Trap based part feeding system for stacking sector shaped parts

Abstract

Part feeders have been used in the industries for a long time to present the parts in a desired orientation. A prominent problem in manufacturing automation is the accurate and reliable presentation of small parts, in a single specified configuration called preferred orientation. In this paper, a part feeding system for handling brakeliner, a typical asymmetric component, is discussed. Paul Berretty et al. [12] discussed a class of mechanical filters that can remove polygonal sections from the track of the feeder. They referred to this class of filters as traps, which eliminate or reorient the parts until they reach the final desired orientation. The proposed part feeder was developed using mechanical barriers called trap, to reorient the parts to desired orientation. The desired orientation was the most probable natural resting orientation, which was found using drop test. The proposed low cost part feeder system uses sensorless mechanical devices or barriers such as wiper blade, guiding block, edge riser etc., to reorient the arbitrary orientation into a preferred orientation, which facilitates stacking. Critical dimensions of the trap and appropriate feeding parameters of linear vibratory feeder for maximum conveying velocity were identified experimentally. A system which stacks the parts coming out of the trap was also developed. An expression relating the conveying velocity as a function of vibration amplitude, excitation frequency of vibration and trap inclination angle was obtained through regression analysis. The trap inclination angle was found to be the most significant factor, on conveying velocity. The proposed set-up reduced the time taken for stacking 80 parts by about 13.5 %.