Elscint recently had a new requirement wherein the customer wanted to feed small pins having diameter 12 mm and dia 16 mm with lengths of 20 mm and 22 mm respectively to a centerless grinding requirement. He did not want to use a vibratory bowl feeder as he felt that it would lead to damage to the parts. Hence, Elscint proposed a rotary feeder for the same. A diameter 550 mm rotary feeder with a single disc was manufactured for this purpose. Both the above parts were fed with a minor changeover tooling. The requirement was that the parts would be fed from one centerless grinding machine to another and this rotary feeder was supposed to act as a buffer. A capacity of 400 to 500 parts (single line) was required. The diameter 550 mm rotary feeder could easily accommodate all these parts and more. The rotating disc of the rotary feeder was slightly inclined to ensure that all the parts move properly in the drum. Further, to ensure that the parts do not get damaged, Elsinthane PU coating was provided to the bottom rotating disc. The sides of the drum too were lined to ensure no damage to the components in case they collide against the wall. The outlet was provided in a single line by way of a tube and a pneumatic escapement was provided to ensure accurate counting and release of components, one by one. A total of 3 feeders were supplied, all with a top see through acrylic cover and mounting arrangements.
A similar feeder can be used for the parts coming out of a grinding machine are accumulated without any damage to them. They can be further taken out manually or else accumulated in a tube. You can watch the video of the same.
