Air Assist - The use of air to accelerate parts to assure feed rate, help orient parts, or to eject parts that are not oriented properly.

Air Drive- A drive unit that is powered by air using either a reciprocating piston or eccentric rotary device to provide vibration. Usually used in explosive environments.

Angle Skirt - An annular angled wall welded in place between the bowl and the underside of a track, used to prevent parts from jamming in between the tracks.

Approach - The area inside the feeder bowl where the parts start to climb up the spiral track.

Backpressure - The force the parts exert as they discharge from the feeder bowl.

Backpressure Relief - Two methods are generally used for controlling backpressure. 1. Bubble-off; inside the bowl; parts drop off the tooling just prior to the discharge confinement. 2. Photocell or Proximity Controlled; the bowl is turned off and on, based on a sensed part level. 3. Blowoff; used in conjunction with a photocell or proximity sensor to blow parts back into the bowl for recirculation.

Basic Bowl - An untooled feeder bowl defined by the inside diameter, band height, width of the track, pitch of the track, and the number of turns of track; as well if angle skirts are used.

Breakout - The area at the top of the bowl where the parts leave the inside of the bowl and start downward into the outside tooling.

Brushlon - A "W" Product of vectored bristles that is bonded to the untooled tracks and side walls of the bowl. It is available in various thicknesses and bristle diameters. It helps reduce part abuse and noise as well as to increase feed rate in some cases.

Coatings - A surface deposit put on the bowl or track after tooling. See Surlyn, Urethane.

Coil - The electromagnet that provides the energy required for vibration.

Coil Gap - The parallel distance between the coil and the pole face measured at rest.

Conveyor - A powered belt device to move parts, available tooled or untooled, fixed speed or variable speed.

Crossarm - The spider like support structure that connects the bowl to the drive unit.

Discharge - The area of the bowl tooling where the parts exit the bowl in an oriented attitude.

Drive Unit - The powered base of a feeder bowl. Available in electrical or pneumatic drive configurations.

Dual Bottom - Also known as a false bottom, is an extra bowl bottom inserted about one half an inch above the normal bottom. The two most common reasons for this are to raise the return pan higher on the basic bowl, or to create a cavity for filling with a sound deadening material.

Electro-Polish - An extra fine surface finish created through a post construction procedure. Generally used only on FDA applications.

FDA Autoclave - Extra care is taken to assure that no seams or welds can entrap contaminates.

FDA Wash-Down - Extra care is taken to assure that no areas can trap the wash down solution.

Feed Rate - The required number of parts, usually specified in parts per minute, available from a feeding system.

Filled Basic - A bowl in which the cavities inside of the dual bottom and angle skirts (if used) are filled with a sound deadening material.

Finish - The appearance of a feeder bowl, i.e. Glass Bead or Polished.

Full Wave - Describes a type of vibration control using both positive and negative portions of the electrical sine wave.

Glass Bead - The matte finish achieved by blasting the bowl surface with a very fine glass bead compound.

Gravity Track - A machined or fabricated track inclined at a sufficient angle to allow gravity to move parts.

Ground and Polished - The same as polished but with greater attention given to all weld fillets, and welds are free of voids and pits.

Half Wave - Describes a type of vibration control using only one half of the electrical sine wave.

Inline Feeder - A linear driving device used to convey parts from a feeder bowl, available tooled and untooled.

Linings - A bonded layer of material put onto a bowl or track after tooling, i.e. Brushlon.

Lost Drive - Vibration that is not available to drive the feeding system, usually caused by improper mounting or a support structure lacking rigidity. Lug Mount - To bolt a bowl directly to the crossarms without toe clamps, usually used when bowls need to be removed from the drive unit frequently for cleaning or interchangeability.

Natural Orientation - The attitude that a part will predictably assume repeatedly without intervention.

Neoprene Lining - Material bonded to the untooled tracks and side walls of the bowl. Helps reduce noise and part abuse.

Orientation - The final attitude of the parts as they discharge from the feeding system.

Pole Face - The laminated plate that provides a pulling surface for the coil.

Polished - The fine grain finish achieved by hand rubbing with very fine abrasive products.

Prefeeder - Also known as a hopper, either a vibratory or belted device to supply parts to a feeder bowl from bulk on demand.

Quick Durnp - A door or panel in the bowl side wall that allows for faster removal of parts other than through the discharge.

Return Pan - The area outside of the basic bowl into which the parts are allowed to fall from the tooling. The parts are then directed back inside of the bowl through the return hole.

Rotation - The direction a bowl and drive will move the parts, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

Shroud - An enclosure around a drive unit or an inline driver, usually used for regulatory or cosmetic reasons, available in stainless steel and painted steel.

Sound Enclosure - A box or other enclosure with access doors to reduce the noise created by the feeding system.

Springs - The leaf springs that support the driven member of a vibrating unit such as the crossarms on a drive unit, the vibrating tray on a prefeed hopper, or the tooling on an inline feeder.

Toe Clamp - The stepped clamp at the end of a crossarm that attaches the bowl to the drive unit.

Tuning - The relationship between the number of springs, the thickness of the springs, and the coil gap.

Urethane Coat - A multi-coat hard surface urethane that is sprayed onto untooled areas of a bowl or track. Helps reduce noise and part abuse. Standard color is black, other colors are available.