Ways of Improvement of Operational Efficiency of Hopper Devices

The operation of hopper devices, which are used in industry, civil engineering, agriculture and transport, is analyzed on the article. The external factors, which influence the process of charging, storing and discharging of loose cargo (freights) from hopper tanks, are overviewed. The subject of research of presented paper is the improvement of mechanisms of fracturing of products hangs-up (bridges) in hoppers at the stage of designing and setting up of hopper devices. In order to solve the stated problem the schemes of bridges fracturing and the structures of devices for debarment of products bridging and their uniform outflow from the hopper tank are proposed. The proposed schemes are based on the principles used in development of vibratory machinery with mechanical, cam and electromagnetic vibratory principles of structures forming. For cam spring device of bridges fracturing the technique of calculation of stiffness of elastic system and of the necessary forces for performing of technological process of bridges fracturing is presented and the recommendations for choosing of the stiffness of the system of elastic elements are suggested. For the hoppers with spring and electromagnetic blocks of bridges fracturing and of metered (batched) feeding of products the structural diagrams of devices are presented and the recommendations for usage of various modifications of devices are suggested. The influence of parameters of flat spring elements on the efficiency of devices operation is overviewed. The structural diagrams of devices with one-cycle and two-cycle electromagnetic vibration exciters and the modifications of elastic systems are considered. the structural diagram of the production prototype of the hopper feeder is presented. The materials of the article, the proposed structural diagrams, the operation scheme of the hopper feeder and the derived analytical formulas may be used by designers, researchers and technologists while improving of existent and developing of new devices.