In case parts relating to pharmaceutical or medical industry are required to be fed through a feeder bowl, certain points must be taken care of. First and foremost, the bowl needs to be manufactured in stainless steel (either 304 or 316 grade, as per customer requriement). Secondly, it should be full argon welded in such a manner that there is no crevice or gap anywhere as this can result in dust accumulating over there. Even the fixing of the bowl needs to be done from the sides or the bottom. The bowl should not be fixed at the centre as the mounting holes can hold dust. The removal of the bowl too has to be easy and fast so that in case any changeover of bowls (for different parts) is required, it is fast. It might also be helpful in case the bowl has to be autoclaved every now and then. For such applications, a stainless steel conical bowl with full argon welding is highly recommended with mounting from the sides. Some manufacturers provide cylindrical or step design bowls for such applications but they are not suitable for pharmaceutical and medical applications. Orientation tooling too needs to be fully welded to the bowl and cannot be fixed by screws for obvious reasons. In case a chute or gravity track is manufactured, it should preferably be made with stainless steel rods as this ensures that no dust accumulates in the same. The bowl should preferably be as shown in the enclosed photo.

Using a leveling screw for mounting stands made for vibratory bowl feeders is useful in many ways. First and foremost, it helps in leveling the stand in case the floor is not flat enough. In case the floor is not properly leveled, then the vibratory bowl feeder will be remains tilted on one side. This will result in the components not moving properly up the track in that area. If the orientation tooling is on that particular side, then the components will find it impossible to climb up on that side. The leveling screws help in reducing this possibility. Secondly, Elscint provides grouting arrangement on the leveling screws, which can help in grouting the stand to the ground. This is particularly useful in case of big vibratory part feeders, whose stands might have a tendency to jump / lose their position. Last but not the least, the leveling screws can help in providing a small height adjustment in case the stand does not have such a facility. Hence, it is always beneficial to have leveling screws for the mounting stands of vibratory bowl feeders.

The outlet height of a vibratory bowl feeder is between 100 mm to 500 mm, depending upon the model and the bowl used for the same. As a vibratory bowl feeder feeds to some machine or assembly operation, the required height, in the majority of the cases is more than this. Hence, there is a requirement of mounting the vibratory bowl feeder on a stand in order to match it with the machine or assembly table height. These stands can be cubical, single post, special, made of aluminum extruded sections etc. It always makes sense to purchase such stands from the bowl feeder manufacturer so that further work at the customer’s end is eliminated. In most of these stands, it is always beneficial to have a small extent of height adjustment. This ensures that minor adjustments at the time of integration are easy. In case the height adjustment required is just upto (+/-) 50 mm, this can be done by having this in the leveling screws below the stand. However, in most cases, the adjustment required is upto (+/-) 100 mm or even upto (+/-) 200 mm. This might be because the machine height is not finalized or if the bowl feeder is made to work for a variety of parts, with each part having a separate height requirement. In such a case, this adjustment can be provided with a height adjustment screw of appropriate length. Further in such a case, it is important that there is a provision to ensure that the screw does not rotate in 360 degrees, and proper provision is made for locking it. Elscint provides a keyway in the screw to ensure that it does not rotate and a proper locking arrangement is provided to ensure easy up and down movement as well as locking. The stands can be designed to not only mount the vibratory bowl feeder but also other things like hoppers, linear vibrators, gravity chutes etc. Further, if space is a constraint, one can opt for a single post stand which is a pillar type one as it helps conserve space. If not, then a cubical stand is most appropriate as it also provides some amount of storage space below the stand, where the tools and tooling of the vibratory bowl feeder can be stored.