About The Project
A medical start-up company needed to increase manufacturing capacity on a new version of their top-selling product, an FDA-approved medical device. A revision in the product line required a cost-effective and precise solution that would feed metal washers into a high-speed automated machine.
Bellco provided four identical vibratory bowl feeders that exceeded specifications for integration into an automated machine. Two bowl feeders on each side operated simultaneously to achieve an overall rate of 480 parts per minute (120 parts per minute per bowl).
Customer need:
With a small footprint, a high throughput, and fewer operators available to maintain the system, the Bellco Feeder engineering team had to find a fully automatic solution.
Project challenges:
To achieve the high rate the company required, the team calculated how long the linear track should be to feed the manufacturing machine consistently with enough parts while keeping in mind their heaviness. Adding hoppers was also a vital part of the project to guarantee the efficient operation of the bowl feeders while monitoring the metal washer count and weight.
Results:
Bellco's engineering team was able to design four vibratory bowls - each with a long linear track to allow the metal washers to be collected. The parts accumulation created a buffer that allowed the bowls to operate consistently at a high-speed rate.
The Final Details
Since the bowl feeders were in pairs, and the parts needed to be delivered to the machine close together, one bowl of each set turned counter-clockwise, the other clockwise. The linear feeders ran parallel. Further, a Bellco-designed air-assisted guide track allowed precise feeding and guided the parts throughout the system.
Bellco also added bulk part hoppers on each feeder bowl to hold extra metal washers and monitor their count. Overloaded bowls are heavy and will not operate efficiently - the hoppers control and add more parts as needed. As a result, the machines can be loaded by the operator and left unattended for a long time.
Bellco successfully met our client's needs within strict deadlines. The delivery timeline took six weeks, and the final delivery location was North Carolina. The bowls operated efficiently, and the client effortlessly integrated them into the medical device manufacturing machine. Our video approval process resulted in quick sign-off and shipment times as part of our proven excellent customer service.
