Elscint recently manufactured a small bowl feeder for a very small roller for feeding to a centreless grinding machine. The rollers to be fed were having diameter 1.5 mm x 2 mm length while another was having diameter 2 mm x 5 mm length. Both the parts were to be fed in the same bowl feeder and the speed required was 6 mtrs / minute. The required orientation was axial or lengthwise and feeding had to be through a tube. As the parts were very small, Model 160 having a bowl diameter of around dia 220 mm was used for this purpose with a 500 mm long linear track mounted on a linear vibrator, namely Model ELS70. The bowl tooling too was made modular with the tube being clamped to the bowl rather than welded. This made it possible for the tube to be replaced with a new one in case the same got worn out or if the roller size changed. The tube on the linear vibrator too was clamped. This made the tooling replacement very easy. The whole unit was mounted on a single post stand having height (Z) adjustment of (+/-) 100 mm.
The linear vibrator provided a constant pressure and push to the parts when they entered the grinding machine. This ensured improvement in the grinding quality and removed the need of a person for feeding of the parts. You can watch the video of the equipment.