JP2015035963A - Apparatus and method for inspecting egg halfway through incubation - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for inspecting eggs halfway through incubation, significantly reducing occurrence of erroneous determination due to vibration and capable of highly accurately determining non-living eggs.SOLUTION: The apparatus for inspecting eggs halfway through incubation, includes: a light-emitting part that applies light to the eggs halfway through the incubation; a light-receiving part that receives the light passing through the inside of the eggs halfway through the incubation in the light applied from the light-emitting part and converts it into an electric signal; and a determination part that determines quality determination of the eggs halfway through the incubation from change in the electric signal converted by the light-receiving part and a quantity of light passing therethrough. The apparatus for inspecting the eggs halfway through the incubation converts the light passing through the inside of the eggs halfway through the incubation into the electric signal, determines the eggs halfway through the incubation as living eggs or non-living eggs and, when the quantity of light passing therethrough of the eggs halfway through the incubation to be determined as the living eggs by the change in the electric signal is lower than a prescribed amount T1, determines the eggs halfway through the incubation as the non-living eggs.

Description

The present invention relates to a hatching egg inspection apparatus that performs pass / fail determination of eggs during hatching.

In addition to edible eggs, eggs typified by chicken eggs include eggs for producing chicks and eggs for producing vaccines. Such eggs are particularly referred to as “mid-hatch eggs (or seed eggs)”. In the incubation place, eggs in the middle of hatching are placed on a special tray called a setter tray and placed in an incubator to perform the incubation process.

By the way, the day which starts an incubation process is made into an egg-in date, and the elapsed days from the egg-in date is made into an incubation day. Chicks are born on the 21st day of incubation. In order to confirm in advance whether or not the number of chicks can be shipped on the 21st day of incubation when the egg hatching to produce chicks is about the 11th to 15th day of incubation, A test called an intermediate egg test is performed. In addition, the eggs in the middle of hatching for producing the vaccine are subjected to a predetermined test on the 10th day of incubation just before virus injection.

Even in the middle of hatching eggs, not all eggs in the middle of hatching grow smoothly, but a certain percentage contains unfertilized eggs from the beginning, and embryo development stops during the incubation process. There are eggs that stop growing. Such unfertilized eggs and eggs whose development has been ceased are rotted, and rotten eggs are called spoiled eggs.

Usually, eggs in the middle of hatching to produce chicks are vaccinated in the state of eggs in the middle of hatching in order to reduce the risk of infection with infectious diseases after hatching. Then, when inoculating a halfway hatched egg stored in a setter tray, the hatched egg whose internal pressure has increased due to decay may explode due to an impact when the injection needle comes into contact with the shell. Moreover, even if it does not explode, the injection needle is contaminated by vaccinating the rotten egg, and other healthy hatching eggs are also contaminated by the contaminated injection needle. In addition, if a rotten egg explodes after it hatches from another hatching egg, it may contaminate the already born chick.

In order to prevent such contamination, “live eggs” that are hatching eggs in which embryos are alive, and “non-viable” that are unfertilized eggs or developmentally stopped eggs in which embryos have died The test is divided into “eggs”. That is, a pass / fail judgment is made as “good” if the hatching egg is a living egg and “bad” if it is a non-viable egg. Conventionally, for example, an optical method has been mainly employed for determining whether eggs in the middle of hatching are acceptable, as proposed in Patent Document 1, for example. In these techniques, the pass / fail determination is performed by irradiating predetermined eggs on hatching eggs and analyzing whether the light passing through the hatching eggs contains changes due to biological activity. In this way, the hatching eggs determined to be non-viable eggs are immediately removed to prevent the live eggs from being contaminated.

JP 2005-532046 gazette

However, the conventional hatching egg inspection apparatus has the following problems. As described above, the light that has passed through the living egg contains changes caused by biological activities such as embryonic movement and heartbeat, but the light that passed through the non-viable egg contains changes caused by biological activity. Is not included. However, when measuring changes in light that has passed through a non-viable egg, if a shock is applied to the egg inspecting apparatus during hatching and vibrations are transmitted to the dead embryo inside the egg, the egg being hatched is to be measured. In spite of being a non-viable egg, it is mistakenly determined to be a viable egg that contains changes resulting from biological activities such as embryonic movement.

For this reason, if the embryo rots black inside the egg during hatching and the inside shakes even if a weak vibration is applied, such a shake approximates the embryo's movement and heartbeat, Despite being a non-viable egg, it was sometimes misjudged as a living egg. Therefore, there is a need for a hatching egg inspection apparatus that can prevent such erroneous determination and determine non-viable eggs with high accuracy.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to provide a hatching egg inspection apparatus capable of significantly reducing erroneous determination due to vibration and determining a non-viable egg with high accuracy. That is.

The hatching egg test apparatus according to the present invention converts light that has passed through the inside of a hatching egg into an electrical signal, and determines that the hatching egg is a living egg or a non-surviving egg based on a change in the electrical signal. An egg inspection apparatus for determining whether a hatching egg is a non-viable egg when the amount of light passing through the hatching egg to be determined as a living egg is lower than a predetermined value due to a change in the electrical signal It is.

According to the hatching egg inspection apparatus according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the inspection accuracy of hatching eggs.

It is a perspective view which shows the structure of the hatching egg test apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a side view which shows the structure of the hatching egg test | inspection apparatus. It is a conceptual side view which shows the structure of a measurement part. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process of a determination part. It is a semilogarithm table | surface which shows the lower limit T1 as a predetermined value of passage light quantity, and the lower limit L as a predetermined value of vital score. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of another process of the determination part. It is a semilogarithm table which shows the lower limit value T1 as a predetermined value of the passing light amount, the upper limit value T2 as a predetermined value, and the lower limit value L as a predetermined value of the vital score.

A hatching egg inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the hatching egg test apparatus 1 includes a measuring unit 10 that measures a change in light that has passed through the hatching egg E, and a hatching egg E that is based on a measurement result by the measuring unit 10. The transfer unit 20 to which the determination unit 5 that performs the pass / fail determination, the control unit 6 that controls the measurement unit 10, and the transfer head 21 that transfers the eggs E during hatching based on the determination result of the determination unit 5 are attached. And the conveyance part 30 which conveys the setter tray 2 in which the some hatching eggs E were accommodated is provided.

Next, the measuring unit 10 will be described in detail. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the measurement unit 10 includes a light emitting unit 12 that irradiates predetermined light toward the hatching egg E, and the light of the hatching egg E out of the light emitted by the light emitting unit 12. A light receiving unit 11 that receives light passing through the inside is provided.

The light emitting unit 12 is arranged so that, for example, a plurality of light emitting elements such as light emitting diodes correspond to the arrangement of the plurality of hatching eggs E accommodated in the setter tray 2 conveyed by the conveying unit 30 described later. ing. The light emitting element is not limited to a light emitting diode as long as it emits light in a predetermined wavelength region, and may be laser light, for example.

A plurality of caps 13 are attached to the light receiving unit 11 so as to correspond to the arrangement of the light emitting elements of the light emitting unit 12. That is, the number of caps 13 is the same as the number of eggs E on the setter tray 2 during hatching. The cap 13 has flexibility and light-shielding properties, and has a structure in which only the light transmitted from the inside of the hatching egg E passes through the upper end of the hatching egg E.

Light receiving elements such as photodiodes are disposed inside the plurality of caps 13. The light emitted from the light emitting element of the light emitting unit 12 passes through the inside of the hatching egg E, and only the light passing from the upper end of the hatching egg E is received by the light receiving element inside the cap 13. The light receiving element converts the received light into an electrical signal and sends it to the determination unit 5. The light receiving element is not limited to a photodiode or the like as long as predetermined light that has passed through the hatching egg E can be captured as a signal.

The determination unit 5 is an arithmetic processing unit that performs a pass / fail determination to determine “good” if the hatching egg E is a live egg and “bad” if it is a non-viable egg. The determination unit 5 determines whether each hatched egg E accommodated in the setter tray 2 is a living egg or a non-viable egg F, depending on the change in the electrical signal sent from the light receiving element and the amount of light passing therethrough. Pass / fail judgment is performed.

The control unit 6 is an arithmetic processing device that controls the measurement unit 10, and controls the light emission amount of the light emitting unit 12 and the timing for driving the measurement expansion / contraction unit 15 to move the light receiving unit 11 up and down. . In the present embodiment, the determination unit 5 and the control unit 6 are described as separate arithmetic processing devices, but these functions can be realized by a single arithmetic processing device. In addition to the control of the measurement unit 10, the transfer unit 20 and the conveyance unit 30 may be controlled.

The light receiving unit 11 is attached to a fixing unit 14 fixed to the frame of the measurement unit 10 via a measurement expansion / contraction unit 15. The measuring expansion / contraction part 15 lowers the light receiving part 11 when measuring the egg E during hatching, and causes the cap 13 to be in close contact with the upper end part of the egg E during hatching. Further, after the measurement, the light receiving unit 11 is raised to the position indicated by the broken line in FIG. In the present embodiment, the measurement expansion / contraction unit 15 uses an air cylinder. However, the measurement expansion / contraction unit 15 is not limited to the air cylinder as long as the light receiving unit 11 can be moved up and down.

Next, the transfer unit 20 to which the transfer head 21 is attached will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 2, the transfer unit 20 includes a transfer head 21 that transfers the hatching eggs E based on the determination result by the determination unit 5, and a non-transferred state where the transfer head 21 is transferred from the setter tray 2. A non-viable egg exclusion unit 25 that excludes the live egg F to the outside of the egg inspection apparatus 1 during hatching is provided.

The transfer head 21 has a suction cup 22 for selectively vacuum-sucking the non-viable eggs F corresponding to the arrangement of half of the hatching eggs E accommodated in the setter tray 2 conveyed by the conveyance unit 30 described later. It is attached so that two or more. In the present embodiment, half of the plurality of hatching eggs E accommodated in the setter tray 2 can be transferred by a single transfer operation by the transfer head 21. That is, one setter tray 2 is divided into a first half part and a second half part, and the non-viable eggs F on the setter tray 2 are removed by two transfer operations, so the number of suction cups 22 attached to the transfer head 21 Is composed of half of the caps 13 attached to the light receiving unit 11.

The transfer head 21 is provided with a vacuum pipe connected to a compressor (not shown) for generating a vacuum in each of the plurality of suction cups 22, and the suction cups 22 are based on the determination result of the determination unit 5 described above. Is configured to selectively vacuum-suck the eggs determined to be non-viable eggs F from the eggs E during hatching on the setter tray 2. Further, as a technique for selectively transferring the non-viable egg F from the setter tray 2, a detailed transfer technique is described in JP 2012-231700 A, and the technique can be used.

The transfer head 21 is connected to a transfer slide unit 23 fixed to the frame of the transfer unit 20 via a transfer expansion / contraction unit 24. When the non-viable egg F is transferred, the transfer expansion / contraction part 24 lowers the transfer head 21 to bring the suction cup 22 into close contact with the upper end of the non-viable egg F. Further, after the vacuum suction is performed on the non-viable egg F, the transfer head 21 is raised to the position depicted by the broken line in FIG. In this embodiment, the transfer expansion / contraction part 24 uses an air cylinder. However, as long as the transfer head 21 can be moved up and down, it is not limited to the air cylinder, and may be moved up and down by motor drive, for example.

The transfer slide unit 23 is a slider that horizontally moves the transfer head 21 from the setter tray 2 to the non-living egg exclusion unit 25. In the present embodiment, a motor and a ball screw are used to drive the transfer slide 23. However, the transfer head 21 is not limited to the motor and the ball screw as long as the transfer head 21 can be moved horizontally. It may be moved horizontally by driving.

The non-viable egg exclusion unit 25 is transferred with a slight inclination so that the non-viable egg F transferred from the setter tray 2 by the transfer head 21 can be excluded from the egg inspecting apparatus 1 during hatching. It is attached to the part 20. When the transfer head 21 releases the vacuum suction of the non-viable egg F on the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25, the non-viable egg F rolls on the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25 along the inclined surface, and the hatching egg inspection apparatus 1 Are collected in a collection container (not shown) for non-viable eggs placed outside the container. In the present embodiment, the non-viable egg F is configured to roll on the inclined surface with its own weight, but the non-viable egg F may be actively excluded using a belt conveyor or the like.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the transfer unit 20 is covered with a cover. Thereby, when the rotten egg explodes due to the impact of the transfer, the contents of the rotten egg are prevented from scattering to the outside of the hatching egg inspection apparatus 1. In this embodiment, the cover is made of an opaque member. However, if the cover is made of a transparent member such as an acrylic plate, the contents of the spoiled egg are prevented from being scattered outside the egg inspecting apparatus 1 during hatching. However, it is also possible to monitor the state of transfer from the outside.

Next, the conveyance unit 30 will be described. As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the transport unit 30 transports the setter tray 2 in which the hatching eggs E are accommodated in the carry-in direction 3, and the setter tray 2 after the measurement or the like is carried out. A dog 31 for transporting to 4 is provided.

The dog 31 is a member for sandwiching and transporting the setter tray 2 from the front and rear in the transport direction. The end of the dog 31 is connected to two chains (not shown) provided on the right side and the left side in the transport direction of the transport unit 30, and the two chains are driven simultaneously to The setter tray 2 is conveyed while sliding on the surface 32. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the transport surface 32 is made of a stainless steel member 33 so that the setter tray 2 can be slid. However, at the measurement place directly below the light receiving unit 11, the light emitting unit The conveyance surface 32 is a glass member 34 that is a transparent body so that the light from 12 can pass through.

Next, the operation of the hatching egg inspection apparatus 1 according to this embodiment will be described.

When the setter tray 2 taken out from the incubator is placed on the carry-in position between the dog 31 and the dog 31 on the carrying unit 30, the carry unit 30 carries the setter tray 2 in the carrying-in direction 3 and immediately below the light receiving unit 11 ( The setter tray 2 is conveyed to the measurement location and stopped.

Next, the measurement operation of the measurement unit 10 will be described. When the setter tray 2 stops at the measurement location, as shown in FIG. 3, the measurement expansion / contraction section 15 contacts the upper end of the hatching egg E where the cap 13 attached to the light receiving section 11 is stopped at the measurement location. The light receiving unit 11 is lowered to the position where it is to be moved.

When the light receiving unit 11 descends to a position where the cap 13 comes into contact with the upper end of the egg E during the hatching, light is emitted from the light emitting element of the light emitting unit 12, and the light passes through the egg E during the hatching. Measurement is performed by receiving light by the light receiving element of the light receiving unit 11 through the inside of the cap 13. The received light is converted into an electrical signal and sent to the determination unit 5.

The determination unit 5 determines the quality of each of the hatching eggs E on the setter tray 2 based on the change in the electrical signal sent from the light receiving unit 11 and sends the determination result to the control unit 6. Thereafter, the measurement expansion / contraction unit 15 raises the light receiving unit 11 to a position indicated by a broken line in FIG. Thus, the measurement operation of the measurement unit 10 is completed.

Here, the processing flow of the determination unit 5 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When light is irradiated from the light emitting element of the light emitting unit 12, the irradiated light is blocked by the eggshell of the egg E in the middle of hatching or the embryo existing inside, but passes through the egg E in the middle of hatching without being blocked. The received light passes through the inside of the cap 13 and is received by the light receiving element provided in the light receiving unit 11.

The received light is converted into an electrical signal by the light receiving element and sent to the determination unit 5. In the determination part 5, first, the passing light quantity of each hatching egg E is measured (S1). In this embodiment, when the hatching egg E does not exist on the setter tray 2, the amount of light (passing light amount) when the light emitted from the light emitting unit 12 is received by the light receiving element as it is is set to 1, As the light is blocked by the hatching egg E on the setter tray 2 and the amount of received light decreases, the value of the passing light amount becomes 1/10, 1/100,. That is, the amount of light passing through represents the amount of light that has passed through the egg E during hatching.

FIG. 5 is a semilogarithmic table in which the vertical axis represents a vital score described later and the horizontal axis represents the amount of light passing through. The maximum value of the amount of light passing through is 1, and in the semilogarithmic table of FIG. 5, a scatter diagram is plotted in which one point is plotted from the amount of light passing through one hatching egg E and the vital score. The points plotted in the semilogarithmic table of FIG. 5 are plotted to the left as the passing light amount is high, and to the right as the passing light amount is low.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, a lower limit value T1 as a predetermined value is provided where the passing light amount is 1/10000, and a region where the passing light amount is lower than the lower limit value T1 as the predetermined value ( The hatching egg on the right side of T1 is a non-viable egg F because it is a rotten egg in which the embryo or the like is rotten inside (S2).

When the passing light quantity of each hatching egg E is measured and the non-viable egg F is determined based on the passing light quantity, the vital score of each hatching egg E is then calculated (S3). The vital score is a score obtained by scoring changes caused by biological activities such as embryonic movement and heartbeat included in the light passing through the egg E during hatching, and is indicated by the vertical axis of the semilogarithmic table of FIG. . The determination unit 5 performs Fourier transform on the change of the electrical signal sent from the light receiving element, uses the intensity of the frequency from 0 to 2 Hz to determine whether or not the embryo has moved, and the frequency from 2 to 6 Hz. The intensity is scored between 0 and 255 points as the heart rate. In the present embodiment, as the fetal movement of the embryo exists and the score of the vital score is larger, the change caused by the biological activity such as the embryo's movement and heartbeat in the light passing through the egg E during hatching (vital sign) Is determined to be included.

In the present embodiment, a lower limit L as a predetermined value is provided at a vital score of 30 points, and hatching is in a region (below L) where the vital score is lower than the lower limit L as the predetermined value. The intermediate egg is an unfertilized egg or has been developed to a certain extent, but is a development-stopped egg in which the embryo has died for some reason. Therefore, it is determined as a non-viable egg F (no vital sign) (S4). The processing of unit 5 is completed.

In addition, in the region on the right side of T1, there may be a case where the vital score exceeds 30 that is a hatching egg E that should be determined as a living egg by a change in an electrical signal. E is a rotted egg that has been rotted black in E. The inside of the rotted egg shakes due to some impact, etc., and the fluctuation is close to the embryo's movement and heartbeat, so the vital score exceeds 30 points It is a thing. In a conventional hatching egg inspection apparatus that determines whether eggs in the middle of hatching are alive only by changes in electrical signals, there is a possibility that spoiled eggs are erroneously judged to be viable eggs even though the amount of light passing through is low. However, according to the hatching egg test apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to eliminate spoiled eggs existing in the region on the right side of T1 in FIG. 5 regardless of the level of the vital score.

Here, the relationship between incubation days, passage light quantity, and vital score is demonstrated. A region D11 indicated by a solid line in FIG. 5 indicates a region that is the center when plotting the measurement results of hatching eggs when the hatching eggs group on the 11th day of incubation is measured. Similarly, the area D13 indicated by the alternate long and short dash line and the area D15 indicated by the broken line indicate the measurement results of the hatching eggs when the hatching eggs on the 13th and 15th incubation days were measured, respectively. The center area when plotted is shown. In this way, in the egg during hatching, the vital score gradually increases and the passing light amount gradually decreases as the development progresses.

Thus, since there is a correlation between the number of days of incubation and the amount of light passing through and the vital score, the lower limit T1 as the predetermined value of the amount of light passing through is matched to the number of days of incubation of the egg during incubation, For example, 1/1800 for hatching eggs on the 11th day of incubation, 1/4000 for hatching eggs on the 13th day of incubation, 1/4000 for eggs hatching on the 15th day of incubation. It may be changed to 10,000. Thus, a more accurate determination can be performed by changing according to the incubation days. Similarly, a more accurate determination can be made by changing the lower limit L as a predetermined value of the vital score according to the number of incubation days.

When the number of incubation days exceeds the 15th day, the internal embryo further develops and the amount of light passing through decreases. If the amount of light passing through decreases, the probability that the amount of light passing through is lower than the lower limit value T1 (the region on the right side of T1) even if it is a living egg increases. Measurements are made for eggs in the middle of hatching that are 15 days old or earlier. In rare cases, eggs laid in a poultry house are left unattended for a while and collected after several weeks. Such eggs may have already been spoiled before the incubation process and may contaminate the incubator, so that the hatching according to the present embodiment is performed at the time of the 0th incubation day before entering the incubator. By performing the inspection with the egg inspection apparatus 1 on the way, such contamination in the incubator can be prevented.

Furthermore, a processing flow different from the above-described processing flow by the determination unit 5 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.

When light is emitted from the light emitting element of the light emitting unit 12, the irradiated light is blocked by the eggshell of the egg E during hatching, the embryo existing inside, etc., but the light that has passed without being blocked is inside the cap 13. And is received by the light receiving element provided in the light receiving unit 11.

The received light is converted into an electrical signal by the light receiving element and sent to the determination unit 5. In the determination unit 5, first, the amount of light passing through each hatching egg E is measured (S11).

FIG. 7 is a semilogarithmic table with the vertical axis representing vital scores and the horizontal axis representing the amount of light passing through. The maximum value of the passing light amount is 1, and in the semilogarithmic table of FIG. 7, the higher the passing light amount, the leftward value, and the lower the passing light amount, the rightward value.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, a lower limit value T1 as a predetermined value is provided where the passing light amount is 1/10000, and a region where the passing light amount is lower than the lower limit value T1 as the predetermined value ( The hatching egg in the right side of T1 is a non-viable egg F because it is a rotten egg in which the embryo etc. is rotten inside (S12).

Furthermore, in the flow of this process, an upper limit value T2 as another predetermined value is provided at 1/100 where the passing light amount is higher than the lower limit value T1 as the predetermined value, and the passing light amount is a predetermined value. A hatching egg in the region higher than the upper limit T2 (left side of T2) is determined as a non-viable egg F (unfertilized egg) or a poorly developed egg (S13). A poorly developed egg is an embryonic egg that has not yet died but is delayed in embryo development. Depending on the hatchery, it may be removed from the incubation process at the same time as the non-viable egg. In the same manner as the non-viable egg F, the transfer unit 20 excludes the egg.

When the amount of light passing through each hatched egg E is measured and the non-viable egg F or the poorly developed egg is determined based on the amount of light passed through, the vital score of each hatched egg E is then calculated (S14). In the present embodiment, a lower limit L as a predetermined value is provided at a vital score of 30 points, and hatching is in a region (below L) where the vital score is lower than the lower limit L as the predetermined value. The intermediate egg is an unfertilized egg or has been developed to a certain extent, but is a development-stopped egg in which the embryo has died for some reason. Therefore, it is determined as a non-viable egg F (no vital sign) (S15). The processing of unit 5 is completed.

In addition, there are cases where the vital score on the left side of the upper limit value T2 as the predetermined value exceeds 30 that is the hatching egg E to be determined as a living egg by a change in the electrical signal. It is determined that the above-mentioned poorly developed eggs. By providing the upper limit value T2 as a predetermined value of the passing light amount, such a poorly developed egg can be found and removed as necessary. In addition, if the number of underdeveloped eggs is higher than usual, it is suspected that the temperature drops due to the incubator failure, so the judgment result can be fed back to the incubation process to help improve the production efficiency of chicks. .

Here, the relationship between incubation days, passage light quantity, and vital score is demonstrated. A region D11 indicated by a solid line in FIG. 7 indicates a region that becomes a center when plotting the measurement result of eggs in the middle of hatching when the eggs in the middle of hatching on the 11th day of incubation are measured. Similarly, the area D13 indicated by the alternate long and short dash line and the area D15 indicated by the broken line indicate the measurement results of the hatching eggs when the hatching eggs on the 13th and 15th incubation days were measured, respectively. The center area when plotted is shown.

Since there is a correlation between the number of incubation days and the amount of light passing through and the vital score, the upper limit value T2 as a predetermined value of the amount of light passing through is matched with the number of days of incubation of the egg during incubation, for example, the number of incubation days 11 1/100 for hatching eggs on the day of hatching, 1/250 for hatching eggs on the 13th day of incubation, 1/700 for hatching eggs on the 15th day of incubation. You may let them. Thus, a more accurate determination can be performed by changing according to the incubation days. Similarly, a more accurate determination can be made by changing the lower limit L as a predetermined value of the vital score according to the number of incubation days.

In addition, the eggs in the middle of hatching before the 10th day of incubation have a high light intensity because the internal embryos are not so developed. Then, even if it is a living egg, there is a high possibility that the passing light amount is included in a region (left side of T2) that is higher than the upper limit value T2 as a predetermined value. Measurements are made for eggs in the middle of hatching.

Further, in this specification, for the purpose of explanation, as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 7, the flow of processing of the determination unit 5 is shown using a semilogarithmic table. The determination is made without creating such a semilogarithmic table. In addition, when an output device such as a monitor is added to the hatching egg test apparatus 1 and the measurement results are plotted and output in a semilogarithmic table as shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. It is possible to grasp the growth status of eggs during hatching. The processing flow of the determination unit 5 described so far can be changed in various ways, such as a vital score calculation method, a viable egg / non-viable egg determination method, and lower and upper limit values as predetermined values. Is merely an example and is not limited thereto.

Next, the transfer operation of the transfer unit 20 will be described. When the measurement operation by the measurement unit 10 and the determination by the determination unit 5 are completed, the conveyance unit 30 resumes conveyance, and the transfer head 21 can vacuum-suck the non-viable egg F included in the first half part on the setter tray 2 Until it stops. At this time, if the next setter tray 2 taken out from the incubator is placed at the carry-in position between the dog 31 and the dog 31 on the transport unit 30, the next setter tray 2 is transported to the measurement place. Stop.

When the setter tray 2 stops, the transfer expansion / contraction unit 24 lowers the transfer head 21 and stops at a position where the suction cup 22 contacts the upper end of the egg E during hatching. The transfer head 21 selectively vacuum-sucks the non-viable egg F based on the determination result of the determination unit 5. When vacuum suction is performed, the transfer expansion / contraction part 24 raises the transfer head 21 to a position indicated by a broken line in FIG.

When the transfer head 21 is raised to the position indicated by the broken line, the transfer slide unit 23 moves the transfer head 21 onto the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25. When the movement onto the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25 is completed, the vacuum suction is released and the non-viable egg F is transferred to the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25. The non-viable eggs F on the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25 are collected in a collection container for non-viable eggs prepared on the outside of the egg inspection apparatus 1 while inclining.

When the transfer head 21 transfers the non-viable egg F to the non-viable egg exclusion unit 25, the transfer head 21 starts to move again onto the setter tray 2 by the transfer slide unit 23, and the transfer head 21 moves to the latter half of the setter tray 2. When the non-viable egg F contained in is moved to a position where vacuum suction can be performed, the operation stops. Thereafter, the same operation as the transfer of the non-viable egg F in the first half is repeated.

When all the non-viable eggs F on the setter tray 2 are removed by the transfer head 21, the transport unit 30 transports the setter tray 2 in the unloading direction 4 and stops. At this time, the next setter tray 2 for which measurement has been completed is transported by the transport unit 30 and stopped immediately below the transfer head 21, and the next setter tray 2 is transported by the transport unit 30 and stopped at the measurement location. doing. Thereafter, a series of operations are repeated until the inspection of all eggs E hatching in the incubator is completed.

Furthermore, as another example of the present embodiment, the conveyance unit and the transfer unit can be eliminated and only the measurement unit can be provided. In this case, an operator who inspects eggs during hatching puts the setter tray into the measurement unit, the determination unit makes a determination based on the measurement result, and the inkjet provided in the measurement unit based on the determination result of the determination unit You may make it mark a non-viable egg with an apparatus. The worker removes the non-viable eggs marked by an inkjet device or the like, thereby completing the examination of eggs during hatching.

According to the hatching egg inspection apparatus according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent a spoiled egg from being erroneously determined to be a living egg by performing the pass / fail determination using the lower limit value T1 as a predetermined value of the passing light amount. . Moreover, the number of poorly developed eggs can be known by performing pass / fail determination using the upper limit value T2 as a predetermined value of the passing light amount.

Furthermore, if eggs are hatched to produce chicks (about 11 to 15 days of incubation) are examined by the egg hatching inspection apparatus according to this embodiment, the number of incubation days 21 as planned. Since the number of chicks that hatch on the day can be known in advance, it becomes easier to make a shipment plan for chicks. Moreover, when there are many spoiled eggs or there are many eggs in the middle of hatching whose growth is delayed, the determination result can be fed back to the incubation process, which can be used to improve the production efficiency of chicks.

In the above description, hatching eggs are described as objects, but hatching eggs include various hatching eggs such as chickens, ducks, and quails.

The embodiment disclosed this time is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the scope described above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is effectively used for improving the accuracy of inspection in a hatching egg inspection apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hatching midway egg inspection apparatus 2 Setter tray 3 Carry-in direction 4 Carry-out direction 5 Judgment part 6 Control part 10 Measurement part 11 Light-receiving part 12 Light emission part 13 Cap 14 Fixing part 15 Measurement expansion-contraction part 20 Transfer part 21 Transfer head 22 Suction cup 23 Transfer slide part 24 Transfer expansion / contraction part 25 Non-living egg exclusion part 30 Transport part 31 Dog 32 Transport surface 33 Stainless steel member 34 Glass member E Hatching halfway egg F Non-living egg

Claims (6)

A hatching egg test apparatus that converts light that has passed through the inside of a hatching egg into an electrical signal, and determines that the hatching egg is a living egg or a non-surviving egg by changing the electrical signal,
A hatching egg inspection apparatus that determines that a hatching egg is a non-surviving egg when the amount of light passing through the hatching egg to be determined to be a living egg is lower than a predetermined value due to a change in the electrical signal. The hatching egg inspection apparatus has another predetermined value higher than the predetermined value,
2. The hatching egg according to claim 1, wherein the hatching egg is determined to be a non-surviving egg when a passing light amount of the hatching egg to be determined as a living egg due to the change in the electrical signal is higher than the other predetermined value. Inspection device. The hatching egg inspection apparatus has another predetermined value higher than the predetermined value,
2. The hatching egg according to claim 1, wherein when the amount of light passing through the hatching egg to be determined as a living egg due to the change in the electrical signal is higher than the other predetermined value, the hatching egg is determined as a poorly developed egg. Inspection device. The hatching egg inspection apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the hatching egg has an incubation day before the 15th day. A hatching egg inspection device,
A light emitting part that irradiates light to eggs during hatching;
A light receiving unit that receives light that has passed through the inside of the hatching egg among the light emitted from the light emitting unit, and converts the light into an electrical signal;
A determination unit that performs a determination including a living egg and a non-viable egg by a change in the electrical signal converted by the light receiving unit and a passing light amount;
The said determination part is a hatching egg test | inspection apparatus which determines the hatching egg which contains the change of the said electrical signal, and the said passage light quantity is higher than predetermined value as a living egg. Converting light that has passed through the inside of the egg during hatching into an electrical signal;
Determining the hatching egg as a living egg or a non-viable egg according to a change in the electrical signal;
In the determining step, when the passing light amount of the hatching egg to be determined as a living egg due to the change in the electrical signal is lower than a predetermined value, the hatching egg including the step of determining the hatching egg as a non-surviving egg Inspection method.

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