It is common for material flow problems to occur in bins, hoppers, and silos. Many of these problems are caused by a high level of friction between the material and the bin wall, and high cohesive strength within the material. When examining wall friction take into account the wall angle, wall material, smoothness, temperature, moisture, corrosion, abrasive wear, and the time the material remains at rest in the cone where the problem exists. Also the cohesiveness is affected by material properties, including moisture content.

When material flow problems occur solving these problems is essential for efficient production and accurate material inventory management. The key to solving these problems is to employ an industrial electric vibrator. Electric bin vibrators are used to break the friction between wall and material, as well as material cohesiveness, to promote material flow from the bin.

Industrial vibrators when properly selected offer an effective and high value solution. Martin Vibration Systems can provide with that solution. We offer many designs in vibration technology to fit your unique situation.

Vibrating tables are often critical components of production and industrial flow systems. Hoppers, bins, feeders, and packaging systems can all benefit from vibration.

1. Improve product flow and consistency. Vibration breaks the friction between materials and allows them to flow freely. This benefit will save money by reducing product loss caused by build up in hopper, clogging or jams in line, overspill and other material flow problems.

2. Safer Work Environment. Martin Vibrators are less noisy as traditional industrial vibrators. Most operate below OSHA noise standards therefore reducing hearing damage. Since vibrators eliminate clogs in bins and hoppers, employees are not at risk clearing these clogs.

3. Improves Packaging. Vibration compacts bagged material, therefore more tight fitting bagged material for shipping.

4. Improves production time and lowers labor costs. No more wasted labor hours. Time spent cleaning and unclogging will now be used toward more productive, value added tasks.

5. Eliminate waste. Martin vibrations systems helps to eliminate waste in most material flow systems by reducing clogs and waste by improving accuracy, consistency and quality of your material flow systems.

Getting bulk material to flow readily can be a costly challenge. In some applications, bulk powder, granular material and liquids are combined to create a thick slurry. Getting this thick slurry to flow consistently depends on the angle of your discharge and the thickness of your mixture.

One example of potential flow problem is with concrete. Most problems with concrete occur when the concrete is discharged from the mix trucks. Two common problems with concrete flow is the strength of the mixture and the friction between the mixture and the material it flows thru.

To ensure a smooth flow, an industrial vibrator is used. Industrial vibrators produce several pounds of force into the material to promote and maintain a constant concrete flow. An efficient and effective vibrator is the MARTIN® WHIRLWIND™ High-Frequency Turbine Vibrator. It produces more power with less noise than any other high-force/high-frequency pneumatic turbine vibrator. Units mount easily to cradle lug brackets or rail car wedge brackets, and operate quietly to meet OSHA noise requirements.

Martin Industrial Vibrators for bins, hoppers and chutes have been specially developed to facilitate flow with all types of materials including aggregate, sand, fine powders, flakes, pills, bottle caps any other material that tends to stick and clog.

To keep the material moving in a bin or hopper, vibration is needed. Vibrators keep the material from sticking and it breaks the bin skin. There are two basic types of industrial vibrators: rotary and linear. Rotary vibrators are characterized by an unbalanced mass rotating around a center point. The result is a centrifugal force output at a given frequency. Rotary vibrators include ball, ring, turbine, and motor-driven eccentric types.

Material flow problems exist for many reasons. It is not an easy task to solve. However, industrial vibrators offer an effective and high value solution. They keep things shaking and flowing.

Problem:

A Michigan manufacturer was experiencing costly maintenance problems with their electric vibrators inside their wood fired power plant. These vibrators continuously caused damage to their screen deck and supports which in turn required costly rebuilds and repairs.

Situation:

Their existing rotary electric vibrators were mounted on 4 x 6 ft screens, which were used to screen pyrites from the exhaust gases. They run at 3600 revolutions per minute and are mounted to an arm which tapped the screen deck. The manufacturer felt that speed was the problem, so they purchased a frequency inverter to control the RPMs. This helped some, but the maintenance cost to repair the vibrator, screen deck, and supports was still excessive

Solution:

Martin Vibration Systems recommended a NTS-50-04 Vibrator because of its versatility and the ability to independently control the frequency, amplitude, and forced output. With this new system, the force output requirement was only about one-half of the force they were using with the rotary vibrator.

Problem:

A West Coast Pharmaceutical Company had a weighing and packaging machine that required employee intervention with a tapping hammer in order to settle the contents properly.

Situation:

The capsules or tablets were loaded into five-gallon buckets, but the weighing and packaging machine does not have a vibratory table. In order to properly settle the material and pack these containers, one full-time employee must constantly tap on the sides of the container with a rubber hammer. Furthermore, the line required 24-hour continuous operation to meet consumer demand and the equipment would reside in a high wash down environment.

Solution:

Martin Vibration Systems installed a MARTIN® NTP™ Continuous Impacting Linear Vibrator providing precise and controlled air vibration solution, while meeting the high wash down and non-stop requirements of this capsule packaging line.