Operating Principle
Parts Feeders are generally of two types - Centrifugal and Vibratory. There are other types but these two predominate.

Centrifugal Feeders use an inclined conical disc onto which the parts are fed randomly. This disc is rotated at low speed to propel the parts downward to the outer rim of the disc where they are captured in pockets designed to accomodate the part (tooling). Incorrectly oriented parts are either mechanically removed or re-oriented. These types of parts feeders handle parts in a much more gentle manner and operate with less power and noise. They can be sized from small to large for low and high outputs - for both small and large parts of basically any shape or material. Because of gentle handling characteristics, they tend to be more amenable in handling fragile parts or parts that entangle.

Vibratory feeders work by vibrating the bowl and its contents so as to force the contents (parts) up an inclined track where they are sorted according to their orientation. A sizeable amount of energy is required to vibrate this mass and as a result, they tend to be more appropriate for smaller feeders sorting smaller parts at lower outputs. They are sometimes cheaper but are less suitable for handling delicate or fragile parts.
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