JPH1019681A - Cullet color judging device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform a color judgment in a short time only with a simple hardware circuit structure by transmitting one of dispersed cullet transmitted lights by a visual interference filter, and determining the ratio of light receipt detecting level between this and the other transmitted light. SOLUTION: The light of a light source 1 is emitted to a cullet 10 to be judged by a lens 11 through a projecting optical fiber 2. The transmitted light by the cullet 10 is dispersed by light receiving optical fibers 3, 4, and the transmitted light on the fiber 3 side is guided to a visual interference filter 5. The transmitted light transmitted by this is received by a light receiving sensor 6, and the transmitted light on the fiber 4 side is directly received by a light receiving sensor 7. The detection signals of the light receiving sensors 6, 7 are amplified 8a, 8b in a fixed amplifying ratio, respectively, and inputted to a computing element 9. The computing element 9 determines the level ratio of detection signals of the sensors 6, 7, and judges the color of the cullet 10 according to this ratio. Thus, the color judgment can be performed in a short time without being influenced by a disturbance light with only a simple hardware circuit structure.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cullet color discriminating apparatus used in a glass manufacturing factory or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in discriminating reused glass (hereinafter referred to as “cullet”), transmitted light or reflected light is imaged with a camera using light,
In many cases, discrimination is performed from the obtained image.

For example, when a cullet and another object are mixed, and only the cullet is determined from the mixed objects, the transmitted light and the reflected light are detected using a plurality of cameras. At this time, when the cullet is within the detection range (imaging range), both the transmitted light and the reflected light are detected,
For objects other than cullet, such as metal and wood chips, transmitted light cannot be detected even if reflected light is detected.
The cullet can be determined from this point.

In order to determine the color of the cullet, transmitted light and reflected light are detected by using a plurality of color cameras, and a widely known RGB system, that is, an R system is used.
The upper limit value and the lower limit value of the detection signal are set according to the three primary colors (red), G (green) and B (blue) to determine the cullet color.

[0005] In recent years, each detected value of RGB is approximately converted into chromaticity coordinates, the upper limit value and the lower limit value are set, and those falling within the range are extracted and discriminated. .

When the conventional cullet is discriminated as described above, the color of the cullet to be discriminated is recognized in advance by software, and the cullet is discriminated by comparing it with a detection signal (image signal) of the cullet to be discriminated. Is to execute.

[0007]

However, in the above-described RGB color cullet color discriminating method, it can be constituted by a simple hardware circuit and software processing. Is greatly influenced by

Further, in the above-described method of converting into chromaticity coordinates, software for converting each of the obtained RGB detection values into chromaticity is complicated. And
In any of the RGB method and the method of converting into chromaticity coordinates, the color of the cullet to be determined is recognized in advance by software, and the determination is performed by comparison with the cullet to be determined. There is a problem that it takes time to determine one cullet and that the cost increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and has as its object to reduce the cost by only using a simple hardware circuit configuration and performing color discrimination in a short time. It is an object of the present invention to provide a feasible cullet color discriminating apparatus.

[0010]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
Irradiating means for irradiating light from a light source to a cullet to be determined, spectral means for acquiring transmitted light of the cullet by the irradiating means and dispersing it, and one of the transmitted light dispersed by the spectral means A visible interference filter that transmits light, a light receiving unit that receives the transmitted light transmitted through the visible interference filter and the other transmitted light separated by the spectral unit, and a ratio of each light reception detection level obtained by the light receiving unit. And a calculating means for determining the color of the cullet.

With such a configuration, a low-cost cullet color discriminating apparatus that performs color discrimination in a short time without being affected by disturbance light or the like by only a simple hardware circuit configuration is provided. It can be realized.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an irradiating means for irradiating light from a light source to a cullet to be discriminated, a spectral means for acquiring the transmitted light of the cullet by the irradiating means and dispersing it, and a spectral means for this. A visible interference filter that transmits one of the transmitted lights separated by the above, a light receiving unit that receives the transmitted light that has passed through the visible interference filter and the other transmitted light that has been separated by the spectral unit, and a light receiving unit that receives the light. Further, a plurality of cullet color discriminating units having arithmetic means for discriminating the color of the cullet based on the ratio of the respective light receiving detection levels are provided, and transmission wavelength characteristics of the visible interference filters of the plurality of cullet color discriminating units are different from each other. It is characterized by the following.

With such a configuration, the colors of a plurality of cullets, which cannot be determined by the transmission wavelength characteristics of one visible interference filter, can be reliably determined.
With only a simple hardware circuit configuration, it is possible to realize a low-cost cullet color discriminating apparatus that performs color discrimination in a short time without being affected by disturbance light or the like.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of the cullet 10, which is emitted from a light source 1 and illuminated by a lens 11 via a light projecting optical fiber 2. However, light receiving optical fibers 3 and 4 are arranged on the opposite side of the cullet 10 from the lens 11.

The light receiving optical fibers 3 and 4 have a common light receiving surface for splitting the transmitted light of the cullet 10 into two, and the transmitted light split on the light receiving optical fiber 3 side is visible interference. The light transmitted to the filter 5 and transmitted through the visible interference filter 5 is received by the light receiving sensor 6. Further, the transmitted light that has been split into the light receiving optical fiber 4 side is:
The light is directly received by the light receiving sensor 7.

The detection signal of the light receiving sensor 6 is amplified by the amplifier (Amp.) 8a, and the detection signal of the light receiving sensor 7 is amplified by the amplifier (Amp.) 8b with a constant amplification factor. Sent to

The arithmetic unit 9 determines the ratio between the levels of the detection signals of the light receiving sensors 6 and 7 sent via the amplifiers 8a and 8b, and determines the color of the cullet 10 based on the determined ratio. A signal indicating the result is sent to a subsequent processing device (not shown).

FIG. 2 shows the characteristic of the output ratio of the signal level obtained by each arithmetic unit 9 when two transmission wavelengths λ 1 and λ 2 are used as the visible interference filter 5 in the basic configuration as described above. It is.

As shown in FIG. 1, at the transmission wavelength λ 1, the two colors “transparent” and “green” have relatively similar output ratios as the color of the cullet 10, but “brown” can be reliably determined. At the transmission wavelength .lambda.2, the two colors "transparent" and "brown" have relatively similar output ratios as the color of the cullet 10, but "green" can be reliably identified.

Therefore, first, the "brown" cullet 10 is determined by using the visible interference filter 5 having the transmission wavelength λ1, and the visible interference filter 5 having the transmission wavelength λ2 is used for the remaining cullet 10 to obtain the “transparent” cullet. Caret 10 and "green"
If you try to determine the cullet 10 of the "clear"
The cullet 10 of three colors "green" and "brown" can be surely distinguished and classified.

FIG. 3 shows that the cullet 10 of three colors “transparent”, “green”, and “brown” as described above is securely formed on one transport line 12 using two sets of the basic configuration shown in FIG. This is an example of a case where an apparatus for classifying and discriminating is constructed, and the same parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

That is, the light emitted from the light source 1 is 2
A lens 11 via a projecting optical fiber 2 'for branching;
a and the lens 11b provided on the downstream side of the transport line 12 from the lens 11a irradiates the cullet 10 to be determined.

However, the light receiving optical fibers 3a and 4a are arranged on the opposite side of the cullet 10 from the lens 11a, and the light receiving optical fibers 3b and 4b are arranged on the opposite side of the lens 11b.

The light receiving optical fibers 3a and 4a have a common light receiving surface and split the transmitted light of the cullet 10 into two, and the transmitted light split on the light receiving optical fiber 3a side is a visible interference filter 5a.
a, and the transmitted light transmitted through the visible interference filter 5a is received by the light receiving sensor 6a. The transmitted light split on the light receiving optical fiber 4a side is directly received by the light receiving sensor 7a.

The detection signal of the light receiving sensor 6a is amplified by the amplifier (Amp.) 8a, and the detection signal of the light receiving sensor 7a is amplified by the amplifier (Amp.) 8b with a constant amplification factor. Sent to

The computing unit 9 determines the ratio of the levels of the detection signals of the light receiving sensors 6a and 7a sent via the amplifiers 8a and 8b, and determines the color of the cullet 10 based on the determined ratio. Is sent to an eliminator 13 provided downstream of the lens 11b on the transport line 12 for removing the cullet 10 from the transport line 12.

Similarly, the light receiving optical fibers 3b and 4b have a common light receiving surface and split the transmitted light of the cullet 10 into two, and the transmitted light split on the light receiving optical fiber 3b side is led to the visible interference filter 5b. The transmitted light transmitted through the visible interference filter 5b is received by the light receiving sensor 6b. The transmitted light split on the light receiving optical fiber 4b side is directly received by the light receiving sensor 7b.

The detection signal of the light receiving sensor 6b is amplified by the amplifier (Amp.) 8c, and the detection signal of the light receiving sensor 7b is amplified by the amplifier (Amp.) 8d with a constant amplification factor. Sent to

The computing unit 9 determines the ratio of the levels of the detection signals of the light receiving sensors 6b and 7b sent via the amplifiers 8c and 8d, and determines the color of the cullet 10 based on the determined ratio. Is provided on the downstream side of the transport line 12 with respect to the eliminator 13, the same eliminator 14 as the eliminator 13, or the eliminator 13 provided further downstream of the transport line 12 than the eliminator 14. It is sent to an eliminator 15 similar to 14.

In the above configuration, the visible interference filter 5a having the transmission wavelength λ1 shown in FIG. 2 and the visible interference filter 5b having the transmission wavelength λ2 are used, and the cullet 10 As "transparent"
It is assumed that there are three colors, "green" and "brown".

Therefore, when the cullet 10 is "brown", the computing unit 9a on the side using the visible interference filter 5a having the transmission wavelength λ1 discriminates this, and sends a discrimination signal to the rejector 13. To remove the corresponding cullet 10 from the transport line 12.

The visible interference filter 5 having a transmission wavelength λ 2
The computing unit 9b on the side using b discriminates whether the cullet 10 is “transparent” or “green”, and sends the discrimination signal to one of the exclusion machines 14 and 5 above. The cullet 10 is sent out and is removed from the transport line 12.

As described above, it is possible to perform color discrimination with a simple hardware circuit, so that the time required for color discrimination of one cullet 10 can be shortened as much as possible. Two sets of color discriminating circuits and three rejecting machines 13 to 15 are provided for the cullet 10 conveyed at a constant speed, and the three colors of “transparent”, “green” and “brown” are provided. The cullet 10 can be surely classified.

Further, since the circuit configuration is simple, maintenance is easy and reliability is high, the amount of identifiable processing can be increased, and cost can be greatly reduced.

In the above embodiment, the cullet 10
Are determined to be three colors of "transparent", "green" and "brown", but the color to be determined can be variously set according to the transmission wavelength characteristic of the visible interference filter 5 (5a, 5b). Needless to say, In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0036]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, low-cost cullet colors can be determined in a short time without being affected by disturbance light or the like by only a simple hardware circuit configuration. It is possible to realize a determination device.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, only a simple hardware circuit configuration capable of reliably determining the colors of a plurality of cullets which cannot be determined by the transmission wavelength characteristics of one visible interference filter. Thus, it is possible to realize a low-cost cullet color discriminating apparatus that performs color discrimination within a short time without being affected by disturbance light or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a basic circuit configuration according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating transmission wavelength characteristics of the visible interference filter of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a specific circuit configuration of the device according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Light source 2, 2 '... Projecting optical fiber 3, 3a, 3b, 4, 4a, 4b ... Receiving optical fiber 5, 5a, 5b ... Visible interference filter 6, 6a, 6b, 7, 7a, 7b ... Light receiving sensors 8a to 8d: amplifiers 9, 9a, 9b: arithmetic unit 10: cullet 11, 11a, 11b: lens 12: transport line 13 to 15: eliminator

Claims (2)

[Claims] An irradiation unit for irradiating light from a light source to a cullet to be determined, a spectral unit for acquiring the transmitted light of the cullet by the irradiating unit, and dispersing the transmitted light, A visible interference filter that transmits one of the transmitted lights; a light receiving unit that receives the transmitted light that has passed through the visible interference filter and the other transmitted light that is split by the splitting unit; A cullet color discriminating device comprising: a calculating means for discriminating the color of the cullet based on a ratio of light reception detection levels. 2. Irradiating means for irradiating light from a light source to a cullet to be determined, spectral means for acquiring transmitted light of said cullet by said irradiating means and dispersing it, and said transmission light dispersed by said dispersing means. A visible interference filter that transmits one of the lights, a light receiving unit that receives the transmitted light that has passed through the visible interference filter and the other transmitted light that has been separated by the spectral unit, and a light receiving detection level obtained by the light receiving unit A plurality of cullet color discriminating units each having an operation unit for discriminating the color of the cullet according to the ratio of the cullet, wherein transmission wavelength characteristics of the visible interference filters of the plurality of cullet color discriminating units are different from each other. Color discriminator.