JPH0231873A - Color selecting machine for square cut vegetable - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve screening accuracy by constituting the device in such a manner that square cut vegetables are placed on and carried by the hairy projecting tips of a transporting belt and are released between a pair of optical cases provided with two light receiving parts in one flow direction in a specified dropping path. CONSTITUTION:The square cut vegetable of a proper quantity each are supplied by a vibration supplying trough 8 to the transporting belt 2. The square cut vegetable are released toward the spacing between a pair of the optical cases 11, 12 upon arriving at the terminal part of the belt 2. The square cut vegetable are carried on and transported by the hairy projections on the surface of the belt 2 and, therefore, the square cut vegetable fall between a pair of the optical cases 11, 12 by drawing a specified falling path from the terminal transporting end without contact of the cut surfaces with the belt 2. The falling square cut vegetable receive the light projected from a light source and the quantity of the light reflected from nearly the entire surface thereof is detected by the light receiving parts 13-25 from 3 directions. The defective vegetables are discriminated in accordance with the quantity of the reflected light and are removed by an ejector 24.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a color sorting machine for diced vegetables that sorts and removes defective products from diced vegetables such as carrots and potatoes based on their hue. .

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-28336 is known as a method for projecting light onto grains and selecting and removing defective products and foreign objects that do not have a predetermined color based on the amount of reflected light.
There is a method known in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-26357 that evaluates fruits in multiple stages by projecting light of different wavelengths onto the fruit epidermis and measuring the amount of reflected light.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, in the sorting mechanism disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-28336, etc., a drainage gutter is provided to align and supply grains such as rice grains to the detection unit, but cubed vegetables are not collected like rice grains. It is unsuitable because it splashes down without flowing down, or it adheres to the gutter surface due to moisture from cut surfaces of vegetables. Also, as seen in Japanese Patent Publication No. 59-26357, it is not suitable for belt-transported chiru. Moisture on the cut surface of the cut vegetables makes it difficult for the diced vegetables to separate from the belt surface, and as a result, there is a problem in that the diced vegetables discharged from the end of the belt do not accurately reach the detection section. In addition, in the detection section, light receiving sensors are installed oppositely across the falling path of the objects to be sorted so as to capture the amount of reflected light from both sides of the objects to be sorted (Special Publication No. 6O-115). In the case of polyhedral shapes such as diced vegetables, there are some faces that cannot be captured by a pair of light-receiving sensors, and there is still a problem in sorting accuracy.

In view of these problems, it is a technical object of the present invention to provide a color sorting machine for diced vegetables that can accurately supply objects to be sorted to a detection unit and has good sorting accuracy.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the color sorting machine for cubed vegetables of the present invention, a vibrating supply gutter is connected to the starting end of the conveyor belt suspended horizontally, and a defective product detection means and this In the color sorting machine for diced vegetables, which is equipped with an ejector for removing defective products, a. The defective product detection means includes a light receiving section having a plurality of light receiving sensors and a light source in the horizontal direction with respect to one optical system. The optical fibers are disposed opposite to each other across the material to be sorted which is discharged in a strip from the end of the conveyor belt.

(b) One optical case is provided with two light receiving sections in the flow direction of the objects to be sorted.

C. Each of these optical cases is provided with a background facing each light receiving section.

2. Furthermore, a large number of trichomes are implanted on the surface of the conveyor belt.

This technical measure has been taken, and each light receiving section may be arranged in succession in the width direction of the conveyor belt.

[For production]

The vibrating supply gutter supplies the conveyor belt with cubed vegetables in appropriate m portions, and conveys the vegetables to the end of the conveyor belt. The diced vegetables that reach the end of the conveyor belt are discharged between the pair of optical cases, but the diced vegetables are conveyed by riding on the trichomes on the surface of the conveyor belt, The cut surface of the vegetables does not come into contact with the conveyance bell 1~, and the vegetables fall between a pair of optical cases while drawing a fixed falling path from the conveyance terminal end. The diced vegetables falling between a pair of optical cases receive the projected light from the light source, and the amount of light reflected from almost the entire surface of the diced vegetables is detected by the light receiving section from three directions, and the amount of light reflected from almost the entire surface of the diced vegetables is detected. Identify non-defective products and remove them with an ejector.

Further, by arranging the light receiving sections in series in the width direction of the conveyor belt, even if the width of the conveyor belt is wide, the amount of reflected light from all the falling objects to be sorted can be accurately received.

(Effect) Since the diced vegetables are conveyed by riding on the tip of the trichomes formed on the surface of the conveyor belt, the cut surface of the diced vegetables does not come into contact with the surface of the conveyor belt. The material is ejected from the end of the transport in a fixed falling path between a pair of optical cases, allowing for stable sorting, and one optical case is equipped with two light-receiving sections in the flow direction of the objects to be sorted.
It is possible to capture the amount of light reflected from almost the entire surface of the diced vegetables at the detection point, and even defective products with discolored parts only on the - side can be reliably identified and removed, improving sorting accuracy.

Furthermore, by arranging each light receiving section in series in the width direction of the conveyor belt, all the diced vegetables that fall from the wide conveyor belt can be accurately sorted. Moreover, since each light receiving section is provided with a plurality of light receiving sensors for one optical system, accuracy is further improved by accurately capturing the total amount of light of the optical system.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 1 to 5. In FIG. 1, a conveyor belt 2 is rotatably mounted horizontally in the vicinity of the center of an approximately rectangular parallelepiped machine frame 1 placed horizontally. That is, the conveyor belt 2, which is passed between rollers 3 and 4 that are horizontally arranged in parallel, is rotated at a constant speed by a motor 5 that is connected to the rollers 3 by a belt or the like. The surface layer of the conveyor belt is made of a material that is harmless to food, such as urethane rubber, and a large number of trichomes 6 made of the same urethane rubber are implanted in the surface layer (see FIG. 3). In addition, on both sides of the upper surface (II conveying surface) of the conveyor belt 2, covering the conveyance direction by 100 degrees, there are ts to prevent the diced vegetables from falling off during conveyance.
A c-th side wall 7 is fixedly installed (see FIG. 4).

A gutter end of a vibrating feed gutter 8 serving as an appropriate amount feeding device is made to face the starting end side of the conveyor belt 2. The lower end of the supply hopper 9 faces above the photographic supply trough 8 , and the bottom surface of the vibrating supply trough 8 is supported by a vibration device 10 .

On the other hand, defective product detection means is provided midway through the fall path of the diced vegetables discharged from the terminal end of the conveyor belt 2.

That is, a pair of optical cases 11 and 12, each having a length approximately equal to the width of the conveyor belt 2, are provided facing each other across the drop path, and a light receiving section 13 and a light receiving section 14 are provided in the optical booth 11. A light receiving section 15 is provided in the optical case 12 and arranged in parallel in the direction of the falling path.

Each of the light receiving sections 13 to 15 is provided with one optical system (which may consist of a plurality of lenses) 16, and five light receiving sensors 17a to 17e each consisting of a photodiode array or the like are provided in a sensor box behind the optical system 16. A background 18 facing the light receiving section 15 inside the optical case 12
are provided in the optical case 11, and the light receiving parts 13 and 14 in the optical case 11 have a background 19 for the light receiving part 13 and a background for the light receiving part 14 so that they do not intersect with each other at the detection line P of the diced vegetables on the falling path. A ground 20 is provided in the optical booth 12. That is, the light receiving section 13 and the light receiving section 14 are provided facing inward from each other, and the distances from the detection line P to each of the light receiving sections 13 to 15 are equal distances, and
Each optical system 16 is provided so that the diced vegetables on the detection line P pass through a slit 1- (not shown) in front of the optical system 16 and form an image on the light receiving sensors 17a to 17d. In addition, each light receiving section 13 to 15 is inside the optical case 11.12,
Although they are arranged in series in the width direction of the conveyor belt 2, almost the entire circumferential surface of all the diced vegetables on the detection line P is captured by the light receiving lensers 17a to 17e of each of the light receiving parts 13 to 15 (the (See Figure 5).

Fluorescent tubes 21A-21E are arranged within each optical case 11.12. That is, inside the optical case 11 is a fluorescent tube 21A that illuminates the vicinity of the detection line P through the transparent plate 22 of the optical case 11.

21G are provided along the light receiving sections 13 and 14, respectively, and a fluorescent tube 2 which also serves as a light source for the background 18 is provided.
1B, and a transparent plate 2 is provided inside the optical case 12.
Fluorescent tubes 21D and 21E are provided with the light receiving section 15 in between, and serve as a movement of a light source that illuminates the vicinity of the detection line P through the fluorescent tube 3, and also serve as a light source for the background 19.20.

Each of the backgrounds 18 to 20 is rotatably provided by a servo motor or the like (not shown) via a microcomputer so that the angle with respect to the fluorescent tubes 21B, 21D, and 21E provided nearby can be changed. The brightness of background rounds 18 to 20 is automatically adjusted according to the object to be sorted.

Each light receiving section 13~ is located near the fall path below the detection line P.
An ejector 4 is provided in correspondence with the 15 light receiving sensors 17a to 17e. The ejector 24 is connected to an air compressor (not shown), and is connected to each light receiving sensor 17a to 17e and an ejector corresponding to the light receiving sensor 17a to 17e so that high pressure air is ejected by a solenoid valve 25 provided in each ejector 24. 24
It is electrically connected to the operating circuit of the solenoid valve 25 in . Further, a good product discharge gutter 26 is provided below the ejector 24, that is, on the falling path, and a defective product discharge vA27 is provided on one side of the good product discharge gutter 26 to receive the defective products blown away by the ejector 24. A regulating valve 28 is provided at the branch part.

Next, specific operations in the above embodiment will be explained. When diced carrots, which are one of the diced vegetables, are put into the supply hopper 9 and the vibration device 10 and the 7-ter 6 are activated, the diced carrots (hereinafter simply referred to as "carrots") are vibrated. The feed gutter 8 supplies an appropriate amount onto the conveyor belt 2. The carrots supplied onto the conveyor belt 2 are supported by the tips of the trichomes 6 of the conveyor belt 2 and conveyed, and reach the terminal end of the conveyor belt 2. The conveyor belt 2 is approximately 1
．． 5+113 (It is driven by IC, and the carrot at the end of the conveyance is
The light is sequentially pushed out by the trichomes 6 and falls between the pair of optical cases 11 and 12, as shown by dots in the figure.

Carrots falling between the pair of optical cases 11 and 12 are oriented in various directions, but when these carrots pass the detection line P, defective products are detected by the light receiving sections 13 to 15. In other words, the light receiving sections 13.14 and 15 sandwich the belt-shaped falling path, and since the light receiving sections 13.14 are shifted in the direction of carrot flow and are provided facing the detection line [], carrots can be detected from three directions. On the other hand, fluorescent tubes 21A to 21E are arranged near each of the light receiving sections 13 to 15, so that the entire surface of the carrot is projected. Then, the light receiving section 13~
Each of the 15 light-receiving sensors 178 to 17e receives the amount of light from the opposing backgrounds 18 to 20, respectively.For example, when a defective carrot with one side darkened approaches the detection line P, One of the light receiving sensors 17a of the light receiving parts 13 to 15 facing this surface
17e is 1, and the difference in light amount between the light amount of the background 18 to 19 adjusted to almost the same light amount m as that of a normal carrot and the defective surface is detected. This difference is electrically converted and compared with a preset threshold. If the signal (voltage) is larger than the threshold, the carrot is determined to be defective, and the position of the light receiving sensors 17a to 17e is determined. The ejector 24 corresponding to the detection line P operates with a slight delay (the carrot on the detection line P is delayed by the time required for it to fall to the injection port of the ejector 24), and the carrot is not blown away into the defective product discharge gutter 27.

To adjust the light intensity of backgrounds 18 to 20, change the angle of backgrounds 18 to 20 using a microcomputer, etc.
By moving the C beam up and down, the light receiving sensors 17a to 1
Select the brightness that minimizes the output waveform of 7e, and move so that the light amount of backgrounds 18 to 20 always matches the light amount of normal /υ dust, which accounts for the majority of raw material carrots.

Wipers 29 may be provided on the opposing transparent walls 22 and 23 of the optical case 11 and 12 to remove dust and the like adhering to the transparent walls 22 and 23. Further, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and it goes without saying that the present invention may be implemented with a so-called bichromatic type in which the amount of light divided into a plurality of wavelength bands is received by separate light receiving sensors.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a side view and central vertical cross-sectional view, Figure 2 is a partially enlarged view of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a partially enlarged perspective view of the conveyor belt, and Figure 4 shows the falling of objects to be sorted and a pair of optics. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the relationship with the case, and is an explanatory diagram of the light receiving section.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A color sorting system for diced vegetables that includes a vibrating supply gutter connected to the starting end of a conveyor belt suspended horizontally, and a defective product detection means and an ejector for removing the defective products at the terminal end. In the machine, the defective product detection means is configured to detect objects to be sorted by ejecting an optical case equipped with a light receiving section having a plurality of light receiving sensors and a light source in the transverse direction with respect to one optical system in the form of a strip from the end of a conveyor belt. One of the optical cases is provided with two light receiving sections in the flow direction of the material to be sorted, and each of these optical cases is provided with a background facing each light receiving section. A color sorter for diced vegetables characterized by a large number of trichomes planted on the surface. (2) The color sorting machine for diced vegetables according to claim (1), wherein the light receiving sections are arranged in series in the width direction of the conveyor belt.