Patent ID: 6948611

Claim:
A circular vibratory conveying apparatus adapted to vibrate and to convey material, said circular vibratory conveying apparatus including: a bed on which the material is adapted to be conveyed in a generally circular direction with respect to a central axis of said bed; a plurality of peripheral drive springs located generally symmetrically about said central axis of said bed, said peripheral drive springs being generally located on a plurality of radial lines extending radially outwardly from said central axis of said bed, each said peripheral drive spring having a first end, a second end and a central axis, said first end of each said peripheral drive spring being operatively attached to said bed, each said peripheral drive spring adapted to compress and extend along a respective tangential line of stroke; a plurality of inclined stabilizers located generally symmetrically about said central axis of said bed, each said stabilizer having a first end, a second end and a longitudinal axis, said first end of each said stabilizer being operatively attached to said bed, said longitudinal axis of each said stabilizer being generally perpendicular to a respective tangential line of stroke of said bed at the position of said stabilizer, each said stabilizer being more rigid in a direction transverse to said tangential line of stroke than said stabilizer is rigid in the direction of said tangential line of stroke, said stabilizers allowing movement of each said peripheral drive spring generally parallel to said central axis of said peripheral drive spring and inhibiting movement of each said peripheral drive spring generally transversely to said central axis of said peripheral drive spring; a first rotatable eccentric weight coupled to said bed, said first rotatable eccentric weight adapted to rotate about a first axis, a second rotatable eccentric weight coupled to said bed, said second rotatable eccentric weight adapted to rotate about a second axis, and a third rotatable eccentric weight coupled to said bed, said third rotatable eccentric weight adapted to rotate about a third axis, said rotatable eccentric weights being located generally symmetrically about said central axis of said bed, said rotatable eccentric weights being free-wheeling with respect to one another and adapted to rotate at substantially the same operating speed with respect to one another, each said rotatable eccentric weight adapted to provide an output force generally perpendicular to its axis of rotation, said rotatable eccentric weights adapted to accumulatively synchronize with one another such that the combined resulting output force of said rotatable eccentric weights is adapted to provide a generally helical output stroke to said bed; whereby rotation of said rotatable eccentric weights, in combination with said stabilizers, accumulatively synchronize such that the output forces of said rotatable eccentric weights and their respective power outputs accumulatively add to cause said bed to vibrate along said generally helical output stroke.