pneumatic piston vibrators

How to Operate Cleveland Vibrator’s Vacuum Mounted Series Units
Mike Stratis

How to Operate Cleveland Vibrator’s Vacuum Mounted Series Units

By Mike Stratis

The Cleveland Vibrator Company has been manufacturing pneumatic piston vibrators since 1923. During that time, there have been a wide range of new products developed and released as the industries change. A great recent example of this innovation is the Vacuum Mount Vibrator Series.

The first generation of the Vacuum Mount family was designed around the flagship product, air piston vibrators, to accommodate a wide range of applications and mounting locations. The air piston vibrators that are used are the VMSAC models, these are the non-impacting or air-cushioned piston vibrators. The reason for the non-impacting model is because the impacting model’s steel piston inside the ductile iron casted body provides a large amount of force that actually breaks the suction of the vacuum cup when installed on a bin, hopper trailer, dump bed truck, slip form or other application.

After the success of the first generation, with the VMSAC models, we expanded into the pneumatic turbine vibrators. This has allows us to provide many more options and sizes to help meet the demands of the user’s application. The original family within the product line contained four models (1125 VMSAC, Read More…


Share this blog post:
FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Tired of Using the Hammer?
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…


Share this blog post:
FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
How to Protect Your Vibrator Investment
Mike Stratis

How to Protect Your Vibrator Investment

By Mike Stratis

The Cleveland Vibrator Company has been manufacturing pneumatic piston vibrator units since 1923. Over the past 90+ years, we have learned a few things about how to protect your investment in an air piston vibrator. There are a few main procedures and components we strongly suggest and will review:

  1. Air Supply
  2. Exhaust Ports
  3. Gaskets

PSI Reccomendation with Regulator - Cleveland Vibrator CompanyThe air supply should be dried and filtered, then regulated and once between 0-80 PSI, the air should be lubricated. We have Watts Filter-Regulator-Lubricators available ranging in size for 1/4″ to 1-1/”4 NPT. Glycerin filled regulator gauges help to read the PSI setting easily. Lightweight 10W/NR oil should be dropped into the airline prior to reaching the vibrator. We have pints of Vibra-Lube available to help save the search for this type of oil.

These TLC steps can double or triple the air piston vibrator’s life expectancy. Our dual-diameter piston design allows for start-up in any mounting position (e.g. at 30° on a vibratory feeder or 60° angle on a hopper or 90° on a vibratory table) and eliminates the need for a spring. The springless unit keeps replacement parts and internal components to a minimum. So, with a proper air supply plumbed to the vibrator and a low number of wearable parts, these units can last a long time and return the money on your investment. Read More…


Share this blog post:
FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
It’s Halloween… Tales from a Small Town Boy Will Have You Shakin’ in Your Boots
Avatar

It’s Halloween… Tales from a Small Town Boy Will Have You Shakin’ in Your Boots

By CVC Team

With Halloween approaching fast, it has reminded me that over the years Cleveland Vibrator has sold several vibrators to entertainment enterprises for use on their Halloween projects. One of these projects, I was told, was for a Haunted Mansion Halloween Party for a pretty well known publication here in the U.S. (*Mansion may be a pretty big clue here). They used two 1125 VMS Air Piston Vibrators mounted below the floor to surprise folks as they walk on them. We even built an “Earthquake Machine” for the Natural History Museum here in Cleveland, Ohio to give visitors the experience of what an earthquake may feel like. They even covered the drive motors so you could actually sit on them. This holiday also brought back an experience I had at a burial vault company visit just a few years past. But, before I tell this story would like to explain what led up to my reaction to this visit.

I think that our beliefs and fears about Halloween go back to what we have learned or were told as kids. This for sure applies to my background as a youngin’. I was raised in Southern Ohio on a small farm that had no phone service until I was twelve or thirteen. Read More…


Share this blog post:
FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
The Top 8 Lubricants You Shouldn’t Use on Your Industrial Pneumatic Vibrator
Avatar

The Top 8 Lubricants You Shouldn’t Use on Your Industrial Pneumatic Vibrator

By CVC Team

We often have customers send our products back for routine maintenance checks and to address functionality problems they are experiencing. A customer sent us their 1350 VMS impact vibrator used on a railcar to unload dry cement. We typically recommend a lightweight oil lubricant for our pneumatic vibrators. In the pictures below, you can see that our customer used grease. This is a major no-no and will only lead to premature failure of the vibrator. Our air piston vibrators carry fairly tight tolerance between the piston O.D. and the body I.D. This tolerance can be as small as tenths of a thousand to just a few thousand. If you add anything to the air stream that changes that tolerance, you may affect the performance of the vibrator.

Read More…
Share this blog post:
FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Temperatures Are Rising…So Are Moisture Content Percentages
Mike Stratis

Temperatures Are Rising…So Are Moisture Content Percentages

By Mike Stratis

Now that we are past Memorial Day weekend, and thank you to all that have served, are serving or will serve our country, the summer months are upon us. For some, and depending where you live, these are the best parts of the year, namely, because of the warmer temperatures. While we enjoy the extra hours of sunlight and are exposed to more vitamin D, Mother Nature can have a serious effect on manmade structures. This is certainly the case for Texas and Oklahoma right now as many cities in this part of the country have experienced record rain falls for the month of May. This amount of rain can often be attributed to the rise in moisture content within the atmosphere.

So, why is this important for industrial vibration? Good question. Read More…


Share this blog post:

FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
The Importance of Proper Installation of Industrial Vibrators
Mike Stratis

The Importance of Proper Installation of Industrial Vibrators

By Mike Stratis

“If you don’t have the time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it again?”

– John Wooden, former UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach and Presidential Medal of Freedom award winner.

We have a few frequently asked questions regarding bin vibrators, many of which revolve around how to install the unit. Here is the down and dirty:

Read More…
Share this blog post:
FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Vibrator Testing and Data Collection – The Story Continues…
Avatar

Vibrator Testing and Data Collection – The Story Continues…

By CVC Team

I’m not sure but I think it was the really old Batman and Robin series with Adam West where the show would end with the dynamic duo in sort of real trouble.  Some place along the line they’d pick up the story with a line something like “when last we checked in with…” well that sort of applies to my efforts to collect new data on Cleveland Vibrator’s line of pneumatic piston vibrators, both impact and air cushioned. Well…when last we check in… Cleveland Vibrator was making efforts to better document the performance of the piston vibrator line and we’d just recently purchased a CoCo-80 Dynamic Signal Analyzer as part of that effort.  I’d Blogged about my efforts and initial results a while back.

The initial plan was to capture the acceleration of a heavy plate to which we bolt an impact vibrator or air cushioned piston vibrator and isolate the plate with very soft airmounts.  Then using the equation F=ma, we’d calculate the force output of the vibrator, it all seemed reasonable.  At the time I wrote about data collected on the VM-25, miniature piston vibrator.  Read More…
Share this blog post:

FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Industrial Vibration Now & Then: Portable Pneumatics
Katy Sabo

Industrial Vibration Now & Then: Portable Pneumatics

By Katy Sabo

One of the perks about working for The Cleveland Vibrator Company when you’re a history geek like me, is digging through the archives and learning the rich history of your product development over the past century. Recently, I was able to get my hands on case histories dating back to the 1960s and came across one that highlighted our first-ever “Portable Air Piston Vibrator.” Nearly 50 years ago, Cleveland Vibrator assisted a precast concrete manufacturer when they wished to improve the consolidation and finish of their product using vibration. We specially designed a 1-1/4″ Piston Vibrator and attached it to a pistol-grip handle. The handle had been equipped with a special thumb grip trigger that activated the vibration and this piece of vibratory equipment weighed only 10 lbs. This light-weight and portable option gave the manufacturer the power to apply vibration to problem-child areas within their production, leaving the application locations completely limitless. How much did this unit cost? For the vibrator, 5′ hose and lubricator, this manufacturer paid $80. Read More…


Share this blog post:

FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
Industrial Vibration and Rock and Roll: Another Combination That’s Shaking Things Up!
Avatar

Industrial Vibration and Rock and Roll: Another Combination That’s Shaking Things Up!

By CVC Team

Drugs, Sex, Rock and Roll and Industrial Vibrators!  Well maybe not, how about pharmaceuticals, we still don’t make “those” kinds of vibrators, Rock and Roll and Industrial Vibrators.  The common factor in this list is the application of vibration to accomplish a specific goal.  As some folks that read these blogs might have noticed I’ve stated my interest  in building acoustic guitars, in comes the rock and roll part, and as I state in my bio, “It’s still all about vibration, just strings and wood and not bulk material”.

Guitar building is an interesting adventure, the more I read and build the more the road twists and turns.  I happened to innocently stumble down this path when my son off handedly asked me if I thought we could repaint his Strat.  Well, since then it’s gone from building electrics to building acoustics.  In both groups vibration of the strings and the support structure is critical. For many builders the goal seems to be to duplicate the sound and tone of what many consider the Holy Grail of acoustic guitars, “Pre-war Martins.”   Part of the “magic” of these instruments is the materials used, building process at the time and the natural “aging” of the instrument.   Aging as I understand, it is a combination of changes in the wood and the changes in the structure due to the vibration introduced by the strings.  Read More…


Share this blog post:

FacebooktwitterlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterlinkedinmail
1 2 3 4 5  Scroll to top