Blog

Elscint recently supplied a special vibratory bowl feeder for feeding of metal hooks. The hooks were having tail lengths ranging from 70 mm to 180 mm and radius of 30 mm. Elscint provided a vibratory bowl feeder for feeding of all these sizes in the same bowl without any changeover tooling or adjustment. Elscint designed a special type of tooling which ensured that all these sizes could be accommodated in a single bowl feeder and a speed of 70 parts per minute was achieved. A special type of bowl made from stainless steel was used and it was PU coated with Elscinthane PU coating. This increased not only the life of the bowl but also improved the performance drastically. Further, the hooks having a very small wire diameter, it was important that they do not get stopped due to welding spots. Hence, the welding had to be seamless and Elscinthane coating further eliminated this possibility, in addition to reducing the noise level of the bowl by eliminating the metal to metal contact between the bowl and the hooks. A Linear vibrator having a slight inclination was also provided which conveyed the hooks from the bowl feeder to the next operation. Once, the linear track was full, the vibrator used to automatically switch off and switch on again once the track became part empty. The tooling as well as the chute was made in stainless steel.