  When a lack of air pressure (vacuum) is present between a smooth non-porous surface and the mated side of a suction cup or vacuum cup, the higher atmospheric pressure outside of the cup enables the suction or vacuum cup to maintain it's grip.  The lower the pressure under the suction cup means the greater the force it takes to remove it from it's mated surface.  It's amazing how a difference in air pressure can create such a powerful holding force.  Then again, think about what happens when you dive under water.  After you travel only 4 or 5 feet below the water's surface, you feel a tremendous amount of pressure on your ear drums.  It's this same pressure above water that makes a suction cup work as well as it does.  When you look at this mathematically, you get some very impressive results.  Normal atmospheric pressure at sea level is 15 pounds per square inch.  That means that every square inch of your body is subjected to 15 pounds of pressure against it.  If you remove 13 pounds per square inch of pressure from the underside of a suction or vacuum cup (leaving only 2 pounds per square inch), then you're creating 13 pounds per square inch of force against the topside surface area.  Combine this pressure differential with a heavy duty industrial flexible material and you will have one very tough suction cup.  The Sticky Pod suction cups consist of 7.75 square inches of surface area, combined with a very tough industrial material and 13 pounds per square inch pushing against this surface brings the total holding force per suction cup to 100.75 pounds at sea level!  We use up to 11 suction cups for some of our mounts with the option to add another 12 to your configuration.  When you add all this up, you can see why a Sticky Pod works so well.

Suction Cups

Suction cups provide a means of attaching just about anything to a smooth, non-porous surface without any mechanical intervention.  A suction cup has the ability to squeeze out most or all of the air from the underside between itself and it's mated surface.  This is accomplished by simply applying pressure to the center of the topside of the suction cup as it sits on the surface you intend to mate it to.  This is a very quick and effortless process.  You don't need to be strong or have any special training.  Just be sure the suction cup is clean and the mating surface is clean.  When the suction cup is smooth, clean and well built and your surface is smooth, clean and non-porous, a suction cup can stay in place indefinitely.  The key is to make sure no air can get between the mating surface and the suction cup.  To achieve a smooth suction cup surface, the suction cup must be made from the right materials.  This is key for maintaining a high degree of durability.  Also, since Sticky Pod suction cups are flexible, they can be mated to any curved or flat surface.

Vacuum Cups

Vacuum cups are very different from suction cups even though they perform a similar function.  Vacuum cups are designed to pickup flat objects only.  For example, a piece of paper or a sheet of glass, metal or plastic.  Vacuum cups require a mechanical intervention by the user to remove the air pressure from their underside.  An example of these are the pumps that can be seen on the side of vacuum cups.  Since the air must be removed from under the vacuum cup, the cup must be preshaped to fit the surface it's being mated to.  So if you have want to lift flat glass, then the vacuum cup must have a flat seal to grip the glass.  The material surface must be non-porous, just like suction cups, but the vacuum cup must match the shape of the object it is going to mate to.  This is why vacuum cups will never work well on the outside of a car or any other vehicle with a curved surface because almost all vacuum cups are designed for flat surfaces and not the curved surfaces of a car.  Any vacuum cup designed for a car would have to be designed for a very specific curved surface.  Also, because the vacuum cup uses a pump to create the vacuum, it must be constructed of harder, less flexible materials.  This limits the vacuum cups capabilities by limiting the number of mating surfaces.

History of Suction and Vacuum Cups

The first cups to use a vacuum would be classified as vacuum cups by today's definition.  In 1663, Otto van Guericke created two massive vacuum cups made out of copper and mated them together by pumping out the air on the inside of the two halves.  He then attached two teams of horses, eight on each side, and they tried to pull the two halves apart.  To the shock of all the towns people, the horses failed.  Then Otto simply opened a relief valve and the two halves fell apart.

The modern day suction cup, not vacuum cup, as we know it was invented by J.W. Greene in 1889.  Any guesses what he did with them?  Of course, these devices were invented to enlarge women's breasts!  Sounds like a bad spam email, I know, but that's what he did with them.

I hope this helps you understand the difference between suction cups and vacuum cups.  It's important for you to understand why a Sticky Pod works so well.  To buy your Sticky Pod suction cups, just click here.

Tom Heibel
Sticky Pod Inventor
www.stickypod.com
Local or International:  303-910-8080

Hi Tom,
I used your Sticky Pod system on an Indy car on the St. Petersburg GP road course. Most of the INDY officials were skeptical that your system would stay on an INDY car @ speed. I knew It would do fine. I stuck it on the car and the footage turned out great, and most importantly it held our $35,000 camera on and kept it from damaging a $600,000 race car.

Matt Barker
Director of Photography
Army National Guard
 

Sticky Pod car camera mounts are proudly made in the USA
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Made In The USA

I would just like to thank you guys for creating just a quality product. I received my Sticky Pod today and have already put it to good use. I would also like to thank you guys for your fast shipping. As a fellow business owner I know how hectic things can get and how sometimes time constraints are overlooked. Thanks again and I will be recommending your products to customers and friends alike.

Phil McCarthy CEO of Verdict Motorsports Inc.
Chicopee
Massachusetts