Bowl Machines

Bowl feeders are designed to use either vibration or the rotation of a disc to feed and orient product to a different application or to a conveyor line. A bowl feeder that uses the vibration of the bowl to feed product is often referred to as a vibratory bowl feeder. A bowl feed that uses a rotating disc to feed product is often referred to as a rigid disc or rotary disc feeder. Bowl feeders are designed with different diameters. The diameter of the bowl feeders necessary for a particular application is dependent on the size of the product being fed and on the speed at which the product needs to be fed. (Large products require larger bowl feeders, and faster feeding speed also require larger bowl feeders.) Bowl feeders are designed to have an amount of product in the center of the bowl. Often, a bowl feeder is integrated to a incline cleated feeder that senses the level of the product in the bowl and feeds additional product into the center of the bowl feeder as the amount of product drops below a certain level in the center of the bowl feeder. (See Feeder / Incline Cleated for more information.) The bowl feeder will feed the product to the outer circumference of the bowl feeder with either vibration or a rotating disc. A series of plows around the outer circumference of the bowl feeder are designed to orient the product being fed to the proper orientations.

Vibratory bowl feeders are designed to vibrate the entirety of the bowl. As the vibratory bowl feeder vibrates, product is carried out from the center of the bowl and up small circular inclines around the outer circumference of the bowl. As the vibratory bowl feed continues to vibrate, the product moves along the circular incline tracks and eventually gets to a point where the product is discharge tangentially from the vibratory bowl feeder. Plows along the incline tracks that carry the product are designed to drop product that is not properly oriented back into the center of the bowl.

Rigid disc bowl feeders are designed with a rotating center disc. As the disc rotates, the centrifugal force of the rotating disc causes the product in the center of the bowl feeder to move towards the outside of the rotating disc. At one point along the rotating disc’s path, the product gets transferred to a track around the rotating disc. The product is fed around the track of the rigid disc bowl feeder. A number of plows along this track are designed to knock improperly oriented product back into the center of the bowl. The product travels along the track to a point where the product is tangentially discharged from the rigid disc bowl feeder.