Two Stand-Alone Step Feeders, Back to Back, for High-Volume Steel Flange Production

A steel manufacturing customer needed to feed two different flange sizes — 2-inch and three-quarter-inch — into a downstream packaging line. Both flanges had to arrive at a precise 40-inch outfeed height, oriented flat-side down, ready to drop onto two small belt conveyors. The customer wanted to dump a full box of flanges into a hopper at waist level, walk away, and let the system run.

A vibratory bowl feeder wasn't the right tool for the job. Steel flanges are heavy, the tumbling motion of a bowl would mar them, and reaching the 40-inch outfeed height from a waist-level load required vertical elevation, not just orientation. The customer needed step feeders — and they needed two of them, one per flange size, that could sit back-to-back in their production cell without taking up more floor space than necessary.

There's a catch. Step feeders are a category that most parts-feeding companies don't build. The mechanics are different from vibratory bowls, the engineering challenges are different, and the demand is niche enough that most shops don't invest in the capability. That left the customer looking for a specialized partner.

Bellco designed and built two stand-alone step feeders to the customer's exact requirements — one sized for the 2-inch flange, one for the three-quarter-inch flange. Both systems share the same engineering DNA: a 250-piece capacity vibratory hopper at waist height, a step mechanism that elevates parts one tier at a time without tumbling or marring, and a 550mm vibratory linear track that orients each flange flat-side down for clean downstream pickup.

Critically, the backs of both units — where the step actuators move — are fully enclosed. Operators load the hopper from the front and never come into contact with moving parts. A stack light mounted on the hopper guarding indicates when parts are low, so the operator knows when to refill without having to walk over and check. Each unit sits on rolling casters with adjustable leveling feet, so the customer can roll the feeders into position back-to-back, level them, and start running.

Every dimension — outfeed height, hopper capacity, footprint, integration to the customer's downstream conveyors — was modeled in SolidWorks before any metal was cut. The customer received the complete 3D models for review and approval before fabrication started.