Offtopic: Vibrating Feeders

Bon Soir

The subject is vibrating feeders.

The relevance is somebody tried to solve this problem with a pipe and it didnt work.

I have a large bin with a vibrating feeder on the bottom. The feeder discharged down a pipe and then onto a conveyor. The pipe was about 2m long and, I think 400 dia. Inclination, by eye, around 30 degrees. It didnt work; blocked up. Was replaced by a rubber lined chute 600mm tapering down to 400 (obvious problem) wide by 200 high. It also blocks up.
I reckon that if I suspend the chute on springs and fit a vibrator unit, it will work. If it doesnt, I will fit a non-tapered Bisalloy chute with vibrator, or replace with a small belt conveyor - overkill.

However I have no procedure to design/select the vibrator.

Material is SAG mill pebble screen discharge, which is a mixture of gravel up to around 40mm and silt in variable amounts. Total solids flow rate is about 50 TPH, SG 2.7, bulk density 1600kg/m^3.

I envisage the vibrator to be one of those rotary units fitted to screens (there are a few spares lying around), but would like to know how to estimate power, speed and out of balance force required. Occasionally it is nice to have the theory come before the practice.

Can anyone help?

Cheers

Steve McKenzie Received on Fri Nov 22 05:14:00 2002