CASE STUDIES

Safety Glasses Parts




Vibratory Feeder System




Vibratory-Feeder

Multiple Parts Processing Success
Our customer desired to become more proficient at competing in a market providing safety glasses. The customer wanted to automate the assembly of arm hinges on different styles of safety glasses (left). The hinges ranged in size from 5/8” long to nearly 2” long. The parts differed in both width and height. Fortville Feeders was contracted to design and build a feeder system that would feed each of five arm sizes at a rate of 120 parts per minute.

Fortville Feeders designed and tooled a custom 27” vibratory feeder bowl. The feeder bowl design consisted of three orientation tracks that converge into a single inline discharge. We also provided, as part of our turnkey feed system a one cubic foot supply hopper, mounting plate with legs, isolation feet, and a sound enclosure.

Important features that are key to the success of this feeder system are as follows: 1) bolt on quick-change orientation devices and selectors providing rapid part changeover; 2) lift-off or hinged sound enclosure doors and panels providing unobstructed access to feeder bowl tooling; 3) capped-off return pan to reduce part cross contamination; 4) easy access quick dump feature, allowing for rapid part removal providing rapid part changeover; and 5) all Fortville feeder bowls are built in adequate size to allow the parts to move up tracks, designed with minimum pitch.

Replace Existing Equipment
Many times during the course of a year, Fortville Feeders is contacted to replace a feeder system that is worn out. A large share of these opportunities has come from the reputation we have earned for building elaborate jobs and solving difficult problems. Major contributors to our replacement business are jobs built by smaller feeder shops that are no longer in existence.

In this application, a Fortville Feeders feed system was designed to replace an existing feeder that was worn out. This system now feeds caps that get mounted to the sides of five gallon buckets that accept the bucket handle. The two Fortville feeder bowls are mounted on plates that will move horizontally to accept different size buckets. The special single hopper has two independent discharges feeding in opposite directions keeping both feeder bowls at optimum operating levels. The two 90 degree down angle tracks were designed to fit directly into the existing cap press.

Specially designed equipment to solve very difficult assembly problems is another opportunity to separate Fortville Feeders and our representatives from the rest of the industry. Value-added solutions are what we are all about and that’s why Fortville Feeders is an industry leader!

Product Highlight: Reworked part feeding system for small parts Specifications: -6" feeder bowl with linear track and escapement mechanism- redesigned and reworked -Fed part is a 0.020" dia. Pin with a head dia. of 0.035" and a length of 0.200"- very small -Feed Rate= 6 PPM -Replaced drive unit, modified in-line track, created a new escape and blow mechanism      This project clearly highlights two of Fortville's strengths: market leading expertise in vibratory feeding systems, and a strong ability to feed a broad range of parts - including the very small. After months of frustration, the project's customer approached Fortville for help. Unfortunately, a major competitor to Fortville had built the original system, and after multiple attempts, had given up - leaving the customer without a solution and rendering the entire system useless. Leveraging its' expertise - and magnifying glasses, Fortville re-designed and re-built the drive system, refined and tuned the track, and developed and built a new escapement mechanism. Given the extraordinary small size of the part and its associated features, innovative designs, high precision tolerances, and craftsmanship were required. The customer was very pleased with the resulting system performance - and impressed with Fortville's ability and commitment to deliver where others have failed. Fortville looks forward to reworking or building your part feeding challenge. Our objective is to exceed our customers' expectations - from large parts to very small.