JPH0243977A - Color sorter for squarely cut vegetable - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To smoothly drop squarely cut vegetables which tend to stick to walls of a supplying hopper by putting a vibrator on the walls of the hopper. CONSTITUTION:A vibrating supplying gutter 8 bridged almost vertically and in which lots of hairy projects 31 are implanted and a supplying hopper 9 are installed on the starting end of a conveying belt 2 and a means to detect unqualified products and an ejector 24 are installed on the terminal end of the conveying belt. The unqualified product detecting means is composed of photo receiving parts 12-15 having a plurality of photo receiving sensors in a transverse direction to one optical system, a light source, and a background faced to the photo receiving parts. A vibrator 32 is put on the walls of the supplying hopper 9. As a result, squarely cut vegetables which tend to stick to the walls of the supplying hopper 9 are dropped smoothly and prevented from remaining and becoming rotten.

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 for arranging grains such as rice grains and supplying them to the detection unit, but diced vegetables are not allowed to flow through the drainage gutter like rice grains. The water does not flow out clearly and adheres to the surface of the gutter due to a large amount of moisture.
Even in belt-transported devices such as those known in 7, many of the raw materials supplied to the starting end of the belt are already attached to each other, and if one of these is defective,
Non-defective products are also removed, reducing sorting accuracy. In addition, in order to prevent raw materials from adhering to the belt surface,
Even if the trichomes are planted, the raw vegetables will adhere to the guide walls provided on both sides of the belt in the traveling direction and to the inner wall surface of the supply hopper provided above the feeder that supplies the appropriate amount of material to the belt.

In short, diced vegetables contain a large amount of water, and as a result, there is a high possibility that these substances will adhere to all parts of the raw material supply section. Depending on the temperature (high temperature), spoilage progresses quickly, which is extremely unfavorable from a food hygiene perspective. In addition, water dripping from the conveyance end of the belt contaminates the defective product detection section, reducing sorting accuracy.

As described above, the technical object of the present invention is to solve the problems in the supply, conveyance, and detection parts that occur due to the large amount of water contained in diced vegetables.

[Means for solving the problem] In order to solve the above problem, the color sorting machine for diced vegetables of the present invention has a conveyor belt on which a large number of trichomes are planted on the surface, which is horizontally suspended. , a vibrating supply gutter and a supply car collar are provided on the starting end side, and a defective product detection means and an ejector are provided on the same terminal end side, and the detection means has a plurality of light receiving sensors in the lateral direction with respect to one optical system. In the dicing color sorting machine, which is equipped with a light source, a light source, and a background facing the light receiving section, a technical measure has been taken in which a vibrator is attached to the wall of the supply hopper.

It is effective to provide a gutter immediately below the terminal end of the conveyor belt to guide water droplets dripping from the terminal end in a direction other than the detection means provided below.

Further, it is preferable to provide a dissolving device on the conveying surface of the conveying belt for loosening the state in which a plurality of diced vegetables are stuck together.

[Action and effect]

The diced vegetables put into the supply hopper are transported in appropriate amounts toward the tip of the gutter by the vibration of the feed gutter, and are fed to the conveyor belt on which the trichomes are implanted. The diced vegetables that have reached the end of the conveyor belt fall along a predetermined falling path, are projected from a light source, and are detected by the light receiving section between the reflected lights of all raw vegetables. Items with a difference in the amount of light received from the ground that exceeds a certain level are judged to be defective, and are removed by an ejector and sorted.
Since the cubes are attached, the diced vegetables that tend to stick to the walls inside the supply hopper fall smoothly and do not remain on the walls forever and rot. Further, even when different vegetables are to be sorted successively, there is no need to manually remove the vegetables remaining in the supply hopper.

Diced vegetables, which are raw materials, themselves contain a large amount of water, but diced vegetables in particular are often sorted after being immersed in water for washing, etc., so that water droplets can leak from the end of the conveyor belt. Drips down. By collecting these water droplets in a gutter and guiding them to a method other than the detection means, the amount of light received and emitted by the light receiving section of the detection means, the light source, and the background will not be attenuated, and the sorting accuracy will not be degraded.

Note that there are wipers and the like as cleaning devices for the detection means.
Water droplets on carrots and potatoes contain starch, which cannot be easily removed with a wiper or the like. Furthermore, when operating the wiper, it is necessary to suspend the - time selection, resulting in a loss of time.

Furthermore, diced vegetables that have a high moisture content tend to stick to each other and are sorted while being stuck to each other, but by loosening this adhesion with a dissolving device while being transported on a conveyor belt, it is possible to avoid undesirable problems. To improve sorting accuracy by reliably sorting individual raw materials without removing good products attached to non-defective products together with defective products.

(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 harmless to food such as urethane rubber, and a large number of trichomes 6 made of the same urethane rubber are planted on the surface layer, slightly shorter than one side of the diced vegetables. In addition, side walls 7 are fixedly installed on both sides of the upper surface (transport surface) of the conveyor belt 2 perpendicular to the conveyance direction to prevent the cubed vegetables from falling off during conveyance.
A trichome 6 is also implanted on the inner surface.

The tip of a vibrating supply gutter 8 serving as a means for supplying an appropriate amount is exposed to the starting end side of the conveyor belt 2. The lower end of the supply hopper 9 faces above the vibrating supply gutter 8, the bottom surface of the photographing supply gutter 8 is supported by the imaging device 10, and a vibrator 32 is attached to the lower part of the supply hopper 9.

Further, a net 30 is stretched on the bottom of the vibrating supply gutter 8, and a large number of trichomes 31 are planted on the gutter wall and the inner wall of the supply hopper 9. This trichome 31 is also made of urethane rubber or the like, like the trichome 6 described above.

On the conveying surface of the conveying belt 2, a rotary protrusion 33 serving as a dissolving device for loosening the cubed vegetables that have stuck to each other is horizontally installed so as to be rotatable in conjunction with the motor 5. Like the trichomes 6゜31, these protrusions are made of flexible urethane rubber, etc., and are planted in a staggered manner on the cylindrical boss at intervals of about one side of the diced vegetables, and vibrate the diced vegetables. It rotates in the direction of returning to the feeder 8 side.

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 falling path, and a light receiving section 13 and a light receiving section 14 are provided in the optical case 11. They are arranged side by side and shifted in the direction of the falling path, and a light receiving section 15 is provided inside the optical case 12. Each light receiving section 1
3 to 15 have one optical system (sometimes consisting of multiple lenses) 16, and five light receiving sensors 17 consisting of photodiode arrays etc. in the sensor box behind it.
8 to 17e are provided. A background 18 facing the light receiving section 15 inside the optical case 12 is provided inside the optical case 11, and the light receiving section 13, 14 inside the optical case 11 is
A background 19 for the light receiving section 13 and a background 20 for the light receiving section 14 are provided in the optical case 12 so as to intersect with each other at the detection line P of the diced vegetables on the falling path. In other words, the light receiving section 13 and the light receiving section 14
and are provided facing inward from each other, and from the detection line P to each light receiving section 1.
3 to 15 are equidistant, and each optical system 1
6, the diced vegetables on the detection line P pass through a slit (not shown) in front of the optical system 16 and are sent to the light receiving sensors 178 to 17.
The distance between the trichomes 6 and the detection area on the detection line P of each of the light receiving sensors 17a to 17d are formed to match. In addition, each light receiving section 13 to 15 is inside the optical case 11.12,
They are arranged in series in the width direction of the conveyor belt 2, and the light receiving sensors 178 to 17e of the respective light receiving parts 13 to 15 capture almost the entire circumferential surface of all the diced vegetables on the detection line P. (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.

21C 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 light source for illuminating the vicinity of the detection line P through the fluorescent tube 3 and as a light source for the background 19.20.

Each of the backgrounds 18 to 2o 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.
Ejectors 24 are provided in correspondence with the 15 light receiving sensors 178 to 17e.

The ejector 24 is connected to an air compressor (not shown), and the light receiving sensors 178 to 17e and the light receiving sensors 17a to 1
The operating circuit of the electromagnetic valve 25 in the ejector 24 corresponding to 7e is electrically connected. In addition, a good product discharge gutter 2 is located below the ejector 24, that is, on the falling path.
6, and a defective product discharge gutter 27 is provided on one side of the non-defective product discharge gutter 26 to receive the defective products blown away by the ejector 24, and a regulating valve 28 is provided at the branching part of the defective product discharge gutter 27.

In addition, a gutter 3 is located directly below the conveyance end of the conveyor belt 2 to receive water.
4 will be provided. That is, the upper end is provided directly below the terminal end of the conveyor belt 2, and the lower end is inclined toward the starting end of the conveyor belt 2, which is the side opposite to the optical case 11.12, and a water reservoir 35 is provided at the lower end. Connect.

Next, specific operations in the above embodiment will be explained. Diced carrots, which are one of the diced vegetables, are put into the supply hopper 9, and the vibrator 32 of the supply hopper 9 is turned on.
, when the camera and camera device 10 and motor 6 of the camera and camera supply unit 8 are started, carrots are cut into cubes (hereinafter simply referred to as "carrots").
) is delivered to the conveyor belt 2 in appropriate amounts by the photographing supply gutter 8.
Supplied on top. In other words, the carrots that have flowed down onto the net 30 of the vibrating supply gutter 8 are conveyed on the net 30 toward the four ends, but since the contact area between the carrots and the net 30 is extremely small, the carrots are not placed on the conveying surface. No adhesion,
Excess water on the surface of the carrots falls to the bottom wall below the net 30 and does not adhere to the carrots again. In addition, the trichomes 31 planted on the four walls of the photographic supply gutter 8 prevent carrots from adhering to the four walls, and the vibrator of the supply hopper 9 prevents carrots from adhering to the interior of the supply hopper 9. It is supplied smoothly without any residue.

The carrots supplied onto the conveyor belt 2 are conveyed while being supported by the tips of the trichomes 6, and then the carrots are conveyed onto the conveyor belt 2.
11, due to the rotating protrusion 33 provided on the conveying surface of the conveyor belt 2, two or more carrots attached in a row are bounced back by the flexible protrusion. Separate and fall apart. The conveyor belt 2 is driven at approximately 1,511 See (depending on the material to be sorted), and as the trichomes 6 rotate along the roller 4, the carrots at the end of the conveyance are sequentially moved by the trichomes 6. It easily separates from the lens and is released, and falls between the pair of optical cases 11 and 12, as shown by the falling path in the figure.

Carrots falling between the pair of optical cases 11 and 12 are oriented in various directions, and when these carrots pass through the detection line P, defective products are detected by the light receiving sections 13 to 15. That is, the light receiving sections 13 and 14 and the light receiving section 15
13 and 14 across the belt-shaped falling path, and the light receiving part 13.
are provided toward the detection line P with a shift in the carrot flow direction, so when the carrot passes through the detection line P, almost the entire surface of the carrot is captured from three directions. Fluorescent tubes 21A to 21F are arranged in the vicinity of each of the fluorescent tubes, so that the entire surface of the carrot is projected. The light receiving sensors 17a to 17e of the light receiving sections 13 to 15 receive the amount of light from the opposing backgrounds 18 to 20, respectively. When reaching the detection line P, one or more of the light receiving units 13 to 15 or the plurality of light receiving sensors 17a to 17e facing this surface detects the background light 18 to 19, which has been adjusted to have approximately the same light intensity as that of a normal carrot. Detects the difference in light amount between the light amount and the defective surface.

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 ejector 24 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 sprayed into the defective product discharge gutter 27. .

The light intensity of the backgrounds 18 to 20 can be adjusted by changing the angle of the backgrounds 18 to 20 and raising or lowering the light intensity using a microcomputer or the like to the light receiving sensors 17a to 17.
The brightness that makes the output waveform of e is the smallest is selected, and the light intensity of the background 18 to 2o is always matched with the light amount of normal carrots, which account for the majority of raw carrots.

A predetermined falling path [.

While the carrots are released, the water accumulated at the bottom of the conveyor belt 2 drips from the end thereof, and this water is guided to the water receiving gutter 34 and collected in the water reservoir 35.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the eliminating device, in which a pair of support frames 36A and 3 are fixed to both side walls 7 so as to straddle the conveyor belt 2.
6B, and each support frame 36A, 36B is provided with flexible interference bins 37 at intervals slightly larger than the -side of the carrot.
be installed vertically. Obstruction bin 37 of each support frame 36A, 36B
are provided alternately, so that two or more carrots in a row are bounced back by the interference bin 37 and broken into pieces.

FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the vibrating supply gutter 8, in which the gutter bottom and the
In addition to providing a large number of trichomes on the wall, the supply gutter 8
is supported by a pair of inclined leaf springs 38A and 38B, one end of the leaf spring 39 is fixed in a direction perpendicular to the inclined direction, and the other end of the leaf spring 39 is attached to the arm 41 of the eccentric wheel 40.
Connect to. As a result, when the pulley 42 that rotates the shaft of the eccentric wheel 40 is interlocked by the variable speed motor 43, the vibration supply FA8 vibrates relatively largely in the direction of the arrow in the figure due to the reciprocating motion of the leaf spring 39, causing the carrot to be slightly Transport securely while bouncing. In this case, by changing the rotation speed of the variable speed motor 43, it is possible to easily adjust the number of images to be optimal for the object to be sorted.

Note that the opposing transparent wall 22.2 of the optical case 11.12
3 may be provided with a wiper 29 for removing dust and the like from the transparent walls 22 and 23. Further, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and includes a method of receiving light amounts divided into a plurality of wavelength bands using separate light receiving sensors.
Needless to say, it can also be done with a so-called bichromatic type.

[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. 1... Machine frame, 2... Conveyor belt, 3... Roller 4... Roller 5... Motor, 6... Trichophyte, 7... Side wall, 8... Vibration supply Gutter, 9... Supply hopper 10... Vibrating boar neck, 11.12... Optical case, 13-15... Light receiving section, 16... Optical system, 1
7a-17e... Light reception sensor, 18.19.20.
...Background, 21A-21E...fluorescent tubes,
22゜23...Transparent plate, 24...Ejector, 2
5... Solenoid valve, 26... Good product discharge gutter, 27... Defective product discharge gutter, 28... Adjustment valve, 29... Wiper
30... Net, 31... Ciliary projection, 32... Vibrator-133... Rotating protrusion, 34... Water receiver is gutter, 35... Water reservoir, 36A, 36B... Support frame, 3
7...Block bottle, 38A, 38B...Temporary spring, 3
9... Leaf spring, 40... Eccentric wheel, 41... Arm, 42... Pulley 43... Variable speed motor spear 2 Illustration 7 Illustration 6 Illustration procedure amendment (voluntary) 7゜Contents of amendment 10112, 1988 (3:

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A vibrating supply gutter and a supply hopper are provided on the starting end side of a conveyor belt that is suspended horizontally and has a large number of trichomes implanted therein, and a defective product detection means and an ejector are provided on the same terminal end side, In a color sorter for diced vegetables, the detection means includes a light receiving section having a plurality of light receiving sensors in a horizontal direction with respect to one optical system, a light source, and a background facing the light receiving section, respectively. A color sorting machine for diced vegetables, characterized in that a vibrator is attached to the wall of the supply hopper. (2) In the color sorting machine for diced vegetables according to claim (1), a water receiving gutter is provided directly below the terminal end of the conveyor belt to guide water droplets falling from the terminal end in a direction other than the detection means. A color sorter for diced vegetables. (3) In the color sorting machine for diced vegetables according to claim (1) or (2), on the forward path surface of the conveyor belt, a plurality of diced vegetables adhering to each other are loosened. A color sorting machine for diced vegetables with a dissolving device.