TECHNICAL FIELD
5 [0001] The present invention relates to an apparatus for
inspecting whether pellets are defective, and more
particularly, to a system for automatically inspecting and
sorting pellets, which detects colors of pellets while
continuously transferring a number of pellets to determine
10 whether the pellets are defective and remove the pellets
determined as being defective from a transfer path, thereby
collecting only good quality pellets.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] Pellets, which are solid particles of a synthetic resin
15 that represents petrochemicals, are widely used in various
fields such as films, pipes, and automobile interior materials.
Since the pellets that are raw materials have a significant
influence on quality of a final product, quality control and
impurity control are very important. Particularly, in a
20 manufacturing process, since unexpected different colors such
as black, yellow, red, or other colors occur, or defective
pellets having foreign substances attached or mixed with nonpellet substances, abnormal shapes having sizes or shapes out
of a dimensional range, black spots due to carbonization or
25 foreign substance of raw materials or subsidiary materials,
2
and the like occur, it is necessary to sort and remove foreign
particles.
[0003] According to the related art, when producing pellets,
which are raw materials for synthetic resin injection molding,
5 a pellet sorting device capable of sorting only standardized
pellets is used to manufacture synthetic resin injection
molding products that require precision. The pellet sorting
device according to the related art is designed so that the
pellets are formed from an extruder and supplied to a hopper
10 through a discharge line, a screen mesh is installed at a lower
portion of the hopper, and low-frequency vibration is applied
to sort only the standardized pellets.
[0004] However, in a sorting method using the screen mesh,
since the pellets are sorted depending on a shape and size of
15 the mesh, the sorting is deteriorated in precision. In
addition, it is impossible to sort pellets containing defects
such as different colors, foreign substances, abnormal shapes,
and dark spots, and thus, the pellets have be measured by an
additional method, and also, since a size of each pellet is
20 small, and an amount of processing that needs to be processed
per hour is 1,200 kg per hour, about 4 million or more have be
inspected, and since a production speed per pellet is 40 mm/sec,
which is too fast, there is a limit to solving quality problems.
[0005] In addition, an 'artificial intelligence program-based
25 foreign material sorting device' that acquires an original
3
image using a camera while transferring an object containing
a plurality of pellets, converts the original image into a
preset size, and discriminates normal and abnormal pellets
using the converted image‘ is disclosed in Korean Patent
5 Registration No. 10-2009757.

CLAIMS
1. A system for automatically inspecting and sorting pellets,
the system comprising:
5 a pellet supply part configured to supply a plurality of
pellets;
a first pellet transfer part configured to transfer the
pellets supplied from the pellet supply part forward from a
rear side;
10 a pellet delivery part disposed on a front end of the
first pellet transfer part to transfer the pellets transferred
through the first pellet transfer part downward;
a second pellet transfer part disposed below the first
pellet transfer part to receive the pellets transferred
15 downward through the pellet delivery part and turn the pellets
upside down at an angle of 180° so as to transfer the pellets
backward from a front side;
a first vision inspection part disposed above the first
pellet transfer part to photograph a first surface of each of
20 the pellets so as to inspect whether the pellets are defective;
a first dispensing part disposed in front of the first
vision inspection part to suction the pellets that are
determined as being defective by the first vision inspection
part so as to separate the defective pellets from the first
25 pellet transfer part;
37
a second vision inspection part disposed above the second
pellet transfer part to photograph a second surface of each of
the pellets so as to inspect whether the pellets are defective;
a second dispensing part disposed behind the second
5 vision inspection part to suction the pellets that are
determined as being defective by the second vision inspection
part so as to separate the defective pellets from the second
pellet transfer part; and
an unloading part disposed on a rear end of the second
10 pellet transfer part to receive the pellets transferred through
the second pellet transfer part so as to transfer the pellets
to a designated unloading position,
wherein the pellet delivery part comprises:
a first guide plate installed to extend downward
15 from a front end of the first pellet transfer part;
a second guide plate installed to be spaced apart
by a certain amount greater than a thickness of the pellet in
front of the first guide plate; and
a plurality of guide lanes formed to extend
20 vertically between the first guide plate and the second guide
plate so as to guide the pellets downward.