Vaccum Mount Series explains features and what sets Cleveland Vibrator above the rest – See it in action here!
Most everyone over, say, 25, knows that time seems to escape you way faster than you’d like. That certainly happens here at Cleveland Vibrator – you turn around and another year or two is gone and you wonder what the heck happen to it. I really felt that way here recently as we just finished up work on a new product. Sales has been pushing for a “Vacuum Mounted Vibrator Series” for a while now and I’m happy to say we’ve just completed work on the mount and controls for our 1200 VMSAC, air -cushioned piston vibrator and the smaller 1125 VMSAC.
My first introduction to the productive work that can be accomplished with vibration was probably by my dad. Back in the day our family would on occasion sit down for some TV and popcorn. Sorry, no movies on demand, no DVDs or even VHS, I’m not sure how we made it through those dark days! This was pre-microwave popcorn and my mom would pop it the “old school” way, with a heavy pan and oil. I think you can still see this technique demonstrated at a museum or two. Traditionally the popcorn was served up in a large spun aluminum bowl. My dad had the rather annoying habit of shaking the bowl which would vibrate the un-popped kernels, “old maids,” down to the bottom of the bowl which created a rather loud noise as they hit the aluminum. More than once I asked him what the heck he was doing, he’d say he was “bringing the big popcorn to the top”. When I asked how that worked his pat response was – “physics”!! Read More…
“What’s the amplitude of that industrial vibrator?” – I hear this question more often than one might think.
You’d think it’d be a simple question to answer. But, with industrial vibrators, it just doesn’t make sense and isn’t relevant to most applications. In my book, no vibrator has “an amplitude.” However, without a doubt, each vibrator model has unique performance characteristics that we can measure and record.
1200 VMSAC on pellet mill station bin
Once we understand the requirements for the application, like a vibrator on a bin or hopper to assist in material flow or mounted on a piece of equipment, the vibrator performance characteristics help our sales and engineering staff make the best recommendation for optimal performance. But you can’t say, “I need a vibrator with an amplitude of X,” and get several options.
What structure characteristics affect the amplitude of vibration?
When you start thinking about the amplitude of movement of anything with a vibrator attached to it, you’ve got to ask yourself several additional questions:
What’s the weight and wall thickness of the structure?
Is there isolation involved or is it rigidly fixed to a support?
Is the goal to move or compact material or just introduce “movement” in a section of the structure?
With vibrating equipment, it is relatively easy to calculate the expected “amplitude” of the finished unit while we’re still in the design phase. Using solid modeling, we have a good sense of the weight of the unit. Put this together with the performance parameters of the vibrator and we can accurately predict the expected amplitude of the finished unit. Take the weight of the unit, frequency of the vibrator, and its known force, toss in a conversion factor, and you can kick out a decent estimated amplitude of the completed assembly. This helps us predict the performance and capacity of the equipment, be it a feeder, screener, or compaction table.
What factors does the amplitude of vibration depend on?
When asked, “Hey, what’s the amplitude of the 1200 VMSAC Pneumatic Vibrator?” you can’t fire back, “Oh, it’s 0.157 of an inch”. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way. Amplitude is not an independent parameter of the vibrator. Amplitude depends on two factors:
The structure to which the vibrator is mounted
The freedom of movement of that structure
What hopper characteristics are important for industrial vibrator installation?
Frequently, the customer is trying to improve bulk material flow in a storage container. Typically, the amplitude of the vibrator doesn’t solve bulk material flow problems. Over the company’s history, The Cleveland Vibrator Company has developed sizing charts and guidelines for hopper applications; this involves the characteristics of the hopper, including the following:
Hopper wall thickness
Volume of the hopper
Sometimes material type, if it is difficult to move or sticky
I can’t recall anyone in sales or engineering telling a customer they need a specific vibration amplitude. There are times when the nature of the material will lead us to recommend a “larger stroke or amplitude.” With rotary electric vibrators, this translates to a lower frequency vibrator, resulting in larger vibration amplitude. Given the same force output, a slower frequency vibrator will produce a larger amplitude or stroke when compared to a higher frequency vibrator on the same structure.
Turbomite Turbine Vibrator
As a side note, this relation leads to one of our primary design considerations for our Turbomite Pneumatic Turbine Vibrator line. You will notice we produce forces similar to our competitors at much lower frequencies.
The application of industrial vibrators is rarely an exact science – here’s how we can help!
There are many years of experience here at The Cleveland Vibrator Company. Folks have seen and heard about hundreds, if not thousands, of applications over the years. But what keeps things interesting is the challenge of a new application where you need to explore your options.
We can reach back into the knowledge base and make a good recommendation more often than not. If that doesn’t seem to be the best route, we can generate a computer solid model and run an FEA analysis. This may give us a better prediction of the amplitude of a vibrator-structure assembly. But let’s not use that approach to apply a VM-25 Air Piston Vibrator on a thin-walled hopper section. It’s probably more cost-effective to simply buy one and try one! On the other hand, you could always ask about our 30 day trial period.
One of the more common applications for industrial vibration is settling or compacting a wide variety of products with a vibratory table. Compaction applications range from foundry sand around a core to powdered metal, beer bottle caps, individual sugar packets, ceramic mixes, to concrete blends used in ATM wall enclosures.
There are many vibratory equipment options available that will effectively settle and compact your material, including:
Regardless of the equipment, we start by understanding the material and working with a few basic parameters
The most critical parameters in any compaction project are vibration frequency, and the amount of force applied. These two parameters drive the third parameter, stroke or displacement. Heavier materials respond best to high-frequency vibration and the resulting smaller stroke that high-frequency vibrators produce. Lighter material or discrete parts often compact best with a lower frequency vibration and a larger stroke. Typically, we start testing a product at a given frequency based on bulk density and adjust the force to load (g’s) ratio to get the best compaction results. With the wide range of vibrators at our disposal, we can choose from air-cushioned pneumatic vibrators (VMSAC), rotary electric (RE) vibrators, or electromagnetic (CM) vibrators that best suit the frequency and force requirements.
My wife will be the first person to tell you that she hates shopping. At almost six feet tall, it can be a challenge for her to find something that fits right with an arm length that isn’t some place closer to the elbow when it should be at the wrist. Therefore, it always kills me when she comes home with something that is touted to be “one size fits all” my standard response is “one size fits none!” Over the years, I’ve found that this theory applies to material handling equipment as well. On most applications, each customer’s requirements are just a bit different from the previous set of design parameters.
When I first started working at The Cleveland Vibrator Company, Read More… Share this blog post:
From my perspective industrial applications for vibrators and vibratory equipment tend to fall into three broad categories. The first and largest of these groups is the “standard” application, whether for individual vibrators or for equipment. Similar problems have been seen before and solved with “off the shelf products”. In the world of individual vibrators, these standard applications tend to involve flow aids for stationary hoppers and bins where both pneumatic and electric vibrators have proven over the years to be viable solutions. Appropriate vibrators can be selected or recommended based on the size of the hopper, weight of the material, hopper design (to include shape and wall thickness) and nature of the material.
My second broad group is somewhat smaller than the “standard” group and involves more customer interaction and discussion to arrive upon a suitable solution. These types of challenges would fall into what I’d call the “cooperative” group. Read More… Share this blog post:
