Elscint recently supplied five vibratory bowl feeders for a special application. In fact this was a third repeat order, the previous one for five and eight bowl feeders were delivered in 2014 and 2017 respectively. As all the earlier supplied bowl feeders have been working without any problem for the last 4 years, the customer decided to order these new ones again on Elscint.

Application –

The requirement was to use the bowl feeder as a buffer for hot glass scrap. In each of the bowl feeders, hot glass scrap would fall from the top. As the scrap was very hot, water too was needed to be continuously dropped on the same (in the bowl) to cool the scrap as it moved up the bowl track. After a while the whole bowl would get full of water and as the water level increased, the excess water would also flow out with the scrap.

Special Requirements –

1. The bowl was made leak proof with no crevices or holes for the water to leak out.

The cover of the vibrator too had to be leak proof so that no water goes inside the vibrator, especially at the coil connections. The cover of the vibrator had to be designed in that manner

2. Due to continuous water dripping down, stainless steel cladding was required for the base plate on which the vibrator was mounted so that the same would not get rusted.
3. The controller was enclosed in a stainless steel enclosure with a polycarbonate cover on the front to guard it against contact with water.
4. A stainless steel bracket was provided for deflecting the water falling in the bowl so that it gets spread over the entire base

Orientation –

There was no requirement of any orientation as the scrap was not required to be oriented, just to be removed from the bowl. However, all the scrap had to come out of the bowl, with nothing remaining inside. The scrap had a tendency of getting entangled and bunched together. The bowl design ensured that this too was removed.

Outlet Channel-

A small channel, again made in stainless steel was provided which ensured that the scrap and water coming out of the bowl was taken forward into a bin.

Speed / Feed Rate –

The requirement was that 1 kg of scrap should come out in less than a minute. The maximum speed achieved was 38 seconds for 1 kg of scrap

Delivery –

All the five vibratory bowl feeders, with gravity chutes, stands, brackets, covers for the controllers etc were completed in about six weeks, before the due date given by the customer.