JP7389528B1 - Small household appliance waste processing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a small home appliance waste disposal device that can eliminate small home appliance waste that has a built-in rechargeable battery. [Solution] An X-ray device that obtains an X-ray image by irradiating X-rays onto small home appliance waste on a conveyance path, extracts a case image of the external shape of the small home appliance waste from the X-ray image as a case image for identification, and A pickup unit extracts images with X-ray transmittance below the threshold as identification battery images, and stores X-ray images of the external shapes of small home appliances that have built-in small rechargeable batteries and are distributed in society as reference case images. a first database for storing external X-ray images of small rechargeable batteries distributed in society as reference battery images; a removing device that is driven when it is determined that the identification case image and the reference case image match, and a second determining section that drives the removing device when it is determined that the identification case image and the reference battery image match. and a control unit. [Selection diagram] Figure 1

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a small household appliance waste processing apparatus that removes small household appliance waste that still has a built-in small rechargeable battery from used small household appliance waste that has been collected.

Small rechargeable batteries such as lithium-ion batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries, and nickel-metal hydride batteries can ignite and cause fires, so discarded small home appliances containing these batteries need to be removed from home appliance garbage.
Patent Document 1 discloses a foreign matter removal device that detects and removes a small rechargeable battery using X-ray irradiation. However, this Patent Document 1 only describes that a small rechargeable battery is detected, and does not disclose a specific detection means. For this reason, there is a problem in that it is difficult to distinguish and eliminate small home appliance waste that includes a small rechargeable battery from normal home appliance waste.

Patent No. 7217560

The present invention determines whether or not small home appliance waste collected after being used has a built-in small rechargeable battery, and if it has a built-in small rechargeable battery, the small home appliance waste is transferred to other small home appliance waste. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a processing device for small household appliances to eliminate them from the garbage.

The present invention provides a transport path for transporting small home appliance waste that has been separated and collected, an X-ray device that obtains an X-ray image by irradiating the small home appliance waste on the transport path with X-rays, and a It is equipped with a pickup unit that extracts a case image with an external shape as an identification case image, and extracts an image with an X-ray transmittance below a predetermined threshold as an identification battery image, and a built-in small rechargeable battery. a first database that stores an X-ray image of the external shape of a small home appliance that is used as a reference case image; a second database that stores an X-ray image of the external shape of a small rechargeable battery that is distributed in society as a reference battery image; a removal device that is driven to remove small household appliance waste that has passed through the X-ray device from the conveyance path; a first determination unit that compares the identification case image with the reference case image; and the identification battery image. and the reference battery image, and the first determination unit determines that the identification case image and the reference case image match, and the second determination unit compares the identification case image and the reference battery image. The present invention is characterized by comprising a control unit that drives the removal device when it is determined that the image and the reference battery image match.

The present invention is characterized in that it further includes a vibration device that vibrates the conveyance path to bring the small household appliance waste into a prone state on the conveyance path.

Further, a feed restriction member is provided on the conveyance path to restrict the small household appliance waste from being supplied individually.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that it further includes a learning unit that adds a new reference case image and adds a new reference battery image in association with the new reference case image.

According to the present invention, the removal device is driven when the identification case image of small home appliance garbage matches the reference case image in the database, and the identification battery image and the reference battery image match. Small household appliances with built-in batteries can be excluded from other small household appliances. In addition, in order to drive the removal device when the identification case image and the reference case image do not match, and the identification battery image and the reference battery image match, a built-in small rechargeable battery, which is newly available in society, is used. Small household appliances can also be eliminated.

Furthermore, since a vibrating device is provided to place the small household appliance waste in a prone state, X-ray images can be obtained satisfactorily.

Further, by providing the feed restriction member, small household appliance waste can be fed individually, so that individual X-ray images can be reliably obtained.

Furthermore, by providing a learning section, new data for comparison can be added, so accurate judgments can be made in response to changes in society.

1 is a configuration diagram showing the entirety of a small household appliance waste processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a perspective view of a feed restriction member. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a database used in the present invention. It is a figure which shows the example of an identification case image. It is a figure which shows the example of the battery image for identification. It is a flow chart showing processing of small household appliance waste. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a small home appliance incorporating a small rechargeable battery. These are X-ray images of actual small household appliance waste taken by an X-ray device, with (A) showing an electronic cigarette and (B) showing a web conference speaker. This is an example of a reference case image and a reference battery image.

In the past, during general recycling, metal detectors, magnetic separators, and color sorters were used to detect waste considered to be foreign objects, but in recent years, aluminum packaging materials and batteries such as lithium batteries and button batteries have also been mixed into the waste. Therefore, it cannot be removed by conventional screening. Such recycled products can be sorted by using X-rays. In particular, batteries can be sorted by registering their shape using AI means.
In the present invention, the one shown in FIG. 7 is representative of the small home appliance waste containing a small rechargeable battery. In the same figure, (A) is a smartphone, (B) is a mobile battery, (C) is a portable lithium-ion battery, (D) is an electronic cigarette, (E) is a game console, (F) is an electric toothbrush, and (G) is An electric shaver, (H) a portable small electric fan, and (I) a web conference speaker. The present invention is intended to treat various types of small household appliance waste, including the small household appliance waste shown in FIG.
When it comes to small home appliance waste, it is dangerous for small rechargeable batteries such as lithium ion batteries to be disposed of without being removed and disposed of after they have been used. 1 is removed. Therefore, the present invention aims to remove small home appliance waste containing small rechargeable batteries, which can cause ignition, from other small home appliance waste.The small rechargeable batteries include lithium ion batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries, and nickel-metal hydride batteries. There are batteries represented by Hereinafter, the small rechargeable battery may be simply referred to as a battery.

As shown in FIG. 1, the removal device 1 of the present invention includes a conveyance path 2, a removal device 3, a collection box 4, a database 5, a first determination section 6, a second determination section 7, and a control section. 8, a pickup section 9, and an X-ray device 13.

The conveyance path 2 includes an upstream supply conveyor 2a, an intermediate processing conveyor 2b, and a downstream discharge conveyor 2c. The supply conveyor 2a includes a vibration device 11 and a feed restriction member 12. The present invention is for processing small home appliance waste 10 that has a built-in battery, and targets three-dimensional waste. The three-dimensional garbage is supplied to the supply conveyor 2a in various states such as an inclined state, a sideways state, and a standing state. The vibration device 11 vibrates the supply conveyor 2a to turn the three-dimensional garbage into a prone state and then supplies it to the processing conveyor 2b. By placing the small household appliance waste 10 in a prone state in this way, processing of the X-ray image obtained by the X-ray device 13 becomes easier.

The feed restriction member 12 is a member that restricts the small household appliance waste 10 to be supplied individually. FIG. 2 shows an example of the feed limiting member 12. As shown in FIG. The feed restriction member 12 is arranged on the supply conveyor 2a and is constituted by a guide plate 14 that gradually narrows the supply path, and the small household appliance waste 10 is individually supplied by passing through the guide plate 14. By supplying small household appliance waste individually in this way, individual X-ray images can be reliably obtained.

An X-ray device 13 is arranged on the processing conveyor 2b. The X-ray device 13 includes an X-ray source 13a and a line sensor 13b, which are provided to sandwich the processing conveyor 2b. When the small household appliance waste 10 passes through the X-ray device 13, it is irradiated with X-rays. Thereby, an X-ray image of the small household appliance waste 10 can be obtained.

The removal device 3 is arranged between the processing conveyor 2b and the discharge conveyor 2c. When the small household appliance garbage 10 has a built-in battery, the removal device 3 is driven to remove the small household appliance garbage 10 from the conveyance path 2 (processing conveyor 2b), and the small household appliance garbage 10 removed from the conveyance path 2 is removed. are collected in the collection box 4. The driving of the removing device 3 is controlled by a control section 8.
The discharge conveyor 2c supplies small household appliance waste 10 that does not have a built-in battery to a subsequent process.

The pickup section 9 is connected to a line sensor 13b of the X-ray device 13. The pick-up unit 9 extracts a case image of the external shape of the small household appliance 10 from the X-ray image from the line sensor 13b as an identification case image 15 (15a, 15b, 15c, 15d) as shown in FIG. Further, identification battery images 16 (16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, 16e) as shown in FIG. 5 are extracted from the X-ray image.
The identification case image 15 (15a, 15b, 15c, 15d) is an entire image including the external shape of the small household appliance waste 10, and it is possible to infer what kind of item the small household appliance waste 10 is based on the identification case image 15. be able to.

The identification battery image 16 (16a, 16b, 16c, 16d, 16e) is an image portion of the X-ray image from the line sensor 13b whose X-ray transmittance is less than a predetermined threshold value. . If the X-ray transmittance is less than a predetermined threshold value, it is because the object may be a battery. Therefore, in one X-ray image, multiple identification battery images may be extracted as shown in 16b and 16c, and even if there are multiple identification battery images, all extracted identification battery images are used for judgment. provide

The database 5 in FIG. 1 includes a first database 21, a second database 22, and a learning section 23. The first database 21 stores, as a reference case image, an X-ray image of the external shape of a small home appliance that has a built-in small rechargeable battery and is distributed in society. The second database stores X-ray images of external shapes of small rechargeable batteries that are in circulation as reference battery images.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the database 5. The first database 21 stores a plurality of reference case images A, D, B, C, . . . . The reference battery images stored in the second database 22 are a plurality of reference battery images A, D, B, C, . . . that are linked to the reference case images in the first database 21. By linking, it becomes easy to extract a reference battery image (for example, reference battery image D) corresponding to one reference case image (for example, reference case image D).

The learning unit 23 links X-ray images of the external shapes of small home appliances newly distributed in society with reference case images X, Y, etc., and X-ray images of the batteries of the small home appliances with the reference case images. Reference battery images X, Y, . . . are additionally stored. These added reference case images and reference battery images can be used as new data when determining small home appliance waste. This allows accurate judgments to be made in response to changes in society.

The first determination unit 6 shown in FIG. 1 compares the identification case image 15 extracted by the pickup unit 9 with the reference case images A, D, B, C, etc. in the first database 21. The second determination unit 7 compares the identification battery image 16 extracted by the pickup unit 9 with reference battery images A, D, B, C, . . . in the second database 22.

The control unit 8 determines that the first determination unit 6 determines that the identification case image 15 and the reference case image of the first database 21 match, and the second determination unit 7 determines that the identification battery image 16 matches the reference battery image. When it is determined that they match, the removal device 3 is driven. As a result, the discarded small household appliances with the batteries still inside are collected in the collection box 4. Further, the control unit 8 determines that the first determination unit 6 determines that the identification case image 15 and the reference case image do not match, and the second determination unit 7 determines that the identification battery image 16 and the reference battery image match. When the determination is made, the removal device 3 is driven. As a result, the battery matches the small rechargeable batteries that are distributed in society, and the small household appliance waste can be collected in the collection box 4. Since the small household appliance waste that is not included in the above comparison does not have a built-in small rechargeable battery, the control unit 8 does not drive the removal device 3, and the small household appliance garbage is moved to the discharge conveyor 2c and placed next. Subjected to processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the present invention described above.
The X-ray device 13 captures an image of the small household appliance waste 10 that has moved from the supply conveyor 2a to the processing conveyor 2b, thereby obtaining an X-ray image of the small household appliance waste 10 (S1). The pickup unit 9 extracts an external identification case image 15 and an identification battery image 16 from the X-ray image (S2). Thereafter, the first determination unit 6 compares the identification case image 15 with the reference case image stored in the database 5 (first database 21) (S3).

As a result of the comparison in S3, if they match, the process moves to S4, where the second determination unit 22 compares the identification battery image 16 with the reference battery image stored in the second database 22. Then, when the identification battery image 16 and the reference battery image match (S4), the control unit 8 determines that it is small household appliance waste with a built-in small rechargeable battery (S5), and the control unit 8 uses the removal device 3 to collect the small household appliance waste into the collection box 4 (S6).

In the comparison in S4, if the identification battery image 16 and the reference battery image do not match, the control unit 8 determines that it is used small home appliance garbage, but the small rechargeable battery has been taken out and removed. (S7), and the control unit 8 makes the removal device 3 non-driven (S9). As a result, the downsized household appliance waste is moved to the discharge conveyor 2c and then subjected to processing.

In comparison in S3, if the identification case image 15 and the reference case image in the first database 21 do not match, it is determined that the target small home appliance is trash that does not contain a built-in small rechargeable battery (S8), and the control unit 8 The removal device 3 is made non-driven (S9). Thereby, the small household appliance waste is moved to the discharge conveyor 2c and subjected to the next processing.

FIG. 8 shows an X-ray image actually obtained by irradiating the small household appliance waste 10 with X-rays from the X-ray device 13, in which (A) is the electronic cigarette 25 and (B) is the web conference speaker 30. In FIGS. 8A and 8B, 25a is an identification case image of the electronic cigarette 25 extracted by the pickup unit 9, and 30a is an identification case image of the web conference speaker. The actual images of these cases are shown in the drawing circles.

The pickup unit 9 extracts a black image portion whose X-ray transmittance is less than a predetermined threshold value from the identification case images 25a and 30a as an identification battery image. In FIG. 8A, one rectangular identification battery image 25b is extracted. In FIG. 8(B), a rectangular identification battery image 30c is extracted. The circular identification battery image 30b is not determined by the speaker to be a coin battery. Then, the second determination unit 7 compares these extracted identification battery images 25b, 30c with reference battery images A, D, B, C, etc. stored in the database 5 (second database 22). Determine match/mismatch.

FIG. 9 is a specific example of a reference case image and a reference battery image. Let's take a calculator as an example. FIG. 9(A) is an image of a calculator taken with an X-ray device, and this is registered in the database as a reference case image (9AR). FIG. 9(B) is an image of the battery section in which the button battery is located, and this is registered in the database as a reference battery image (9BR). When the calculator flows on the actual transport path 2 and is imaged by the X-ray device 13, an identification case image (9AS) similar to that shown in FIG. 9(A) is obtained. Here, the reference case image (9AR) and the identification case image (9AS) are comprehensively compared, and the identification case image (9AS) is determined to be a calculator (with a certain degree of accuracy) due to the presence of a board and display. Suppose that In that case, it is then determined whether the identification battery image (9BS) obtained by cutting out the image of the battery section matches the reference battery image (9BR). If they match, it is determined that a battery is installed. In that case, the calculator is removed from the line by a removal device 3. If the battery is removed, the image will be white without any black parts, so it will be determined that there is no battery, and the calculator will be sent downstream.

Although the processing apparatus 1 described above is provided with the vibration device 11 that vibrates the conveyance path 2 and the feed restriction member 12, these may be omitted. In that case, the object is not necessarily imaged only in plan view. Therefore, the reference case images that are registered in advance include not only those seen in plan, but also X-ray images taken in rear view and left and right side views. Comparison becomes possible no matter which side of the object to be imaged flows upward on the conveyance path 2.

1 processing device 2 conveyance path 2a supply conveyor 2b processing conveyor 2c discharge conveyor 3 removal device 4 collection box 5 database 6 first judgment section 7 second judgment section 8 control section 9 pickup section 10 small home appliance garbage 11 vibration device 12 feeding control Component 13 X-ray device 14 Guide plate 15 Identification case image 16 Identification battery image 21 First database 22 Second database 23 Learning section 25 Electronic cigarette 25a Identification case image 25b Identification battery image 30 Web conference speaker 30a Identification case Image 30b, 30c Identification battery image

Claims (4)

A transport path for transporting small home appliance waste that has been separated and collected;
an X-ray device that obtains an X-ray image by irradiating X-rays on the small household appliance waste on the conveyance path;
a pickup unit that extracts a case image of the external shape of the small home appliance garbage from the X-ray image as an identification case image, and extracts an image with an X-ray transmittance less than a predetermined threshold value as an identification battery image;
a first database that stores, as a reference case image, an X-ray image of the external shape of a small home appliance that has a built-in small rechargeable battery and is distributed in society;
a second database that stores X-ray images of external shapes of small rechargeable batteries distributed in society as reference battery images;
a removal device that is driven to remove small home appliance waste that has passed through the X-ray device from the conveyance path;
a first determination unit that compares the identification case image and the reference case image;
a second determination unit that compares the identification battery image and the reference battery image;
When the first determination unit determines that the identification case image and the reference case image match, and the second determination unit determines that the identification battery image and the reference battery image match, A small household appliance waste processing device, comprising: a control unit that drives the removal device. 2. The apparatus for disposing of small household appliance waste according to claim 1, further comprising a vibration device that vibrates the conveyance path to place the small household appliance waste in a prone state on the conveyance path. 2. The apparatus for treating small home appliance waste according to claim 1, further comprising a feed restriction member provided on the conveyance path to restrict the small home appliance waste to be supplied individually. The small home appliance according to claim 1, further comprising a learning unit that adds a new reference case image and adds a new reference battery image in association with the new reference case image. Garbage processing equipment.

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