Designing a hopper to maximize your vibratory feeder´s capacity
To meter material to a process at maximum capacity, a vibratory feeder needs a steady material supply. This article explains how to design a hopper that will provide reliable material flow to your vibratory feeder. After showing how a vibratory feeder's feedrate capacity is calculated, the article gives design guidelines to help you improve the flow pattern in the hopper, select the throat opening and gate height, and install the skirtboards.
A vibratory feeder [also called a vibratory tray feeder or oscillating feeder] consists of a shallow flat-bottomed tray, with the receiving end mounted under a supply hopper's outlet and the discharge end located above a process or belt conveyor. As material flows from the hopper outlet onto the tray, an external drive vibrates the tray, throwing the material up and forward and controlling the material feedrate into the process or onto the conveyor.