Elevating Step Belt Feeder : Its Performance Analysis and Study of Various Parameters Affecting It

Ujjwal tyagi,Garima gupta,Pradeep khanna

OBJECTIVE

The present work aims at conceptualizing, fabricating, experimenting and investigating the performance of An Elevating Step Belt Feeder.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Classification of Feeders
Methodology Construction details Principle of working Experimentation Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

Mass production via assembly lines is widely considered to be the catalyst as : i) making possible low unit cost for manufactured goods. ii) minimizing motion of workers, tools, machines and parts. Part feeders form a critical part of automated assembly lines.

CLASSIFICATION
On the basis of their drive mechanism:

Reciprocating feeder- generally obtained

by use of pneumatic actuator or motor with slider crank mechanism.

Rotary feeder- generally obtained by the

use of motor, stepped pulleys and/or gearbox.

Vibratory feeder- generally use vibratory

motion to sort the components and have a secondary drive mechanism for feeding the parts.

METHODOLOGY
Idea generation Idea development

Solid modeling

Sizing

Fabrication

Experimentation

Conclusion

Analysis of results

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS

Conveyer Belt Coupling

Ledges

DC Motor

Reservoir

PRINCIPLE OF WORKING

The basic principle of a belt feeder is the rotation of a conveyor belt having ledges on it. The setup is designed such that cylindrical parts are fed to their respective desired positions. Tapered sides storage box acts as a temporary reservoir for the randomly stored parts to be fed whenever the device is operational. Ledges on the conveyor belt are fixed at an angle which carry some parts when the belt rotates.

At certain height there is a slant narrow tray which is making the same angle with the horizontal as that of the ledges. Parts are easily transferred to this narrow tray and are delivered to the required position in the assembly line.

EXPERIMENTATION

work, an investigation is done for the performance of the belt feeder. The three parameters taken are as follows: i. Part population(PP) ii. Part size(L) iii. Speed of the conveyor belt(N) However other parameters like step angle and slope of the ledges on which parts are carried can also be experimented to find their influence on feed rate.

Experimental work :- In the present

450 400 350 300 FEED RATE 250 200 150 100 50 0 200 300 PART POPULATION 400 12rpm 17rpm 22rpm

Feed rate (parts per minute) versus part population at different speeds.

Conclusion :- With the increase in part population the feed rate

increases. The trend is true for the speeds as well, however at highest speed the rate of increase of feed rate reduces after a certain point. The reason could be attributed to the increase in agitation and interaction amongst the parts at high speed that prevents them to get fed. However at slowest speed the rate of increase of feed is also less, the reason could be attributed to the fact that parts do not get churned enough to be fed.

500 450 400 350 FEED RATE 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 200 300 400 PART POPULATION 27mm 23mm 19mm

Feed rate (parts per minute) versus part population at different lengths.

Conclusion :- Feed rate increases with part population and

length but it seems at more length the rate of increase of feed rate reduces after a certain point, again due to increased interaction of the parts. Whereas at smaller part lengths, the feed rate seems to be less at higher speeds because of increased agitation amongst the parts.

500 450 400 350 FEED RATE 300 250 200 150 100 50 27mm 23mm 19mm

0
12rpm 17rpm 22rpm SPEED OF THE FEEDER

Feed rate (parts per minute) versus speed of the feeder at different lengths .

Conclusions :- The feed rate increases with increase in

speed at constant population but as the length increases along with the speed, after a certain point the feed rate tends to decrease, the reason could be the excessive interaction among the parts due to increase in length.

500
450 400 350 FEED RATE 300 250 200 150 100 50 PP (200) PP (300) PP (400)

0
19mm 23mm 27mm LENGTH OH THE PARTS

Feed rate (parts per minute) versus part length at different population .

Conclusion :- Feed rate increase with increase in length at a

constant speed but as the length increases along with the population, after a certain point the feed rate tends to decrease. The reason could be attributed to the fact that at highest speed parts gain interaction among themselves which prevents them to get fed. However at largest population the feed rate reduces bit sharply, the reason could be that interaction is more in parts of longest length.

CONCLUSION
From the above performance, the optimum output is obtained at: PARAMETER
Part length Speed Part population

VALUE
23 mm 17 rpm 300

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