JPH0631251A - Device for sorting glass bottle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to classify bottles having different sizes and shapes independently and precisely one by one by color. CONSTITUTION:Bottles fed into a hopper 2 are sent to a vibration arrangement device 6 by a vibration feeder 3 according to the treatment capacity thereof. The bottles fed to the device 6 are arranged in an area 7 and spaced apart from each other in an area 8 and pass a passage sensor 12. Transmitted light of the glass bottle 1 is photographed by a video camera 10 synchronously with the signal of the sensor 12 to judge the color of the bottle. Based on the judgement, a bottle classification controller 13 controls a bottle classification device 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a glass bottle sorting apparatus capable of accurately color-coding glass bottles having different sizes and shapes in order to recycle the glass bottles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it is necessary to color-code collected glass bottles for recycling the glass bottles. However, all of these color-coding operations are performed manually, and a device for automation has not been put into practical use. .

[0003]

In particular, the conventional manual color-coding work for bottles is a so-called 3K work in which the work content is tough, messy, and dangerous, and the shortage of manpower is also added, making it difficult to secure workers. It was In addition, it is necessary to further promote the recycling of glass bottles from the perspective of protecting the natural environment.
For these reasons, automation of the glass bottle color-coding and sorting machine has been desired. Now, as a method for detecting the color of the bottle, there is a method of capturing the transmitted light of the glass bottle with a color video camera and performing image processing to perform color selection. However, in order to apply such image processing technology to color selection of glass bottles, eliminating the overlap of bottles photographed by the camera,
Moreover, it is indispensable to keep the bottles one by one from the standpoint of improving accuracy. In addition, if the glass bottles that are collected as garbage do not target unspecified shapes, the collection rate for recycling will deteriorate, so it is necessary to have a function that can be processed without being limited by the size of the bottle. It was difficult to handle compared to the selection of, and it required some ingenuity. Therefore, the present invention is intended to provide a novel glass bottle sorting apparatus capable of independently and accurately color-coding bottles of different sizes and shapes one by one, and to solve the above conventional problems.

[0004]

Therefore, the present invention is a glass bottle sorting apparatus for sorting glass bottles collected as garbage by color for recycling, and the sorting apparatus is for supplying bottles to the apparatus. A vibrating feeder, a vibrating aligner with a gentle gradient on the upstream side and a steep gradient on the downstream side in order to align the bottles in a row in the longitudinal direction while sliding and dropping the bottles, and bottles conveyed by the vibrating aligner. The image capturing device that captures the image of the bottle, the image processing device that determines the color of the captured bottle, the control device that controls the sorting device based on the output from the image processing device, and the bottles are classified by color by receiving a signal from the control device. It is provided with a sorting device for sorting, and is used as a means for solving the problem.

[0005]

As described above, this device is composed of a bottle conveying device including the vibrating feeder 3, the vibration aligning device 6 and the like, and a bottle color identifying device including a video camera, an image processing device and a bottle sensor, and has an unspecified size. Judge the color of the glass bottle and identify the color. That is, the vibrating feeder is intermittently operated so that a large number of glass bottles put into the hopper are adjusted to an amount commensurate with the processing capacity of the apparatus, and the glass bottles are fed into the vibrating aligner in appropriate amounts. The vibration aligner aligns the glass bottles in a line in the longitudinal direction by vibrating the V-shaped rails, and spaces the bottles from each other in an area where the inclination increases. 1
In the glass bottles that are independently conveyed one by one, the transmitted light of the glass bottles is captured by a video camera and sent to the image processing apparatus. The image processing device analyzes the signal from the video camera,
The color of the passed bottle is determined, and the determination result is transmitted to the controller of the bottle sorting device.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments of the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of the present apparatus. In the figure, 1 is a glass bottle, 2 is a hopper, 3 is a vibrating feeder, and the vibrating feeder 3 is elastically supported 4 by an elastic body such as a spring. Further, 5 is a vibrator, and by operating the vibrator 5, the vibration feeder 3 can be vibrated. Further, a vibration aligner 6 is connected to the vibration feeder 3,
The vibration aligner 6 is also elastically supported 4 via an elastic body, and can be vibrated by operating the vibrator 5. Further, a V-shaped rail 15 shown in FIG. 2 is attached to the vibration aligning machine 6, the glass bottles 1 can be aligned in a line in the longitudinal direction in the alignment area 7, and the V-shaped rail in the bottle cutting out area 8 in the latter half. By increasing the inclination of 15 to increase the vibration movement speed of the glass bottle 1, the glass bottles 1 can be spaced from each other. Further, a video camera 10, a passage sensor 12 for detecting the glass bottle 1, and an illumination means 9 for illuminating the glass bottle are provided on the exit side of the vibration aligner 6, and are arranged above the illumination means 9. A slit 16 as shown in FIG. 3 is formed on the V-shaped rail 15. Video camera 10
Is connected to an image processing device, and the discrimination signal from this processing device is output to the bottle classification controller 13, whereby the bottle classification device 14 classifies the glass bottles by color.

The operation of the embodiment constructed as described above will now be described. The recovered glass bottle 1 has a hopper 2
Then, the vibrating device 5, which is dropped into the vibrating feeder 3 and is intermittently operated, sends the glass bottle 1 in an amount corresponding to the processing capacity to the vibrating aligner 6. The vibration aligner 6 is also vertically vibrated by the shaker 5, whereby the glass bottles 1 are aligned in the area 7 and the glass bottles are spaced in the area 8. The glass bottles 1 passing individually one by one are detected by the bottle passage sensor 12, and the transmitted light of the glass bottle 1 is photographed by the video camera 10 in synchronization with the signal of the bottle passage sensor 12. The image processing device 11 determines the color of the glass bottle 1 based on this video data,
The determination result is output to the bottle sorting controller 13. The bottle sorting controller 13 controls the sorting device 14 according to the determination result of the image processing device 11 to sort the glass bottles 1 by color. Thus, in this embodiment, glass bottles having different sizes and shapes can be accurately classified by color.

[0008]

As described above in detail, according to the glass bottle sorting apparatus of the present invention, the collected glass bottles having various sizes can be color-sorted regardless of the size, so that the work in the 3K environment can be reduced and the labor saving can be achieved. The recycling rate can be improved with the increase in the processing amount and the increase in the processing amount.
Further, by automating color determination, individual differences among workers can be eliminated, and excellent effects such as stability of color selection and improvement of recovery rate can be achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of a glass bottle sorting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Glass Bottle 2 Hopper 3 Vibration Feeder 4 Elastic Support 5 Exciter 6 Vibration Aligning Machine 7 Aligning Area 8 Bottle Cutting Area 9 Lighting 10 Video Camera 11 Image Processing Device 12 Bottle Passing Sensor 13 Bottle Sorting Controller 14 Sorting Device 15 V-shaped Rail 16 slits

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A glass bottle sorting apparatus for sorting glass bottles collected as garbage by color for recycling, wherein the sorting apparatus slides and drops a vibrating feeder for supplying the bottles to the apparatus. A vibrating aligner with a gentle gradient on the upstream side and a steep gradient on the downstream side in order to align in a row in the longitudinal direction, a photographing device for photographing the bottles conveyed by the vibrating aligner, and a bottle for photographing An image processing device that determines the color of the bottle, a control device that controls the sorting device based on the output from the image processing device, and a sorting device that receives the signal from the control device and sorts the bottles by color. Characteristic glass bottle sorting device.