WO2015174853A1 - Commande de vitesse de porteur - Google Patents

Commande de vitesse de porteur Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2015174853A1
WO2015174853A1 PCT/NZ2014/000087 NZ2014000087W WO2015174853A1 WO 2015174853 A1 WO2015174853 A1 WO 2015174853A1 NZ 2014000087 W NZ2014000087 W NZ 2014000087W WO 2015174853 A1 WO2015174853 A1 WO 2015174853A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
carrier
articles
speed
partitions
carrying
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/NZ2014/000087
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Marcus John Davies
Original Assignee
Compac Technologies Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Compac Technologies Limited filed Critical Compac Technologies Limited
Priority to PCT/NZ2014/000087 priority Critical patent/WO2015174853A1/fr
Publication of WO2015174853A1 publication Critical patent/WO2015174853A1/fr

Links

Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
    • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
    • B65G43/00—Control devices, e.g. for safety, warning or fault-correcting
    • B65G43/08—Control devices operated by article or material being fed, conveyed or discharged
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B07—SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS; SORTING
    • B07C—POSTAL SORTING; SORTING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES, OR BULK MATERIAL FIT TO BE SORTED PIECE-MEAL, e.g. BY PICKING
    • B07C5/00—Sorting according to a characteristic or feature of the articles or material being sorted, e.g. by control effected by devices which detect or measure such characteristic or feature; Sorting by manually actuated devices, e.g. switches
    • B07C5/36—Sorting apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B07—SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS; SORTING
    • B07C—POSTAL SORTING; SORTING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES, OR BULK MATERIAL FIT TO BE SORTED PIECE-MEAL, e.g. BY PICKING
    • B07C2501/00—Sorting according to a characteristic or feature of the articles or material to be sorted
    • B07C2501/009—Sorting of fruit

Definitions

  • the present subject matter relates to article carriers for use in grading and sorting apparatus for use in grading or sorting fruit, vegetables or other articles.
  • Article carriers are used to transport articles such as fruit through various stages for grading purposes, and to eject fruit at a required location dependent on the result of the grading process.
  • the use of one or more video cameras is one known method of automatically sensing characteristics of articles.
  • the article carriers typically include an endless circuit of cups on a conveyor chain with the cup situated to unload fruit at one of a plurality of stations.
  • Each cup is usually arrange to carry a single article in order to enable sensing of the individual articles.
  • a singulation process is required which receives randomly located articles across a relatively large area, and effectively funnels these into a single line of articles.
  • a tapering chute and/or v-belt may be used for this function.
  • an apparatus having a first carrier for carrying articles, a second carrier having a plurality of partitions and arranged to receive the articles into respective partitions, and a sensor arranged to determine a size parameter of the articles.
  • the first carrier is operated at a speed dependent on the determined size parameters.
  • the capacity of the apparatus can be increased as a higher percentage of the partitions contain an article and there is less spillage of articles.
  • the first carrier speed is increased when a larger cherry size is determined, and the speed is reduced when a smaller cherry size is determined.
  • the speed of the first carrier is dependent on a ratio of a size parameter of the partitions of the second carrier and the determined size parameter of the article.
  • the second carrier is typically operated at a predetermined speed, although variable and controlled speeds are also contemplated.
  • the first carrier may comprise a singulation belt, such as a V-belt for example.
  • the partitions of the second carrier may be adapted to carry a single article, and the sensor may be located about the second carrier downstream of a location at which the second carrier receives the article.
  • the second carrier may comprise a conveyor having controllably rotatable rollers arranged to form the partitions between respective pairs of rollers.
  • the apparatus is adapted to carry fruit or vegetables, such as cherries for example.
  • the senor may be arranged to determine additional characteristics of the articles, and be further arranged to sort the articles based on their additional characteristics.
  • the apparatus may further comprise a third carrier intermediate between the first and second carriers and operated at a speed higher than the first carrier.
  • an apparatus having a first carrier for carrying articles, a second carrier having a plurality of partitions and arranged to receive said articles into respective partitions, a third carrier intermediate between the first second carriers and operated at speed higher than the first carrier.
  • the third carrier is operated at a slower or equal speed compared with the speed of the second carrier.
  • the speed of the first carrier may be substantially constant or may be controlled dependent on a determined size parameter of the articles.
  • the invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or integrated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, in any or all combinations of two or more of said parts, elements or features, and where specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which the invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth.
  • Figure 1 is a plan view and schematic of an apparatus for carrying articles according to a first embodiment
  • Figure 2 shows a side view of the apparatus of Figure ;
  • Figure 3 is a side view and schematic of an apparatus for carrying articles according to a second embodiment;
  • Figure 4 is a plan view of an apparatus for carrying articles having a plurality of lanes
  • the apparatus 100 comprises a first carrier 105 for carrying articles such as cherries, and a second carrier 115 having a plurality of partitions 125 such as cups.
  • the second carrier is arranged to receive the articles into respective partitions so that typically a single article will be carried within each partition 125.
  • the first carrier 105 may be part of a singulation process and in this embodiment has a v-belt arrangement comprising two belts arranged longitudinally parallel to each other but at a cross-sectional angle in order that the articles are carried in a single row or line.
  • the second carrier in this embodiment comprises a number of cups, each of which receives a single article from the first carrier.
  • the second carrier may conveniently be that described in PCT patent publication number WO04067417. Whilst specific first and second carrier arrangements have been described, alternative arrangements may equally be used, for example the second carrier having an endless belt with transverse ribs to form the partitions in between. Similarly the first carrier may comprise a flat belt having longitudinal guides to maintain a single row of articles.
  • the apparatus 100 also comprises a sensor 150 arranged to determine a size parameter of the articles.
  • the size parameter may simple be a transverse, longitudinal, or height length measurement of each or a number of the articles passing by the sensor 150.
  • the sensor 150 is that used for determining sorting characteristics and is located about the second carrier downstream of a location at which the second carrier receives the articles.
  • a commercially available sensor is the InVision series of camera based sorting products available from Compac Sorting Equipment Limited of 1 Spring Road, Onehunga, Auckland, New
  • the first carrier 105 comprises a motor 110 for driving the carrier in the direction indicated by arrow A.
  • the second carrier 1 5 comprises a motor 120 for driving the carrier in the direction indicated by arrow B.
  • articles on the first carrier 105 are delivered individually to the partitions 125 of the second carrier 115. These articles are carried downstream by the second carrier to the sensor 150 which determines a size parameter of the article, and may determine additional characteristics which allow the apparatus to sort the articles based on these additional characteristics and/or the determined size parameters.
  • the articles may then be delivered to different processes, sorting belts, flumes and the like in order to group the articles according to the determined characteristics and/or size parameters.
  • the apparatus 100 also comprises a controller 160 which receives the determined size parameters of the articles, and controls the motor 110 of the first carrier to operate at a speed dependent on the determined size parameters of the articles.
  • the first carrier may speed up or slow down depending on the determined size parameters of the articles passing though the sensor 150.
  • the second carrier will be operated at a predetermined speed, and the speed of the first carrier 105 is controlled to be dependent on a ratio of a size parameter of the partitions of the second carrier, and the determined size parameters of the articles.
  • the cup fill or capacity of the second carrier can be optimised. In particular this load belt speed control can increase the number of partitions containing a single article, whilst also reducing the number of partitions containing two articles, or reducing the number of articles spilled off the second carrier.
  • the first carrier 105 is a singulation belt typically comprising two parallel belts arranged in a v-cross section such that the cherries are delivered to the second carrier 15 in a single line and one at a time.
  • the singulation process and belt is such that the cherries or other articles abut each other in the single line to form a substantially continuous row of cherries without spaces or gaps in between.
  • a cherry 265 is delivered to a partition 225 of the second carrier 115.
  • the speed of the first carrier 105 and the speed of the second carrier 1 15 are arranged such that a single cherry 265 is delivered from the first carrier 105 to each partition 225 of the second carrier 115. Occasionally there will be gaps in the line of cherries delivered by the first carrier 105, and so some partitions 225 of the second carrier 115 may be empty. However as described below, the speed of the first carrier 105 is controlled in order to minimise these occurrences and thus increase the throughput of the apparatus on average. Occasionally two cherries may be delivered from the first carrier 105 to a single partition 225 of the second carrier 115 either resulting in inaccurate sorting of the cherries or wastage and/further processing both of which may result throughput and efficiency of the apparatus.
  • speed control of the first carrier 105 can also be employed to reduce the occurrence of multiple articles delivered into a single partition 225 and thereby increase throughput and efficiency of the apparatus.
  • the cherries, other fruit or vegetables, delivered to the second carrier 115 are then carried downstream to the sensor 150 which typically incorporates a camera 225 to measure various characteristics of each cherry. These characteristic may include colour, blemishes, and size parameters. These size parameters may then be used to control the speed of the first carrier 105.
  • the speed of the second carrier 115 is held constant in order to operate with downstream systems such as the sensor 150 and downstream delivery to different sorting channels.
  • a variable speed second carrier may be employed in which the relative speed between the first and second carriers is adjusted in order to achieve the benefits of the descried embodiments.
  • the partition size 235 of the second carrier to typically fixed, for example 38 mm which together with a constant speed of, for example 1m per second, requires a fixed delivery rate of cherries from the first carrier 105 to ensure full capacity of the second carrier 115.
  • the size of the cherries varies, typically between 22-36mm. Therefore in order to ensure maximum capacity of the second carrier 1 5, the delivery rate of cherries by the first carrier 105 must be adjusted depending on the size of the cherries.
  • cherry size varies in batches as the cherries from a single tree are delivered in one batch for example. Two batches of cherries are shown at 270 and 280, having respective sizes 275 and 285. If the first batch 270 of cherries has a size parameter 275 of 25mm, then the speed of the load belt 105 should be:
  • the speed of the first carrier is dependent on a ratio of size parameter 235 of the partitions of the second carrier and the size parameters 275 of the articles, in this case cherries.
  • the speed of the first carrier 105 needs to be increased when carrying batches of larger cherries 280, compared with batches of smaller cherries 270.
  • the sorting sensor 150 is employed to determine the size parameter 275 or 285 of the different batches 270 and 280 of cherries, this information being fed back to the controller 160 which in turn adjusts the speed of the first carrier motor 110 as indicated above.
  • the cherries are typically delivered in batches, the short delay between a new batch appearing on the first carrier 105 to be delivered to the second carrier 115, and the first cherries of this batch being carried to the sensor 150 does not significantly affect the overall operation of the apparatus in this transition phase. However the overall efficiency and throughput of the apparatus is significantly improved.
  • a size parameter of the articles could be determined at a sensor other than the sorting sensor 150, for example a camera located about the first carrier 105.
  • the first and second carriers may have varying constructions, for example a second carrier may comprise a flat belt with transverse ribs forming partitions, cups, arrangements of controllably rotatable rollers or any other suitable arrangement as would be apparent to the skilled person.
  • the first carrier may comprise a flat belt with stationary side guides or other singulation arrangements as would be apparent to the skilled person.
  • an apparatus 400 comprising a plurality of parallel lanes for processing cherries is shown.
  • the apparatus 400 comprises a number of the apparatus described with respect to Figures 1 and 2. These are arranged into lanes 402A-N each comprising a first carrier 405A-N and a second carrier 415A-N. Additionally each lane comprises a singulation chute 407A-N which together with the first carriers funnel the received cherries into single lines.
  • the cherries are provided on a delivery belt or chute 403 and are separated into the individual lanes 402A-N as shown.
  • Each lane comprises one or more sensors 450 which may determine various parameters or characteristics of the cherries or other articles.
  • a determined size parameter is used to control the respective speeds of the first carriers 405A-N.
  • the determined characteristics are used to sort the cherries downstream of the sensor 450 into a number or sorting channels 490X, Y, Z.
  • a cherry having a particular characteristic such as a certain size range or colour
  • Other sorting channels 490Y and 490Z may be used to collect cherries having different size ranges or colours, or different levels of blemishes for example.
  • Any suitable sorting channel 490 may be employed, for example a water flume or delivery belt.
  • FIG. 3 An apparatus for carrying articles according to another embodiment is shown in Figure 3.
  • the apparatus 300 is similar to that of Figures 1 and 2 in having a first carrier 305 and a second carrier 315.
  • the first carrier 305 may be a singulation belt, for example a v cross-section belt arrangement as previously described.
  • the second carrier may be any of the previously described arrangements, in which individually delivered articles such as cherries are carried to a sensor 350 for determining sorting characteristics or parameters as previously described. Determined size parameters of the articles may also be fed back to a suitable controller 360 which may be used to vary the speed of the first carrier 305 as described above.
  • the speed of the first and second carriers 305 and 315 may be controlled differently to that described with respect to the first embodiment, including a constant speed for both.
  • the apparatus 300 additionally comprises a third carrier 340 intermediate between the first and second carriers as shown. Cherries or other articles are carried by the first carrier 305 in the direction indicated by X, and are delivered onto the third or intermediate carrier 340 which carries them in direction Y. The articles are then delivered by the intermediate carrier 340 to the second carrier 315, and are carried in direction Z to the sensor 350 and sorting channels beyond.
  • the third or intermediate carrier 340 is operated at a speed higher than the first carrier in order to separate the articles received from the first carrier before delivering the separated articles to the second carrier 315.
  • the use of the intermediate belt 340 also reduces the incidence of kickback when cherries are landing in the partitions of the second carrier.
  • Kickback is sometimes caused by carrier speed change, in particular the articles landing onto a faster belt than the belt they were delivered from. This may cause them to roll, slide, or bounce out of the partition thereby reducing throughput of the apparatus.
  • the cherries are then transferred onto the second carrier 315 with a smaller speed difference between the carriers which reduces the incidence of kickback.
  • the speed difference between the third and second carriers is less than the speed difference between the first and second carriers.
  • the intermediate belt 340 also tends to separate the cherries delivered from the first belt 305 which is running slower. This separation can be advantageous by reducing bunching and entanglement of stalks which in turn reduces the incidence of two cherries being introduced into the same partition of the second carrier.
  • the second carrier 315 may be operated at 1 ms " the first carrier 305 at 0.8ms "1 and the third carrier of 1.25ms "1 .
  • the third or intermediate carrier may run at any speed above the speed of the first carrier and less than or equal to the speed of the second carrier.
  • variable speed control of the first carrier described in the first embodiment may also be employed in this embodiment.
  • present embodiment 300 may be employed in the larger parallel apparatus of Figure 4 in which each lane has the three carriers 305, 315, 340 for carrying and sorting the articles.
  • Various other alternative arrangements will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

Landscapes

  • Sorting Of Articles (AREA)
  • Attitude Control For Articles On Conveyors (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention porte sur des porteurs d'articles pour l'utilisation dans un appareil d'évaluation et de tri pour l'utilisation à l'évaluation ou au tri de fruits, de légumes ou d'autres articles. Un appareil pour porter des articles comprend : un premier porteur (105) pour porter les articles (265) ; un second porteur (115) ayant une pluralité de séparations (125) et agencé de façon à recevoir les articles dans des séparations respectives ; un capteur (150) agencé de façon à déterminer un paramètre de taille (275, 285) des articles ; le premier porteur fonctionnant à une vitesse dépendant des paramètres de taille déterminés.
PCT/NZ2014/000087 2014-05-16 2014-05-16 Commande de vitesse de porteur WO2015174853A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/NZ2014/000087 WO2015174853A1 (fr) 2014-05-16 2014-05-16 Commande de vitesse de porteur

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/NZ2014/000087 WO2015174853A1 (fr) 2014-05-16 2014-05-16 Commande de vitesse de porteur

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2015174853A1 true WO2015174853A1 (fr) 2015-11-19

Family

ID=54480286

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
PCT/NZ2014/000087 WO2015174853A1 (fr) 2014-05-16 2014-05-16 Commande de vitesse de porteur

Country Status (1)

Country Link
WO (1) WO2015174853A1 (fr)

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN111438071A (zh) * 2020-05-13 2020-07-24 罗金姐 一种基于光感控制的可对水果大小进行分拣的装置
US11529653B2 (en) 2021-01-11 2022-12-20 Durand-Wayland, Inc. Produce sorting systems and methods

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4585126A (en) * 1983-10-28 1986-04-29 Sunkist Growers, Inc. Method and apparatus for high speed processing of fruit or the like
US5147023A (en) * 1989-08-24 1992-09-15 Krones Ag Hermann Kronseder Maschinenfabrik Method and apparatus for converting a multi-row container into, a single row stream
US6347697B1 (en) * 2000-06-09 2002-02-19 Ouellette Machinery Systems, Inc. Conveyed path splitting conveyor system

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4585126A (en) * 1983-10-28 1986-04-29 Sunkist Growers, Inc. Method and apparatus for high speed processing of fruit or the like
US5147023A (en) * 1989-08-24 1992-09-15 Krones Ag Hermann Kronseder Maschinenfabrik Method and apparatus for converting a multi-row container into, a single row stream
US6347697B1 (en) * 2000-06-09 2002-02-19 Ouellette Machinery Systems, Inc. Conveyed path splitting conveyor system

Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN111438071A (zh) * 2020-05-13 2020-07-24 罗金姐 一种基于光感控制的可对水果大小进行分拣的装置
US11529653B2 (en) 2021-01-11 2022-12-20 Durand-Wayland, Inc. Produce sorting systems and methods

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