Better tube feeder - does anybody know who makes this thing?

[SeanMollet]

Most of our products require some parts in a tube. I've got a vibratory feeder and it's a huge pain in the butt. Tinker and tinker and tinker and just haven't come up with any way to make it reliable.

Was watching a random video on the feeder finger website and in the video was the slickest tube feeder I've ever seen. Looks like it's some kind of mechanical feed.

Has anybody ever seen one of these or have any idea where it came from? I want one!

Video on the right hand side, tube feeder is on the left. Skip to 44 seconds to see it in action.

https://feederfinger.com/product/samsung-sm-leaderless-feeder-finger/


Thanks

[jmelson]

Samsung has belt feeders, where a continuously moving belt delivers the parts up to the front of the feeder.  I had a Contact Systems vibratory feeder on my old Philips CSM84 (made by Yamaha).  It was, indeed a pain to use but I did get it set up to work fairly well.  I cut top guards out of paper card stock and taped these over the lanes of parts so only the front-most part was exposed.  Otherwise, sometimes the lifting of the part flipped over the next-up part.  The card stock really improved the operation.  I now have a different vibratory feeder for my Quad QSA30 machine, and it works a bit better than the Contact Systems one.  I have not needed to use the vib feeder in at least a year, I get everything on tape if possible.
Jon

[SMTech]

There are 4 types of tube feeder I'm aware of.

• Vibratory Feeder - very basic, but flexible as you can top the top off the tube for many package shapes instead of needing dedicated carriers for each. The downside is they tend to be extremely dumb, there are no sensors in them to verify the next component is ready and you really need a different feeder tuned into to each package size you have. S08 and SO28W do not move down the tube at similar rates.
  
• Shuffle Feeder - I think Mydata uses these, the tubes sit flat and instead of vibrating the platform moves backwards and forwards shuffling the components forwards. I suspect this allows for similar tricks to a normal vibratory feeder avoiding the necessity for tooling, although its possible there's a shutter at the open end that would suggest tooling....
• Belt Feeder - Europlacer uses these (they had a vibratory option, I think it is discontinued)  and clearly Samsung has a version. The Europlacer version requires dedicated bespoke lanes for every package it must feed. If you have a lot of things in tubes, that could get expensive.
• Air Track - This is I think originally a system from Contact (now Versatec) these use air to move components down the tube and there is a shutter at the open end to stop parts bouncing out prior to pick or when moving the feeder. Clearly needs some level of tooling. I think both this system and adjustable width feeders are things Essemtec licensed or borrowed for current models after briefly badging a Contact system with Essemtec looks and name.

[SeanMollet]

Samsung has belt feeders

Sorry, I should have said my PnP is Samsung. Thanks for pointing this out. I found the part number and emailed my rep, we'll see what they say.

Have you ever used one? How was it?