Can you advise on vibratory feeders? Looking to distribute food pellets along open pipes. Can I purchase vibrating solenoids and fix to plastic pipe?

Question

Want to distribute food pellets over flat 100m. Considering using drainpipes. Require vibrators which will allow pellets to march along. Can you suggest where we can purchase the vibration mechanism? The vibration would have to be in a cyclical pattern.

mapj1 · Accepted Answer

Vibration will normally not really move things at any speed along a true flat - you need some sense of 'down' and the size and shape of the pellets will affect exactly what slope you need. If need be you could have some sort of swan neck escalator/conveyor at the start or more than one part way along. But yes, it is usually solenoids driven with low frequency AC, either sinusoidal or square wave forms. 50Hz mains can be used for things like rice but larger particles move better at lower freqs. 
 It may be worth chatting to some of the chaps at somewhere like Cox and Plant who do this for a living, if only to find out what the professional approach would be for the actual thing you are moving. 
 
 Monument Works, Balds Lane, Stourbridge, West Midlands, United Kingdom. DY9 8SE 
 
 44 (0) 1384 895121 
 (no personal interest in this company, but they have been quite free with helpful advice in the past, but note that was conveyor belts..) 
 PS EDIT, I take that back up-hill vibratory converyors can be done 
 https://www.coxandplant.com/products/conveying-equipment/incline-conveyors/ 
 Mike.

Can you advise on vibratory feeders? Looking to distribute food pellets along open pipes. Can I purchase vibrating solenoids and fix to plastic pipe?

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