A Study of the Performance of a Non-Linear Resonant Vibratory Conveyor

Abstract

The paper considers the performance of a resonant vibratory conveyor which incorporates a relatively stiff buffer spring in addition to the normal linear spring constraint. This form of non-linear spring characteristic has the advantage over its linear counterpart of being less critical in its requirement for accurate tuning and in providing less performance variation with load. Vibratory conveying with purely horizontal table motion is also possible with such a form of non-linear conveyor, and this could be of application in the transportation of particulate media having a wide range of particle size, in situations where segregation of the particles is undesirable.Experimental results for a conveyor model transporting a single mass are found to be in good agreement with the performance predicted by analogue and digital computer studies.