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Automate the Hammer Swing by Following These 5 Steps

By Cleveland Vibrator Team

Our team is frequently asked about the proper installation of our Single Impact Air Knocker units. Since these units require two strokes of air for proper operation, the required components and installation process are slightly different than a more traditional pneumatic piston vibrator. Here, we will answer frequently asked questions and walk through the step-by-step installation process.

Step One

After properly sizing and selecting the units (which can easily be completed by utilizing our Vibrator Selection Guide!), it is time to install. First order of business, what are the components required for proper operation? There are a few items needed:

  1. The Single Impact Air Knocker (Complete with the Exhaust Port Protector and Grade 5 mounting hardware, provided with each unit)
  2. The Mounting Channel
  3. Hoses
  4. Valve
  5. Filter/Regulator/Lubricator
  6. Safety Cable
  7. Timer Box (Optional)

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Mike Stratis

How Vibration Helps Improve Dust Collection Systems

By Mike Stratis

When dealing with dust collection systems, it is critical to regularly clean the collected dust out of the equipment. One of the methods to remove the accumulated dust is with the help of vibration. Where the vibration is applied, though, depends on the collection system installed. Standard installations that we see are:

  • Electrostatic Precipitators (ESP)
  • Baghouses
  • Cyclones

Electrostatic Precipitators

First, we’ll discuss electrostatic precipitators. These are large systems that are frequently found at facilities, such as:

  • Pulp and paper or steel mills
  • Refineries
  • Concrete plants
  • Coal-fired power plants, just to name a few

The systems have a series of wires and plates that act as filters that rely on an electrostatic charge to pull dust particles from the air passing through the collection system. Keeping these wires and plates clean is imperative to the process because it helps increase the efficiency of the dust collection system.

This is where a Rapper comes into play.

The Cleveland Vibrator 3″ PMA Rapper is an air-powered piston vibrator that is installed on a mounting plate connected to a shaft to shake the wires and plates. This shaking process breaks the friction of the particulates clinging to the collection media. The dust then drops down to the collection hopper underneath. Once the material is in the collection hopper, an externally mounted piston vibrator or air knocker will remove the dust from the inside sloped walls of the hopper and to the discharge.

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Mike Stratis

Tired of Using the Hammer?

By Mike Stratis

There is something to be said about the functionality of a hammer. These tools can be used for a variety of applications, constructive or destructive purposes and are often lightweight components which makes them easy to carry around a shop floor. In this industry, we see and hear them used on day bins, surge bins, bulk storage hoppers, material transfer pipes and other similar equipment to break up bridging or rat-holing product and promote material flow. While this is certainly a quick fix and can help the material flow problems that day, there are a few potential long term issues that can arise when using a dead blow or sledge hammer to break loose the material.

First thing that comes to mind for the Cleveland Vibrator team, and most importantly in our eyes, is the safety of the operator. When using these hammers on bin or hopper, many times the operator is lifting the hammer above shoulder level and swinging up at a bin on a regular basis. Read More…


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When A Vibratory Set Up Duplicates the Sledgehammer Motion of Five Workers at the Same Time…

By CVC Team

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…
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Katy Sabo

Top 6 Ways to Keep Your Employees Safe in the Grain Handling Industry

By Katy Sabo

Valuing your worker’s safety and well-being are ideas that most can agree on is crucial for company success within dangerous industries such as Grain Handling. Part of my job is updating our Twitter Feed and keeping an eye out for industry news via shared stories and retweets by some of the most credible sources in the material handling industries. Recently, I have been seeing numerous stories about grain entrapment accidents and can’t help but wonder, why does this keep occurring when preventive measures are available? Read More…


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Craig Macklin

Industrial Vibration to Unstick Things

By Craig Macklin

Many applications of industrial vibrators are for material flow in hoppers, bins, chutes, and pipes; or material settling and de-airing. However, we frequently come across customers that don’t work with dry bulk materials or wet cast product. Instead, they are looking to apply vibration to their process to “un-stick” their wet, sticky materials from the walls of their equipment.

If we relate this to an everyday experience, picture-grabbing ice cubes from the freezer for your glass of lemonade. You get a clump of them that bonded, and they won’t fit in your glass. So, what do you do? Apply a little energy to them with some impact force (bang them on the counter) and break those bonds. Cold lemonade success!

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Vibration Education and Safety: How SI Series Help Prevent Shoulder & Back Injuries

By CVC Team

We were contacted by a company that performs a special process on large diameter copper bars. Part of the process is seating the copper bars in place to do the process. This is currently accomplished by hitting the bars with an 8 to 12 pound sledge hammer. Due to the taxing and power-filled motion of the hammering process, it was causing extensive shoulder and back injuries on their employees. The situation was dire enough that it required a call to action and a solution, so they contacted The Cleveland Vibrator for a vibrator recommendation. Read More…
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Jack Steinbuch

Are You Afraid to Ask About Sizing Industrial Vibrators for Bins or Hoppers?

By Jack Steinbuch

I’ve been told that my last blog regarding the importance of wall thickness when utilizing external industrial vibrators for bins or hoppers seems to have struck a chord.  I plan to expand on that blog by providing some recommendations for sizing external vibrators since I merely referred to a vibrator with proper force previously – and you just may have been afraid to ask!

Essentially, we need to apply enough external force to the wall of the bin or hopper to assist gravity in getting material to flow.  While I previously stressed properly flexing of the wall to get the material to flow, we still need to determine the correct amount of force to apply based on the configuration of the hopper as well as the bulk density and flowability of the material. Read More…


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Preventing Carpal Tunnel with Single Impact Air Knockers

By CVC Team

We were recently asked by one of our foundry customers to quote our 1200 SI Air Knockers to replace hammers used by his employees to beat on the side of casting forms in order to free the casting from the mold. Because of the current process, they currently have two employees on workman’s compensation with carpal tunnel problems related to using hammers to loosen the castings. With the SI series developed to replace such manual processes, we can mount the vibrator on the mold and control the number of hits per minute plus control the force of the impact that the piston strikes the mold with our timer and five port spool valve set up.  This simple solution can not only save the health of the employees, but also thousands of dollars in lost time and claims.  If you have a manual process requiring employees to use hammers to dislodge material from molds, bins, hoppers or chutes, contact us to see if we can help.
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Craig Macklin

More Grain Entrapment and Engulfment: Hopper Bottoms

By Craig Macklin

As further follow-on to my previous post, I wanted to look at a specific subset of Grain Entrapment and Engulfment cases.  As I mentioned, I don’t think industrial vibrators and/or timed knockers are the silver bullet for preventing all cases.  However, I do think they can be effective for Read More…


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