JP2017116260A - Powder mass inspection apparatus and inspection method, and manufacturing apparatus of article containing powder and manufacturing method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately grasp mass of scattered powder when continuously detecting mass of the powder during dispersion even when a particle size of a measurement object is different from a particle size at the time of creating an analytical curve.SOLUTION: A powder mass inspection apparatus comprises: an imaging processing unit 10 creating image data of powder; an illumination unit 20 illuminating an imaging area; a concentration-determination processing unit 30 determining abnormality of the illumination on the basis of the concentration of the image data; a binarization processing unit 40 binarizing the image data; a reference analytical curve creation unit 50 which creates a reference analytical curve indicating a correspondence relation between pixels and masses in the reference powder in the form of a linear function; a correction analytical curve creation unit 55 which calculates a particle diameter D of the production powder, and creates a correction analytical curve correcting inclination of the reference analytical curve on the basis of a ratio of the particle diameter D to the particle diameter Dbas of the reference powder; an analytical curve storage unit 60; a mass arithmetic unit 70 calculating mass of the powder; and a mass determination processing unit 80 determining the gross mass of the production powder.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a mass inspection apparatus and inspection method for granular materials. Moreover, this invention relates to the manufacturing apparatus and manufacturing method of a granular material containing article.

  Several proposals have been made so far in relation to the inspection purpose with respect to the inspection apparatus for powder particles. For example, Patent Document 1 describes an apparatus for measuring the particle size distribution of a powder sample of 100 μm or less. This apparatus is intended to know the particle size distribution by allowing a sample to fall freely and imaging the sample with transmission imaging means. The sample after spraying is collected in the sample collection box. This apparatus also has a vibration feeder and a cylindrical sample drop guiding means for preventing the sample from adhering to the belt conveyor and floating during dropping.

  Patent Document 2 describes a method of measuring the mass and the like of an aggregate of high-temperature granular materials such as reduced iron pellets on a conveyor using an infrared or near-infrared CCD camera. In this method, the camera captures the difference in image density due to the temperature difference, obtains the area of the aggregate, and converts it to mass using a calibration curve. Thereby, the growth state of the deposit | attachment of the rotary kiln inner wall which is a carrying-out origin of a granular material aggregate | assembly is grasped | ascertained.

  Patent Document 3 describes a mass inspection apparatus for a granular material that can continuously detect the mass of the granular material constituting a product during spraying. In this apparatus, based on the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data and the mass of the granular material measured at a predetermined time by the mass measuring unit below the dropping trajectory of the granular material, A calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the mass and the mass by a linear function is created in advance. And the mass value of a granular material is computed based on a calibration curve from the pixel of each imaged binarized image data.

JP 2001-74638 A JP 2002-5637 A JP 2015-111088

  Neither the inspection apparatus nor the inspection method described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 is intended to inspect the granular material contained in the product in the continuous production process of the product. In the case where the granular material is included in the product by spraying in the continuous production process of the product, uniform spraying of the granular material is important from the viewpoint of product quality and stability of performance. However, with the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, it is impossible to accurately grasp the mass of the powder particles that are dispersed in the continuous production process of the product from the application state.

  According to the technique described in Patent Document 3, there is an advantage that the mass of the powder particles can be continuously detected during spraying. However, the technique described in the same document calculates the mass of the granular material using a calibration curve created based on the area of the image acquired from the two-dimensional shape of the granular material, so the reason for the change over time, etc. When the size of each particle actually measured by the above is different from the size of the particle at the time of creating the calibration curve, there is a possibility that an error may occur in the calculated mass of the granular material based on the calibration curve.

  Therefore, the subject of the present invention relates to an improvement in the technology for continuously detecting the mass of the granular material during its spraying, and more specifically, even when the particle size is different from the particle size at the time of preparing the calibration curve. The purpose is to accurately grasp the mass of the dispersed particles.

The present invention is a granular mass inspection device for inspecting the mass of the granular material sprayed on the spray target constituting the product during the spraying of the granular material,
An imaging processing unit that captures and stores powder particles that freely fall toward the object to be sprayed, and stores it as image data;
An illumination unit for illuminating an imaging region imaged by the imaging processing unit;
In the image data stored by the imaging processing unit, a concentration determination processing unit that detects a concentration of a region where the powder and granular materials are not reflected, and determines abnormality of illumination,
A binarization processing unit that binarizes the image data based on a predetermined threshold value to generate binarized image data, and stores the binarized image data in the imaging processing unit;
In the initial stage of inspection, the predetermined time is determined by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data accumulated in the predetermined time by the imaging processing unit and the mass measuring unit located below the dropping trajectory of the granular material. Based on the measured mass of the granular material, a standard calibration curve creating unit that creates a standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the pixel and the mass by a linear function,
From the binarized image data at the initial stage of inspection accumulated at the predetermined time, the particle diameter Dbas of the granular body at the initial stage of inspection is created and stored, and a reference particle diameter creation / storage area unit,
In the presence of the standard calibration curve and the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage of inspection, the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected and the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio to the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the stage, a corrected calibration curve creation unit that creates a corrected calibration curve that corrects the slope of the reference calibration curve;
A calibration curve storage area for storing the reference calibration curve and the corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of each binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected and binarized, the granular material to be inspected based on the corrected calibration curve A mass calculation unit for calculating the mass of
Based on the calculation result in the mass calculation unit, a mass determination processing unit that makes a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which falls freely in a predetermined time,
The granular material mass inspection apparatus which has this.

Further, the present invention is a granular mass inspection method for inspecting the mass of the granular material sprayed on the spraying object constituting the product during the spraying of the granular material,
An imaging process step of capturing an image of the granular material that is illuminated by the illuminating unit and freely falls toward the object to be dispersed;
In the image data captured by the imaging means, a density determination process step of detecting a density of an imaging region in which the granular material is not reflected and determining an abnormality in illumination of the illumination unit;
A binarization process for generating binarized image data by binarizing the image data based on a predetermined threshold;
Correspondence between the pixel and mass created by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data generated in the initial stage of inspection and the mass of the granular body measured by the mass measuring unit in the initial stage of inspection The particle size of the granular material to be inspected in the presence of the standard calibration curve indicating the relationship as a linear function and the particle size Dbas of the granular material in the initial stage of inspection calculated from the binarized image data in the initial stage of inspection D was calculated, and the slope of the standard calibration curve was corrected based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio of the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected and the particle size Dbas of the initial granularity of the inspection. A reference calibration curve correction process for creating a corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of the binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected binarized in the binarization processing step, based on the corrected calibration curve, the inspection target A mass calculation processing step for calculating the mass of the granular material,
Based on the mass calculated in the mass calculation processing step, a mass determination processing step for making a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which freely falls in a predetermined time;
The granular material mass inspection method which has this is provided.

Furthermore, the present invention is an apparatus for manufacturing a granular material-containing article, which manufactures an article including the granular material by spraying the granular material on an object to be sprayed,
A granular material spraying unit for spraying the granular material toward the object to be sprayed;
An imaging processing unit that captures and stores powder particles that freely fall toward the object to be sprayed, and stores it as image data;
An illumination unit for illuminating an imaging region imaged by the imaging processing unit;
In the image data stored by the imaging processing unit, a concentration determination processing unit that detects a concentration of a region where the powder and granular materials are not reflected, and determines abnormality of illumination,
A binarization processing unit that binarizes the image data based on a predetermined threshold value to generate binarized image data, and stores the binarized image data in the imaging processing unit;
In the initial stage of inspection, the predetermined time is determined by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data accumulated in the predetermined time by the imaging processing unit and the mass measuring unit located below the dropping trajectory of the granular material. Based on the measured mass of the granular material, a standard calibration curve creating unit that creates a standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the pixel and the mass by a linear function,
From the binarized image data at the initial stage of inspection accumulated at the predetermined time, the particle diameter Dbas of the granular body at the initial stage of inspection is created and stored, and a reference particle diameter creation / storage area unit,
In the presence of the standard calibration curve and the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage of inspection, the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected and the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio to the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the stage, a corrected calibration curve creation unit that creates a corrected calibration curve that corrects the slope of the reference calibration curve;
A calibration curve storage area for storing the reference calibration curve and the corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of each binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected and binarized, the granular material to be inspected based on the corrected calibration curve A mass calculation unit for calculating the mass of
Based on the calculation result in the mass calculation unit, a mass determination processing unit that makes a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which falls freely in a predetermined time,
When the mass determination processing unit determines that the mass of the granular material is abnormal, the defective product discharge processing unit that identifies the scattering object corresponding to the mass abnormality and discharges the scattering object corresponding to the mass abnormality from the production line. When,
The manufacturing apparatus of the granular material containing article which has this.

Furthermore, the present invention provides a method for producing a granular material-containing article, in which an article containing the granular material is produced by dispersing the granular material on a dispersion object,
A powder particle dispersion step of spraying powder particles toward the object to be sprayed;
An imaging process step of capturing an image of the granular material that is illuminated by the illuminating unit and freely falls toward the object to be dispersed;
In the image data captured by the imaging means, a density determination process step of detecting a density of an imaging region in which the granular material is not reflected and determining an abnormality in illumination of the illumination unit;
A binarization process for generating binarized image data by binarizing the image data based on a predetermined threshold;
The correspondence between the pixel and mass created by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data generated in the initial stage and the mass of the granular material measured by the mass measurement unit in the initial stage In the presence of the standard calibration curve indicated by a linear function and the particle size Dbas of the initial stage powder particle calculated from the binarized image data in the initial stage, the particle diameter D of the target powder body is calculated. Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio of the particle size D of the target granular material to the particle size Dbas of the initial stage granular material, a corrected calibration curve is created by correcting the slope of the reference calibration curve. A standard calibration curve correction process;
In the presence of the correction calibration curve, from the pixels of the binarized image data of the target granular material subjected to binarization processing in the binarization processing step, the target is based on the correction calibration curve. A mass calculation processing step for calculating the mass of the granular material,
Based on the mass calculated in the mass calculation processing step, a mass determination processing step for making a determination on the total mass of the target granular material that falls freely in a predetermined time;
When it is determined that the mass of the granular material is abnormal, the object to be dispersed corresponding to the mass abnormality is identified, and the defective product discharge processing step of discharging the object to be dispersed corresponding to the mass abnormality from the production line;
The manufacturing method of the granular material containing article which has this is provided.

  According to the present invention, when continuously detecting the mass of the granular material during spraying, even if the size of the particles to be measured is different from the size of the particles at the time of creating the calibration curve, The body mass can be accurately grasped.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of a preferred embodiment of the granular material mass inspection apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an initial inspection step (calibration curve creation step) A1 in a preferred embodiment of the granular mass inspection method of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the inspection process B1 after creating a calibration curve in a preferred embodiment of the granular material mass inspection method of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article used in the method for producing a granular material-containing article of the present embodiment. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a method for measuring the particle size of particles of a granular material. FIG. 6 is an example of an image obtained by capturing particles. FIG. 7 is an image obtained by binarizing the image shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a graph showing the relationship between the binarization threshold and the measured pixel. FIG. 9 is a graph showing the particle size distribution of the granular material. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an imaging region when measuring the particle size of the granular material. Fig.11 (a) is a graph which shows the measured value of the particle size of a granular material when the length along a dropping direction is changed, FIG.11 (b) changes the length L along a dropping direction. It is a graph which shows the maximum value normalization particle size of a granular material when doing. FIG. 12 is a graph showing the measurement time of the particle size when the length along the falling direction of the imaging region is changed. FIG. 13 is a graph showing a reference calibration curve obtained in Example 1. FIG. 14A is a graph showing the change over time of the particle size of the product granule in Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, and FIG. 14B is the measured mass of the load cell in Example 1 and Comparative Example 1. FIG. 14C is a graph showing the change over time in the measurement amount using the line camera in Example 1 and Comparative Example 1. FIG.

  The present invention will be described below based on preferred embodiments with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of a preferred embodiment of the granular material mass inspection apparatus of the present invention. The granular material mass inspection apparatus 100 (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “inspection apparatus 100”) shown in the figure includes an imaging processing unit 10, an illumination unit 20, a concentration determination processing unit 30, a binarization processing unit 40, and a reference calibration curve. A creation unit 50, a reference particle size creation / storage region unit 90, a corrected calibration curve creation unit 55, a calibration curve storage region unit 60, a mass calculation unit 70, and a mass determination processing unit 80 are included. Of these components 10 to 90, a part excluding the illumination unit 20 and an imaging unit 11 described later included in the imaging processing unit 10 is collectively referred to as an image processing control unit 110. That is, the inspection apparatus 100 includes the image processing control unit 110, the illumination unit 20, and the imaging unit 11. The image processing control unit 110 may be composed of an assembly of devices divided for each constituent unit, or may be composed of one device. Examples of the image processing control unit 110 include a computer in which image processing software or the like is installed, a device constructed based on an image controller, and the like.

  The inspection apparatus 100 has five functions of a reference calibration curve creation function A, a reference particle size creation function B, a mass determination function C, a concentration determination function D, and a calibration curve correction function E.

The reference calibration curve creation function A includes the pixel of the granular material indicated by the binarized image data captured by the imaging unit 11 and binarized, and the mass of the granular material measured by the mass measuring unit 130. This is a function for creating a standard calibration curve that shows the correspondence relationship by a linear function. The reference calibration curve is created at the initial stage of inspection every time setting of spraying conditions such as the cut-out amount of the granular material spraying unit 300 described later. The “inspection initial stage” refers to a preparatory stage prior to production of a product, and refers to a stage prior to operating the entire product manufacturing line. The reference calibration curve creation function A includes the imaging processing unit 10, the illumination unit 20, the concentration determination processing unit 30, the binarization processing unit 40, the reference calibration curve creation unit 50, the calibration curve storage region unit 60, and the mass measurement unit 130. Demonstrated through collaboration.
The reference particle size creation function B is an average of powder particles (hereinafter also referred to as reference powder particles) at the initial stage of inspection from the binarized image data of the powder particles imaged and binarized at the initial stage of inspection. This is a function for creating the particle size Dbas. The average particle diameter Dbas is created at the initial stage of the examination, and may be created simultaneously with the creation of the standard calibration curve. The reference particle size creation function B is exhibited by the cooperation of the imaging processing unit 10, the illumination unit 20, the density determination processing unit 30, the binarization processing unit 40, and the reference particle size creation / storage area unit 90.
The mass determination function C calculates the mass of powder particles (hereinafter also referred to as product powder particles) to be dispersed in an actual product production line based on the corrected calibration curve obtained by correcting the reference calibration curve, This is a function for performing mass determination with respect to the total mass of the granular material for products that freely falls within a predetermined time. After correction of the standard calibration curve, the imaging processing unit 10, the illumination unit 20, the concentration determination processing unit 30, the binarization processing unit 40, the calibration curve storage region unit 60, the mass calculation unit 70, and the mass determination processing unit 80 Demonstrated through collaboration.
The density determination function D is a function for determining density (brightness) of image data, which is a premise of the reference calibration curve generation function A, the reference particle size generation function B, and the mass determination function C. This is exhibited by the cooperation of the imaging processing unit 10, the illumination unit 20, and the density determination processing unit 30.
The calibration curve correction function E is a function that corrects the calibration curve created by the calibration curve creation function A described above according to the size of the product granular material that is actually the inspection target. The correction of the reference calibration curve is performed at a constant cycle based on the binarized image data of the free-falling product granular material. The correction of the reference calibration curve is performed based on the value of D / Dbas which is the ratio of the average particle diameter D of the product granular material to the average particle diameter Dbas of the reference powder initial stage. This is exhibited by the cooperation of the imaging processing unit 10, the illumination unit 20, the density determination processing unit 30, the binarization processing unit 40, the calibration curve storage area unit 60, and the corrected calibration curve creation unit 55 after the density determination processing. .

  The inspection apparatus 100 having a combination of the five functions can timely and suitably inspect the mass of the powder particles continuously sprayed onto the spraying object constituting the product during spraying. Hereinafter, each component of the inspection apparatus 100 will be described in detail. In the following description, when the term “powder” is simply used, it refers to the reference granule used for the preparation of the calibration curve or the powder for product to be actually inspected, depending on the context. Refers to both.

The imaging processing unit 10 includes an imaging unit 11 that captures an image of the granular material, a storage unit 12 that stores image data of the granular material captured by the imaging unit 11, and an imaging control unit 13 that controls the imaging unit 11 and the storage unit 12. Have. Thereby, the granular material which falls freely toward a spreading | diffusion target object can be imaged, and it can preserve | save as image data 10W.
The imaging unit 11 may use all of the dispersed particles as an imaging target, but instead may use a certain region as an imaging target. For example, an imaging region along the falling direction of the product granular material 203 may be set so that particles of 95% or more are measured from the large particle size side on the number basis. By setting in this way, the imaging area becomes smaller (narrower) than when all of the dispersed powder particles are taken as an imaging target, and the load when binarizing the image data can be reduced. Measurement time can be shortened.
As the image pickup means 11, various means that can pick up the free-falling powder particles as a still image can be used without particular limitation. For example, a CCD area camera or a line scan camera can be used. In particular, in order to facilitate image processing, it is preferable to use an imaging device having an imaging element, and it is more preferable to use a line scan camera. The imaging device may be a charge coupled device (CCD) or a CMOS sensor. The image sensor is not necessarily a color image sensor, for example, an image sensor capable of expressing gradations in 256 gray scales is preferable, and an image sensor capable of expressing gradations in higher gradations is more preferable. Further, it is preferable to increase the resolution with respect to the particles to be imaged in order to obtain a clearer image.

The storage unit 12 stores the image data 10W continuously imaged by the imaging unit 11 in time series together with the imaging sampling number 10C and the imaging sampling time 10T. By counting the number of samplings 10C, it is confirmed whether each image can be captured. In addition, the storage unit 12 stores the binarized image data 40W generated by the binarization processing unit 40 in a time series with respect to both the sampling number and the sampling time.
The imaging control unit 13 performs imaging processing such as imaging speed by the imaging unit 11, control of imaging start and stop, control of writing the image data 10W and binarized image data 40W to the storage unit 12, and reading from the storage unit 12. And control related to image data. The imaging speed may be appropriately set according to the falling speed of the free-falling granular material. In the present specification, among the image data 10W, the reference calibration curve creation may be distinguished as 11W, the mass calculation and mass determination for 12W, and the reference calibration curve correction for 13W.

  The illuminating unit 20 has a function of illuminating an imaging region imaged by the imaging unit 11, that is, a predetermined imaging region on a trajectory where powder particles freely fall. As the illumination unit 20, a unit that can provide sufficient brightness for imaging by the imaging processing unit 10 can be employed without any particular limitation. In the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a transmission illumination system that is disposed to face the imaging unit 11 is used. The illumination unit 20 is preferably connected to the image processing control unit 110 (for example, the imaging control unit 13) and controls the illumination intensity. As a result, when the illumination intensity decreases and the density detected from the image data decreases, the illumination intensity increases. Conversely, when the illumination intensity increases and the density detected from the image data increases, the illumination intensity increases. Can be lowered. Specifically, for example, when the density value detected by the density determination processing unit 30 is 1.1 times or less the minimum reference density 30Q, the imaging control unit 13 increases the illumination intensity and detects the density value. The density value is changed to be between 1.25 and 2 times the minimum reference density 30Q. In this way, by changing the illumination intensity of the illumination unit 20 by the imaging control unit 13, the illumination unit 20 can be controlled to obtain a desired brightness. In addition, the imaging unit 11 and the illumination unit 20 are provided with a mechanism that can adjust the angle and arrangement so that they face each other. Moreover, the illumination method of the illumination part 20 may not be the transmission illumination method of this embodiment, for example, may be a reflection type illumination method. Further, the illumination unit 20 may not be connected to another configuration of the inspection apparatus 100, and may be connected to, for example, the image processing control unit 110 including the imaging processing unit 10, the illuminance determination processing unit 30, and the like.

  The density determination processing unit 30 is connected to the imaging processing unit 10 and forms the core of the density determination function D. The density determination processing unit 30 defines a detection area 30P in an area where the powder and granular materials are not reflected in the image data 10W stored in the storage unit 12, and detects the density (brightness) of the detection area 30P. Further, the density determination processing unit 30 sets a minimum reference density 30Q that is suitable for binarization processing by the binarization processing unit 40. Thereby, the density determination processing unit 30 performs the illumination abnormality determination when the detected density is less than the set constant brightness (minimum reference density 30Q). In this case, the density determination processing unit 30 sends to the imaging control unit 13 an illumination failure signal 30 </ b> X for stopping all the inspection processes performed by the inspection apparatus 100. On the other hand, when the target image data has a certain brightness or higher, no signal is transmitted. Such illumination abnormality determination is a determination made as to whether or not the image data is appropriate for the binarization process, which is performed before the process proceeds to the binarization process. The illumination abnormality determination is to detect a failure of the illumination unit 20 or illumination deterioration, or a decrease in the amount of light received by the camera element due to a shift in the positional relationship between the imaging unit 11 and the illumination unit 20. In the present embodiment, when an illuminance abnormality determination occurs, the inspection apparatus 100 stops the inspection.

  The binarization processing unit 40 is connected to the imaging processing unit 10, performs binarization processing on the image data 10 </ b> W stored in the storage unit 12, and generates binarized image data 40 </ b> W. As described above, the binarization process is performed unless the illumination failure signal 30X is transmitted. Specifically, a binarization threshold 40Q is set in advance, and a pixel portion having an image density (gradation) lower than the binarization threshold 40Q is set to “black” (lower limit of gradation: for example, 256 gradations). If there is, it is converted to 0 gradation) to indicate the region of the powder and granular material. On the other hand, a pixel portion having an image density (gradation) higher than the binarization threshold value 40Q is converted to “white” (upper gradation value: for example, 255 gradations if 256 gradations), and the granular material The background area other than is shown. In this way, binary image data 40W having two gradations is generated. The generated binarized image data 40W is written and stored in the storage unit 12 of the imaging processing unit 10 together with the imaging sampling time 10T included in the corresponding image data 10W. The binarization threshold 40Q can be arbitrarily set as appropriate, and can be set to a numerical value capable of accurately grasping the pixel (imaging area) of the imaged granular material. In the present specification, among the binarized image data 40W, the calibration curve creation may be distinguished as 41W, the mass calculation and mass determination as 42W, and the calibration curve correction as 43W. . In the binarization processing unit 40, it is preferable from the viewpoint of improving the accuracy of the binarization processing to have a function of density correction filter processing described later.

  The reference calibration curve creation unit 50 is connected to the imaging processing unit 10 and forms the core of the reference calibration curve creation function A that is executed at the initial stage of inspection (the stage before the operation of the production line). The reference calibration curve creation unit 50 creates a reference calibration curve 50F that shows the correspondence between the pixel V and the mass G of the reference granular material by a linear function. The “pixel V of the reference granular material” is the number of pixels set to “black” in the binarized image data 40W. When creating the reference calibration curve 50F, the pixel V of the linear function is based on the accumulated reference powder pixel 41V obtained from the binarized image data 41W stored in the imaging processing unit 10 at a predetermined time. On the other hand, the mass G of the linear function is based on the mass 50G of the reference granular material measured by the mass measurement unit 130 below the dropping trajectory of the reference granular material targeted for imaging at the predetermined time. The mass measuring unit 130 is connected to the reference calibration curve creating unit 50 and sends the acquired mass value to the reference calibration curve creating unit 50 after a predetermined time has elapsed. In addition, the mass measuring unit 130 is not connected to the reference calibration curve creating unit 50, for example, receives a granular material in a receiving tray or the like below the dropping trajectory of the reference granular material, and measures the reference granular material on the receiving tray. And the value may be input to the reference calibration curve creation unit 50. Simultaneously with the mass measurement, the reference granular material pixels 41V accumulated based on the binarized image data 41W are accumulated in the reference calibration curve creation unit 50. After elapse of a predetermined time, the reference calibration curve creation unit 50 calculates the weight (mass G / pixel V) from the obtained pixel 41V and mass 50G of the reference granular material. The weight is held in the calibration curve storage area 60 as a constant of a linear function whose reference calibration curve is 50F. The “predetermined time” in the reference calibration curve creation unit 50 can be arbitrarily set as appropriate. When the measured mass is small in the time matched to the conveyance speed per product in the application object, the weight (mass G / pixel V) can be calculated by setting a longer time. For example, if the mass value is small and cannot be measured for each product (every 0.2 seconds), it can be set appropriately for up to 60 seconds. The calibration curve storage area unit 60 is connected to the reference calibration curve creation unit 50 and stores the created reference calibration curve 50F.

  The reference particle size creation / storage area unit 90 is connected to the imaging processing unit 10 and the corrected calibration curve creation unit 55, and has a reference particle size creation function B that is executed at the initial inspection stage (stage before the production line is operated). The core. The reference particle size creation / storage region unit 90 includes a reference particle size creation unit 91 and a reference particle size storage region unit 92, and creates an average particle size Dbas of the reference powder body at the initial stage of inspection, Save this. The reference particle size creation unit 91 calculates the average particle size Dbas of the reference powder body from the binarized image data 40W at the initial stage of inspection stored in the storage unit 12 of the imaging processing unit 10. For example, in the binarized image data 40W generated by the binarization processing unit 40, the image of the reference granular material in the initial stage of inspection is targeted, and the dimensions of each image along one direction and the direction orthogonal thereto are set. taking measurement. And the length of the diagonal of the rectangle decided by each dimension is calculated, this length is made into the particle size of a granular material, and these average particle sizes Dbas are calculated. The calculated average particle diameter Dbas is written into the reference particle diameter storage area 92 and stored.

  The corrected calibration curve creation unit 55 is connected to the imaging processing unit 10 and the calibration curve storage area unit 60 and forms the core of the calibration curve correction function E. The corrected calibration curve creation unit 55 calculates the average particle diameter D of the product granules from the binarized image data 43W obtained by binarizing the image data 13W of the product powder, and the product powder From the average particle diameter D of the granular material and the average particle diameter Dbas of the reference granular material, a corrected calibration curve 51F in which the inclination of the reference calibration curve 50F is corrected is created. The corrected calibration curve 51F is a linear function of the mass G of the product granular material and the pixel V of the product granular material. The created corrected calibration curve 51F is written and stored in the calibration curve storage area 60.

  The mass calculation unit 70 is connected to the imaging processing unit 10 and the calibration curve storage area unit 60, and together with the mass determination processing unit 80, the core of the mass determination function C during operation of the production line after the creation of the corrected calibration curve 51F. Eggplant. The mass calculation unit 70 calculates a total mass value 77G based on the corrected calibration curve 51F from the pixel 43V of the product granular material accumulated based on the binarized image data 42W used to create the corrected calibration curve 51F. . Specifically, for a predetermined time during which a portion corresponding to one product of the application object is transported (that is, for a time during which a portion corresponding to one product of the application object finishes passing through the application position of the granular material for product) ) Accumulated powder particles 42V is multiplied by the weight (mass G / pixel V) of the corrected calibration curve 51F stored in the calibration curve storage area unit 60, so that the product powder per product unit The total mass 77G of the granule is calculated. The “predetermined time” in the mass calculation unit 70 can be arbitrarily set as appropriate, and is preferably set in accordance with the speed of the application object to be conveyed. When the said dispersion | distribution target object is elongate strip shape, it is time to spray | spread the granular material of the granular material for products with respect to the area | region area equivalent to 1 product of the distribution target object in movement. When the object to be sprayed is already divided into product units and transported intermittently, it is time to spray the granular material for the product on the area of the object to be sprayed at intervals. is there. For example, 60/300 = 200 ms (milliseconds) for a product conveyance speed of 300 / min, and 60/400 = 150 ms (milliseconds) for a speed of 400 / min.

  The mass determination processing unit 80 is connected to the mass calculation unit 70 and a defective discharge unit 120 described later, and together with the mass calculation unit 70, the mass determination function B after creating the corrected calibration curve 51F by correcting the reference calibration curve 50F. The core of In the mass determination processing unit 80, an in-specified mass 80Q of the product granular material to be dispersed is set. This “specified internal mass 80Q” corresponds to the allowable range of the mass of the granular material for product to be contained in one product unit. The mass determination processing unit 80 receives the data of the total mass 77G of the product granular material from the mass calculation unit 70, and determines whether or not the total mass 77G is the prescribed mass 80Q. Based on the determination, when the total mass 77G is outside the range of the specified internal mass 80Q, a mass defect signal 80X is transmitted. On the other hand, when the total mass 77G is within the range of the specified internal mass 80Q, a mass acceptable product signal 80Y is transmitted. For example, when the specified internal mass 80Q is determined to be within the range of the upper and lower limit values ± 10% of Fg (grams) per product, the product outside the range is determined as NG.

  The mass determination processing unit 80 is configured to transmit the mass defect signal 80X and the mass non-defective signal 80Y to be transmitted to another device connected to the granular material mass inspection device 100. In that case, it is preferable that information (for example, imaging sampling time 10T etc.) for specifying the target product (non-defective product / defective product) is included in the mass defect signal 80X and the mass acceptable product signal 80Y. As a result, the receiving device can exhibit a function for dealing with a product having a mass defect. In this way, the granular material mass inspection apparatus 100 detects the total mass of the granular material for product continuously dispersed to the scatter object constituting the product from the state of dispersion of the granular material for product in a timely manner. can do.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the granular material mass inspection method of the present embodiment includes an inspection initial step A <b> 1 and an inspection step B <b> 1 after creating a standard calibration curve. The inspection initial step A1 is a series of processing steps performed using the reference calibration curve creation function A and the reference particle size creation function B of the inspection apparatus 100. After the standard calibration curve and the standard particle diameter are measured and stored in the initial inspection process A1, the standard calibration curve and the standard particle size are used to perform the inspection process B1 after creating the standard calibration curve. This is a step of performing mass determination. That is, the inspection process B1 after creating the reference calibration curve is a series of processing steps performed using the calibration curve correction function E and the mass determination function C in the presence of the reference calibration curve and the reference particle size. The inspection initial process A1 and the inspection process B1 after the creation of the standard calibration curve each use the density determination function D of the inspection apparatus 100. About this granular material mass inspection method, the outline | summary of the heat generating body which is a granular object containing article | item and the product to be inspected is demonstrated first, and also with reference to FIG. 4, the manufacturing apparatus used for manufacture of a heat generating body The spraying device will be described in detail.

  First, the heating element here was disposed on at least one side of the base sheet, a layer of a heat generating composition containing an oxidizable metal that causes an oxidation reaction, an electrolyte such as sodium chloride, and water, and the layer. And a water retention material layer containing water-absorbent polymer particles. The mass content of the water-absorbing polymer particles is one of the important factors that influence the heat generation characteristics of the heat generator. In this heating element manufacturing method, a heating element is formed by applying a slurry-like heating composition containing an oxidizable metal such as iron powder, an electrolyte and water on a long base sheet, and then forming the heating element. On the heating element, the method comprises a step of spraying a water-absorbing polymer powder in layers to form a water-retaining material layer. Therefore, in this manufacturing method, what the said exothermic composition was apply | coated to the said base material sheet turns into a spray object of a granular material.

  FIG. 4 shows a powder particle spraying device 500 (hereinafter also simply referred to as a spraying device 500). As described above, the spraying device 500 is a spraying device for the water-absorbing polymer powder 202 contained in the heating element, and executes the powder spraying step. The spraying device 500 includes a powder particle spraying unit 300, an inspection device 100, and a defective product discharge processing unit 120. In the present embodiment, the powder particle spraying unit 300 temporarily stores the water absorbent polymer powder particles 202. A hopper 301 for storing, a powder supply device 400, a cylindrical discharge port 303, a trough 304 for conveying powder particles horizontally, and a vibrating body 305 that vibrates the trough 304 in a cantilevered state at one end of the trough 304. Have The trough 304 and the vibrating body 305 are collectively referred to as a vibration feeder 306.

  In the powder particle distribution unit 300, the powder particles 202 in the hopper 301 are carried out by the powder supply device 400. The discharged granular material 202 is received at an arbitrary position in the trough 304, and moves toward the end portion 304A of the trough 304 while being suitably dispersed by the vibration of the electromagnetic feeder 305. The granular material 202 falls freely from the end portion 304A and is continuously sprayed onto the spray object 206 transported by a transport conveyor (not shown). As described above, the spray object 206 is obtained by applying the exothermic composition 205 containing non-oxidizing metal particles, an electrolyte such as sodium chloride, and water on the base sheet 201.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the particle mass inspection apparatus 100 is configured so that the imaging unit 11 and the illuminating unit 20 face each other with the falling orbit space of the particle 202 interposed therebetween, as shown in FIG. 4. Is arranged.

  The defective product discharge processing unit 120 is connected to the mass determination processing unit 80 of the granular material mass inspection apparatus 100, and when receiving the mass defect signal 80X transmitted from the mass determination processing unit 80, the mass defect signal 80X from the production line. The spraying object corresponding to is identified, and the identified spraying object is discharged from the production line. In the present embodiment, the defective product discharge processing unit 120 includes a flight conveyor (not shown) and the like.

  Here, the inspection initial step A1 in the granular material mass inspection method of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the schematic configuration diagram of the apparatus in FIG. 4 and the flowchart in FIG.

  The inspection initial process A1 is executed at the initial stage of inspection every time the spraying conditions such as the cutout amount of the spraying part 300 of the reference granular material 202 are set. Therefore, the inspection initial process A1 may be performed on the heating element manufacturing line or other than the manufacturing line as long as an appropriate calibration curve suitable for the setting conditions of the spraying device 500 is obtained.

  First, in a state where each device is arranged as shown in FIG. As the mass measuring unit 130, any mass measuring unit that can measure the mass of the received reference granular material in time series can be used without any particular limitation. For example, the thing which installed only the granular material tray or the calibration dish in the load cell is mentioned. The mass measurement unit 130 may have a configuration included in the spraying device 500 or may be configured separately from the spraying device 500.

  The average particle diameter Dbas of the reference granular material is measured based on the pixels 41W acquired in the binarization processing unit 40 in parallel with the preparation of the reference calibration curve or prior to the creation of the reference calibration curve. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, an image along one direction X and a direction Y orthogonal to the target image P <b> 1, P <b> 2,..., Pn obtained by the binarization processing unit 40. Measure dimensions xi and yi of Pi (i represents a natural number). Then, the length di of the rectangular diagonal line defined by the dimensions xi and yi is calculated, and this value is used as the particle size of the image Pi. Then, the average particle diameter Dbas of the reference granular material is calculated from (1 / n) ΣPi. The number n of particles used for calculating the average particle diameter Dbas is, for example, 100 or more.

  Next, the inspection apparatus 100 is operated. When the illumination unit 20 is not linked to the inspection apparatus 100, the illumination unit 20 is also turned on. Next, the imaging processing unit 10 inputs imaging speed, “predetermined time” for creating a calibration curve, and other various conditions. The density determination processing unit 30 sets the detection area 30P and the minimum reference density 30Q, and the binarization processing unit 40 sets the binarization threshold 40Q. Thereafter, the spraying unit 300 is operated to input imaging start to the inspection apparatus 100 and execute imaging processing (imaging processing step AB11). By this imaging processing step AB11, as described above, the captured image data 11W is stored in the storage unit 12 in time series together with the imaging sampling time 10T.

  Next, the density determination processing step D11 is performed at the timing set in the density determination processing unit 30. That is, the density of the image data 11W is detected and compared with the lowest reference density 30Q. When the detected density is equal to or less than the set constant brightness (minimum reference density 30Q), the illumination abnormality determination D12 is performed. In this case, the density determination processing unit 30 sends to the imaging control unit 13 an illumination failure signal 30 </ b> X for stopping all the inspection processes performed by the inspection apparatus 100. Thereby, the whole inspection apparatus 100 stops. After the stop, the illumination unit 30 is adjusted and the reference calibration curve creation step A13 is executed again. On the other hand, if the target image data has a certain brightness or more, no signal is transmitted and the process proceeds to the next binarization process A12.

  The above-described concentration determination processing step D11 is performed in order to accurately capture minute powder particles that freely fall without interruption. Particles cannot be extracted when the brightness becomes dark due to lighting failure or deterioration over time. For this reason, the minimum reference concentration 30Q of the concentration is determined to be a brightness at which particles can be captured by the particle size of the granular material 202 to be inspected. Although not uniformly determined, for example, in a granular material having an average particle diameter of about 440 μm to 550 μm, the minimum reference density 30Q can be determined as a density 50 in 256 gray scales.

  Next, in the binarization processing unit 40, the binarization processing step AB12 of the image data 11W stored in the storage unit 12 of the imaging processing unit 10 is performed to generate binarized image data 41W. In the binarization processing step AB12, it is preferable that density correction filter processing is performed. As a result, the density effect on the binarization process can be kept very small. This gradation correction filter processing is to perform a difference calculation between an input image and an internally processed image created from the input image, thereby removing background gradation changes and suppressing the effects of illumination unevenness and illumination deterioration. Filter processing. As a result, it is possible to reduce the brightness unevenness of the captured image data 10W and extract only the pixel portion of the desired granular material, and appropriate binarization processing is possible even when the density is in a wide range.

  The contents of the binarization processing are as described above, and conversion into 0 gradation and 1 gradation with the binarization threshold 40Q as a boundary. 6 is a captured particle image, that is, captured image data 11W, and FIG. 7 is a binarized image of the captured particle image shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the black portion indicates the powder body 202. The size and arrangement of the black portions shown in FIG. 7 are the same as the size and arrangement of the powder particles 202 shown in the captured image data 11W shown in FIG. 6, and it is confirmed that appropriate binarization processing has been performed. it can. From this binarized image data 41W, the number of pixels of the granular material can be grasped. The binarized image data 41W is stored in the storage unit 12 of the imaging processing unit 10 for the next reference calibration curve creation process.

  The binarization threshold value 40Q is determined by the particle size of the granular material 202 and the variation of the particle size, that is, the gradation variation of the granular material 202 portion in the image data. FIG. 8 shows the relationship between the binarization threshold 40Q and the measured pixel. As the binarization threshold value 40Q is lowered, the number of pixels decreases as the detection amount decreases. On the contrary, when the binarization threshold 40Q is increased, the number of pixels increases, but it is affected by imaging noise. Although the binarization threshold value 40Q is not uniformly determined, for example, in the case of a granular material having an average particle diameter of about 440 μm to 550 μm, it is preferable to set between 200 gradations and 240 gradations, and to 220 gradations. It is more preferable to set.

  Next, the standard calibration curve creation unit 50 performs the standard calibration curve creation and the standard particle size measurement process AB13. Here, as described above, the reference calibration curve 50F represented by a linear function with the weight (mass G / pixel V) obtained from the pixel V and the mass G of the reference granular material as a constant is created. This is because the reference powder particles 41V accumulated based on the binarized image data 41W during the “predetermined time” for creating the reference calibration curve, and the reference powder particles measured by the mass measuring unit 130 Based on the mass of 50G. Thereby, the reference | standard calibration curve 50F corresponding to the distribution conditions of the distribution part 300 is obtained. The reference calibration curve 50F is stored in the calibration curve storage area 60 (reference calibration curve and reference particle size storage step AB14), and the reference calibration curve creation step A1 in the granular material mass inspection method of the present embodiment is completed.

  Next, the inspection process B1 after the creation of the reference calibration curve of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. After the reference calibration curve 50F is created, the inspection process B1 after the creation of the reference calibration curve is performed in a state where the mass measuring unit 130 is removed and the entire product production line is operated. First, the inspection apparatus 100 is turned on, and the specified mass 80Q, which is a reference for mass determination, and “predetermined time” for mass calculation are set and input. The hopper 301 may be left filled with the reference powder and used as a product powder. Alternatively, the reference powder may be removed from the hopper 301 and the reference powder. Another type of product granular material having a particle size different from that of the granular material may be newly filled. Next, the power of the spraying unit 300 is turned on, the entire production line is operated, the product granular material 203 is started to be sprayed, and the inspection by the inspection apparatus 100 is started. In the production line, the granular material spraying unit 300 operates and continuously sprays the product granular material 203 on the spray object 206 transported by a transport belt (not shown).

  Next, in the granular material mass inspection apparatus 100, the imaging processing step CE11, the concentration determination processing step D11, and the binarization processing step CE12 are performed in the same manner as the initial inspection step A1 for the product granular material 203. Also in the inspection process B1 after the creation of the standard calibration curve, it is preferable that the density correction filter process is performed in the binarization process CE12. Thereby, the density effect on the binarization process is suppressed to a very small level. Therefore, the minimum reference concentration 30Q of the concentration can be suppressed to a considerably lower level than the reference calibration curve creation step A1. In other words, the possibility of stopping the inspection due to an abnormal illumination is low, and the pixel of the product granular material 203 can be accurately grasped by an appropriate binarization process. Thereby, during operation of a continuous production line of products, it is possible to further timely inspect the application amount of the powder particles 202 that are continuously applied. It also leads to longer life of lighting.

In the imaging process CE11, all of the product powder particles 203 to be dispersed may be taken as an imaging target, but instead, a certain area may be taken as an imaging area. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, the imaging region along the falling direction of the product granular material 203 may be set narrow so that 95% or more particles are measured from the large particle size side on the number basis. .
FIG. 10 shows the imaging region W when measuring the particle size of the granular material. As shown in FIG. 10, when the length along the falling direction of the granular material 203 is L, and the length along the width direction orthogonal to the dropping direction is X, the imaging region is W, and along the falling direction. The imaging region W becomes smaller (narrower) by reducing the length of one or both of the length L and the length X along the width direction. By reducing the imaging region W, it is possible to reduce the processing load in the binarization processing step CE12 and the like, and it is possible to shorten the measurement time.
Fig.11 (a) has shown the measured value of the particle size D of the granular material 203 for products when changing the length L along a dropping direction, FIG.11 (b) is the length along a dropping direction. The maximum normalized particle diameter of the granular material when the thickness L is changed is shown. The maximum normalized particle size is a value obtained by dividing the average particle size in the imaging region W by the average particle size in all windows. As shown in FIG. 11A, when the length L along the drop direction is increased, that is, when the imaging region W is enlarged by increasing the length L along the drop direction, the particle size of the powder 203 The measured value of D asymptotically approaches when the length L along the drop direction exceeds a predetermined length. The same applies to the maximum normalized particle diameter (see FIG. 11B).
For example, when the length L95 along the drop direction in the average particle diameter D95 of 95% or more of particles from the large particle diameter side on the number basis is exceeded, the measured value of the particle diameter D of the granular material 203 is asymptotic. Therefore, the length L95 along the dropping direction when the average particle diameter D95 is obtained from the average particle diameter D95 of 95% or more particles from the large particle diameter side on the number basis, and L ≧ L95 may be satisfied. Further, as the length L in the direction along the falling direction is increased, the imaging region W is increased and the imaging accuracy is improved, but the processing load in the binarization processing step and the like is also increased. For this reason, the length L along the drop direction in the imaging region W is preferably set to a value in the vicinity of L95 that is L95 or more.
In addition, in order to inspect every product, the length L needs to be a value in consideration of the inspection time. FIG. 12 is a graph showing the measurement time of the particle size when the length L is changed in a state where the length in the width direction X of the imaging region W is fixed. As shown in FIG. 12, the measurement time of the particle size of the granular material increases linearly according to the length L of the imaging region W. Since the mass inspection of the granular material includes image processing such as area measurement and density measurement in addition to the measurement of the particle size, it is necessary to finish all these processes within the processing speed of one product. For example, when the processing speed is 100 ms / sheet and the image processing time other than the particle size measurement is about 80 ms, the particle size measurement time is controlled to 100 ms−80 ms = 20 ms or less, thereby inspecting each product. Can do. That is, in this case, the length L of the imaging region W needs to be 21 mm.

In the inspection process B1, the granular material for product obtained from each binarized image data binarized in the binarization processing step CE12 between the binarization processing step CE12 and the mass calculation processing step C13. Based on 203 pixels, the reference calibration curve correction step E11 is performed. The reference calibration curve correction step E11 includes the following processes in the following order.
E12: Measurement of the particle size of the product granule 203 E13: Calculation of the average particle size D of the product granule 203 based on a plurality of data of the measured particle size E14: of the product granule D / Dbas value which is the ratio between the average particle diameter D and the particle diameter Dbas of the reference powder body, that is, calculation of the particle diameter fluctuation rate α. E15: By correction of the reference calibration curve 50F based on the particle diameter fluctuation rate α. Creation of calibration curve 51F

  The measurement of the particle size of the product granular material 203 in the step E12 is performed by the method shown in FIG. Thus, based on the accumulated pixel 43V of the product granular material 203 obtained from the image data 13W, the particle size as an average value of the number of the product granular material 203 is obtained. The average particle size value may be used as it is, but for the purpose of further improving the accuracy of correction, the particle size D of the product granular material 203 is changed to a plurality of binarized image data in step E13. It is preferable to calculate by a simple moving average based on. For example, the simple moving average particle diameter D ′ of a total of 30 binarized image data including binarized image data acquired by the current imaging and going back to the past can be calculated.

  When the average particle diameter D (that is, moving average particle diameter D ′) of the product granular material 203 is obtained in this way, in step E14, the average particle diameter D (that is, moving average particle diameter D ′) and the reference powder A particle diameter variation rate α which is a ratio D (D ′) / Dbas ratio to the particle diameter Dbas of the granules is calculated. Subsequently, the reference calibration curve 50F is corrected in step E15. The reference calibration curve 50F is a linear function as described above. In the correction, the inclination α ′ of the correction calibration curve 51F (= aα, which is a value obtained by multiplying the inclination a of the linear function by the particle size variation rate α, is obtained. aα). Note that the intercept of the calibration curve 51F is zero like the intercept of the reference calibration curve 50F.

  Correcting the standard calibration curve 50F with the particle size variation rate α has the following significance. In the present invention, the scattering mass of the granular material that is an object having a three-dimensional shape is calculated based on the two-dimensional projection image of the particles. Therefore, if the projected area of the particles does not change over the entire period of spraying the granular material, that is, if the particle diameter of the particles does not change, the correlation between the projected area and the sprayed mass is maintained. On the other hand, when the particle size of the particles changes for some reason during the spraying of the granular material, the correlation between the projected area and the sprayed mass is lost. For example, if the particle radius at the time of preparing the calibration curve is defined as d and the particle size variation rate is defined as α (= d ′ / d), the particle size after variation is d ′ = αd. Therefore, the area ratio S ′ / S before and after the variation of the particle diameter is πd′2 / πd2 = (αd) 2 / d2 = α2. Further, the volume ratio V ′ / V before and after the change in particle diameter is {(π / 6) d′ 3} / {(π / 6) d3} = (αd) 3 / d3 = α3. Therefore, when the particle size variation rate α is 1.1, for example, when the particle size is increased by 10%, the area ratio S ′ / S is 1.21, and the volume ratio V ′ / V is 1.33. Become. That is, the error defined by Δ = V ′ / V−S ′ / S is 12%. In short, when the particle diameter increases by 10%, an error of 12% occurs in the spray mass calculated from the calibration curve. This phenomenon is caused by the fact that the area of the binarized image data acquired by the imaging process becomes relatively small when the particle size variation rate α exceeds 1, even though powders of the same mass are scattered. A binarized image acquired by an imaging process when the number of pixels is reduced and it is misunderstood that a smaller amount of powder is scattered than the actual size and the particle size variation rate α is less than 1. This is due to the fact that the area of the data is relatively large (the number of pixels is increased), and it is mistaken that a larger amount of powder particles than the actual one is scattered. Therefore, in the present invention, in order to minimize the occurrence of an error, the slope of the calibration curve when the particle size variation rate α exceeds 1 is obtained by multiplying the standard calibration curve slope a by the particle size variation rate α. The deviation from the actual spread mass is reduced by correcting the difference. When the particle size variation rate α is less than 1, correction is made to reduce the slope of the calibration curve to reduce the deviation from the actual sprayed mass.

  When the processing in the reference calibration curve correction processing step E11 is completed, the mass calculation processing step C13 is then performed in the mass calculation unit 70. As described above, during the “predetermined time” for the mass calculation, from the powder pixel 42V accumulated based on the binarized image data 42W (that is, the area x in FIG. 3), based on the corrected calibration curve 51F. The total mass 77G (that is, the total mass 77G per product unit) is calculated. That is, the pixel 42V of FIG. 3 may be used as it is, but for the purpose of further improving the accuracy of calculating the total mass 77G, the pixel 42V is calculated by a simple moving average based on a plurality of binarized image data, It is preferable to calculate the total mass 77G of the product granular material 203 based on the calculated pixel 42V and the corrected calibration curve 51F. For example, it is possible to calculate a simple moving average of a total of 30 binarized image data including binarized image data acquired by current imaging and going back to the past.

  Next, the mass determination processing step C <b> 14 is performed in the mass determination processing unit 80. As a result, if the total mass 77G of the sprayed product granular material 203 is out of the specified mass 80Q, a mass abnormality determination is performed and a mass defect signal 80X is transmitted (mass defect signal transmission C15). On the other hand, if the total mass 77G is within the range of the specified internal mass 80Q, a mass acceptable product signal 80Y is transmitted (mass acceptable product signal transmission C16). The mass defect signal 80X and the non-defective product signal 80Y preferably include information (such as an imaging sampling time 10T) that identifies a target product (non-defective product / defective product). Each process in the above “inspection process B1 after creating a calibration curve” is repeatedly performed during the operation of the production line, and the granular mass inspection of the present embodiment is completed by the operation of stopping the inspection.

  The mass defect signal 80X or the non-defective product signal 80Y described above is received by the control device 400 connected to the inspection device 100 in this embodiment (see FIG. 4). The control device 400 issues an instruction to a flight conveyor (not shown), which is a defective product discharge processing unit, based on the received signal. Specifically, the discharge signal 400X based on the mass defect signal 80X is output. The flight conveyor (not shown) having received this specifies the target product and discharges it from the production line based on the discharge signal 400X (defective product discharge processing step). That is, the defective product discharge processing step is executed by the control device 400 and a flight conveyor (not shown) as a discharge device.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on the preferable embodiment, this invention is not restrict | limited to the said embodiment. For example, the above embodiment is an example in which the present invention is applied to a method of manufacturing a heating element, but the present invention may be applied to the manufacture of other articles.

  Moreover, in the said embodiment, in the imaging process CE11 of inspection process B1, although the imaging area along the fall direction of the granular material 203 for products was set narrowly, it replaces with or in addition to this, an inspection initial process In the imaging processing step AB11 of A1, the imaging area along the falling direction of the reference granular material 202 may be set narrow.

In relation to the above-described embodiment, the present invention further discloses the following granular material mass inspection apparatus and inspection method, and the granular material-containing article manufacturing apparatus and manufacturing method.
<1>
It is a granular mass inspection device that inspects the mass of the granular material sprayed on the scattering object constituting the product during the spraying of the granular material,
An imaging processing unit that captures and stores powder particles that freely fall toward the object to be sprayed, and stores it as image data;
An illumination unit for illuminating an imaging region imaged by the imaging processing unit;
In the image data stored by the imaging processing unit, a concentration determination processing unit that detects a concentration of a region where the powder and granular materials are not reflected, and determines abnormality of illumination,
A binarization processing unit that binarizes the image data based on a predetermined threshold value to generate binarized image data, and stores the binarized image data in the imaging processing unit;
In the initial stage of inspection, the predetermined time is determined by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data accumulated in the predetermined time by the imaging processing unit and the mass measuring unit located below the dropping trajectory of the granular material. Based on the measured mass of the granular material, a standard calibration curve creating unit that creates a standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the pixel and the mass by a linear function,
From the binarized image data of the initial stage of inspection accumulated in the predetermined time, the particle diameter Dbas of the granular body of the initial stage of inspection is created and stored, and a reference particle diameter creation / storage area unit,
In the presence of the standard calibration curve and the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage of inspection, the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected and the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio to the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the stage, a corrected calibration curve creation unit that creates a corrected calibration curve that corrects the slope of the reference calibration curve;
A calibration curve storage area for storing the reference calibration curve and the corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of each binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected and binarized, the granular material to be inspected based on the corrected calibration curve A mass calculation unit for calculating the mass of
Based on the calculation result in the mass calculation unit, a mass determination processing unit that makes a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which falls freely in a predetermined time,
Having a granular mass inspection device.

<2>
The granular mass inspection apparatus according to <1>, wherein the imaging processing unit targets a part of the imaging area as an imaging target.
<3>
The imaging processing unit sets the imaging area along the falling direction of the granular material so that 95% or more of the particles are measured from the large particle diameter side on the basis of the number, either <1> or <2> The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to claim 1.
<4>
The correction calibration curve creation unit calculates the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data. <1> to <3> Particle mass inspection device.
<5>
The powder according to any one of <1> to <4>, wherein the binarization processing unit performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing that reduces brightness unevenness of the captured image data. Granule mass inspection device.

<6>
The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to any one of <1> to <5>, wherein the illumination unit is disposed so as to face the imaging unit, and the granular material that freely falls by a transmission illumination method is imaged.
<7>
The imaging processing unit includes the imaging unit that images the powder and the imaging control unit that controls the imaging unit, and the illumination unit is configured such that the illumination intensity is controlled by the imaging control unit. > To <6> The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to any one of the above.
<8>
The imaging control unit increases the illumination intensity of the illumination unit and increases the illuminance of the imaging region when the density detected from the image data decreases as the illuminance of the imaging region decreases. The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to any one of <1> to <7>, wherein when the concentration detected from the data increases, the illumination intensity of the illumination unit is decreased.
<9>
The imaging processing unit includes a storage unit that stores the image data of the granular material captured by the imaging unit, and the storage unit captures the image data continuously captured by the imaging unit. And the granular material mass inspection apparatus as described in any one of said <1> thru | or <8> preserve | saved in time series with imaging sampling time.

<10>
The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to any one of <1> to <9>, wherein the imaging unit preferably uses a line scan camera having an imaging element.
<11>
The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to <10>, wherein the imaging element is preferably an imaging element capable of expressing gradation in a gray scale of 256 gradations.
<12>
The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to <10> or <11>, wherein a charge coupled device (CCD) is used as the imaging element.
<13>
The product comprises a layer of an exothermic composition containing an oxidizable metal that causes an oxidation reaction, an electrolyte such as sodium chloride, and water on at least one side of a base sheet, and a water-absorbing polymer disposed on the layer. The granular material mass inspection apparatus according to any one of <1> to <12>, wherein the granular mass inspection device is a heating element including a water retention material layer including granular material.

<14>
A mass inspection method for inspecting the mass of a granular material dispersed on an object to be dispersed that constitutes a product during the dispersion of the granular material, illuminated by an illumination unit, and directed toward the object to be dispersed An imaging processing step of imaging the free-falling powder particles with the imaging means, and detecting an image area where the powder particles are not reflected in the image data captured by the imaging means, and abnormal lighting of the illumination unit A density determination processing step for determining image data, a binarization processing step for generating binarized image data by binarizing the image data based on a predetermined threshold, and binarization generated in the initial stage of inspection A standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between a pixel and a mass created by a pixel function of a particle body obtained from image data and a mass of the granule body measured by a mass measuring unit in an initial stage of inspection as a linear function, And binarized image data at the initial stage of inspection. In the presence of the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage of inspection calculated from the data, the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected and the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio to the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the stage, a reference calibration curve correction processing step for creating a correction calibration curve in which the inclination of the reference calibration curve is corrected, and the correction calibration curve In the presence, from the pixel of the binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected binarized in the binarization processing step, based on the corrected calibration curve, the granular material to be inspected A mass calculation processing step for calculating the mass of the powder, and a mass determination processing step for making a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected that freely falls in a predetermined time based on the mass calculated in the mass calculation processing step And a granular mass inspection method.

<15>
The granular mass inspection method according to <14>, wherein the imaging processing step sets a part of the imaging area as an imaging target.
<16>
The imaging processing step is described in <14> or <15>, in which the imaging region is set along the falling direction of the granular material so that particles of 95% or more are measured from the large particle diameter side on the basis of the number. Powder mass inspection method.
<17>
In any one of the above items <14> to <16>, the reference calibration curve correction processing step calculates the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data The granular material mass inspection method according to claim 1.
<18>
The powder according to any one of <14> to <17>, wherein the binarization processing step performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing to reduce brightness unevenness of the captured image data. Granule mass inspection method.
<19>
In the concentration determination processing step, the granular mass inspection according to any one of <14> to <18>, in which the minimum reference concentration of the concentration is set based on a particle size of the granular material. Method.

<20>
In the concentration determination processing step, in the granular material having an average particle diameter of about 440 μm to 550 μm, the minimum standard concentration is set to the concentration 50 in 256 gray scales. Inspection method.
<21>
The granular material mass inspection method according to any one of <14> to <20>, wherein the imaging unit is configured by various units capable of capturing the granular material that falls freely as a still image.
<22>
The granular material mass inspection method according to any one of <14> to <21>, wherein the imaging unit includes a CCD area camera, a line scan camera, or the like.

<23>
A powder-containing product manufacturing apparatus that manufactures an article including the granular material by spraying the granular material on the spray target, the powder spraying the granular material toward the spray target A particle dispersion unit, an imaging processing unit that captures and stores powder particles that freely fall toward the object to be dispersed, and stores the image data as image data, an illumination unit that illuminates an imaging region captured by the imaging processing unit, and the imaging A density determination processing unit that detects a density of an area in which the granular material is not reflected in the image data stored by the processing unit and determines an illumination abnormality, and binarization processing of the image data based on a predetermined threshold value To generate binarized image data and store the binarized image data in the imaging processing unit, and the binarized image data accumulated in the imaging processing unit at a predetermined time in the initial stage of inspection. Below the pixel of the powder and the dropping trajectory of the powder Based on the mass of the granular material measured at the predetermined time by the mass measuring unit to be placed, a standard calibration curve creating unit that creates a standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the pixel and the mass with a linear function, and the predetermined From the binarized image data in the initial stage of inspection accumulated in time, the particle diameter Dbas of the granular body in the initial stage of inspection is created and stored, the reference particle diameter creation / storage area unit, the reference calibration curve and the inspection In the presence of the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage, the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected and the granular material at the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas which is a ratio to the particle diameter Dbas, a corrected calibration curve creation unit for creating a corrected calibration curve in which the slope of the reference calibration curve is corrected, and the reference calibration curve and the corrected calibration curve are stored. In the presence of the calibration curve storage area and the corrected calibration curve, images are captured. Based on the corrected calibration curve, from the pixel of each binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected subjected to the valuation process, a mass calculation unit that calculates the mass of the granular material to be inspected, and the mass Based on the calculation result in the calculation unit, a mass determination processing unit that makes a free fall at a predetermined time and makes a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, and the mass determination processing unit determines that the mass of the granular material is abnormal In such a case, an apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article, comprising: a defective product discharge processing unit that identifies a spray target corresponding to a mass abnormality and discharges the spray target corresponding to the mass abnormality from a production line.

<24>
The said imaging process part is a manufacturing apparatus of the granular material containing article as described in said <23> which makes some imaging | photography areas the imaging object.
<25>
The imaging processing unit described in <23> or <24>, in which the imaging region is set along the falling direction of the granular material so that particles of 95% or more are measured from the large particle size side on a number basis. Manufacturing equipment for powder-containing articles.
<26>
The correction calibration curve creation unit calculates the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data, according to <23> to <25>. Equipment for producing powder-containing articles.
<27>
The powder according to any one of <23> to <26>, wherein the binarization processing unit performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing that reduces brightness unevenness of the captured image data. Apparatus for producing granular-containing articles.
<28>
The apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article according to any one of <23> to <27>, wherein the illuminating unit is disposed to face the imaging unit and images a granular material that freely falls by a transmission illumination method.
<29>
The imaging processing unit includes the imaging unit that images the powder and the imaging control unit that controls the imaging unit, and the illumination unit is configured such that the illumination intensity is controlled by the imaging control unit. > To <28> The apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article according to any one of the above.

<30>
The imaging control unit increases the illumination intensity of the illumination unit and increases the illuminance of the imaging region when the density detected from the image data decreases as the illuminance of the imaging region decreases. The apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article according to any one of <23> to <29>, wherein the illumination intensity of the illumination unit is decreased when the concentration detected from the data increases.
<31>
The imaging processing unit includes a storage unit that stores the image data of the granular material captured by the imaging unit, and the storage unit captures the image data continuously captured by the imaging unit. And the manufacturing apparatus of the granular material containing article as described in any one of said <23> thru | or <30> preserve | saved in time series with imaging sampling time.
<32>
The apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article according to any one of <23> to <31>, wherein the imaging unit preferably uses a line scan camera having an imaging element.
<33>
The apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article according to <32>, wherein the imaging element is preferably an imaging element capable of expressing gradation in a gray scale of 256 gradations.
<34>
The apparatus for producing a granular material-containing article according to <32> or <33>, wherein a charge coupled device (CCD) is used as the imaging element.
<35>
The granular material-containing article has a heating element in which a slurry-like heating composition containing an oxidizable metal such as iron powder, an electrolyte, water, and the like is applied on a long base sheet. The production of a granular material-containing article according to any one of claims <23> to <34>, wherein a layer of a water-retaining material in which a water-absorbent polymer granular material is dispersed in layers is formed on the body. apparatus.

<36>
A method for producing an article including a granular material by dispersing the granular material on an object to be dispersed, wherein the powder is applied to the object to be dispersed. The granular material is reflected in the granular material scattering step, the imaging processing step of imaging the granular material that is illuminated by the illumination unit and freely falls toward the scattering object, and the image data captured by the imaging means A density determination processing step of detecting a density of a non-imaging area and determining an abnormality in illumination of the illumination unit; and binarizing the image data based on a predetermined threshold to generate binary image data Pixels created by the binarization process, the particles of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data generated in the initial stage, and the mass of the granular material measured by the mass measuring unit in the initial stage, and A standard calibration curve showing the correspondence with mass as a linear function, and In the initial stage, the particle diameter D of the target granular material is calculated in the presence of the initial particle diameter Dbas calculated from the binarized image data. A standard calibration curve correction processing step for creating a corrected calibration curve in which the slope of the standard calibration curve is corrected based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio of the diameter D to the particle size Dbas of the powder at the initial stage; Based on the corrected calibration curve, the target powder is obtained from the pixel of the binarized image data of the target granular material binarized in the binarization processing step in the presence of the corrected calibration curve. A mass calculation processing step for calculating the mass of the granular material, and a mass determination processing for making a determination on the total mass of the target granular material that falls freely for a predetermined time based on the mass calculated in the mass calculation processing step. When it is determined that the process and mass abnormal mass, Identify the sprayed object to respond, method for producing a granular material containing article having a defective discharge process for discharging the mass abnormally corresponding scatter object from the production line.

<37>
The imaging processing step is the method for manufacturing a granular-material-containing article according to <36>, in which a part of the imaging area is set as an imaging target.
<38>
The imaging processing step is described in <36> or <37>, in which the imaging region is set along the falling direction of the granular material so that 95% or more particles are measured from the large particle size side on the basis of the number. Of producing a granular material-containing article.
<39>
In any one of <36> to <38>, the reference calibration curve correction processing step calculates the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data. The manufacturing method of the granular material containing article as described in any one.

<40>
The powder according to any one of <36> to <39>, wherein the binarization processing step performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing to reduce brightness unevenness of the captured image data. A method for producing a granule-containing article.
<41>
The granular material-containing article according to any one of <36> to <40>, wherein the concentration determination processing step sets brightness based on a minimum particle concentration of the granular material based on a particle diameter of the granular material Manufacturing method.
<42>
In the density determination processing step, in the granular material having an average particle diameter of about 440 μm to 550 μm, the minimum reference concentration is set to a concentration of 50 in 256 gray scales. Article manufacturing method.
<43>
The said imaging means is a manufacturing method of the granular material containing article as described in any one of said <36> thru | or <42> comprised by the various means which can image the said granular material falling freely as a still image.
<44>
The method for producing a granular material-containing article according to any one of <36> to <43>, wherein the imaging unit is configured by a CCD area camera, a line scan camera, or the like.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to such examples. Unless otherwise specified, “%” means “mass%”.

[Example 1]
It implemented using the granular material mass inspection apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1, and the granular material spreading | diffusion part 300 shown in FIG. In the initial inspection process (reference calibration curve creation process) A1, a load cell as the mass measuring unit 130 in FIG. 5 was installed, and in the inspection process B1 after the creation of the standard calibration curve, the load cell was removed. A line scan camera was used for the imaging means 11, and line illumination was used for the illumination unit 20. The specific setting conditions were as follows.
Work distance: 450mm
Light work distance: 30mm
Resolution: 16 pixels / mm (0.06 mm / pixel)
Particle diameter Dbas of standard powder (water absorbent polymer): 500 μm
Trigger type: Internal trigger Imaging cycle: 100 ms
Line trigger cycle: 82 μs / line Number of lines: 1200 lines Shutter speed: 40 μs
Lighting volume (illuminance): 50
The “imaging cycle” is a product conveyance speed. The “number of lines” is the number of line triggers necessary to form one image using a line scan camera. The number of lines was determined based on the imaging cycle / line trigger cycle. The number of lines = 100 ms / 82 μs = 1220 lines, but the number of lines was slightly reduced to the above value in order to prevent the inspection speed from catching up without the response speed catching up.

The implementation conditions were as follows.
Product mass: 0.074 g / cell (5.328 kg / h)
Calibration time: 60 seconds (600 sheets / minute)
Application amount: 0.018 g / cell to 0.117 g / cell Binary threshold 40Q: 220
The “cell” means a left or right measurement window divided into two in the width direction of spreading. Here, two cells are one (one product).

  Under the conditions described above, the standard calibration curve creating step AB13 was performed to obtain a standard calibration curve represented by a linear function shown in FIG. Subsequently, inspection process B1 after creation of a standard calibration curve was performed. Specifically, imaging was continuously performed on the product granular material with an imaging cycle of 150 ms and a cutout amount of 3.552 kg / h. The product granule has approximately the same average particle size as the reference particle, but the degree of variation in particle size is large. Under the state where the powder particles for product are continuously dispersed, binarized image data 42W based on the image data 12W is generated. The particle size variation rate α was calculated based on the accumulated pixel 43V of the granular material in the binarized image data 42W, and the reference calibration curve was corrected. The change with time of the particle size variation rate α is shown in FIG. FIG. 14B shows the change with time of the actually measured mass of the load cell at that time. Further, the corresponding mass G was calculated on the basis of the accumulated particle pixel 42V of the binarized image data 42W and the corrected calibration curve. The result is shown in FIG. In addition, the scatter amount (%) on the vertical axis in FIGS. 14B and 14C is a relative display of the measured scatter amount or the measured scatter amount when the target scatter amount is 100%.

[Comparative Example 1]
In Example 1, measurement was performed without correcting the reference calibration curve in the inspection process B1. The result is shown in FIG.

  As is apparent from the results shown in FIG. 14C, in Example 1, even when the particle size of the product powder varies with time, the measurement amount using the line camera is almost equal to the target application amount. You can see that you are doing it. On the other hand, in Comparative Example 1, the measurement amount using the line camera is larger than the target spraying amount because the particle size of the product granular material is larger than the particle size of the reference granular material. You can see that it is decreasing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Imaging process part 11 Imaging means 12 Storage part 13 Imaging control part 20 Illumination part 30 Density determination process part 40 Binarization process part 50 Calibration curve creation part 55 Correction | amendment calibration curve creation part 60 Calibration curve storage area part 70 Mass calculation part 80 Mass determination processing unit 59 Mass measurement unit 90 Reference particle size creation storage unit 100 Powder mass inspection device 110 Image processing control unit 202 Reference particle (water absorbent polymer)
203 Powder for Product (Water Absorbing Polymer)
206 Target object 300 Particulate spraying part 500 Particulate spraying device

Claims (16)

It is a granular mass inspection device that inspects the mass of the granular material sprayed on the scattering object constituting the product during the spraying of the granular material,
An imaging processing unit that captures and stores powder particles that freely fall toward the object to be sprayed, and stores it as image data;
An illumination unit for illuminating an imaging region imaged by the imaging processing unit;
In the image data stored by the imaging processing unit, a concentration determination processing unit that detects a concentration of a region where the powder and granular materials are not reflected, and determines abnormality of illumination,
A binarization processing unit that binarizes the image data based on a predetermined threshold value to generate binarized image data, and stores the binarized image data in the imaging processing unit;
In the initial stage of inspection, the predetermined time is determined by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data accumulated in the predetermined time by the imaging processing unit and the mass measuring unit located below the dropping trajectory of the granular material. Based on the measured mass of the granular material, a standard calibration curve creating unit that creates a standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the pixel and the mass by a linear function,
From the binarized image data of the initial stage of inspection accumulated in the predetermined time, the particle diameter Dbas of the granular body of the initial stage of inspection is created and stored, and a reference particle diameter creation / storage area unit,
In the presence of the standard calibration curve and the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage of inspection, the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected and the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio to the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the stage, a corrected calibration curve creation unit that creates a corrected calibration curve that corrects the slope of the reference calibration curve;
A calibration curve storage area for storing the reference calibration curve and the corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of each binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected and binarized, the granular material to be inspected based on the corrected calibration curve A mass calculation unit for calculating the mass of
Based on the calculation result in the mass calculation unit, a mass determination processing unit that makes a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which falls freely in a predetermined time,
A granular material mass inspection apparatus.   2. The granular material mass according to claim 1, wherein the imaging processing unit sets the imaging region along the falling direction of the granular material so that 95% or more of particles are measured from the large particle size side on a number basis. Inspection device.   The granular material according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the corrected calibration curve creation unit calculates the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data. Quantity inspection device.   The granular material according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the binarization processing unit performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing for reducing unevenness in brightness of captured image data. Quantity inspection device. It is a granular mass inspection method for inspecting the mass of a granular material sprayed on a scattering object constituting a product during the spraying of the granular material,
An imaging process step of capturing an image of the granular material that is illuminated by the illuminating unit and freely falls toward the object to be dispersed;
In the image data captured by the imaging means, a density determination process step of detecting a density of an imaging region in which the granular material is not reflected and determining an abnormality in illumination of the illumination unit;
A binarization process for generating binarized image data by binarizing the image data based on a predetermined threshold;
Correspondence between the pixel and mass created by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data generated in the initial stage of inspection and the mass of the granular body measured by the mass measuring unit in the initial stage of inspection The particle size of the granular material to be inspected in the presence of the standard calibration curve indicating the relationship as a linear function and the particle size Dbas of the granular material in the initial stage of inspection calculated from the binarized image data in the initial stage of inspection D was calculated, and the slope of the standard calibration curve was corrected based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio of the particle size D of the granular material to be inspected and the particle size Dbas of the initial granularity of the inspection. A reference calibration curve correction process for creating a corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of the binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected binarized in the binarization processing step, based on the corrected calibration curve, the inspection target A mass calculation processing step for calculating the mass of the granular material,
Based on the mass calculated in the mass calculation processing step, a mass determination processing step for making a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which freely falls in a predetermined time;
A granular material mass inspection method having   The granular material mass according to claim 5, wherein the imaging processing step sets the imaging region along the falling direction of the granular material so that 95% or more of particles are measured from the large particle size side on the basis of the number. Inspection method.   The said standard calibration curve correction process process calculates the particle size D of the granular material used as test object by the simple moving average based on the said some binarized image data. Body mass inspection method.   The granular material according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein the binarization processing step performs the binarization processing after performing a density correction filter processing that reduces brightness unevenness of the captured image data. Quantity inspection method. It is a manufacturing apparatus of a granular material containing article which manufactures an article containing the granular material by spraying the granular material on an object to be sprayed,
A granular material spraying unit for spraying the granular material toward the object to be sprayed;
An imaging processing unit that captures and stores powder particles that freely fall toward the object to be sprayed, and stores it as image data;
An illumination unit for illuminating an imaging region imaged by the imaging processing unit;
In the image data stored by the imaging processing unit, a concentration determination processing unit that detects a concentration of a region where the powder and granular materials are not reflected, and determines abnormality of illumination,
A binarization processing unit that binarizes the image data based on a predetermined threshold value to generate binarized image data, and stores the binarized image data in the imaging processing unit;
In the initial stage of inspection, the predetermined time is determined by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data accumulated in the predetermined time by the imaging processing unit and the mass measuring unit located below the dropping trajectory of the granular material. Based on the measured mass of the granular material, a standard calibration curve creating unit that creates a standard calibration curve indicating a correspondence relationship between the pixel and the mass by a linear function,
From the binarized image data at the initial stage of inspection accumulated at the predetermined time, the particle diameter Dbas of the granular body at the initial stage of inspection is created and stored, and a reference particle diameter creation / storage area unit,
In the presence of the standard calibration curve and the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the initial stage of inspection, the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected is calculated, and the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected and the initial stage of inspection Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio to the particle size Dbas of the granular material at the stage, a corrected calibration curve creation unit that creates a corrected calibration curve that corrects the slope of the reference calibration curve;
A calibration curve storage area for storing the reference calibration curve and the corrected calibration curve;
In the presence of the corrected calibration curve, from the pixels of each binarized image data of the granular material to be inspected and binarized, the granular material to be inspected based on the corrected calibration curve A mass calculation unit for calculating the mass of
Based on the calculation result in the mass calculation unit, a mass determination processing unit that makes a determination on the total mass of the granular material to be inspected, which falls freely in a predetermined time,
When the mass determination processing unit determines that the mass of the granular material is abnormal, the defective product discharge processing unit that identifies the scattering object corresponding to the mass abnormality and discharges the scattering object corresponding to the mass abnormality from the production line. When,
An apparatus for producing a granular-material-containing article having   The granular material containing according to claim 9, wherein the imaging processing unit sets the imaging region along the falling direction of the granular material so that 95% or more of particles are measured from the large particle size side on the basis of the number. Article manufacturing equipment.   The granular material according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the corrected calibration curve creating unit calculates the particle diameter D of the granular material to be inspected by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data. Production equipment for contained articles.   The granular material according to any one of claims 9 to 10, wherein the binarization processing unit performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing for reducing unevenness in brightness of captured image data. Production equipment for contained articles. A method for producing an article containing a granular material, wherein an article containing the granular material is produced by dispersing the granular material on an object to be dispersed,
A powder particle dispersion step of spraying powder particles toward the object to be sprayed;
An imaging process step of imaging the granular material that is illuminated by the illuminating unit and freely falls toward the scattering object;
In the image data captured by the imaging means, a density determination process step of detecting a density of an imaging region in which the granular material is not reflected and determining an abnormality in illumination of the illumination unit;
A binarization process for generating binarized image data by binarizing the image data based on a predetermined threshold;
The correspondence between the pixel and mass created by the pixel of the granular material obtained from the binarized image data generated in the initial stage and the mass of the granular material measured by the mass measurement unit in the initial stage In the presence of the standard calibration curve indicated by a linear function and the particle size Dbas of the initial stage powder particle calculated from the binarized image data in the initial stage, the particle diameter D of the target powder body is calculated. Based on the value of D / Dbas, which is the ratio of the particle size D of the target granular material to the particle size Dbas of the initial stage granular material, a corrected calibration curve is created by correcting the slope of the reference calibration curve. A standard calibration curve correction process;
In the presence of the correction calibration curve, from the pixels of the binarized image data of the target granular material subjected to binarization processing in the binarization processing step, the target is based on the correction calibration curve. A mass calculation processing step for calculating the mass of the granular material,
Based on the mass calculated in the mass calculation processing step, a mass determination processing step for making a determination on the total mass of the target granular material that falls freely in a predetermined time;
When it is determined that the mass of the granular material is abnormal, the object to be dispersed corresponding to the mass abnormality is identified, and the defective product discharge processing step of discharging the object to be dispersed corresponding to the mass abnormality from the production line;
The manufacturing method of the granular material containing article | item which has NO.   The said granular material containing of Claim 13 which sets the said imaging area | region along the fall direction of a granular material so that the said imaging process process may measure 95% or more of particles from the large particle size side on a number basis. Article manufacturing method.   15. The granular material-containing article according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the reference calibration curve correction processing step calculates the particle diameter D of the granular material by a simple moving average based on the plurality of binarized image data. Production method.   The granular material according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the binarization processing step performs the binarization processing after performing density correction filter processing for reducing unevenness in brightness of captured image data. Manufacturing method of contained article.