Vibrating Bowl Feeder MKIII - Full Release Package

This design is for a simple vibrating bowl feeder, as found in many manufacturing operations. Unlike traditional designs, this one uses a stepper motor to generate the vibrations needed. This makes the unit safer and easier to build than traditional mains powered industrial units.

What's the downside to doing it this way?

Power! Industrial electromagnets pack quite a punch, so can deliver much more drive force in the same envelope. Practically speaking, this means that your federates will be limited, especially with larger or heavier parts. Because of the power limitations, you will also not be able to run a massive bowl with this design.

How do you know if this is right for you?

If you are looking to feed small parts at slow to moderate feed rates this could be a good option for you.
You will need to be mechanically competent (there are a couple of steel parts you will need to make - these can be made with off the shelf parts and a file and drill if you don't have access to machine tools), and capable of simple electronics projects with Arduino.

Need something more industrial than this?

No drama, we design and build industrial bowl feeders and use printed bowls for many of these. We can develop a bowl design for your project, or else we can deliver a finished bowl feeder to your door.

So what do you get here?

This bundle includes all of the STL files, as well as the original SolidWorks files and STEP files in case you want to reverse engineer anything. You get all of the final release files, as well as a few developmental and alternate bowl styles. This was printed in ABS material for it's favorable wear characteristics and springiness, but any similar polymer should work well (UPDATE: PLA+ works really nicely for the bowls).

So how does it all go together?

Assembly is reasonably straightforward, with most parts simply clipping together. The major parts are held in place with M3 screws. You can see a short montage of the printed pieces and how they fit together here: https://youtu.be/JiTt6AGZsMs

In addition to the printed parts, you are going to need a Nema17 stepper motor, stepper motor driver, and Arduino (or similar pulse generator / microcontroller), some M3 fastenings and to make a steel or aluminium drive shaft part. A drawing is included for this.
Note that there are two bases - a V4.0 and a V4.1. V 4.1 is designed to work with stepper motors that have a plug in cable.

What else do you do?

We Make Machines! Anything industrial or parts feeding related.

You can find our other projects, or else get in touch using the links below;

http://www.vikingmachinery.co.nz

Instagram; vikingmachinery

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnl_7dUO9MeNOyI_jWO5QQ

https://www.facebook.com/VikingMachineryNZ/

0.2mm Layer height is great.
Use 100% Infill on the springs, and about 60% infill everywhere else. A thicker than normal skin helps too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csnNdX5HVBQ&t=2s