GB2135753A - Adjustable spring angle on vibratory bowl feeders - Google Patents

Abstract

A vibratory parts feeder is provided having a base element 12 and a crossarm element 14 supported above the base through the use of leaf springs 20 which are mounted to the base and the crossarm through and with a plurality of interchangeable wedges 42 and flat spacers 40 such that the angle of the leaf springs between the base and the cross-arm can be readily changed to facilitate different operating conditions of the vibratory parts feeder. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Adjustable spring angle on vibratory bowl feeders The invention has to do with providing adjustability for leaf spring suspension elements in vibratory bowl feeders. More specifically, interchangeable components are provided in a suspension structure to allow adjustment of the angles of the leaf spring mountings of the feeder.

Vibratory bowl feeder apparatus, typically including a base and a driven component mounted on springs to the base, are vibrated through the use of an electromagnetic exciter.

The frequency of the exciter's operation is dictated by the line frequency of the power source. Since feed rates vary for different materials or articles and since a bowl feeder should have some flexibility over the range and type of material that it is able to feed, some adjustment of the angle of motion is desirable.

The invention incorporates first and second leaf spring mounting blocks each with a different face angle formed on the spring contacting surface. A plurality of spacers, utilizing flat spacers and spacers having typically 5" face angles, are provided to allow modification of the effective angle of the first and second leaf spring mounting blocks. The spacers, hereinafter flat spacers and wedges, are provided with mounting bolt receiving apertures that allow the leaf spring mounting bolts to pass through the spacers into the drilled and tapped mounting blocks.

The vertical acceleration of the feeder bowl may be advantageously controlled or selected by adjusting the mounting angle of the bowl supporting springs. This invention allows adjustability of the angle through the uses of a set of components supporting the bowl.

The advantages of this invention and a complete understanding thereof will be apparent from the following description and study of the drawing figures wherein: Figure 1 presents a plan view of a vibratory bowl feeder; Figure 2 presents a side elevation view of Fig. 1; Figures 3, 4 and 5 present a single leaf spring assembly with several combinations of spacers yielding several different leaf spring angles.

The Fig. 1 view is a plan view of a vibratory bowl feeder generally 10 having a base 1 2 that supports a cross arm element 1 4 to which a bowl, not shown, is attached in a conventional manner. Each of the appendages such as 1 6 of the cross arm element 1 4 are attached to an individual stack of leaf springs such as 20. Each leaf spring stack 20 may be composed of either a single leaf or a plurality of leaves and the two leaf spring stacks shown here are simply an example of a preferred embodiment.

The elevation view of Fig. 2 shows the cross arm element 14, which is a supported member, and the appendage 1 6 supported by the four leaf spring stacks such as 20 to the base 1 2. The base 1 2 is a generally rectangular plate of significant mass that is provided with cutouts such as 22 to accommodate mounting of the leaf springs within the general perimeter of the machine. Each cutout 22 projects normally from the edges of the base toward the center thereof and is machined generally as shown in Fig. 2 so that at least a first face 24, hereinafter the base face of the base cutout, is formed at an angle to the vertical reference 26. In a preferred embodiment this base face angle would be 25 .

Fig. 2 also shows that the appendages such as 1 6 are provided with an appendage face such as 30 that is machined on an angle relative to the vertical reference 26 in a direction opposite that of the first face angle of the base cutout. In a preferred embodiment this may be an angle of 15 .

Each end of each leaf spring 20 is provided with a through aperture for accommodating a spring clamping bolt such as 32. There are eight identical bolts used in the embodiment shown but other fastening arrangements are contemplated. The bolts are ultimately received in drilled and tapped bores in respective base faces 24 and appendage faces 30 of the base 1 2 and the cross arm element 14 respectively. All the spring clamping bolt receiving bores are drilled at an angle to the horizontal plan of equal slope. In this embodiment the bores are drilled at 20 from the horizontal and are parallel to each other.

In order to provide the leaf spring mounting angle's adjustability a plurality of flat spacers and wedges are provided. For purposes of this disclosure a flat spacer is a rectangular piece of stock having a given thickness and large flat faces on each side thereof with these faces being generally parallel to each other.

These flat spacers, such as the one shown as 40 in Fig. 2, are also provided with a hole that allows passage of the spring clamping bolt 32.

The wedges such as 42 in Fig. 2 are similar to the flat spacers 40 except that the opposite large flat faces are formed at different angles to the normal plane thereof. For instance, a first face 44 is parallel to the normal plane while a second face 46 is formed at 5" from the normal plane, thus 5" relative to the first face 44. The wedges are also provided with a hole to accommodate the spring clamp bolts such as 32.

The flat spacers 40 and the wedges 42 are arranged relative to the leaf spring stack 20, to provide various leaf spring angles shown in Figs. 3 through 5.

In Fig. 3, the leaf spring stacks are posi tioned at a 15 angle to the vertical as shown by included angle A. In this figure it can be seen that the appendage face 30 is formed on the appendage 1 6 of the cross arm element at an angle of 15 , reference 50, from the vertical reference 26. On the base 12 it can be seen that the face 24 is machined or formed at an angle of 25 , reference 52, from the vertical reference 26. These face angles of the appendage face 30 and the cutout face 24 are constant in all of the exemplary versions shown but could be changed depending on designer's preference.

To get the 15 angle A through the leaf spring embodiment shown in Fig. 3 the following arrangement of spacers is used. Since the cross arm appendage face 30 is already machined at 1 5 no spacers are needed between the upper ends of the leaf spring stacks and the appendage face 30. A wedge 42 is needed outboard of the leaf spring stacks to assure that the head of the spring clamping bolt contacts a surface which remains perpendicular to the major axis of the bore 34 and the bolt is not deflected by eccentric loads.

The wedge 42 provides a face that is parallel to the appendage face 30 of the cross arm appendage. At the base cutout 22 where the base face 24 is formed at 25 to vertical two identical wedges 42a and 42b are needed between the leaf spring stacks and the base face 24. The two wedges 42a and 42b have their normal faces abutting each other so that a 10 wedge is constructed thus bringing the base face actual angle down to 15 from 25 .

Outboard of the springs a single wedge "42c" is used to assure that the bolt head 32a contacts a surface which is 20 from the vertical reference and is not deflected by eccentric loads.

In the Fig. 4 embodiment a 20 included angle B between the leaf spring stack 20 and the vertical reference 26 is developed. Of course the elements used here are the same as those used in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 except that the flat spacers and wedges are arranged differently. Specifically at the crossarm a wedge 42d is placed between the leaf spring 20 and the appendage face 30 to steepen the face angle from 15 at 50 to 20 . Since this face provides a complimentary angle for the spring clamping bolt 32 a flat spacer 40 is used outboard of the springs. At the base, where the base face is 25 (52) a wedge 42e is used to bring the angle to 20 between the leaf spring 20 and the vertical reference 26.

Outboard of the leaf spring 20 only a flat spacer is needed to assure concentric loading for the spring clamping bolt 32a.

In the Fig. 5 embodiment a 25 included angle C is provided by inserting 10 of wedges, namely wedges 42f and 42g of 5" each between the leaf spring stacks and the appendage face 30. Outboard at the top end of the leaf spring stack and a third wedge 421 is needed to get the contact surface alignment back to 20 so the spring clamp bolt 32 is concentricaily loaded. At the base no wedges are needed as the base face 24 is formed at 25 , therefore, the leaf spring stack is directly mounted adjacent the base face 24.

A wedge 42j is used, however, to realign the spring clamp bolt 32a and the threaded bore in the crossarm.

Although this disclosure deals with wedges having the face 5" from the normal plane and specific appendage face and base cutout face angular displacements it should be obvious that this disclosure attempts to set forth a preferred embodiment and thus minor changes in angular values will be considered within the scope of this disclosure. Furthermore, the quantities of elements are not critical to the invention hence bases with more than four cutouts and crossarms with a plurality of arms are also contemplated.

Thus it can be seen that there has been provided a vibratory bowl feeder having adjustable spring angles provided by a set of flat spacers and wedges that fully meets the objects of the invention. The inventor contemplates that several nuances of design are possible and such variations are intended to fall within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (11)

1. In a vibratory feeder having a base, a flexible support and a supported member, the improvement comprising: wedge means carried between said flexible support and one of either said base or said supported member.

2. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein a plurality of wedge means are provided and said wedge means are selectively positioned between said flexible support and one of either; said base or said supported member; or said base and said supported member.

3. The invention in accordance with claim 2 wherein said base is provided with at least one base face to which one of either said wedge or said flexible support is attached, said base face formed at an angle relative to vertical; and said supported member is provided with at least one appendage face formed on an angle relative to vertical to which one of either said wedge or said flexible support is attached.

4. The invention in accordance with claim 3 wherein said base face angle and said appendage face angle are dissimilar.

5. In a vibratory feeder having a base and a crossarm element separated from each other by a plurality of leaf spring stacks the improvement comprising: a wedge having a first flat side and an obverse side having a surface non-parallel to said first flat side carried between said leaf spring and either of said base or said cross arm.

6. The invention in accordance with claim 5 wherein a plurality of wedges are provided.

7. The invention in accordance with claim 6 wherein a combination of said wedges are positioned between said base, said leaf spring stacks and said crossarm element and are selectively grouped to provide pre-determined angular relationships between said base, said spring stacks and said corssarm.

8. The invention in accordance with claim 7 wherein said base is provided with cutouts machined with a base face formed at an angle to vertical.

9. The invention in accordance with claim 7 wherein said crossarm element is provided with appendage faces formed at an angle from vertical.

10. The invention in accordance with claim 9 wherein said base is provided with cutouts machined with a base face formed at an angle from vertical and said base face angle and said appendage face angle are dissimilar.

11. In a vibratory feeder having a base, a plurality of leaf spring stacks attached to said base and a cross arm element attached to said leaf spring stack spaced apart from said base the improvement comprising: said base having a plurality of cutouts extending radially inwardly from a periphery of said base each cutout having a cutout face formed at an angle to a vertical reference plane of said vibratory feeder and a threaded bore passing through said cutout face in a non-perpendicular relationship therewith;; said crossarm element having a plurality of appendages each appendage formed with an appendage face at an angle to said vertical reference plane of said vibratory feeder, said appendage face angle different from said cutout face angle and a threaded bore passing through said appendage face in a non-perpendicular relationship therewith and in parallel relationship with said threaded bore of said base cutout.

1 2. The invention in accordance with claim 1, wherein said leaf springs are fastened to said base cutout adjacent said face whereby said leaf springs project upwardly from said base at an angle from said vertical plane dictated by said cutout face angle; and a plurality of wedges adjacent said appendage face of said cross arm element located between said leaf springs and said appendage face, said leaf springs fastened to said appendage faces.

1 3. A vibratory feeder substantially as described and shown by the accompanying drawings.