US 11,858,007 B2
Optical granular matter sorter
Takafumi Ito, Tokyo (JP); Tadashi Matsushita, Tokyo (JP); and Masaaki Sadamaru, Tokyo (JP)
Assigned to SATAKE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 17/638,090
Filed by SATAKE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Apr. 13, 2020, PCT No. PCT/JP2020/016253
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Feb. 24, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/038948, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 4, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-154297 (JP), filed on Aug. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0297162 A1, Sep. 22, 2022
Int. Cl. B07C 5/342 (2006.01); B07C 5/36 (2006.01)
CPC B07C 5/3425 (2013.01) [B07C 5/361 (2013.01)] 4 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical granular matter sorter comprising:
conveying means configured to convey an object to be sorted;
an optical detecting unit configured to detect, at a detection position, the object to be sorted falling from an end part of the conveying means;
an air ejecting unit disposed below the optical detecting unit, and configured to blow off the object to be sorted with ejected air of a compressed gas based on a result of detection obtained by the optical detecting unit; and
a control unit configured to control an ejection time of the compressed gas from the air ejecting unit based on the result of detection obtained by the optical detecting unit, wherein the control unit comprises:
a comparing unit configured to compare a defect detection time for the object to be sorted by the optical detecting unit and a single-granular matter passage set time set in advance, and
a calculating unit configured to multiply the defect detection time by a predetermined coefficient based on a result of comparison obtained by the comparing unit to calculate the ejection time, and
in a case in which the defect detection time is less than or equal to the single-granular matter passage set time as the result of comparison obtained by the comparing unit, the calculating unit multiplies the defect detection time by a small coefficient as compared to a case in which the defect detection time exceeds the single-granular matter passage set time to calculate the ejection time, and controls the ejection time of the compressed gas from the air ejecting unit based on a result of calculation.