EFFECT OF TROUGH MOTIONS ON PERFORMANCE OF OSCILLATING CONVEYORS

The conveying advance depends on performance of the conveyor. This wor k presents analysis for performance of oscillating conveyors. The conv eyor trough mechanism is operated by motions generated from either fol lower-point or coupler point of four-bar driving planar mechanism. The drivers could be either drag-link or crank-rocker planar mechanism. F urthermore, the effect of different disturbing input motion types for the trough on conveyor performance are studied. The disturbing motions are selected to be simple harmonic, cycloidal, parabolic, 3-4-5-polyn omial or eight-polynomial. Each motion is represented by a series form equation. The presented formulations can be used for kinematic analys is of the majority of possible combinations of planar conveying mechan isms. The results showed that, in order to increase the conveying adva nce, it is better to operate such conveyors by coupler-point motion of a drag-link driving mechanism. Moreover, the disturbance for the trou gh by the parabolic motion is preferable.