The Problem With Bowl Feeders
The heart of many automation machines is the part feeding system. Traditionally the most common feed system is the bowl feeder which does come with some inherent problems in today’s manufacturing environment.
Problem 1
Problem 2
Problem 3
Problem 4
Most bowl feeders are individually made for a part by a special craftsman making them difficult to repair without special support by the manufacturer. With today’s labour shortages, relying on this support can leave you at risk.
Bowl feeders are not flexible. Problems arise if there is a feature change made on a part after the bowl has been made or it is necessary to run different parts on the same bowl.
Parts fed in bowl feeders are subject to a lot of vibration on their journey from entering
the system to their final assembly. This has the potential to damage some parts and also cause small particulate to build up and collect on parts.
Bowl feeders are one of the loudest sub systems on an assembly machine, often with consistent decibel levels above 90 db making hearing protection a requirement for those working in the vicinity.
The Solution
The solution to these problems is often the Flex Feeder. The Flex Feeder is a part feeding system comprised of the marrying of 4 standard technologies to provide a robust, easy to repair feed system. These technologies are a robot, a vision system, a hopper and a part separation system. With this package you have easy to replace sub systems, eliminating the need for bringing in an expensive specialist. You also have the flexibility to change the part you are feeding with only a program change.
The only issue has been that, until recently it has taken the expertise of a controls specialist to set up the vision and communications interface between the different technologies. This again leaves customers reliant on a specialist or an understaffed feeding company.
At Flex Feeder Canada we have remedied this problem through our unique control system that allows the part vision set up and robot communications to be programmed through a wizard-based system. Most new parts can be set up and running within the hour and this can be accomplished by anyone with minimal training.
This is a game changer for many automation companies and end users struggling to get the work they need done with the employees that they have available. Even better, the costs of our systems are less than those offered by feeding companies who have created their own flexible feeding system.
If you would like to discuss this more please contact us or click on our Submit RFQ section.
