In need of Support?
At CVF, we understand that smooth functionality is crucial for your business processes. Our support page is designed to be your go-to resource for troubleshooting common issues and demystifying industry terminology associated with vibratory feeder systems. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to this technology, our user-friendly guides and detailed explanations will empower you to address challenges with confidence. We cover a wide range of topics, from diagnosing mechanical hitches to clarifying complex terminology, ensuring that you have the knowledge needed to optimize the performance of your vibratory feeder systems. Our commitment to your success extends beyond providing quality products – it's about empowering you with the information you need to keep operations running seamlessly. Explore our support page and take control of your vibratory feeder systems with expertise and ease.
Trouble Shooting/ inspection check list :
FEEDER BOWL:
1 : Clean the bowl with alcohol or other approved cleaners to eliminate dirt, silicone or oil build up. The bowl bottom, interior tracks and tooling should be clean and dry.
2: Visually inspect for cracks or broken welds. Cracks must be repaired. 3: Check and retighten all bolts and replace worn or stripped bolts as needed.
4: Make sure the center bolt (if applicable) is tight and the center spacer is fit correctly. For square drive units, the bowl should touch the ends of the cross arms and the bowl should sit on the toe clamps. The toe clamps must be tight and torqued to the proper setting.
5: Make sure the bowl is not touching any objects. The Bowl must have an air gap between the discharge and any Inline or Gravity Track.
DRIVE UNIT:
1: Clean and visually inspect the drive unit for broken springs. 2: Inspect bolts for stripped or stretched threads and replace as needed.
3: Check torque on spring pack bolts.
4: Check air gap between coil(s) and I-Lam .
5: Inspect rubber feet. Feet must be screwed tight to the bottom of the drive unit.
POWER SUPPLY:
1: Check the electric power supply and confirm it is consistent and matches the specifications for the feeder. Voltage and Hertz requirements must match and cannot cross over. Units built for 120v or 220v will not operate correctly with the wrong voltage supplied. Also check the Hz requirement. Units built for 60Hz will not operate correctly if SOHz is supplied. Frequency controllers may be used to alter output if necessary.
AIR SUPPLY:
1: If air is used on the feeder it must be clean and regulated to 60 PSI unless otherwise noted. The air must be controlled by a needle valve or flow meter for fine adjustment.
CONTROLLER:
1: Check the feeder Controller and verify input power, output power and dial setting.
2: Check the fuse.
3: Check the cycle settings:
Rectified (Full wave - 120 cycle). Non-Rectified (1/2 wave - 60 cycle).
4: Check the frequency setting for 50 or 60 Hz if using a frequency type controller. Refer to check out sheet or Controller Manual for factory setting.
COMMON FEEDING PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS:
1) No Vibration at all from the Bowl: (Typically an Electrical Issue)
A) Refer to Power Supply and Controller Check list.
B) Check that the track max-level sensor is not blocked and is functioning correctly.
C) Check the coil. It may be shorted or burnt out.
2) Low Vibration or Slow Speed:
Sudden loss of vibration or speed may be an electrical issue, controller issue, a loose bolt, a cracked spring, broken weld, or crack in the bowl.
A gradual loss of vibration or speed may be due to dirt, oil or silicone build up in the bowl, the coil burning out, a loose bolt, cracked, worn out or fatigued springs or rubber feet. The interior of the bowl may need to be sandblasted or resurfaced with scotch bright or heavy gage sandpaper.
A) Check to see that the bowl and discharge are not hitting or touching anything. The bowl must be free to move and vibrate.
B) Check the center bolt and cross arm bolts, torque as needed. Refer to Feeder Bowl, Drive Unit, and Controller Check lists for additional items.
C) The Drive unit may be under tuned or over tuned too much. If the feeder speeds up when the bowl is almost empty or slows down when a full load is added it is possibly under tuned. Refer to the tuning instructions for details.
D) Check that all mounting bolts are tight for the Feeder Bowl, lnline Track, and Bulk Hopper. Check the table and verify that it is level and all feet are down and touching the floor.
3) Parts falling off the tooling or selectors (Too much vibration):
A) If parts are falling off the track or tooling the feeder may be running too fast. Check the revolution speed and adjust accordingly. If the speed is too slow to maintain feed rate check for dirt, oil, or silicone in the basic bowl and clean if necessary. Refer to Feeder Bowl Check list.
B} Inspect the parts and verify the dimensions and condition of the production parts against the sample parts used for manufacture and buyoff of the feeder. If the parts have changed the feeder may need to be modified.
C} Inspect the tooling and selectors for wear, dirt, or damage.
4) Parts jamming in the tooling or selectors:
A) Inspect the part that jammed for burrs or flash. Verify the dimensions and condition of the production parts against the sample parts used for manufacture and buyoff of the feeder. If the parts have changed the feeder may need to be modified. Check for wear, dirt, or damage.
5) Bowl is noisy or loss of rate:
A) Make sure the bowl and discharge are not touching anything. The discharge must have an air gap between it and the inline or gravity track. Check all bolts on the feeder and drive unit. Refer to Feeder Bowl Check list.
6) Jamming between the tracks in the basic bowl:
A) Make sure that the bowl is not overloaded. One or two layers in the bottom of the bowl is typical. The return hole entry must not be blocked.
7) Low rate on one or more lanes, bowl not keeping up on all lanes for a multiple track bowl:
A) Make sure that there is a consistent level of parts in the bowl bottom. Multiple track bowls require enough parts to fill the internal track and provide parts for each lane. Rate will drop and become inconsistent if the number of parts in the bowl is too low.
B) The feeder bowl is not designed to maintain rate without an adequate number of parts.
8) Batch or Small Production Quantities:
A) Feed rate may suffer or be inconsistent with small batch quantities. Feeder bowls are not typically designed to feed every part out of the bowl.
9) Parts jamming in the discharge:
A) Jamming in the discharge may be due to parts backing up from the track into the bowl. If the bowl uses a max level sensor on the track the sensor must shut the bowl off or trigger an inhibit air jet to prevent the parts from backing up into the bowl discharge.
B) Check the transfer from the bowl to the inline or gravity track and realign if needed.
Couldn’t find what you were looking for? Reach out to our support team for further assistance!
Terminology associated with vibratory feeder systems:
FEEDER BOWL: (Sometimes improperly called a hopper.) The Feeder Bowl does the actual orienting of the parts and is the heart of the system. The Feeder bowl is custom tooled for a specific part or in some cases multiple parts to provide the required orientation and feed rate.
BASIC BOWL: The Basic Bowl includes the vertical wall or band, bowl bottom and internal track. The basic bowl does not include any tooling to provide orientation. Basic bowls are individually designed and built for each specific project based on the part size, feed rate, orientation, number of tracks and tooling requirements. The custom design is necessary to prevent jamming between the tracks along with the correct track width and pitch to assure proper performance.
VIBRATORY BASE UNIT OR DRIVE UNIT: The Drive Unit is the source of vibration for a Feeder Bowl and provides the part movement. Each Drive Unit is powered by one or two electro-magnetic coil assemblies. Drive Units are custom tuned using springs to optimize performance mechanically and electrically according to the weight and mass of the Feeder Bowl. The Drive units vary in size from 3 %" to 30" and are either round or square depending upon the application.
COIL: The coil provides vibration by pulling against an I-lam. The coil must have the proper air gap between the I-lam. (Refer to the coil gap setting chart.) If the coil gap is too close it may cause noise or "banging". If the coil is too far open it will cause the coil to draw more amps, run hotter and may lead to the coil burning out completely.
ROUND RUBBER FEET: Round Drive Units will have round rubber feet attached to the bottom. The feet must be screwed all the way tight to the bottom of the drive unit base and not used for leveling or height adjustment. Risers or spacers should be used to achieve crit ical height requirements.
FOOT LOCATORS: Round rubber feet use a bracket cal led a Foot Locator to secure the foot position on the mounting plate or table top. The rubber foot sits in a pocket and the Foot Locator is bolted to the mounting plate or table top to maintain alignment and positioning.
SQUARE FEET: Square Drive Units will have square mounting feet with locating tabs and rubber pads. Risers or spacers should be used to achieve critical height requirements.
DISCHARGE OF THE FEEDER BOWL: This is the last section of track or tooling on the Feeder Bowl. In most cases, it is a tangent straight exit which confines the parts after they have been oriented.
CONFINEMENT: The metal rail, blade or cover to assure part orientation.
SELECTOR: An area of the Feeder Bowl designed to allow only the correct position part pass. Parts that are not in the correct position will fall off or thru and into the return pan for recirculation. If necessary Selectors may be machined, made from A-2 steel, heat treated and hard chrome plated.
RETURN PAN: A pan like area welded to the outside of the Feeder Bowl to catch the excess or rejected parts from the track and selector. The pan will guide these parts back into the bowl via the return hole.
CONVERTER: An area of the bowl tooling that will convert parts to the proper position to increase the feed rate and reduce part recirculation.
QUICK DUMP WINDOW: A gate that can be manually opened to allow parts to exit the bowl. This feature speeds up emptying the bowl of parts for clean out or changeover.
BACK PRESSURE RELIEF POINT OR BUBBLE: An area of the bowl tooling just prior to the discharge. This area will allow parts to back up thru the discharge into the bowl and "bubble" off the track into the return pan. The bubble eliminates the need for a max-level sensor on the inline or gravity track, but increases recirculation of the parts and wear on the Feeder and Track.
AIR JET INHIBIT OR BLOW OFF: On dual or multiple track bowls, an inhibit air jet will be required for each track to blow parts off the track and provide back pressure relief when the lnline or Gravity Tracks are full. Multiple track bowls cannot be shut off unless all tracks are full or one or more tracks may starve for feed rate.
AIR JET: The use of air to assist in feeding, selection or part movement may be necessary. The air supply must be constant and regulated.
Critical air jets will be provided with an air flow meter and the settings documented.
ACCESSORY ITEMS:
BULK HOPPER OR ELEVATING PREFEEDER: The Bulk Hopper/Prefeeder does not provide orientation. It delivers parts into the Feeder Bowl and is used for storage to maintain the correct level of parts in the Feeder Bowl and prevent overloading.
INLINE OR GRAVITY TRACK: The lnline Track or Grav it y Track provides accumulation or a backlog of the oriented parts. The Track is necessary for a consistent supply of parts to maintain rate and machine cycle time. The Feeder Bowl will meet or exceed the required rate per minute, but will have gaps in the flow of parts that may exceed the machine cycle time.
TRACK MAX-LEVEL SENSOR: A Photocell Sensor mounted on the lnline or Gravit y Track to prevent the parts from backing up into the Feeder Bowl. This will prevent back pressure into the bowl which may cause jams. The sensor turns the bowl off when the track is full and turns the bowl on when the track is empty.
COATINGS: Bowl coatings are available to provide noise reduction, part surface protection and improved feeding.
