What is an index plunger?

An index plunger is a plunger that has a retractable nose. Index plungers were mainly developed to resolve positioning issues of moveable components. Due to it's design the index plunger will help you locating the correct position of your moveable component. There are 2 types of index plungers: spring actuated and hand operated ones. By pulling the handle of the index plunger, the nose is retracted, releasing your component from its position. When moving your component around, the nose of the index plunger will shoot out in the next available location, thus indexing the mount position. The index plunger will then apply a positive locking to your application, by securing your component into place. The spring actuated index plungers are available with 2 different nose styles: stift or ball. These index plungers can have different mounting possibilities: some index plungers can be threaded in, while other index plungers are push-fit designed

Vlier - Spring actuated ball index plunger

Vlier - Spring actuated stift index plunger         

The hand operated index plunger can come with a wide variety of head styles, but the index plunger with knob head is the most common index plunger.

Vlier - Hand operated knob head index plunger