JP2003024874A - Device for adjusting sensitivity of particle color sorter - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for adjusting sensitivity of particle color sorter enabling the sensitivity adjustment which unites both of elevations of the accuracy of sorting and the yield of non-defective item and allows the optimum sorting result in accordance with requirement. SOLUTION: A particle color sorter 1 is provided with a primary sorting course 10A and a secondary sorting course 10B respectively, the sensitivity of the particle color sorter 1 is changed stepwise by the sensitivity adjusting device 8, the proportion of non-defective item judgement with respect to non- defective item side sample particles in the primary sorting course 10A and rejected item side sample particles in the secondary sorting course is determined by a quality judgement device 4 and a controller 6 and the setting of sensitivity is performed on the basis of the proportion thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used in a grain color sorter that optically detects the appearance of grains such as grains and sorts them into good products and defective products. The present invention relates to a sensitivity adjusting device that adjusts the sensitivity according to.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A particle color sorter individually detects raw material granules of a raw material granule passing through an optical detecting means to obtain an optical characteristic value, and compares this value with a threshold value. This is to operate the injection nozzle device, and by operating the injection nozzle device, the particles that have been determined to be defective product particles are repelled from the recovery path of the non-defective product particles, so that the good product and the defective product are selected. . In such a granular color sorter, the sorting strength is set because the sorting strength varies depending on the supply flow rate of the raw material granules and the type of the raw material granules even if the above-mentioned threshold value is constant. It is necessary to change the above-mentioned threshold value to adjust the sensitivity of the grain color sorter so that the value becomes different.

In such adjustment work, the sensitivity of the grain color sorter is set to a certain value, the raw material grains are actually sorted, and the sensitivity is changed by checking the sorting result obtained thereby. However, if this is done manually, there is a problem in visual confirmation of the selection results in terms of both work accuracy and work time, and the confirmation of the selection results is done downstream of the sorter. Since the adjustment is performed and the sensitivity is adjusted on the upstream side of the sorter, there is a problem that a person goes up and down the sorter vertically arranged to perform the work, which requires a lot of labor.

On the other hand, on the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-21665
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 0, there has been proposed one that automatically performs the sensitivity adjustment as described above. FIG. 5 shows an outline of this conventional technique. Reference numeral 50 denotes a color selection device. According to this, the raw material G such as polished rice is supplied to the hopper 51.
The material is supplied to the optical detection unit 52 at a set flow rate by the raw material supply unit 51 including a, the vibrating granulator 51b, and the guide 51c. The optical detector 52 includes an optical sensor 52a and a light source 5
2b, the background plate 52c, and detects the color of the raw material G falling along the falling trajectory A and outputs the signal to the control unit 57.
To the comparison circuit 57a. The comparison circuit 57 a compares the threshold value input from the comparison control circuit 57 b with the signal value from the optical detection unit 52, and the ejection nozzle device 5 of the selection unit 53.
The operation signal is output to 3a. The injection nozzle device 53a is
The colored particles and the foreign matter are ejected and dropped to the defective side discharge portion 55 which is deviated from the fall trajectory A. The raw material G that was not jetted was
As a non-defective particle, along the drop trajectory A, the non-defective discharging section 54
Will be collected.

The sensitivity adjustment in such a color selecting device is performed as follows. That is, the setting unit 58 sets the target defective product mixture ratio H and a temporary threshold value, and inputs these values to the comparison control circuit 57b to operate the sorting machine. Then, the raw material G collected in the non-defective product side discharge part 54 and the defective product side discharge part 55 is sampled and sent to the analysis part 56. The analysis unit 56 includes a suction device 56a for sampling,
The sampled raw material G includes a weight measuring unit 56b, an optical discriminating unit 56c, and a non-defective / defective discriminating circuit 56d.
Is measured and the number of defective grains in the raw material G sampled from the non-defective discharge section 54 is obtained, and these are input to the comparison control circuit 57b. The comparison control circuit unit 57b calculates the defective product mixture ratio P in the non-defective product side discharge unit from the input value, compares the calculated value P with the target defective product mixture ratio H, and corrects the threshold value. Repeating this operation, the defective product mixture rate P
A threshold value is set at the time when is brought close to the target value H, and the sensitivity adjustment is completed. Reference numeral 59 is a display device that displays the input value and each calculated value of the setting state.

[0006]

According to the above-mentioned prior art (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-216650), it is possible to automatically adjust the sensitivity of the color selection device, but the target defective product mixture ratio H is set appropriately. If not done, good screening results cannot be obtained. That is, if the target defective product mixture rate H is set to be considerably low (the state in which defective products are mixed as little as possible),
Inevitably, the ratio of non-defective products mixed in the defective product discharge portion increases, and the non-defective product yield of the sorting apparatus decreases. Also, if the target defective product mixing ratio is set to a certain high value (a condition where the defective product mixing ratio is relatively high), the yield of non-defective products of the sorting apparatus is high, but naturally the sorting accuracy is low. As described above, the target defect mixture rate H
It is important to set the appropriate target value.However, the appropriate target defective product mixing rate depends on the raw material supply flow rate, the type of raw material, or the defective product mixing ratio in the raw material. In the case where it is desired to change it arbitrarily, it is difficult to set the target defective product mixture rate to an appropriate value, and there is a problem that it is not possible to achieve both the sorting accuracy and the good product yield at the same time.

Further, in the color sorting apparatus of the prior art, since the unified sensitivity adjustment is performed by matching the calculated value of the defective product mixing ratio in the non-defective side discharge portion with the target value, both the sorting accuracy and the yield of non-defective products are achieved. Focusing on, there is a problem that the sensitivity cannot be adjusted to obtain the selection result according to the request.

Further, the weight of the sample granules is measured in order to obtain the defective product mixture rate for sensitivity adjustment, but an extra working time is required for the weight measurement, and the weight is also reduced. The provision of the measuring device causes a problem that the device becomes large in size or high in cost.

The present invention has been proposed in order to cope with such a situation, and it is possible to achieve both the accuracy of selection and the increase in the yield of non-defective products, and obtain the optimum selection result according to the demand. It is an object of the present invention to provide a sensitivity adjusting device for a particle color sorter capable of performing sensitivity adjustment that does not require a weight measuring device.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the sensitivity adjusting device of the grain color sorter according to the present invention has the following features.

According to the first aspect of the invention, the granular material color sorter for selecting the granular raw material into the non-defective product side and the defective product side with the set sorting strength with respect to the granular raw material supplied at the set flow rate. A device for adjusting the sensitivity of the granular color sorter according to the sorting strength, wherein a plurality of sorting routes in the granular color sorter are divided into a primary sorting route and the primary sorting route. A secondary sorting path is provided for again feeding the granules selected on the defective side in the path to the particle color sorter, and the set number of particles is sampled in each of the primary sorting path and the secondary sorting path. And a quality determination device for determining the quality of the sample particles from the sampling input device. At least the quality determination result of the non-defective sample particles in the primary sorting path and the secondary selection are provided. And the quality determination result of the defective side sample granules in the path to the group, characterized in that a control means for performing sensitivity adjustment of the granular material color sorter.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the sensitivity adjusting device of the granular color sorter according to the first aspect, the sensitivity of the granular color sorter is changed stepwise, and the non-defective sample in the primary sorting path is sampled. It is characterized in that both the non-defective product determination ratio of the granules and the non-defective product sample granular product non-defective product ratio in the secondary selection path are obtained, and the sensitivity is adjusted based on these ratios.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the sensitivity adjusting device of the grain color sorter according to the second aspect, the non-defective judgment rate of non-defective sample granules in the primary sorting path is determined according to the changed sensitivity. And a display unit for displaying both the non-defective product determination ratio of the defective product-side sample granules in the secondary selection path.

The invention according to each of the above-mentioned claims has the following functions.

By dividing the granular color sorter having a plurality of sorting routes into a primary sorting route and a secondary sorting route, a non-defective product side port, a defective product side port, and a secondary side sorting route in the primary side sorting route. Sample granules can be obtained from a total of four collection ports including a non-defective product side port and a defective product side port. Of which
The sample granules on the non-defective side in the primary sorting route are the samples required to know the sorting accuracy of the sorter, and the sample granules on the defective side in the secondary sorting route are used to know the yield of the sorting machine. It is a necessary sample. Put each of these sample granules into the quality judgment device,
By obtaining the quality judgment results for each sample granule and performing multidimensional sensitivity adjustment based on these quality judgment results, sensitivity adjustment for obtaining the selection result that achieves both the accuracy of selection and the increase in the yield of good products can be performed. It will be possible.

As a specific sensitivity adjustment, the sensitivity of the particle color sorter is changed step by step, and the non-defective judgment rate of the non-defective sample granules in the primary sorting path and the defective sample granules in the secondary sorting path are adjusted. Together with the rate of good product judgment,
The sensitivity is adjusted based on these ratios. The obtained quality judgment result is subjected to necessary arithmetic processing (statistical processing, etc.) by the control device, and sensitivity setting for setting the sorting strength that meets the request is made.

Further, according to the changed sensitivity, a quality judgment result including a non-defective judgment ratio of non-defective sample granules in the primary selection path and a non-defective judgment sample ratio of defective sample granules in the secondary selection path is displayed. Since the sensitivity can be set while confirming the display contents by displaying by the device, the operator can efficiently perform the manual sensitivity adjustment.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a sensitivity setting device of a particle color sorter, where 1 is a particle color sorter and 2 is a supply tank provided on the particle sorter. The grain color sorter 1 includes a plurality of color sorters similar to those of the related art, which are arranged in parallel, and includes a plurality of sort paths 10. Further, the sorting path 10 is divided into a primary sorting path 10A and a secondary sorting path 10B, and a primary discharge port 11 and a secondary discharge port 12 are provided on the discharge side thereof. Primary outlet 11 and secondary outlet 12
Although not shown, each is divided into a non-defective product outlet and a defective product outlet.

The primary outlet 11 and the secondary outlet 1
2. The supply tank 2 is connected to a sampling input device 3 including a primary side sampling device 30, a secondary side sampling device 31, a raw material sampling device 32, a sampling extraction path 33, and an outlet 34, respectively. Here, the primary side sampling device 30 and the secondary side sampling device 31 are capable of extracting sample granules from the non-defective product outlet and the defective product outlet of the primary outlet 11 and the secondary outlet 12, respectively. The sampling device 32 samples the particles in the supply tank 2.

Reference numeral 4 is a quality judging device for judging the quality of the sample particles extracted by the sampling feeding device 3.
Is an image pickup device for picking up an external image of the sample particles subjected to the judgment processing by the quality judgment device 4. The measurement signal obtained by the quality determination device 4 and the image signal obtained by the image pickup device 5 are sent to the control device 6 to be subjected to arithmetic processing, and the result of the arithmetic processing serves as an output signal and serves as a display device and an operation input device. P
It is sent to the C (personal computer) 7 and the sensitivity adjusting device 8 of the grain color sorter 1. If necessary, an operator room 9 may be provided, and the controller 9a in the operator room 9 may be connected to the controller 6 wirelessly or by wire. Although the control device 6 is shown as an independent device here, the system in the PC 7 can also be used as the control device 6.

The sensitivity setting device of the grain color sorter has the above-mentioned system configuration, and its setting operation is as follows.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the flow of the sensitivity setting operation. In order to select the sensitivity, first, the sensitivity is temporarily set manually or automatically (S1). In the case of manual setting, the operator climbs the stairs 10 and operates the sensitivity adjusting device 8 to set an initial value. PC for automatic operation
A setting signal is input from the control device 6 to the sensitivity adjusting device 8 by an operation input from 7.

After the sensitivity is temporarily set, the particle color sorter 1
The flow rate is set to the primary selection (S2) and the secondary selection (S2).
Perform 3). In the primary sorting, the granules are made to flow using the primary sorting path 10A, and the granular material in the supply tank 2 is discharged to the primary discharge port 11
The non-defective product side discharge port and the defective product side discharge port are sorted. In the secondary sorting, the granules sorted in the defective product side in the primary sorting are returned to the supply tank 2 and the secondary sorting route 10B is used. The secondary discharge port 12 is sorted into a good product side discharge port and a defective product side discharge port. At this time, the sorting strength is set in a constant state based on the temporarily set sensitivity. The granules for the secondary selection are conveyed by an appropriate conveying device or by manual conveyance.

When a series of primary sorting and secondary sorting is performed, the primary discharge port 11 and the secondary discharge port 12 have a non-defective side of the primary sorting route, a defective side of the primary sorting route, and a non-defective product of the secondary sorting route. Side, the granular raw material is discharged to a total of four places on the defective product side of the secondary sorting path. These discharged particles and the raw material particles in the supply tank 2 are sampled by the sampling charging device 3 (S4). By this sampling, in the primary side sampling device 30, good product side sample granules in the primary sorting path (primary non-defective product S) and defective product side sample granules in the primary sorting path (primary defective product S) are obtained. In the apparatus 31, the non-defective sample granules in the secondary sorting route (secondary non-defective product S) and the defective product sample granules in the secondary sorting route (secondary defective product S)
And a raw material sample granular material (raw material S) is obtained in the raw material sampling device. This sampling is performed with a standard of about 1000 grains, but naturally there may be few discharged grains depending on the discharge port.
It may be less than 00 grains.

Each sample granule is sampled by a sampling input device 3
Are sequentially sent to the quality judgment device 4 sequentially. The order of sending is, for example, raw material S → primary non-defective product S → primary defective product S → secondary non-defective product S → secondary defective product S. The timing of such sending out is performed according to an instruction from the control device 6. Each sample sent to the quality determination device 4 is subjected to necessary quality determination (S5), subsequently an image of the appearance is picked up by the image pickup device 5, discharged from the arrow E, and returned to the supply tank.

When the above-described quality judgment and appearance imaging are performed on one kind of sample, the obtained measurement data and image data are sent to the control device 6 and stored in the storage means (S6). Alternatively, necessary arithmetic processing is performed at this stage, and the arithmetic result is stored in the storage means as data. Then, the flow from the quality determination and appearance imaging to the data storage is performed for each sample, and after performing the process for all the samples, the sensitivity is changed stepwise (S7).

In the sensitivity change (S7) at this time, the sensitivity adjusting device 8 is operated by the manual setting or the setting signal from the control device 6 to change the sensitivity of the color selecting device stepwise. Then, the sensitivity and the flow rate are sequentially changed, and the steps S2 to S7 are repeated until the measurement is completed. When the measurement is completed, necessary arithmetic processing is performed on the obtained data (S8), and the quality measurement result is obtained and displayed on the display device (S9).

3 and 4 show display examples of measurement results.
Here, an example of using white rice as a raw material is shown. In FIG. 3, the raw material S, the primary non-defective product S, the primary defective product S, the secondary non-defective product S, and the secondary defective product S in an operating state (sensitivity: 200, flow rate: 50) with a particle color sorter on one screen are shown in FIG. Various measurement results for are shown. The screen can be switched by "return ←" or "forward →" to display the measurement results at successively set different sensitivities and flow rates.
FIG. 4 shows the proportion of non-defective products in the primary non-defective product S and the secondary defective product S (grading ratio) according to the sequentially set different sensitivities and flow rates.
Are listed.

Sensitivity is set based on the quality judgment result thus obtained (S10). The sensitivity can be set by manual sensitivity setting or automatic sensitivity setting.

In the manual sensitivity setting, the operator operates the sensitivity adjusting device 8 to set the sensitivity based on the result of the above-mentioned display screen. The operator performs the setting work at the top of the stairs 10, and the work place is provided with a PC 7 that also serves as a display device and an operation input device. By operating and inputting the PC 7, the operator can perform the timing setting of the sampling devices 30, 31, 32 described above and the sequential setting of the sensitivity for the measurement from the work place. Then, the sensitivity and the flow rate setting value are set by comprehensively considering the measurement results for each of the above-mentioned samples (raw material S, primary non-defective product S, primary defective product S, secondary non-defective product S, secondary defective product S).

The specific setting will be described with reference to the measurement results shown in FIG. 4 as an example. In the operating state (the flow rate is 50 to 6), the ratio of non-defective products to the primary non-defective products S is high and the ratio of non-defective products to the secondary defective products S is low.
5, sensitivity 300 to 400) is the set value. By subdividing the sequential setting values of the operating state at the time of measurement, highly accurate setting becomes possible. It is also possible to statistically process four-dimensional data of sensitivity, flow rate, ratio of non-defective products of primary non-defective product S, and ratio of non-defective product of secondary defective product S to obtain optimum sensitivity and flow rate from the calculation result. In this case, by weighting a specific sample measurement value, it is possible to make settings that meet the requirements. For example, when the sorting accuracy is desired to be high, the non-defective ratio of the primary non-defective product S is weighted, and when the yield of non-defective product is high, the non-defective product ratio of the secondary defective product S is negatively weighted. Furthermore, it is also possible to select a value that meets the request from the various measurement results shown in FIG. 3 and use it as a parameter for setting. In the case of automatic sensitivity setting, the sensitivity adjusting device 8 is adjusted by the output from the control device to perform automatic setting.

According to the above-described embodiment, the sensitivity and the flow rate can be set based on the multidimensional factors, so that the operation setting of the particle color sorter corresponding to various requirements can be performed. Further, even when performing manual setting, the operator can perform the setting work while staying in the place where the setting work is performed or in the operating room. Further, by referring to the image data obtained by the image pickup device 5, it is possible to perform setting with higher accuracy and according to needs.

[0033]

Since the present invention is constructed as described above,
It is possible to achieve both sorting accuracy and increase in yield of non-defective products, and sensitivity adjustment that can obtain the optimal sorting result according to demand is possible.Furthermore, since a weight measuring device is not required, the system is simple. It is possible to reduce the cost and cost, and to improve the efficiency of setting work. Further, in either case of manual sensitivity setting or automatic sensitivity setting, the labor of setting work can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a sensitivity setting device of a grain color sorter.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a flow of a sensitivity setting operation according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of measurement results according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of measurement results according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 grain color sorter 2 supply tanks 3 Sampling input device 4 Quality judgment device 5 Imaging device 6 control device 7 PC 8 Sensitivity adjustment device 9 operating room

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A granular color sorter for sorting a granular raw material into a good product side and a defective product side with a set sorting strength for a granular raw material supplied at a set flow rate, A device for adjusting the sensitivity of a granular color sorter according to the sorting strength, wherein a plurality of sorting routes in the granular color sorter are divided into a primary sorting route and a defective side in the primary sorting route. A secondary selection path for supplying the selected particles to the particle color sorter again for selection is provided, and a sampling introduction device for sampling a set number of particles is provided in each of the primary selection path and the secondary selection path. At the same time, a quality judgment device for judging the quality of the sample granules from the sampling feeding device is provided, and at least the quality judgment result of the sample granules in the primary sorting path and the defective product side in the secondary sorting path A sensitivity adjusting device for a particle color sorter, comprising control means for adjusting the sensitivity of the particle color sorter based on a quality judgment result of sample particles. 2. The sensitivity adjusting device for a particle color sorter according to claim 1, wherein the sensitivity of the particle color sorter is changed stepwise, and the non-defective judgment rate of non-defective sample granules in the primary sorting path. And a non-defective product determination ratio of defective sample granules in the secondary selection path, and sensitivity adjustment is performed based on these ratios. 3. A display for displaying both a good product determination ratio of non-defective sample particles in the primary selection route and a non-defective product determination ratio of defective product sample particles in the secondary selection route according to the changed sensitivity. The sensitivity adjusting device for a grain color sorter according to claim 2, further comprising means.