Vibration Shear Flow of Fine Particles and Its Application for Micro-feeding

A novel micro-feeder for fine particles using a vibration shear flow mechanism has been developed. The feeder consists of a cylindrical tube and a bottom, which are both vibrated. Particles in the tube are discharged through a narrow gap between the lower edge of the tube and the bottom surface. In this article, the features of vibration shear flow and the performance of micro-feeding are summarized based on our experimental results. In particular, it is shown that fine particles, including nanoparticles, can be quantitatively discharged as agglomerated particles and are effectively disintegrated owing to vibration shear flow.