×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Rotation of small plastic tubes

Rotation of small plastic tubes

Rotation of small plastic tubes

(OP)
How could I rotate small plastic tubes (sealed on one end), all in one direction ? They're 65mm long, diameter 8mm and their sealed end is 1mm thick. These tubes must be fed vertically into a machine for montage with their sealed end facing towards the floor.

I've attached 2 pictures of this plastic tube.

RE: Rotation of small plastic tubes

Couple of ideas :

You might blow them into position - assuming the closed end weighs more.

Pick them up and using a "feeler" to find out which end is open/closed and flip if necessary.

RE: Rotation of small plastic tubes

Study parts orienting techniques used in vibratory bowl feeders.  This part would be a piece of cake.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

RE: Rotation of small plastic tubes

I would second ornerynorsk's idea of a vibratory bowl feeder.
 Use a ramp that will shake the part off if it is top heavy.
B.E.
 

The good engineer does not need to memorize every formula; he just needs to know where he can find them when he needs them.  Old professor

RE: Rotation of small plastic tubes

(OP)
Thank you for your answers, I had a similiar idea with bowl feeders. Incase anyone's got some more ideas, please let me know.

RE: Rotation of small plastic tubes

Have the pickup be via a rod slid into the open end.  If it hits a closed end, the part gets kicked out of the queue, possibly into a device that rotates it and places back into the start of the queue.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources