It’s very unlikely that you will ever need to worry about the use of vacuum conveyors in your daily life. As you go about your business, the chances of coming across a vacuum conveyor are quite remote unless you work in an industry that uses them or are taken there as part of a trip for school. If you do see one, it’s very likely that it’ll be from https://www.aptech.uk.com/pneumatic-conveying-systems/vacuum-conveying. They are one of the largest purveyors of the machines required for industrial use.
The popular opinion of a vacuum is an airless void that people usually find when they get sucked out of a spaceship in Star Wars or Babylon 5. In fact, a vacuum is better suited to moving objects around a place of business or a warehouse. There are two ways of doing this. It can move small items like pills and powders. Things that are usually quite hard to move in bulk. The other way is to use the vacuum to send a pod at high speed down a tube. There is usually something inside the pod.
The speed and movement are created by generating two opposing forces, the positive and the negative. Both work against each other. The positive pushes against the negative, and a force builds. When this reaches a certain pressure, the item or pod is propelled at rapid speed to the other end of the tube. Another negative force stops it, but as with any force, it slowly loses power anyway.