Elscint recently supplied a vibratory feeding and stacking system for stacking internal as well as external circlips. The customer wanted to stack the circlips on a vibrating tube, from where they would be packing the same. The range of circlips included internal as well as external circlips and diameters ranging from OD dia 10 mm to OD dia 45 mm. The thickness of the circlips varied from 1 mm to 2 mm. The speed required was 200 parts per minute. The distance between the opening of the external circlip was just 0.8 mm while that of the external circlip was upto 20 mm for the bigger sizes. This led to problems about holding the external circlip on the vibrating tube (which was mounted on a linear vibrator) while the problems associated with internal circlips were that they used to entangle, thus making the feeding difficult.

            Elscint found a solution for the first problem by using a floating mandrel while the problem of entanglement was resolved by using a conical bowl which ensured that the circlips got disentangled in the bowl itself.

            After orienting the circlips in the bowl feeder, they were taken onto a 800 mm long tube which was mounted on a linear vibrator. A speed or feed rate of 250 parts per minute was achieved during the stacking. Separate tables with height adjustments of (+/-) 100 mm were provided for the vibratory bowl feeder and the linear vibrator so that they could be adjusted as per the size of the circlips. You can watch the video of the external circlip stacking.