Machine Modification Help 1

[Ineedto5s]

I inherited this project, and a lot of the prep work was not done before the device ended up on our floor... (device works by dumping the parts and ceramic media into a basket with filtration holes in the bottom. You shake the basket until all that is left is the parts.

We have deburr operators playing the "my back hurts" card... So I have been asked to eliminate the manual filtration process. My first thought was to use a vibrating table setup, but I can't seem to find anything that would work.

Anyone else have any ideas? The funds are available, I just can't figure out what would be the best step forward.

Thanks.

 

[itsmoked]

Need more info...
The picture which by-the-way you should just directly post in this thread. (Image)

Is this what you have?

Is the 'back-issue' caused by the operators having to pull that drawer out and dump it back into the the yellow hopper?

What are the little things under the wide drawer? The picture is so crappy I can't tell.

Maybe a picture you take of your unit would be more usable. Shrink it to only 1000 wide.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Ineedto5s]

The company that sold us this were not very impressive to be honest. The tech is decent, but the execution is completely lacking.

The yellow hopper is filled with ceramic media and parts, and spins. The parts are then dumped out into a box with filter holes on the bottom. This box is then vibrated by hand to filter the parts and media into the bottom bins. These bins are then dropped back into the hopper for reuse.

Back issue is caused by a 2% blue collar unemployment rate, but I am always down to automate things more. (we are in aerospace, so automation provides diminishing returns after a certain point.) After running it myself a bunch, the filtration motion is really the most extraneous part of the operation.

 

[looslib]

Is there some way to recycle the media from the bottom tray to the top unit using a suction hose or something?


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[Ineedto5s]

Hmm that's not a bad idea, is something like this available off the shelf?

 

[itsmoked]

Thanks Ineed; Much better!

As for looslib's suggestion, I think that's a great idea.

What you'd be looking for is a 'dust collector' which can be a shopvac like thing except they hang and the bottom is conical. Ultimately you dump the dust collector by opening a slide valve at the bottom of the cone. They, of course, don't need bags or anything in them.

You'd suspend this above the entire unit. After a shake-out you'd simply vacuum the bottom drawer out (up) into the overhead dust collector. Then use the bottom dump slide valve to drain the collector back into the shaker.

The key would be to make one that holds exactly one load of ceramic so it's as small as needed.

Usage would be:
1) Retrieve the parts.
2) Open top of yellow shaker
3) Swing vacuum separator or just its hose over or into the shaker being serviced.
4) Pull open catch pan drawer.
5) Fire up the vacuum separator and using a flex hose with a crevice tool suck all the media out of the drawer. It could possibly fall directly in to the yellow bin above.

It's important is to contain the vacuum while sucking up the media. If the yellow hoppers are relatively airtight they can be the 'dust collector hopper'. If they aren't you need to seal the dust collector hopper during 'lift operations'.


These pictures are some examples for thought.

More in the next post.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[itsmoked]

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Ineedto5s]

Very cool! Thank you for putting so much effort in that post! I think you two are right. I did a quick fish around and found this

http://www.vac-u-max.com/vacProd.cfm?cat=intercept-hoppers-and-pre-separators&prod=MDL622

I think this would be absolutely perfect for my application (I went down there and grabbed a shopvac to test it out)

Again, thanks for your advice guys!

 

[berkshire]

Look in the plastic media blasting industry, where separator/ classifiers have existed for the past 35 years. These devices take spent plastic media, separate the debris and return the media to a hopper for re use. Such a device can easily be adapted to re cycle ceramic media for tumbling/ vibro finishing operations.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[itsmoked]

Yay. Keep us posted.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[gustavosilvano]

But don't you need to vibrate the box first? After vibrating it, is when you're going to vacuum it up to to the yellow hopper, isn't it?

 

[Ineedto5s]

Yes. I used 8020 to build a box with holes in it and a vibrator attached.

Below I have a slanted box that has a vacuum conveyor I found online.

https://www.gamut.com/p/air-conveyor-2-in-for-hose-id-aluminum-1-3-4-in-vacuum-id-NzEzOTQ0

I'll post pics when I'm done.