Elscint recently manufactured 4 vibratory bowl feeders for feeding of two types of plastic scoops. Two for a larger 30 ml scoop while 2 were for a smaller 10 ml scoop. The requirement was to feed them at a speed of just 20 parts per minute. Both were having the same diameter and height (dia 50 mm x 90 mm) while the thickness was different, 20 mm and 45 mm respectively. The bowls was designed in a such a way that almost all of the scoops were used, whatever way they came. For this proper tooling was designed to get them into the correct direction. This ensured that the required speed was surpassed easily. A feed rate of around 70 parts per minute was achieved, that too in Model 400 with a dia 650 mm stainless steel bowl having step / cascade design.
The advantage of this type of bowl is that at the end any required orientation can be provided to the customer. In this case, the requirement at the end was to have the scoops hanging with the tail down and open side away from the bowl centre. A 800 mm long linear track was provided ahead of the bowl feeder with a pneumatic escapement to release one scoop on receipt of a signal from the customer. The scoop was dropped in the carton of the customer which was moving on a conveyor.