Analysis of vibratory feeding where the track has directional friction characteristics

Abstract

This paper treats the influence of directional friction characteristics on the performance of a newly-developed vibratory feeder. It is found that, when a particle is fed without hopping on a vibratory surface, its motion can be classified into seven modes and that these modes can be defined by two dimensionless quantities similar to those obtained in conventional vibratory feeding. These dimensionless quantities are functions of the coefficient of friction, the inclination of the feed track, the frequency of vibration, the amplitude of vibration and gravitational acceleration. It is found that the non-dimensional conveying velocity can be defined as the function of four dimensionless quantities. The relations between conveying velocity and feeding conditions are derived and presented in diagrammatic form. The theoretical results show that the conveying velocity obtained with the newly-developed feeder should be considerably higher than that of a conventional feeder; these finding are supported by experimental results.