Double-deck vibrating flip-flow screens have been widely used for the repurposing of decoration waste; however, the influence of shear spring stiffness on the screen’s vibration characteristics is under-researched. The shear spring stiffness affects the amplitude–frequency characteristics, phase–frequency characteristics, screening performance and processing capacity of the screen. In this paper, a mathematical model of the double-deck vibrating flip-flow screen is proposed based on a vibrating system with three degrees of freedom. Based on the experiments of the industrial screen, the amplitude–frequency and phase–frequency characteristics of the double-deck vibrating flip-flow screen were studied. Within the range of 25 to 75 rad/s, the amplitude of the main screen frame decreased gradually, the floating screen frames decreased at first and then increased and the amplitudes of the main and floating screen frames were dependent on the stiffness of the isolation springs and shear springs. When the frequency was 75 rad/s, the stiffness of the upper and lower shear springs was 11,440 kN/m, respectively, and the screening efficiency reached 97.09%.

Vibrating flip-flow screens have been widely used in the mineral processing industry. As the key components, flip-flow screen panels strongly affect the dynamics of vibrating flip-flow screens. However, there is no systematic research into this problem. In this study, the dynamic characteristics of flip-flow screen panel are identified by the finite element analysis. Furthermore, a nonlinear coupling dynamic model of vibrating flip-flow screens that considers the effects of flip-flow screen panels is proposed, and the analytical and numerical solutions of its governing equation are deduced via the equivalent linearization method and the time marching method. Also, experimental results show that the proposed model describes the movements of vibrating flip-flow screens more accurately than the classical mechanical model which does not consider flip-flow screen panels. Finally, the effects of the screen panel’s parameters, such as the slack length and the stiffness, on the dynamics of vibrating flip-flow screens are investigated.

Vibrating flip-flow screens are widely employed in the deep screening processes of coal washing, solid waste treatment, metallurgy, and other fields, playing a crucial role in enhancing product quality and production efficiency. The screen surface and material movement of vibrating flip-flow screens are highly complex, and there is currently insufficient understanding of their screening mechanism, limiting further optimization and application. In this paper, the Discrete Element Method (DEM), Finite Element Method (FEM), and Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) were integrated to establish a numerical coupling model for vibrating flip-flow screens, considering material loads, screen surface deformation, and screen machine dynamics. The Response Surface Method was utilized to analyze the significant impact of relative amplitude, tension amount, amplitude of driving screen frame, vibration frequency, and screen surface inclination on screening efficiency and material velocity. The results indicate that the most significant factor influencing the screening of flip-flow screens is the screen surface inclination. Based on a BP neural network, a five-degree-of-freedom inclination surrogate model for flip-flow screens was established. The whale algorithm was employed for multi-objective optimization of the surrogate model, resulting in a screen surface inclination distribution that meets the requirements of different operating conditions.

The flip-flow vibrating screen (FFVS) is a novel multi-body screening equipment that utilizes vibrations to classify bulk materials in the field of screening machinery. The relative amplitude of FFVSs determines the tension and ejection intensity of elastic flip-flow screen panels, which is a critical operating parameter affecting the screening performance. However, FFVSs generally suffer from large variations of relative amplitude caused by the loading of materials and the changes in shear spring stiffness (the temperature changes of the shear springs lead to their stiffness changes), which significantly reduce the screening efficiency and lifespan of FFVSs. To address this problem, this paper proposes a nonlinear stiffness-based method for stabilizing the vibration amplitude of FFVSs using piecewise linear springs. By introducing these springs between the two frames, the sensitivity of the relative amplitude to shear spring stiffness is reduced, thereby achieving the stabilization of the relative amplitude of FFVSs. In this study, the variations of the vibration amplitude of the FFVS due to the loading of materials and the changes in shear spring stiffness were first demonstrated in a reasonable operating frequency range. Then the reasonable operating frequency range and dynamics of the resultant nonlinear flip-flow vibrating screen (NFFVS) with piecewise linear springs were investigated using the harmonic balance method (HBM) and the Runge–Kutta numerical method. The operating frequency region for the NFFVS lies between the critical frequency ${\omega }_{cs}$ and the frequency ${\omega }_{lb}$ corresponding to the saddle-node bifurcation point. Finally, a test rig was designed to validate the theoretical predictions. Theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that piecewise linear springs can effectively stabilize the relative amplitude of the FFVS.

Vibrating flip-flow screens (VFFSs) provide an effective solution for deeply screening moist and fine-grained minerals, and an accurate dynamic model of VFFSs is critical for its dynamic analysis and optimization, thereby improving the vibration stability and symmetry of VFFSs. In this paper, uniaxial tension, uniaxial compression, plane tension, and shear stress relaxation experiments were conducted on screen panel samples to illustrate that the third-order Ogden model and the generalized Maxwell model can accurately describe the hyperelasticity and viscoelasticity of screen panels. Then, the coupling method of finite element and discrete element was adopted to establish the simulation model of the screen panel and material group coupling system, and the dynamics of the coupling system under different loading conditions were explored. Finally, the dynamic model of the coupling system of VFFSs mass, screen panel, and material group was proposed, and the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II was applied to optimize the system’s dynamic response. The results reveal that the use of optimized shear springs can reduce the relative amplitude change rate of the main and floating screen frame by 44.30% while maintaining the periodic motion of the VFFSs under operation conditions, greatly enhancing the stability of the VFFSs system.