JP2000084497A - Classifier for farm produce - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To detect the transmitted light of farm produce precisely and sensitively and to reduce the damage of the farm produce during sorting by a method in which a pan is composed of a pair of pan pieces on both sides in conveyance transverse direction and formed to be a split type in which the opposite end of each pan piece is slanted downward so that the farm produce is dropped on a discharge conveyer. SOLUTION: A pan 5 is constituted by the combination of symmetrical pan pieces 51, 51 of a pair and formed to be a split type. In a sorting stage 3, on the basis of the results of the judgement of sorting sections for farm produce P on each pan 5 on the basis of information on the detection of transmitted light and information on an appearance image, the produce P belonging to the same sorting section comes on the same discharge conveyer (one of 81-83) disposed separately in the conveyance direction of a transportation conveyer 101. By the actuation of discharge apparatuses 31-33, the opposite ends of the pan pieces 51, 51 of a pair constituting the pan 5 are slanted downward simultaneously, and the produce P mounted on it is dropped/discharged on the discharge conveyers 81-83.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an agricultural product sorting apparatus for measuring and sorting the internal quality of agricultural products using light transmitted through the agricultural products.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Agricultural product sorting apparatuses generally evaluate agricultural products by examining grades such as size and shape, or grades such as appearance quality such as color and scratches, and comprehensively judge them, and classify the grades and grades of the judgment results. In recent years, with the diversifying needs of the market and consumers and improvements in measurement technology, it has been requested that the internal quality, such as sugar content and ripeness, be used in the sorting of agricultural products. It is becoming more and more.

The measurement of such internal quality is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 4-84740, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. Sho 58-253.
No. 45, JP-A-4-83148, JP-A-3-83
JP-A-160344 and the like describe the principle of detecting transmitted light.

However, they do not specifically propose an apparatus capable of efficiently detecting transmitted light. That is, the light obtained through the agricultural product is 10% less than the illumination light.
^Since it is attenuated to ^-4 to 10 ^-6, it is not easy to measure the internal quality with high sensitivity and high accuracy. Even if a small amount of disturbance light enters, the transmitted light information is included in the overwhelmingly large disturbance light. This is because there is a problem of being buried, and it is not possible to configure the transmitted light detection device by simply applying the conventional sorting conveyor.

According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-288903, a vertical through-hole is provided at the center of a receiving tray having a concave portion for placing agricultural products, and the agricultural product is illuminated above the transporting path of the receiving tray. There has been proposed a device in which transmitted light is detected by a light receiving device installed below the light receiving device. According to this device, transmitted light of agricultural products on the transport line can be detected. However, it is necessary to further improve the light-shielding property to prevent the illumination light above the transport path from entering the light receiving device below the transport path without stopping the movement of the tray. However, there is a problem in that when the agricultural products on the saucer are transferred to the discharge conveyor, further measures are required to prevent the agricultural products from being damaged.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a light shielding property between an agricultural product and a light receiving means for detecting transmitted light. It is an object of the present invention to provide an agricultural product sorting device having a function suitable for securing and capable of realizing highly accurate and highly sensitive transmitted light detection.

[0007] Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for sorting agricultural products which is less likely to damage the agricultural products when sorting by sorting categories.

[0008]

The above object is achieved by the inventions set forth in the claims of the present application.

[0009] The invention of the agricultural product sorting apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention is such that a plurality of trays are connected at a predetermined interval in the transport direction and a plurality of connected and endlessly rotating conveyors can transport agricultural products on the trays. The provided conveyor, a transmitted light detecting means disposed in the middle of the agricultural product transport path of the transport conveyor, irradiating the agricultural product on the tray with illumination light and receiving light transmitted through the agricultural product, and at least the agricultural product transmission Sorting division determining means for determining the sorting of agricultural products on each tray based on the sorting elements including light, a plurality of discharge conveyors spaced apart along the transport direction of the tray at the end position of the transport conveyor, An agricultural product discharging means for discharging the agricultural products on the tray to a discharge conveyor corresponding to the determined sorting category, wherein the tray is separated on both sides in the transport lateral direction. The agricultural products are provided so as to form a receiving portion on which the agricultural products are placed by the pair of received tray pieces, and the opposite ends of the respective tray pieces are expanded or tilted down in the transport lateral direction, and the agricultural products are placed on the trays. Is provided in the form of a middle crack which drops on the lower discharge conveyor.

[0010] In the above configuration, the transmitted light detecting means is provided in a dark room box disposed above the transport path and provided in a dark room box for shielding the exit / entrance of the agricultural product with a curtain or the like so that external light is prevented from entering as much as possible. And a transmitted light receiving optical system provided in a dark room box that is disposed below the transport path and blocks external light without interfering with the transport of agricultural products.

The sorting classification judging means uses the internal quality (eg, sugar content, ripeness, etc.) based on the detected transmitted light as a sorting judging element, and also judges the shape, size, etc. of the agricultural product using an appearance imaging camera or the like. May be used. Assortment classification judgment
In general, a method is adopted in which numerical data on a sorting element is compared with a predetermined threshold value to determine a sorting category for a class or a class, but the method is not limited to this. Such sorting category determination can be usually performed by a measuring means for detecting (measuring) various sort element data and an analyzing means using a computer or the like for determining the sorting category based on the measured values.

A plurality of discharge conveyors provided at the end side of the transport conveyor can be provided, for example, in a number corresponding to the number of sections to be sorted, and one discharge conveyor can correspond to one sorting section. Two or more discharge conveyors may be allocated to a sorting section having a larger number of distributions and a large distribution. These discharge conveyors are generally provided with a conveyance path set so as to be substantially orthogonal to the conveyance conveyor, but are not limited thereto.

The agricultural product discharging means for discharging agricultural products from the tray on the transport conveyor to a predetermined discharge conveyor is for switching the tray in a state of supporting and transporting the agricultural products to a state of discharging the agricultural products. , One for each of the plurality of discharge conveyors.

The present invention is characterized in that the saucer is provided so as to form a receiving portion for supporting agricultural products by a pair of saucer pieces divided on both sides in the transport lateral direction, and that the agricultural product discharging means is used. The position where the pair of saucer pieces is switched to the posture of dropping and discharging agricultural products is provided. For example, the posture of dropping and discharging agricultural products is to expand the pair of saucer pieces in the transport lateral direction (left-right direction). Either a system or a system in which a pair of saucer pieces are tilted downward at opposite ends thereof may be used.

According to the present invention, transmitted light of agricultural products can be detected on the tray of the transport conveyor composed of a pair of tray pieces, and the agricultural products transported on the same transport conveyor can be detected by the tray pieces. The fall distance of agricultural products that are dropped from the discharge conveyor to the discharge conveyor due to expansion or tilting down can be made shorter than the method of tilting and falling the saucer consisting of a single bucket, which may damage the agricultural products due to drop impact. Can be reduced.

According to the method in which the opposite end of the tray piece is tilted downward, agricultural products can be discharged without increasing the lateral size of the conveyor, so that a plurality of conveyors are arranged in parallel. The equipment is advantageous because the installation area of the equipment can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned invention, each tray has a vertical through-opening substantially at the center of the receiving portion.

According to the present invention, there is an advantage that the light transmitted through the agricultural product through the through-opening of the saucer can be detected.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in each of the above inventions,
The transmitted light detecting means includes a transmitted light receiving means fixedly arranged below the agricultural product transport path with the light receiving port facing upward, and a position between the transport conveyor and the transmitted light receiving means in a vertical direction for transporting the tray. A plurality of endlessly rotating light-receiving auxiliary cylinders provided so as to move along the direction, and the lower end of which is provided so as to pass through the light-receiving opening of the transmitted light receiving means in a light-shielded state; And light receiving auxiliary cylinder turning means for moving the light receiving auxiliary cylinders in parallel with each other so as to be incident on the upper end opening of the light receiving auxiliary cylinder in a light-shielded state and moving in parallel with each other at the same speed and at the same speed. It is characterized by.

In the above construction, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder which constitutes the light-receiving system of the transmitted light detecting means together with the fixedly arranged light-receiving means can be most simply constituted as a cylindrical body made of a light-shielding material. Preferably, a light-shielding seal portion suitable for preventing disturbance light from entering the light receiving port of the transmitted light receiving means at the time of detecting transmitted light is provided at the upper end and the lower end. As such a light shielding seal portion,
For example, at the lower end, an outward flange-shaped flat surface is provided at the edge of the light receiving port of the light receiving means, and a ring-shaped elastic seal member that elastically slides on this flat surface to exhibit light blocking properties is assembled to the lower end of the cylindrical body. And the like.

According to the present invention, since the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder moves in a state where the phase and the moving speed coincide with the produce, there is no relative movement in the transport direction between the produce and the produce on the tray.
Light-shielding properties can be easily secured. Further, the fixedly arranged light receiving means and the rotating light receiving auxiliary cylinder have a relative movement relation. However, since these are mechanical elements, the dimensions and the positional relation of the members, and their mutual combination. The accuracy of the contact portion, including the relationship, can be guaranteed sufficiently high, and high-sensitivity, high-accuracy detection of agricultural product transmitted light can be realized.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the invention, the tray provided in the middle of the transport conveyor is provided with:
The invention according to claim 5, wherein the pair of saucer pieces form a substantially annular receiving portion in a posture when the agricultural product is placed and transported. It is characterized by having a seal portion that comes into contact with the agricultural product in a ring shape to shield light from the product.

According to the present invention, when sorting and sorting agricultural products in a spherical shape, the agricultural products can be tightly fitted into the annular receiving portion of the tray without any gap, so that the influence of disturbance light is further reduced. In particular, according to the invention of claim 5, the light shielding property can be further enhanced by the seal portion.

[0024] The invention of claim 6 provides the above-mentioned claims 3 to 5
In any one of the inventions described above, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder has a light-shielding seal portion at a lower end thereof for preventing disturbance light from entering the light-receiving opening of the transmitted-light receiving unit when transmitted light is detected.

As the light-shielding seal portion, for example, an outward flange-shaped flat surface is provided at the edge of the light-receiving opening of the light-receiving means.
A configuration in which a ring-shaped elastic seal member that elastically slides on this flat surface to exhibit light shielding properties is attached to the lower end of the cylindrical body can be exemplified.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the third to sixth aspects of the present invention, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder turning means for turning and guiding each light-receiving auxiliary cylinder so as to pass over the light receiving port of the transmitted light receiving means is provided. By moving the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder upward in a fixed-length rotation trajectory including a transmitted light detection position passing over the light-receiving port,
The invention according to claim 8, wherein the light receiving auxiliary cylinder has an annular light-shielding seal portion for engaging the upper end of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder with the bottom surface of the receiving tray or fitting into the through-opening of the receiving tray to seal light. A tube is provided so as to fit into the through-opening of the saucer so that the upper end can be engaged with produce on the saucer,
The upper end portion has an annular light-shielding seal portion that prevents disturbance light from entering the cylinder by engaging with agricultural products.

According to these inventions, the light-shielding property can be improved by moving the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder up and down, utilizing the fact that the tray and the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder do not relatively move. . In particular, according to the invention of claim 8, since the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder is directly engaged with the agricultural product to obtain the light-shielding property, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to provide a structure for securing the light-shielding property in the tray.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned inventions, the pair of saucer pieces forming the saucer is provided so that the opposite end is tilted downward from the attitude of supporting and transporting the agricultural product so that the agricultural product placed on the lower side can be lowered. The invention according to claim 10 is characterized by being provided so as to be discharged onto a discharge conveyor, and to guide the tilting of the tray piece so as to gradually increase the downward tilt angle of the pair of tray piece opposing ends. And a guiding means for providing the information.

In the above description, for example, a guide rail or the like can be used as the guide means for guiding the tilting angle of the tray piece to gradually increase.

According to these inventions, since the opposite end of the tray piece is tilted downward, the agricultural products can be discharged without increasing the lateral dimension of the conveyor, and a plurality of conveyors are arranged in parallel. The equipment to be installed is advantageous because the installation area of the equipment can be reduced.

When a guide rail or the like for gradually increasing the downward tilt angle is provided, there is an advantage that the impact of the drop of agricultural products can be reduced.

Agricultural products to which the apparatus of the present invention is applied include fruits such as apples, pears, peaches and persimmons.

[0033]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiment 1 Hereinafter, an example of a sorting apparatus for detecting transmitted light of an agricultural product and using the same as one of sorting elements according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an outline of the entire facility of the agricultural product sorting apparatus of the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same, FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view for explaining a transmitted light detecting device portion of the same facility, FIG.
3 is a plan view of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional side view of a device for discharging agricultural products on a bucket type tray of a transport conveyor of the same equipment to a discharge conveyor.

In these figures, reference numeral 101 denotes a conveyor, which is a pair of left and right conveyor chains 103, 10 which are endlessly rotated by a pair of sprockets 102, 102.
3, a large number of trays 5 are connected at regular intervals in the transport direction, so that one agricultural product P can be placed on each tray 5. Note that 103
1 is a link connecting shaft connecting the link plates 1032,
1033 is a guide rail of the conveyor chain 103, 1
Reference numeral 034 is a guide rail support frame, and reference numeral 1035 is a base frame of the conveyor 101 to which the guide rail support frame 1034 is fixed. Further, the receiving tray 5 of this example has a characteristic structure provided in a medium cracking manner, and the details thereof will be described later.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a supply stage (position) for the worker to carry out the work of placing the agricultural products P one by one on the receiving tray 5 of the transport conveyor 101. It is configured such that the user can easily take out the agricultural product P and place it on the saucer 5. This operation may be performed mechanically and automatically using a supply mechanism utilizing an alignment conveyor or the like.

Numeral 2 denotes a measurement stage (position), and the tray 5 containing agricultural products on the conveyor 101 is first passed through a transmitted light detector 6 provided in the middle of the transport path of the conveyor 101 to detect transmitted light. The transmitted light including the information on the internal quality is detected and measured, and the transmitted light information is used as grade information for judging the sorting category of each agricultural product in a sorting category determining device (not shown) including a computer or the like. The transmitted light detection device 6 of this example illuminates the agricultural product P with the illumination lamp 603 of the illumination optical system in the dark room box 601 which is disposed above the transport path of the transport conveyor 101 and whose entrance is shielded from the outside by a curtain. The light transmitting device 604 provided on the lower side of the transport path of the transport conveyor 101 receives the transmitted light and detects the light transmitted through the agricultural product. The details will be described later. Reference numeral 605 denotes a dark room box for shielding the light receiving optical system from the outside. However, only the light receiving device 604 may be partitioned from the outside to shield the light, or the entire endless rotating mechanism of the light receiving auxiliary cylinder may be externally provided. It may be partitioned so that light is shielded from light.

Reference numeral 7 denotes an appearance image pickup device provided at the next stage of the transmitted light detection device 6, and an image of the agricultural product illuminated by the illumination lamp 702 is imaged by an appearance image pickup camera 701 arranged above the transport path. This imaging information is sent to the sorting division determining device in the same manner as the transmitted light information, and is used to determine the sorting category of the agricultural product as the appearance grade information or the class (size) information.

Reference numeral 3 denotes a sorting stage (position). In this example, the discharge conveyors 81 to 83 for each sorting type determined by the above information (three examples are described for the sake of convenience. Are disposed horizontally below the conveying path at predetermined intervals in the tray conveying direction, and the agricultural products P for which the predetermined sorting has been determined are placed on the corresponding discharge conveyors 81-83. When it reaches, the opposing ends of the pair of saucer pieces 51, 51 constituting the saucer 5 of the present example are simultaneously tilted down by the operation of the ejection devices 31 to 33, and the agricultural products P placed thereon are ejected. Conveyors 81-
It is designed to drop onto 83 and be discharged.

Next, the receiving tray 5 of this embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the receiving tray 5 of the present embodiment is formed by a combination of a pair of left and right symmetric receiving trays 51, 51. Each receiving tray 51 is connected to the link connecting shaft 1031 of the conveyor chain 103. A plate-like support plate 511 supported so as to maintain a horizontal posture by connection, and a swinging center shaft 513 fixed to a bracket 512 on the support base 511, and is supported by a swing center shaft 513 so as to be swingable about the shaft 513. And a semicircular receiving lip member 515 attached to a semicircular recess at the swinging edge of the receiving plate 514. The receiving lip member 515 that forms the receiving portion is configured to form a substantially annular agricultural product receiving portion by facing the receiving lip member 515. The receiving piece 51 is provided with a locking pin 51 provided at the swinging rear end of the receiving piece plate 514 (an end opposite to the receiving lip member 515 across the swing center shaft 513).
6 is a locking hook 51 provided on the bracket 512
7, the swing is normally locked. In the locked state by the locking hook 517, as shown in FIG. 3, the pair of left and right receiving pieces 51, 51 maintain the horizontal posture. The pair of receiving lip members 515 form an annular receiving portion for placing the agricultural product P, and the receiving lip members 5
The swinging leading edge of the receiving plate piece 514 to which the plate 15 is attached forms a semicircular concave portion, so that an opening vertically penetrating inside the annular receiving portion is formed. Also, the receiving lip member 515 of this example is provided with a double semi-circular lip made of a relatively soft elastic body such that the placed agricultural product slightly sinks and deforms. The configuration is such that the diameter is gradually increased upward from the base mounted on the swinging tip edge of the saucer piece plate 514, so that the posture can be stably engaged with the agricultural product P in a sealed state with good light shielding properties. I can support it.

The locking hook 517 is rotatably provided by a pin 518 provided on the bracket 512. Normally, the locking hook 517 is moved in a direction of engagement with the locking pin 516 by a not-shown torsion coil spring. The lock is released, and the lock release arm 5171 provided on the lock hook 517 is provided so as to be released by pushing down the discharge device with the discharge device. Note that, in this example, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 606, which will be described later, is directly engaged with the agricultural product to reliably prevent disturbance light from being mixed into the transmitted light. Without matching
The light-shielding property can be ensured by engaging the tray so as to have a light-shielding property around the lower end edge of the through-opening of the tray or in the through-opening.

Next, the agricultural product P is placed on the saucer 5 formed by a pair of the above-mentioned saucer pieces 51, 51, and the measuring stage 2
The transmitted light detecting device 6, which is a characteristic configuration of the present example for detecting transmitted light of agricultural products, will be described.

In the apparatus 6 of this embodiment, an illumination room 602 is formed by providing a dark room box 601 provided above the conveyance path so as to cover the conveyance path. A plurality of illumination lamps 6 arranged in an arc
Numeral 03 is provided so as to irradiate the illumination light toward the agricultural product passing through the substantially central position of the arc (see FIG. 4). It is preferable that the entrance and exit of the illumination room 602 be shielded by a curtain or the like in order to keep the amount of illumination light constant.

Further, in the transmitted light detecting device 6 of this embodiment, a light receiving device 604 for detecting transmitted light is arranged in a dark room box 605 below the conveyance path of the illumination room 602, and the agricultural product is transmitted. An endless rotation mechanism 606 of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder for endlessly rotating the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 for preventing disturbance light from entering so that the light received by the light-receiving device 604 without disturbing light enters. There are features.

In the present embodiment, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 comprises a main body made of an opaque rigid material (plastic material), a cylindrical part 6071 and an outward flange 6072 at the lower end of the cylindrical part.
And a cylindrical portion 607 of the main body.
An upper annular lip member 6074 to be described later is assembled and fixed to the outward flange 6073 at the upper end of the first member, and a lower annular lip member to be described later is provided to an inward flange 6075 provided at the inner edge of the opening of the outward flange 6072 at the lower end. 60
76 is attached and fixed.

The light receiving device 604 is constituted by combining elements such as a condenser lens, a band-pass filter for selectively detecting light of a predetermined wavelength, a light receiving element such as a CCD, and the like. The light receiving port is disposed vertically below the position where the through opening passes.

Another feature of the endless rotation mechanism 606 of the present embodiment for endlessly rotating the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 is that a pair of sprockets 6062 and 6062 are arranged so as to run in parallel at a constant speed in synchronization with the conveyor 101. A plurality of light-receiving auxiliary cylinders 607 are connected to the wound conveyor chain 6061 at regular intervals, and the upper ends of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinders 607 are moved up and down into the openings of the trays 5 while running the light-receiving auxiliary cylinders 607 in parallel. The upper annular lip member 6074 is provided so as to be able to be engaged with the bottom surface of the agricultural product P, and the lower end portion passes over the light receiving port of the light receiving device 604.
4, after passing through the auxiliary light receiving tube 607,
And an endless rotating operation of moving downward from the opening of the tray 5 and moving downward from the opening. In addition,
6063 is a conveyor chain 6061 and a light receiving auxiliary cylinder 60
7 is a chain attachment for connecting the flange 6072 of FIG.

According to the endless rotation mechanism 606 of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 provided in this manner, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 provided in a vertically penetrating cylindrical shape has an upper annular lip attached to its upper end. The member 6074 can be annularly engaged with the bottom surface of the agricultural product P to form a tightly sealed state in which disturbance light is prevented from entering, and the lower annular lip member 6076 attached to the lower end is provided on the case of the light receiving device 604. Sliding on the outward flange 6041 provided on the edge makes it relatively easy to perform relative movement in a tightly sealed state without disturbance light. Thus, when the agricultural product P reaches directly above the light receiving device 604, the light receiving auxiliary cylinder 6
07, the incident light of the agricultural product transmitted light to the light receiving device 604 can be reliably prevented from entering the disturbance light, and the attenuation from the illumination light is as extremely weak as 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-6. An operation of detecting transmitted light with high sensitivity and high accuracy is realized.

Next, the endless turning mechanism 606 of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607, which moves up the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 in a trajectory before reaching the transmitted light detection position and moves down after passing through the transmitted light detection position. To explain the guide mechanism, the conveyor chain 6061 is fixed to a frame 6064 and is a plate-like guide rail 60 having a vertical posture and extending along the transport direction.
65 is provided in a structure slidably fitted to the guide chain 65, whereby the rotation trajectory of the conveyor chain is determined along the shape along the plate-like guide rail 6065, and in this example, as shown in FIGS. The transport trajectory of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 facing the transport path includes an upwardly inclined trajectory that gradually moves upward from a height position (a position indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 3) on the upstream side of the light-receiving position. At the light receiving position, the light receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 is set to a horizontal trajectory in which the light receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 moves horizontally by a predetermined distance at the upward movement position shown by the solid line in FIG. 3, and after passing through the light receiving position, gradually moves downward toward the end. It is a descending orbit.
Thus, the above-described operation of fitting the upper end portion of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder into the upper and lower through-opening of the receiving tray 5 and exiting the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 below the fitted light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 is provided.

With the above configuration, in this example, the light transmitted through the agricultural product P transported by the transport conveyor 101 is
The detection can be performed without introducing the disturbance light, so that the effect that the internal quality information of the agricultural product contained in the weak transmitted light can be measured with high sensitivity and accuracy can be obtained.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the state of the tray 5 for transporting the position of the transmitted light detecting device 6 as described above, in which the agricultural product P is not placed on the tray 5, and the tray being continuously transported. When 5 passes through the position A in FIG. 4, transmitted light detection is performed. In other words, the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder 607 at the position A in FIG. 4 runs synchronously with the tray 5 for a fixed length while being fitted into the upper and lower through-openings of the tray 5 from below.

The appearance imaging device provided next to the above-mentioned transmitted light detection position is the same as that for imaging the appearance of agricultural products with a known CCD camera or the like. For example, the illumination optical system shown in FIG. 5 is illuminated, and the image is taken by the appearance imaging camera 701.

Next, the sorting stage 3 will be described.

In this sorting stage 3 of the present embodiment, the same sorting category is determined based on the result of determining the sorting category for the agricultural products P on each saucer 5 based on the above-described transmitted light detection information and appearance imaging information. Are output to the same discharge conveyor (one of 81 to 83) spaced apart along the transport direction of the transport conveyor 101. That is, the discharge device of the present example is configured to discharge agricultural products to each discharge conveyor corresponding to each of the discharge conveyors (81 to 83) spaced apart below the transfer path along the transfer direction of the transfer conveyor 101. 3
1 to 33 are provided, and the discharge devices 31 to 33 are operated appropriately so that the discharge corresponding to the sorting category is appropriately performed based on the information obtained by the sorting category determining device. The transmission of the sorting classification information to each discharging device for this purpose can be performed by a known method.

The transport conveyor 10 performed as described above
The state of discharge of agricultural products from 1 to the discharge conveyor (any of 81 to 83) is shown in FIG.

That is, each of the discharge conveyors 81-
Electromagnetically operated discharge devices 31 to 33 are arranged along the transport path of the transport conveyor 101 located above the 83, and FIG. 5 shows the positions of one of the discharge conveyor 81 and the discharge device 31.

The electromagnetically actuated discharge device 31 includes a switch lever 3 pivotally supported around a rotation shaft 311.
In the normal state, the swinging tip is biased upward by a spring (not shown).
14, the switch lever 3 is moved downward.
12 is depressed downward, and the swinging tip of the switch lever 312 pushes the lock release arm 5171 of the lock hook 517 provided on the support base 511 of the saucer piece to release the lock hook 517. By rotating in the direction, the locking engagement with the locking pin 516 on the tray piece plate 514 side is released, and thereby the tip side of the tray piece 51 is tilted downward (see the two-dot chain line in FIG. 5). By performing this series of operations in synchronization with the left and right tray pieces 51, 51, the agricultural product P placed on the receiving portion of the tray 5 falls onto the discharge conveyor 81.

According to the agricultural product sorting apparatus of the present embodiment configured as described above, it is possible to detect weak agricultural product transmitted light through the vertical through-opening formed in the central portion of the receiving tray 5 without introducing disturbance light. In addition to being able to detect and measure the internal quality information of the agricultural products with high sensitivity and accuracy, the receiving tray 5 is a middle crack type consisting of a pair of left and right receiving tray pieces, and the agricultural product placed on the receiving part by tilting the opposite end downward. P is lowered at that position, and the falling distance is made relatively small.
Since it can be dropped on 1 to 83, there is an advantage that the risk of damaging agricultural products is small.

Embodiment 2 In the sorting apparatus of this embodiment shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the configuration of the receiving tray 9 is partly the same as that of the first embodiment, and the pair of left and right receiving trays 91 is tilted downward by a guide rail 92. Although the difference is that the process is performed gradually, the other configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, and illustration and description of the common parts are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 7, the receiving tray 9 in this embodiment has a rectangular pyramid-shaped concave portion 91 on which the agricultural product P is placed.
9 is different from the first embodiment in that a vertical through-opening 9191 is formed at the center position thereof, but the other parts are the same as the first embodiment. Therefore,
For the common configuration, the reference numerals in the 500s of the first embodiment are changed to the reference numerals in the 900s.

In the sorting device of this embodiment, the discharge devices 31 to 33 are positioned above the discharge conveyors 81 to 83 at positions above the discharge conveyors 81 to 83.
Instead of disposing the discharge devices 31 to 33 at a position slightly upstream in the transport direction and releasing the locking engagement of the locking pin 916 by the locking hook 917, the discharging device 31 It is characterized in that a pair of left and right guide rails 92 are provided to guide the receiving tray pieces 91, 91 such that the downward tilt angle gradually increases along the transport direction. The guide rails 92 are provided in a pair corresponding to the discharge conveyors 81 to 83, respectively.

According to the structure of this embodiment, the same advantages as those of the first embodiment can be obtained, and the pair of saucer pieces 91, 91 of the saucer 9 are gradually tilted down by the guide rail.
Can be more gently applied to the discharge conveyor with less impact, so that the risk of damaging agricultural products can be further reduced.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, but can be implemented in various modified forms. For example, agricultural products are dropped and discharged by inclining a pair of medium-breaking trays downward. Alternatively, the pair of saucer pieces may be expanded in the horizontal direction to discharge and discharge agricultural products. In this case, the slide piece can be moved in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the transport path. A mechanism is provided to urge the spring toward the left and right outer sides. Normally, the movement by the spring bias is prevented by using a locking hook or the like, so that the pair of left and right saucer pieces are closely opposed to each other to form a saucer. The locking may be released by the electromagnetically operated discharge device described in the above embodiment.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to detect transmitted light of agricultural products on the tray of the transport conveyor constituted by a pair of tray pieces, and to transport the agricultural products on the same transport conveyor. The falling distance of the agricultural product that is dropped from the transport conveyor to the discharge conveyor due to the spread or downward tilting of the tray piece can be shortened compared to the method in which the tray consisting of a single bucket is tilted and dropped, It is possible to reduce the risk of damaging agricultural products by a drop impact.

According to the method in which the opposite end of the tray piece is tilted downward, agricultural products can be discharged without increasing the lateral dimension of the conveyor, so that a plurality of conveyors are arranged in parallel. The equipment is advantageous because the installation area of the equipment can be reduced, and also has the following effects.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, there is an advantage that light transmitted through agricultural products can be detected through the through-opening of the saucer.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the auxiliary light receiving cylinder is
Since it moves in a state where the phase and the moving speed coincide with the agricultural product, there is no relative movement in the transport direction between the agricultural product and the agricultural product on the tray, and it is easy to secure the light shielding property. Also, the fixedly arranged light receiving means and the rotating light receiving auxiliary cylinder have a relative movement relationship, but since these are relationships between mechanical elements,
The accuracy of the contact portion, including the dimensions and the positional relationship of the members and the mutual combination thereof, can be guaranteed sufficiently high, and highly sensitive and accurate detection of the transmitted light of agricultural products can be realized. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when sorting and sorting of spherical agricultural products and the like, the agricultural products can fit tightly into the annular receiving portion of the tray without any gap, so that the influence of disturbance light is further reduced. In particular, according to the invention of claim 5, the light shielding property can be further enhanced by the seal portion.

According to the invention of claim 6, according to the invention of claim 7, it is possible to effectively prevent disturbance light from entering the light receiving port of the transmitted light receiving means. Utilizing the fact that the light receiving auxiliary cylinder does not move relatively, the light-shielding property can be enhanced by moving the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder in the vertical direction. In particular, according to the invention of claim 8, since the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder is directly engaged with the agricultural product to obtain the light-shielding property, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to provide a structure for securing the light-shielding property in the tray.

According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, since the opposite end of the tray piece is tilted downward, it is possible to discharge agricultural products without increasing the size of the transport conveyor in the horizontal direction. Is advantageous in that the installation area of the equipment can be reduced.

When a guide rail or the like for gradually increasing the downward tilt angle is provided, there is an advantage that the impact of the drop of agricultural products can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an overall outline of an agricultural product sorting facility including a transmitted light detection device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the equipment of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view showing a schematic configuration of the transmitted light detection device 5 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional side view showing a configuration outline of the agricultural product discharging device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional side view showing a discharge device portion of the agricultural product sorting equipment according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Supply stage 101 ... Conveyor 102 ... Sprocket 103 ... Conveyor chain 1031 ... Link connection shaft 1032 ... Link plate 1033 ... Guide rail 1034 ... Guide rail support frame 1035 ··· Base frame 2 ··· Measurement stage 3 ··· Sorting stage 31-33 ··· Discharge device 5 ··· Receiving tray 51 ··· Receiving piece 511 ··· Support bracket 512 ··· Bracket 513 ····· Swinging central axis 514 ··· Receiver plate 515 ··· Receiving lip member 516 ··· Locking pin 517 ··· Locking hook 5171 ··· Lock release arm 518 ··· Pin 6. ..Transmission light detection device 601 dark box 602 lighting room 603 lighting lamp 604 light receiving device 605 dark Chamber box 606 endless rotation mechanism 6061 link chain 6062 sprocket 6063 chain attachment 6064 frame 6065 plate guide rail 607 light receiving auxiliary cylinder 6071・ Cylinder part 6072 ・ ・ ・ Outward flange 6073 ・ ・ ・ Outward flange 6074 ・ ・ ・ Upper annular lip member 6075 ・ ・ ・ Inward flange 6076 ・ ・ ・ Lower annular lip member 7 ・ ・ ・ Appearance imaging device 701 ・ ・· External imaging camera 702 · · · Illumination lamps 81 to 83 · · · Discharge conveyor 9 · · · Receiving tray 91 · · · Receiving piece 911 · · · Support base 912 · · · Bracket 913 · · · swing center axis 914 · ..Receiver plate 916 ··· Lock pin 917 ··· Hook 9171 ··· Lock release arm 918. Pin 919 ... recess 9191 ... vertical through openings 92 ... guide rail

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Sasaki Kitajima 630 Shinogase-cho, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka F-term in Maki Corporation (reference) 2F065 AA21 AA45 AA60 AA61 AA67 BB15 CC00 DD03 DD09 DD15 FF01 FF04 FF67 GG01 HH14 JJ03 JJ05 JJ26 LL04 LL22 PP11 PP12 PP15 PP22 QQ31 RR06 SS04 TT02 TT08 UU03 2G051 AA05 AB20 BA20 CA03 CA04 CB02 CC07 DA01 DA06 EA23 EC01 3F079 AC06 CA21 CA31 CB25 CB29 CB34 CC08 CC09 DA18

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A transport conveyor provided so that a plurality of trays can be connected at predetermined intervals in a transport direction and connected to each other and can be transported by placing agricultural products on the trays of an endlessly rotating conveyor;
Arranged in the middle of the agricultural product transport path of the transport conveyor, the transmitted light detecting means for irradiating the agricultural product on the tray with illumination light and receiving light transmitted through the agricultural product, and a sorting element including at least the agricultural product transmitted light. Sorting division determining means for determining the sorting of agricultural products on each tray based on a plurality of discharge conveyors spaced apart along the transport direction of the tray at the end side position of the transport conveyor, and agricultural products on each tray. Agricultural product sorting device comprising agricultural product discharging means for discharging the product to a discharge conveyor corresponding to the determined sorting section, wherein the tray is loaded with a pair of tray pieces divided on both sides in the transport lateral direction. In order to form a receiving portion to be placed, the opposite end of each tray piece expands or tilts down in the transporting lateral direction, so that the agricultural product placed thereon can be discharged downward. An agricultural product sorting device that is provided in a medium cracking type that drops on a bear. 2. The agricultural product sorting device according to claim 1, wherein each tray has a vertical opening at substantially the center of the receiving portion. 3. The transmitted light detecting means according to claim 1, wherein the transmitted light detecting means includes a transmitted light receiving means fixedly arranged below an agricultural product transport path with a light receiving port facing upward, the transport conveyor and the transmitted light receiving means. An endlessly rotating series provided so as to move in a vertical direction of the means along the transport direction of the tray, and a lower end provided so as to pass over the light receiving port of the transmitted light receiving means in a light-shielded state. A large number of light-receiving auxiliary cylinders and the light-receiving auxiliary cylinders are moved in parallel with the corresponding trays at the same speed so that light transmitted through the agricultural product is incident on the upper end opening of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder in a light-shielded state at the same speed. And a light-receiving auxiliary cylinder rotating means for rotating the agricultural product. 4. The tray according to claim 3, wherein the tray provided in a split manner on the transport conveyor forms a substantially annular receiving portion when the pair of tray pieces is placed and transported with agricultural products. Agricultural products sorting equipment. 5. The device according to claim 4, wherein the substantially annular receiving portion formed by the pair of saucer pieces has a seal portion in annular contact with the agricultural product in order to shield the inside of the annular shape from disturbance light. Agricultural products sorting equipment. 6. The method according to claim 3, wherein
The agricultural product sorting device, wherein the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder has a light-shielding seal portion at a lower end thereof for preventing disturbance light from entering the light-receiving opening of the transmitted-light receiving means when transmitted light is detected. 7. The method according to claim 3, wherein
The light-receiving auxiliary cylinder rotating means for rotatingly guiding each light-receiving auxiliary cylinder so as to pass over the light-receiving port of the transmitted light receiving means includes a light-receiving auxiliary cylinder rotating means for rotating the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder on a fixed length orbit including a transmitted light detection position passing over the light-receiving port. An agricultural product characterized by having an annular light-shielding seal portion for moving the auxiliary cylinder upward to engage the upper end of the light-receiving auxiliary cylinder with the bottom surface of the tray or for fitting into the through-opening of the tray to seal light. Sorting equipment. 8. The method according to claim 3, wherein
The light-receiving auxiliary cylinder is provided so as to fit into the through-opening of the saucer so that the upper end can be engaged with the produce on the saucer. An agricultural product sorting device having an annular light-shielding seal portion for preventing intrusion into the inside. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The pair of saucer pieces forming the saucer are characterized in that they are provided so as to discharge the agricultural product placed on the lower discharge conveyor by tilting the opposite end downward from the posture for supporting and transporting the agricultural product. Sorting equipment. 10. The sorting apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a guide means for guiding the tilting of the tray pieces so as to gradually increase the downward tilt angle of the pair of tray piece opposing ends.