Applied Vibration - Why Us?
With over 40 years of continuous trading we have an exceptional range of experience in the application of vibrating materials handling equipment. We design and manufacture vibration equipment as well as a specialist range of electromagnetic drives.
- Wealth of industry experience
- Design and manufacturing in-house
- Bespoke and specialised applications
- Friendly and dedicated team
Throughout our history we have serviced a wide range of industries – our designs developing from the heavy duty carbon steel structures of furnace charging systems to the hygenic, fully welded and polished structures of the pharmaceutical and food industries.
We use this experience and knowledge to adapt our designs to even the most specialised of applications, and provide the optimum solution to fit our customers needs.
Design from first principles
Our ability to design from first principles means that we are not only able to offer standard solutions to problems but we are also often asked to adapt our equipment to suit more specialised applications, which benefits us by pushing our boundaries of knowledge further forward, and in turn our customers who receive the best solution the market has to offer.
Designing and manufacturing materials handling equipnebt in-house means that the equipment we produce can be tailored to your specific needs. Although we offer a standard range of equipment, it is often the case that the ‘one size fits all approach’ doesn’t work in practice and so we always try to be flexible in what we produce within the confines of the required equipment design. We don’t penalise on price for producing bespoke designs and always try to work with our customers’ full approval at all times.
Rather than simply sell handling equipment, our policy is to advise those looking to find the best way to solve a handling problem or improve a current application. If our equipment is the right fit for the job, we will follow it through and provide the same support and advice as we would at first contact. Our priority is always to ensure that the issue is solved in the most effective manner.
Applied Vibration’s material handling equipment provides solutions to material handling, feeding, screening, elevating and compacting problems – our product and solution pages illustrate just a small part of what we are able to achieve, so be sure to give us a call and talk to our team about how we could help you.
So why vibration equipment for materials handling?
A vibrating feeder or conveyor is a relatively simple construction with a minimal amount of moving and rotating parts meaning that there is little or no maintenance and therefore very high reliability.
Advantages of vibration equipment for materials handling:
- Vibration drive units have a low power consumption
- The conveying surfaces are continuous and easily cleaned
- Conveying troughs can be readily enclosed with bolted covers or even tubular in construction. For some applications where regular cleaning is required quick release covers can be fitted
- For heavy duty applications expendable liner plates can be fitted
- The fact that the materials spend a large part of the time in the air, being thrown upwards by the micro jumps actually means that for many applications wear is reduced
- Conveying troughs can be made in a number of materials including carbon steel stainless steel or plastics
Vibration can also be used to aid the processing of materials. The agitation makes it ideal for processes such as screening where products are separated through a woven panel according to size. It can be used on a vibrating table to aid compaction and the flow control it provides makes it ideal for dosing, filling and weighing applications. It can be used to distribute and spread materials even down to a monolayer so that even individual grains can be inspected.
There are some limitations to vibrating equipment for materials handling. It is generally better suited to loose grain materials but will not convey liquids. It can be used for most powder products but those which aerate very easily and display particularly fluid properties can sometimes present problems. Light, wet products can also present a problem in that if the wet surface adhesion bond cannot be broken by the vibration then product will not convey satisfactorily. Examples of this can include wet paper and card thin sliced raw potato etc.
For our equipment, conveying distances are generally limited 5 metres for a single vibrated piece of equipment. Longer lengths can be achieved by using multiple units in-line.
The demands of industry and application of vibration equipment are widely varied, but we have many years practical experience of both the design and manufacture of this equipment.
How does it work?
Our vibrating equipment generally comprises a conveying trough or structure, a vibration exciter or drive unit and vibration isolation mounts such that the unit can be mounted on a static supporting frame.
The vibration exciter can take the form of either an electromagnetic drive unit or twin contra-rotated vibrator motors which are directly mounted on the conveying structure to cause a constant series of linear vibrations.
The linear vibration imparted into the structure causes any loose materials on the conveying surface to be thrown upwards and forwards in a continual series of micro jumps.
Perhaps surprisingly, vibration amplitudes do not need to be particularly high with amplitudes less than 1 mm peak to peak being sufficient to move many tonnes per hour of materials such as rock or metal.
Add to that the ability to adjust the amplitude of the unit using a power controller, place the conveying unit beneath a hopper or full of material and you have a means of not only feeding out the contents but also the ability to control the rate at which they are discharged. Frequency of oscillation and amplitude vary from application to application, but the most popular for materials handling lie between 100Hz to 12Hz with amplitudes ranging from just a fraction of a millimetre to 20 + mm.
Frequency and amplitude of the equipment is often determined by the type of material being handled and the rate at which it needs to be moved. Powders and low bulk density products, like some plastic and paper waste, respond better to lower frequencies and higher amplitudes – because of this, Applied Vibration have a range of drive unit, methods of control, and equipment designs which have been developed specifically with these processes in mind.
Equipment using linear vibration can be installed horizontally and it can even tolerate a small incline – as in the case of spiral elevators which can be used to lift products in the smallest of spaces. Declining a vibrating unit can also be beneficial on occasions used when additional throughput rate achieved is desirable for using the smallest and most cost effective unit.