Description:AN IMPROVED SORTING MACHINE
FIELD OF INVENTION
The invention generally relates to the field of mechanical engineering and particularly to an improved sorting machine for sorting a mixture of materials.
BACKGROUND
Sorting of materials is the most important prerequisite for grading the material into different categories or grades. Sorting enables the material to be separated into different categories based on parameters including but not limited to size, shape, colour, texture, appearance and other surface properties. Grading of materials especially agricultural products in appropriate categories is crucial as the commercial value of the product is based on its quality and standard. For bulk sorting and grading of materials; accuracy, efficiency and speed of sorting are few parameters on which the economical viability of any sorting machine predominantly depends.
Various sorting and grading apparatuses are known in the art which incorporate computer vision techniques to make the sorting and grading procedure more economical and efficient.
US4901861A discloses a high speed asynchronous fruit sorting apparatus comprising a plurality of conveyor belts arranged in a cascading configuration so that said conveyor belts drop fruit successively from one conveyor belt to the next successive conveyor belt, an optical detection system associated with one of said conveyor belts and adapted to scan each article of fruit both horizontally and vertically to determine whether said article of fruit is satisfactory or not, and ejecting unsatisfactory articles of fruit from the conveyor.
CN110193472B discloses a vision-based workpiece sorting system comprising at least two slide ways, a first conveying belt, a second conveying belt located on the lower side of the first conveying belt and a finished product collecting box, wherein two ends of each slide way are in butt joint with the first conveying belt and the second conveying belt, a camera and an ejection device.
US10189055 B2 discloses a colour based optical grading system comprising of multiple advanced optics units, each optics unit comprises of multiple programmable cameras, multiple spectral light sources, multiple adjustable mirrors /prisms, a mirror/prism adjustment assembly to ensure the enhanced surface analysis of the objects conveyed on multiple flat transparent surfaces.
Although sorting machines known in the art provides optical sorting and grading of the articles accurately, the entire process of grading a large number of articles at a time is a prolonged procedure. Therefore, there is still a need in the art for a machine which can accurately and quickly complete the sorting process so that a large amount of articles can be efficiently sorted in a very short time.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
So that the manner in which the recited features of the invention can be understood in detail, some of the embodiments are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
FIG. 1 shows an improved sorting machine for sorting a mixture of materials, according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 shows a feeding arrangement of the improved sorting machine, according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 3 shows a sorting arrangement of the improved sorting machine, according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 4 shows an ejection system for the improved sorting machine, according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 5 shows a sorting arrangement of the improved sorting machine, according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 6 shows a sorting arrangement of the improved sorting machine, according to another embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 7 shows a sorting arrangement of the improved sorting machine, according to another embodiment of the invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the invention provides an improved sorting machine for sorting a mixture of materials. The improved sorting machine includes a feeder for feeding the mixture of materials, a plurality of collectors for receiving sorted material and a sorting arrangement operationally coupled between the feeder and the plurality of collectors for sorting the mixture of materials. The sorting arrangement includes a plurality of conveyor belts mounted on a driving drum and a driven drum, an optical arrangement positioned at a predetermined distance above the plurality of the conveyor belts and a plurality of group of ejectors placed at differential heights from each other such that one group of ejectors corresponds to one conveyor belt. The height of one of the conveyor belts with respect to the other conveyor belts is increased to a certain height at atleast one point situated between the driving drum and the driven drum. The increase in height of one of the conveyor belts with respect to the other conveyor belts enables simultaneous sorting of the mixture of material being conveyed on the plurality of the conveyor belts thereby resulting in faster sorting of the mixture of materials in a single pass.
Another aspect of the invention provides an improved sorting machine having a sorting arrangement that can be provided either in even number multiples or odd number multiples to increase the batch size of sorting.
Still another aspect of the invention provides an improved sorting machine for sorting of mixture of materials wherein the mixture of material to be sorted is singularized by the feeder to feed single unit of the material per conveyor belt at a point of time.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Various embodiments of the invention provide an improved sorting machine for sorting a mixture of materials. The improved sorting machine includes a feeder for feeding the mixture of materials, a plurality of collectors for receiving the sorted material and a sorting arrangement operationally coupled between the feeder and the plurality of collectors for sorting the mixture of materials. The sorting arrangement includes a plurality of conveyor belts mounted on a driving drum and a driven drum, an optical arrangement positioned above at a predetermined distance from the plurality of the conveyor belts and a plurality of groups of ejectors placed at differential heights from each other such that one group of ejectors corresponds to one conveyor belt . The height of one of the conveyor belts with respect to the other conveyor belts is increased to a certain height at atleast one point situated between the driving drum and the driven drum to enable simultaneous sorting of the mixture of material being conveyed on the plurality of the conveyor belts for faster sorting of the mixture of materials.
The improved sorting machine described hereinabove shall be explained in detail through FIG.1 - FIG.4.
FIG. 1 shows an improved sorting machine for sorting a mixture of materials, according to an embodiment of the invention. The improved sorting machine includes a feeder 1 for feeding a mixture of materials. The mixture of material is either a mixture of similar material or a mixture of dissimilar material. The material includes but is not limited to an agricultural produce like nuts, fruits, vegetables, processed and shaped food products or synthetic material. The nuts includes but are not limited to cashew nut, almond, pistachio nut, walnut. The fruits include but are not limited to dried fruits, fresh fruits, cut fruits or diced fruits. The vegetables include but are not limited to fresh vegetables, cut vegetables, dried vegetables. The feeder 1 includes a first feeding tray 3, a second feeding tray 5 and a slide feeder 7. The first feeding tray 3, the second feeding tray 5 and the slide feeder 7 are arranged in series one after the other and at a height lower than the previous one. The mixture of material is fed to the first feeding tray 3 through means known in the art such as an in-feed hopper, a vibratory feeder or a belt feeder. In one example of the invention, the first feeding tray 3 and the second feeding tray 5 is a vibratory feeding tray. The vibrations of the first vibratory feeding tray 3 and the second vibratory feeding tray 5 are controlled by a controller to control the rate of feeding the mixture of material in the said trays. The second feeding tray 5 near the output has a plurality of grooves to feed the mixture of material to the slide feeder 7. The slide feeder 7 has a plurality of channels to receive the mixture of material from the plurality of grooves of the second feeding tray 5 (FIG. 2) in a manner that one groove feed the material to corresponding one channel of the slide feeder 7. The plurality of grooves of the second feeding tray 5 and the plurality of slide channels of the slide feeder 7 allows to singulate the material and feed a single unit of the material at a point of time. The plurality of channels of the slide feeder 7 feed the mixture of material to a plurality of conveyor belts 9.The plurality of conveyor belts 9 are mounted on a driving drum 11 and a driven drum 13.The height of one of the conveyor belts with respect to the other conveyor belts is increased to a certain height at atleast one point situated between the driving drum 11 and the driven drum 13. The increase in height of one of the conveyor belt with respect to the other conveyor belts can be introduced at any point between the driving drum 11 and the driven drum 13. In one embodiment of the invention, the plurality of the conveyor belts 9 are placed adjacent to one another proximal to the driven drum 13 so that the plurality of conveyor belts are at the same height, then as the plurality of conveyor belts move further the height of one of the conveyor belts 9 with respect to the other is increased and the plurality of conveyor belts are placed at differential heights from each other. The height of the one of the conveyor belt is then decreased to place the plurality of conveyor belts 9 at the same height when they reach proximal to the driving drum 11(FIG.3). In another embodiment of the invention, the plurality of the conveyor belts 9 are placed adjacent to one another proximal to the driven drum 13 and the height of one of the conveyor belts is increased to place the plurality of conveyor belts at differential heights from each other proximal to driven drum 13 and as the plurality of conveyor belts move forward the differential height between the plurality of conveyor belts is maintained till they reach the driving drum 11. In still another embodiment of the invention, the plurality of conveyor belts 9 are placed adjacent to one another proximal to the driven drum 13 so that the plurality of conveyor belts 9 are at the same height proximal to the driven drum 13, and the height of one of the conveyor belts with respect to the other is increased as the plurality of conveyor belts 9 near the optical arrangement and are placed at differential heights from each other till they reach the driving drum 11.
The driving drum 11 is coupled to a gear box 15 to provide rotation to the driving drum 11. The driving drum 11 in-turn actuates the driven drum 13. The plurality of channels of the slide feeder 7 are configured to feed a single unit of the mixture of material per conveyor belt at a given point of time, thus preventing overlapping of one unit of the material over the other unit of the material. In one embodiment of the invention, the plurality of the conveyor belts 9 are at the same height proximal to the driven drum 13 to receive the mixture of material from the plurality of channels of the slide feeder 7. As the plurality of conveyor belts 9 move forward, due to the tensioning of the conveyor belts, the height of one of the conveyor belt is increased so that the plurality of conveyor belts 9 carrying the mixture of materials are placed at differential height. In one example of the invention, the increase in height of one of the conveyor belt with respect to another is brought by means of a nylon strip or an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene strip at the bottom of the conveyor belt which is tapered upward and then by reducing the taper of the nylon/ultra high molecular weight polyethylene strip, the plurality of conveyor belts are again brought to the same height when they reach proximal to the driving drum 11.
The mixture of material conveyed over the plurality of conveyor belts 9 which are at differential heights is optically scanned by an optical arrangement 17 positioned at a predetermined distance above the plurality of conveyor belts 9. The optical arrangement 17 includes one or more light source 19 to irradiate the mixture of materials and one or more camera 21 to optically scan the mixture of materials and obtain an image of the material. Conveying of the mixture of materials on plurality of conveyor belts enables optical scanning of more than one unit of material simultaneously at a time. The light source includes but is not limited to a LED source or an infra red light source. The camera includes but is not limited to a monochromatic camera, a CCD camera or an infra red camera.
The image obtained by the one or more camera 21 is processed by a controller 23 to identify and differentiate the material on the basis of parameters including but not limited to size, shape, colour and surface appearance. The controller 23 then activates a plurality of group of ejectors 25 positioned along downstream of the plurality of conveyor belts 9 to eject the material in the plurality of collectors 27. The plurality of group of ejectors 25 are placed at differential height such that one group of ejector is at differential height from other group of ejectors in a manner that one group of ejectors corresponds to one conveyor belt. The differential height of one group of ejector from the other group enables simultaneous ejection of the material from the plurality of conveyor belts 9 to the designated collector 27 without coming in contact with the material being ejected from the other conveyor belts. The number of ejectors 25 in a group is proportional to the number of collectors 27 and the number of group of ejectors is proportional to the number of conveyor belts. The plurality of collectors 27 are configured to accept the sorted material and are positioned along the length of the plurality of conveyor belts 9 to the side opposite to the plurality of group of ejectors 25. In one embodiment of the invention, the ejector 25 is a pneumatic ejector having an ejector nozzle 25a connected to a pneumatic ejector valve 25b through an air pipe 25c for ejection of the material into the designated collector 27(FIG.4).
Thus, providing the plurality of conveyor belts at differential heights from each other and also the placing of one group of ejectors at differential heights from the other group of ejectors such that the one group of ejectors corresponds to one conveyor belt enables faster sorting by increasing the sorting capacity of the sorting machine in a single pass.
The sorting arrangement as described herein above can be provided in multiples to increase the batch size of sorting. The sorting arrangement can be provided either in even number multiples of 2,4,6,8 or odd number multiples of 3,6,9 and so on. The multiplicity of the sorting arrangement is depicted from Fig 5 to Fig 7. Fig. 5 shows the sorting arrangement of the improved sorting machine wherein the sorting arrangement is provided in single. Figure 6 shows a sorting arrangement of the sorting machine, according to another embodiment of the invention wherein the sorting arrangement is provided in duplicate to increase the batch size of sorting. The sorting arrangement including the plurality of conveyor belts 9, the optical arrangement 17 and the plurality of group of ejectors 25 are provided in duplicate to increase the batch size of sorting and enable sorting of the material in various grades in a single pass. The plurality of group of ejectors 25 are provided at one side of the plurality of conveyor belts 9 while the plurality of collectors 27 are provided on the side opposite to the plurality of group ejectors 25 to enable ejection of the material in to the designated collector. Fig. 7 shows a sorting arrangement of the improved sorting machine, according to another embodiment of the invention. The sorting arrangement is provided in quadruplicate to increase the batch size of sorting. The sorting arrangement including the plurality of conveyor belts 9, the optical arrangement 17 and the plurality of group of ejectors 25 are provided in quadruplicate to increase the batch size of sorting and enable sorting of the material in various grades in a single pass. The plurality of collectors 27 are arranged on inner side of the sorting machine and are configured to receive sorted material from plurality of conveyor belts 9 arranged on both the sides of the plurality of collectors 27.
Thus, the invention advantageously provides a sorting machine having a feeder with multiple channels to output one single unit of the material at a given point of time to each of the plurality of adjacently positioned conveyor belts which are at differential height while the material is being sorted and ejected by the plurality of group of ejectors which are placed at differential heights in the designated collectors. Further, providing the sorting arrangement in multiples of even number or odd numbers enables increasing the batch size of sorting.
Example 1: In one particular example of the invention, the invention provides an improved sorting machine for sorting of cashew nuts. The improved sorting machine includes a feeder 1 for feeding cashew nuts. The feeder 1 includes a first vibratory feeding tray 3, a second vibratory feeding tray 5 and a slide feeder 7. The first vibratory feeding tray 3, the second vibratory feeding tray 5 and the slide feeder 7 are arranged in series one after the other and at a height lower than the previous one. The cashew nuts are fed to the first vibratory feeding tray 1 through an in-feed hopper. The vibrations of the first vibratory feeding tray 3 and the second vibratory feeding tray 5 are controlled by a controller so as to control the rate of feeding the cashew nuts in said trays. The second vibratory feeding tray 5 near the output has two grooves to feed the cashew nuts to the slide feeder 7. The slide feeder 7 has two channels to receive the cashew nuts from the two grooves of the second vibratory feeding tray 5 in a manner that one channel receives cashew nuts through one groove of the second vibratory feeding tray 5. This allows to singulate the cashew nuts and prevent overlapping of one cashew nut over the other. The two channels of the slide feeder 7 feed the cashew nuts to two conveyor belts 9. The two conveyor belts 9 are mounted on a driving drum 11 and drive drum 13. The two conveyor belts 9 are arranged adjacent to each other in a manner that the two adjacent arranged conveyor belts 9 are at the same height proximal to the driven drum 13. As the two conveyor belts move further the height of one of the conveyor belts 9 with respect to the other is increased so that the two conveyor belts are at differential heights from each other. The driving drum 11 is coupled to a gear box 15 to provide rotation to the driving drum 11. The driving drum 11 in-turn actuates the driven drum 13. The two slide channels of the slide feeder 7 are configured to feed a single unit of cashew nut per conveyor belt at a given point of time, thus preventing overlapping of one cashew nut over the other cashew nut. As the two conveyor belts 9 move forward, due to the tensioning of the conveyor belts, the two conveyor belts carrying the cashew nuts are placed at differential heights. The cashew nuts conveyed over the two conveyor belts which are at differential heights is optically scanned by an optical arrangement 17 positioned at a predetermined distance from the two conveyor belts 9. The optical arrangement 17 includes one or more light source 19 to irradiate the cashew nuts and a camera 21 to optically scan the cashew nut and obtain an image of the cashew nut.
The image obtained by the camera 21 is processed by a controller 23 to identify and differentiate the cashew nuts on the basis of size, shape, colour and surface appearance like spotted, dark, shrivelled and with testa (inner skin on them). The controller 23 then activates a plurality of group of ejectors 25 positioned along downstream of the two conveyor belts 9 to eject the cashew nuts in to plurality of collectors 27. The ejectors 25 are provided in a group having seven ejectors (proportional to number of collectors 27) and there are two groups of such ejectors, one for each conveyor belt 9. The plurality of group of ejectors 25 are placed at differential height such that one group of seven ejector is at differential height from other group of seven ejectors in a manner that one group of ejectors corresponds to one conveyor belt. The plurality of collectors 27 is configured to accept the sorted material and is positioned along the length of the two conveyor belts 9 to the side opposite to the plurality of group of ejectors 25. The pneumatic ejector 25 have ejector nozzle connected to pneumatic ejector valve through air pipe for ejection of the material into the designated collector. The differential height of one group of ejector from the other group enables simultaneous ejection of the material from the plurality of conveyor belts 9 to the designated collector 27 without coming in contact with the material being ejected from the other conveyor belt.
The cashew nuts are sorted into multiple grades on the basis of count such as 180, 210, 320, 400, 450 and 500 pieces per pound, as well as other surface defects such as spotted, dark, shrivelled and with testa (inner skin on them). Thus cashew nuts are sorted at a faster rate due to conveying of cashew nuts on two conveyor belts and sorting and ejecting of the cashew nuts by the differential height placed plurality of group of ejectors into their designated collectors without coming in contact with the cashew nut being ejected from the other conveyor belt.
The foregoing description of the invention has been set for merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to person skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof. , Claims:We Claim:
1. An improved sorting machine for sorting a mixture of materials, the improved sorting machine comprising;
a feeder for feeding the mixture of materials;
a plurality of collectors for receiving sorted material; and
a sorting arrangement operationally coupled between the feeder and the plurality of collectors for sorting the mixture of materials characterized in that the sorting arrangement comprises of; a plurality of conveyor belts mounted on a driving drum and a driven drum wherein the height of one of the conveyor belts with respect to the other conveyor belts is increased to a certain height at atleast one point situated between the driving drum and the driven drum; an optical arrangement positioned at a predetermined distance above the plurality of the conveyor belts and a plurality of groups of ejectors placed at differential heights from each other wherein one group of ejectors corresponds to one conveyor belt.
2. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claimed 1, wherein increasing height of one of the conveyor belts of the plurality of the conveyor belts with respect to the other belts enables simultaneous sorting of the material being conveyed on the plurality of the conveyor belts thereby resulting in faster sorting of the mixture of materials in a single pass.
3. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein the differential height of one group of ejector from the other group enables simultaneous ejection of the material from the plurality of conveyor belts to the designated collector without coming in contact with the material being ejected from the other conveyor belts.
4. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein the number of ejectors in a group is proportional to the number of collectors and the number of group of ejectors is proportional to the number of conveyor belts.
5. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein multiplicity can be introduced in the sorting arrangement, wherein said multiplicity can be either in even number or in odd number.
6. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein the sorting is based on physical parameters including shape, size, surface appearance and colour.
7. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein the feeder comprises of a first feeding tray, a second feeding tray and a slide feeder, wherein the feeder is configured to feed a single unit of the material per conveyor belt at a point of time.
8. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein the optical arrangement comprises of atleast one light source and atleast one camera, wherein the optical arrangement is configured to differentiate the material on the basis of atleast one characteristics of size, shape, colour and surface appearance.
9. The improved sorting machine as claimed in claim1, wherein the mixture of material is either a mixture of similar material or a mixture of dissimilar material, wherein the material includes agricultural produce like nuts, fruits, vegetables; processed and shaped food products and synthetic material.