TITLE:
Suppression of Vortex Precession in a Non-Contact Handling Device by a Circular Column
AUTHORS:
Shouichiro Iio, Katsuya Hayashi, Eri Akahane, Yusuke Katayama, Xin Li, Toshiharu Kagawa
KEYWORDS:
Non-Contact Handling, Swirling Flow, Pressure Fluctuation, Visualization
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Flow Control, Measurement & Visualization,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: Vortex levitation attains non-contact handling by injecting air through a tangential nozzle into a
cylindrical cup generating the swirling flow. The precessing of the swirling flow causes pressure
fluctuation. This phenomenon becomes apparent as the gap between the cup and workpiece increases,
which significantly disturbs the stability of conveyance. In this paper, suppression of
pressure fluctuation by a cylindrical column that stabilizes the vortex levitation is described and
its mechanism is mentioned. According to the experimental set up, the pressure was measured at
the center of the workpiece and the wall of the cup; velocity field under the work piece was visualized
by PIV. The result suggested that the larger diameter column denoted the effect on suppression
of the fluctuation because the precessing of the swirling flow became stable. On the other
hand, variation of the column thickness had insignificant effect on suppressing the fluctuation, but
sucking force became weakened since the swirling velocity decreased.