US 12,011,742 B2
Optical sorter
Takafumi Ito, Tokyo (JP); and Tomoyuki Miyamoto, Tokyo (JP)
Assigned to SATAKE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Appl. No. 18/034,088
Filed by SATAKE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
PCT Filed Nov. 9, 2021, PCT No. PCT/JP2021/041239
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 27, 2023,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/102631, PCT Pub. Date May 19, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-187213 (JP), filed on Nov. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0398578 A1, Dec. 14, 2023
Int. Cl. B07C 5/342 (2006.01); B07C 5/36 (2006.01); F16K 31/00 (2006.01)
CPC B07C 5/3425 (2013.01) [B07C 5/366 (2013.01); F16K 31/008 (2013.01)] 6 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An optical sorter comprising:
a camera adapted to detect a to-be-sorted material at a detection position;
a controller adapted to determine a to-be-sorted material to be removed, based on a detection result by the camera; and
an air-jetting unit adapted to blow off and remove the to-be-sorted material to be removed using jet air of a compressed gas, based on a determination result by the controller, wherein
the air-jetting unit includes:
a piezoelectric valve adapted to perform valve opening and closing by driving a valve disc utilizing displacement of a piezoelectric element; and
a valve driving unit adapted to apply a drive voltage to the piezoelectric element,
the valve driving unit controls the drive voltage applied to the piezoelectric element in accordance with the to-be-sorted material to be removed by the controller to thus control a jet-air pressure of the compressed gas for removing the to-be-sorted material, and
a value of the drive voltage applied to the piezoelectric element changes in accordance with the to-be-sorted material to be removed.