Made in America, American Made, Made in the USA and my favorite Made with American Pride. We have all heard these words or seen them affixed to many great products manufactured by the greatest workforce in the world. “THE AMERICAN WORKER.” I’ve spent the majority of my 45 plus years being around manufacturing and have experienced the sense of accomplishment to produce a quality product that you can be proud of. This feeling cannot be measured in dollars and cents but in one word “PRIDE”. It’s still here and we just need to see it and believe in the fact we have the most talented work force out of any other country on this globe. We used have a sign that hung in our manufacturing area that simply read “Build It As If You Would Buy It,” and we added “If You Wouldn’t Buy It, Then Don’t Ship It.” I’m sure lots of companies have the same types of sayings hanging in their manufacturing facilities. The process of making a part, having it go into an assembly, then seeing it work for the first time has to give a sense of pride to the maker. Read More…
I have said for years to my “better half”, you can never have enough “toys” especially as it pertains to tools and for sure in my case golf clubs. This can be said about a recent spray dryer hopper application. We normally mount one industrial vibrator to the side of a hopper or bin and sometimes two by placing the second vibrator 180 degrees apart from the first vibrator installation area. In rare cases, we will actually mount three vibrators 120 degrees apart. The spray dryer customer wanted to mount five of our 1125 SI Single Impact Air Knockers on one hopper to dislodge sticky material. Not only did they want to mount five vibrators, but they also wanted them to impact at the same time. So, the folks of Cleveland Vibrator got creative. Read More…
There are a wide variety of screening media that can be installed in vibratory screeners. Our challenge is to select which type would be best suited for your application. You can refer back to my blog: Importance of screening data from May 2013 to review the technical data that would best assist us in making screener recommendations. Some of this data would also be appropriate for selecting screening media. This blog is the first in a series that will be dedicated to typical screening media that are installed in Vibratory Screeners with their advantages and disadvantages so you can be in a better position to assist us in the selection process.
Woven Wire Cloth
This is the most common and widely used screening media for many applications including scalping, sizing and dewatering. Woven wire cloth is typically designated as space screen (clear openings) or square mesh. Space screen is the inside dimensions of the opening which should be further designated with a specific wire diameter. Please note that the wire diameter doesn’t affect the screen opening Read More…
Jack Steinbuch has been with The Cleveland Vibrator Company for over 36 years accumulatively. He has previous experience in the manufacturing industry as a Senior Application Engineer and has worn many hats on our team in sales and managerial capacities. Now, he’s in the position of General Sales Manager. With a BSCE from The University of Toledo, he is an expert in the realm of sizing vibratory screeners and feeders, and sizing vibratory drives for tables and other vibratory equipment. Understanding that customer service is crucial, Jack believes it is important to provide the proper product for every application, even if it happens to not be supplied by The Cleveland Vibrator Company.
In his off-hours, you can find Jack spending time with his family and playing with his grandchildren. He loves sports; both watching and playing, and is an avid golfer and a league bowler during the winter. He will be retiring at the end of September 2021 and hopes to spend his winters vacationing in Florida.
Being in this industry for a long time, we can relate to the uncertainty surrounding when you should grease your Rotary Electric Vibrators and how much grease you should apply. We offer an easy-to-follow installation and operation manual to our customers that discusses the specifics for each vibrator.
A section of the manual addresses proper greasing of the bearings, including when to apply the grease and how much to apply. The manual explains a ratio that takes into account the intervals vs. the actual running hours. This ratio will help determine when greasing the unit is necessary. There is, in my opinion, a “grey” area. Our Rotary Electric VIbrators need a certain amount of grease (measured in grams) to be adequately lubricated.
How do you determine the amount of grease for your rotary electric vibrator when the amount of grease per pump of the grease gun handle is unknown?
One method we’ve heard over the years is if the bearings begin to make noise, simply give each bearing five or six pumps from the grease gun and let it run for a few minutes. If this quiets the bearings after a few minutes, then you’re good to go. If not, repeat the process.
Is this recommended by The Cleveland Vibrator Company to properly lubricate the bearing? Well, no, it’s not. However, this type of greasing exists, and some swear by it. There is an old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and if it works for some folks, then we would not try to change the way they do it. However, for a straightforward approach, we looked at the amount of grease generated by one pump of a standard manual lever-operated grease gun and headed to our testing lab.
We took our standard grease gun, which uses a 14.8 ounce/420-gram cartridge, weighed out how much grease was in one pump, and then converted it to grams. We checked what the standard amount of grease would be for a grease gun of this size. The amount varied from 1.25 grams per pump to 2.25 grams, depending on how efficient your grease gun was.
A quick note that the grease we use is PREMALUBE Heavy-duty NLG1 #2 Multi-Purpose Grease H2, the manufacturer is Lubemaster. If you are working with a pneumatic vibrator, we have a blog that outlines what lubrications should NOT be used for your unit, click here to check that out.
We took many circumstances into account when performing our testing of the grease gun in our lab, such as:
The greasing procedure is not perfect
The effect of different operators
Condition of the grease fittings
Environmental temperature
The condition of the grease gun
We went with 2.0 grams per pump, even with our measured weight being closer to 1.75 per pump. You can damage the bearing and cause premature failure of the unit, so it is essential to not over-grease. We concluded 2.0 grams per pump is best to prevent under-greasing as well. Refer to our RE 1200 RPM Rotary Electric Motor greasing chart illustrated below: “RE 80-6 Vibrator.” The chart indicates that adding 50 grams of grease per bearing after 1600 hrs, at 2.0 grams per pump, would be 25 pumps of the grease gun, and would add a plus or minus 10 to 20% facture to this.
You should note that you can also do half-life greasing which in the RE 80-6 case would be 12 or 13 pumps per bearing. We have included greasing charts for all RPMs below. Note that some models are permanently lubricated at the factory.
Need more information about the maintenance of your vibratory equipment? We are here to help! Click here to speak to our knowledgeable Sales & Services Team.
Blinding is when there is a decrease in the open area of a screen due to coating or plugging.
What is Plug Blinding?
We will focus on plug blinding as it has become more prevalent due to the increase in recycling. Plug blinding occurs when you screen material containing particles with irregular shapes. Think of candy corn: if the pointed end falls into a screen opening and then gets stuck or plugs the opening, it can prevent the fine material from passing.
Eventually, the screen section can lose its screening effectiveness as more particles plug into screen openings. Since this material wedges into the screen opening, the vibration energy used to screen the material isn’t always sufficient to knock them out of the opening. For example, the recycling of plastics creates irregularly shaped materials that can plug openings, thereby adversely affecting screening. Our challenge is to find a way to reduce plug blinding to keep our screening efficiency and reduce the downtime cost to clean the screen deck manually.
Jack Steinbuch has been with The Cleveland Vibrator Company for over 36 years accumulatively. He has previous experience in the manufacturing industry as a Senior Application Engineer and has worn many hats on our team in sales and managerial capacities. Now, he’s in the position of General Sales Manager. With a BSCE from The University of Toledo, he is an expert in the realm of sizing vibratory screeners and feeders, and sizing vibratory drives for tables and other vibratory equipment. Understanding that customer service is crucial, Jack believes it is important to provide the proper product for every application, even if it happens to not be supplied by The Cleveland Vibrator Company.
In his off-hours, you can find Jack spending time with his family and playing with his grandchildren. He loves sports; both watching and playing, and is an avid golfer and a league bowler during the winter. He will be retiring at the end of September 2021 and hopes to spend his winters vacationing in Florida.
We often receive calls from customers that need to make adjustments to the product flow in their vibratory feeders or screener/feeders. Our challenge is to determine what style equipment is being operated to provide the appropriate options. The following are three basic drive options which produce linear force that can be used to power vibratory feeders or screener/feeders. To clarify, a screener/feeder is designed to feed the material with that same vibratory action also serving to help stratify the material – Read More…
Jack Steinbuch has been with The Cleveland Vibrator Company for over 36 years accumulatively. He has previous experience in the manufacturing industry as a Senior Application Engineer and has worn many hats on our team in sales and managerial capacities. Now, he’s in the position of General Sales Manager. With a BSCE from The University of Toledo, he is an expert in the realm of sizing vibratory screeners and feeders, and sizing vibratory drives for tables and other vibratory equipment. Understanding that customer service is crucial, Jack believes it is important to provide the proper product for every application, even if it happens to not be supplied by The Cleveland Vibrator Company.
In his off-hours, you can find Jack spending time with his family and playing with his grandchildren. He loves sports; both watching and playing, and is an avid golfer and a league bowler during the winter. He will be retiring at the end of September 2021 and hopes to spend his winters vacationing in Florida.
Recently, I took a whirlwind trip through the heartland. During this trip, I had the opportunity to visit plants and equipment makers installing and using vibrators. While in the field, I encountered damaged equipment, including cracked hopper walls that had to be re-welded.
Too often, the vibrator gets a bad rap in these situations. However, in reality, the damage is a function of incorrect sizing or installation of the vibrator. So to clear up any misconceptions, here are three easy recommendations to prevent future equipment damage:
Craig Macklin joined The Cleveland Vibrator Company in 2010. Although his prior experience is mired in the world of theoretical, intangible products and services such as software and consulting sales, the past 11 years have developed his passion for this industry and molded the vibration expert we know today. Now, as President and CEO, Craig has a deep understanding of the value and importance of industrial vibration to numerous industries and applications. He enjoys fine, locally roasted espresso, good food, and spending the day with his wife and two daughters. He has cried at multiple Browns and Indians games and likes to get outside and golf in his free time.
What’s his area of expertise, you ask? “Making sure the people on our team are better and smarter than I am.” – Craig Macklin
Sometimes a screening application cannot be solved by simply placing the product on the sieve surface and allowing the screener to do its job. For example, round screeners are designed to separate material by particle size. However, this simple process can occasionally cause problems or damage to the product and require the HK Ultrasonic Sieving System to properly separate the material, specifcally spherical material like solder powder (see picture).
What happens when spherical material is on the screen surface too long?
Damage or oxidization can occur to the spheres if left on the screen surface too long. Particle size separation is also very critical. More difficult-to-sieve powders fall into different categories based upon size: Type 4 (-400 +635 mesh), Type 5 (-500 mesh), Type 6 (-635 mesh), and Type 7 and 8 which have a slow sieving process.
The Model HK Incline
Recently, a customer inquired about a standard lab fine mesh ultrasonic sieving demo of his Type 4, 5, and 6 solder powder. Solder powder is generally very spherical and sieves very well when applying the HK Ultrasonic Sieving System to the screen surface. Our small lab models use 8” or 12” diameter sieves equipped with our HK Ultrasonic Sieving System.
Just as we thought, he called after a couple of weeks of working with the demo and said the lab unit was very efficient at sieving the powders. However, the length of time the powder spent on the sieve surface damaged his spheres. We explained that we will need to remove the covers off the screen surface in a much quicker time frame while still removing all of the fines.
Our suggestion was to try our HK Incline. To visualize, please check out the video below. The HK Incline is a very unique Ultrasonic Sieving System that utilizes rectangular screen frames and no mechanical vibration. We designed the HK Incline to rely strictly on ultrasonic energy to move the powder down the screen surface.
Model: HK Incline
Here’s how it works:
You load a small hopper/feeder with your powder and a small electromagnetic feeder feeds the powder onto our special ultrasonic rectangular sieve frames. While the ultrasonics are pulsing on/off, the powder is moving down the screen surface. The fine grain particles pass through the sieve either on to a second mesh or into a fine grain collection funnel. The oversized materials are discharged off the ends of the screen frames into collection containers.
Moreover, what we like about this style of equipment is the ability to adjust the feed rate and product yield. There is a little bit of magic on our end in designing the screen frames and adhering the sieve material to the frames but the end result is a very efficient Ultrasonic Sieving System. Check out this product data-sheet to learn more.
So, back to the customer. After trying out the HK Incline with the HK Ultrasonic Sieving System on his solder powder, he loved it!
Keep in mind, the HK Incline is not for every application. If you have a powder that agglomerates or does not flow well the HK Incline will not be effective. But if you have a fine, free-flowing powder the HK Incline could be your ticket.
Want more information about this product? Contact us today!
Jeff Hochadel has over 25 years of experience building and selling vibratory screening equipment. Jeff is responsible for handling fine mesh screening applications for The Cleveland Vibrator Company. His expertise is utilizing our Ultrasonic Deblinding System to solve difficult screening problems. When Jeff is not visiting customers promoting our products you can most likely find him fly fishing.
Eighteen years, hard to imagine, harder still to believe, where does the time go. 1996 was an interesting year for me, I was wrapping up my studies at Cleveland State University looking forward to graduating with my engineering degree. I’d just spent six months with my Army Reserve unit deployed to Haiti supporting the U.N. mission there, returning in time to start winter quarter. I still remember sitting at my dining room table studying for an upcoming test and getting a call from Glen Roberts of The Cleveland Vibrator Company. I guess I was engrossed in studying and really wasn’t 100% into answering the phone, I almost hung up on him thinking that he was a telemarketer!
There are a wide variety of vibrating tables available to pack material in containers. Flat vibrating tables or packers are commonly used for this application where an empty container is manually placed on the table, filling begins, at some point during the filling process the vibrating table is started to begin packing and finally you end the filling cycle and turn off the table. While this manual operation fits the needs of many operators, they may not be aware that there are alternatives that allow a more automated operation. Read More…
Jack Steinbuch has been with The Cleveland Vibrator Company for over 36 years accumulatively. He has previous experience in the manufacturing industry as a Senior Application Engineer and has worn many hats on our team in sales and managerial capacities. Now, he’s in the position of General Sales Manager. With a BSCE from The University of Toledo, he is an expert in the realm of sizing vibratory screeners and feeders, and sizing vibratory drives for tables and other vibratory equipment. Understanding that customer service is crucial, Jack believes it is important to provide the proper product for every application, even if it happens to not be supplied by The Cleveland Vibrator Company.
In his off-hours, you can find Jack spending time with his family and playing with his grandchildren. He loves sports; both watching and playing, and is an avid golfer and a league bowler during the winter. He will be retiring at the end of September 2021 and hopes to spend his winters vacationing in Florida.
