We can all agree that the improvement of the performance of any production equipment is a good idea. That being said, we first need to establish the definition of the performance of a screener. I will go with any means to improve the screening efficiency to gain as much of the desired product with the least amount of contamination. We will make the assumption that the correct screener has been selected for the application, so now we will look for ways to improve its performance.
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.
OSHA specifies that a hearing conservation program should be in place when “noise exposure is at or above 85 decibels averaged over 8 working hours, or an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA)”. This can be an issue for some vibratory equipment. However, we have selections available that will reduce noise levels which can result in many positives for your facility (OSHA).
For example, did you know investing in noise-reducing vibration can lead to an increase in productivity and overall safety? High noise levels can lead to short- and long-term physical damage including ringing ears, temporary changes in hearing, and long-term hearing damage or loss. But, less commonly known, it can also put a strain on your pocket by reducing productivity, contributing to poor communication and concentration, and can even contribute to workplace accidents by limiting your employee’s ability to understand speech (OSHA).
Since there is a wide variety of vibratory equipment, for this blog, we will focus on “brute force” vibratory equipment. The vibrating body is directly installed on the equipment and is driven by a vibrator or dual motors, and the supporting structure is isolated from the vibrating body. Now let us look at potential ways to reduce their noise level:
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.
The typical customer who calls or emails with a process question has either hundreds of pounds per hour or tons of material per hour to screen. Although these may be the majority of the applications, I do get many inquiries where the customer only has to process maybe 20 or 30lbs/hr. (or less) but still needs a vibratory screener. These small-batch screening applications are sometimes a little more challenging to solve than the typical large-batch application. Some applications may require a much finer mesh, there’s not much room to work with, or the material is extremely valuable. Besides our standard screeners, we also have the capability to manufacture a special screener around the customer’s process. I don’t know how many times I have seen an overly large vibratory screener handling an application where a screener half the size would suffice.
So, we first need to determine how much material the customer plans on running through the screener per hour or per shift, then we need to determine the mesh size requirements. We need to answer two questions: Read More…
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.
Being a mom, there are certain things in life I cannot live without. Obviously, Disney Junior and endless amount of toys make my life a lot easier but coffee gives me life. It sounds dramatic, I know, but any parent out there reading this knows exactly where I am coming from! We all have our vices and coffee is my kryptonite. I don’t discriminate when it comes to preparing java, whether it is from my favorite local roaster, my own coffee pot or that quick instant cup out of a Keurig, you can bet your bottom dollar not a drop will be left in my mug at day’s end.
Single-serve coffee cups have given a new meaning to coffee on-the-go. Even though the cost of the single-serve cup is proven to be higher overall than the standard coffee grounds, the savings in time makes it worth it for the die-hard caffeine addicts. Guilty as charged and with no shame at all, I am one of those addicts but the tree hugger side of me sticks to the old school Mr. Coffee maker every morning. My Keurig is on standby if I desperately need that afternoon pick-me-up and takes residence behind me in my office as I write this blog. I like sharing so it is “open to the public” during work hours for my fellow CVC comrades, but they provide their own goods! Coworkers know to discard their used K-cups into my recycling box but it made me wonder, how many other people think to recycle them? Read More…
Katy Sabo has been the Industrial Vibrator Duchess of The Cleveland Vibrator Company since 2014. The originator of #VibrationEducation, Katy has helped create CVC brand awareness across the globe and has made it her personal priority to share the importance of Industrial Vibration with anyone willing to listen! When she isn’t shaking things up in the Marketing Department, you can usually find her shopping with her favorite sidekicks (she’s the proud mom of two little ladies), going on long walks/runs with her favorite furry family members, or rooting on any Cleveland team with her diehard fan of a husband.
Remember the days of “Tube TVs” and “Low Radiation” computer screens?
I remember walking into Cleveland Vibrator and seeing, what I would describe as, the land of misfit computer screens that had been stored away through the many years that Cleveland Vibrator has been in business. One day they disappeared and the land of misfits was replaced by trade show accessories. Working here has opened my eyes to the many industries that don’t get the attention they well deserve, especially recycling. Recently, I was invited to visit a customer whose specialty was Glass Recycling of old TV screens and computer monitors. Ding, ding, ding, the lightbulb went off… this is where those “misfits” disappeared to. This got me thinking, what exactly can recycled glass be used for?
The glass used for these old monitors and displays is referred to as CRT, Cathode Ray Tube Glass, and it is estimated that the typical CRT device is made up of between 15 to 90 pounds of glass (depending on device) that protects the users from the radiation produced by the electron gun and beam gun inside that device. Since the emerging high demand of LCD, LED and Plasma Screens of the 2000s, it is an estimated 57 million computers and televisions are sold annually in the U.S. according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Households are now discarding old models of outdated technology at a much higher rate than we have ever seen before. Read More…
Katy Sabo has been the Industrial Vibrator Duchess of The Cleveland Vibrator Company since 2014. The originator of #VibrationEducation, Katy has helped create CVC brand awareness across the globe and has made it her personal priority to share the importance of Industrial Vibration with anyone willing to listen! When she isn’t shaking things up in the Marketing Department, you can usually find her shopping with her favorite sidekicks (she’s the proud mom of two little ladies), going on long walks/runs with her favorite furry family members, or rooting on any Cleveland team with her diehard fan of a husband.
“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” – Marilyn vos Savant
You know those ceramic dishes your mom uses to serve Sunday dinner? What if I told you that Industrial Vibration played a part in making those dishes possible?
The Ceramics Industry covers a wide range of products from traditional ceramics, such as pottery and chinaware, to technical ceramics for chemical, mechanical or thermal applications. I will provide you with a brief overview of the manufacturing process of traditional ceramics. I will help you see where Industrial Vibration fits into the processes as well, so brace yourself; here we go!
What exactly is Ceramics?
Ceramics can be defined as a class of inorganic, nonmetallic solids that are subjected to high temperatures for manufacturing use. I spoke about the term “traditional ceramics” which will be the focus of this post. These are ceramic products that are produced from unrefined clay, and combinations of refined clay and powdered or granulated non-plastic minerals. This includes pottery, stoneware, chinaware, porcelain, etc. To create these end products, the ceramic matter needs to go through the traditional manufacturing process, which goes as follows:
This blog is the second in a series that will be dedicated to typical screening medias that are installed in Vibratory Screeners. I will discuss their advantages and disadvantages so you can be in a better position to assist us in the selection process.
Perforated Plate
This is also a fairly common and widely used screening media for many applications including scalping, sizing and dewatering. Perforated plate, as relates to sections installed in vibratory screeners, is typically designated by the openings, the bar width (amount of material between the openings), centers (distance between the holes as well as staggered or straight line) and thickness. 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.
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.
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.
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.
