Modelling and design of complex geometry parts vibratory conveying

As one important component in automatic assembly, the vibratory parts feeder needs to be designed more efficiently. A widely used analytical model to study the vibratory conveying mechanics of parts feeder is the bouncing ball model. However this latter is only suitable for simple parts. In this paper, 3D simulations with SolidWorks™ software is performed to model complex geometry parts. At first, the bouncing ball system is simulated with SolidWorks™ to validate the 3D simulations. The consistency between 3D simulations and bouncing ball analytical model insures the feasibility to apply 3D simulations for complex geometry parts. Then the simulations are used for nuts and corresponding experiments are carried out. The consistency between the experiments and simulations assures that this 3D simulation can be used to predict the complex geometry parts behaviour under different vibrating frequencies and amplitudes, and thus to improve parts feeder design.