Apparatus for sorting products

Abstract

Abstract A machine for sorting products employing light sensitive cells for receiving light reflected from a product passing through a viewing zone to detect products that are too light, too dark or defective. The signals from the light sensitive cells are amplified and passed through active filters which eliminate high frequency signals, transients, etc., therefrom. Output from the active filters is supplied to comparators and also to a peak detector as well as to a product flow indicator which controls a signal, such as a light, to indicate if the flow of products through the viewing zone is interrupted for any reason. A resistor to ground supplies bias to a transistor which supplies a positive biasing voltage to the two comparators to keep these comparators turned off except when a positive peak pulse is supplied to the transistor from the peak detector. This gates the comparators on and if the signal from the product corresponds to a product that is either too light or too dark one of the other of the comparators transmits a positive pulse to a pulse stretching circuit which supplies a short pulse to a delay circuit comprising a 64 bit shift register which functions as a memory and predetermined delay and is controlled by pulses supplied by a clock pulse generator. A selected output of the shift register supplies a delay pulse to a transistor which is connected to the pulse stretcher and supplies a pulse of predetermined duration to the input of a transistor amplifier. This transistor amplifier controls the energization of the solenoid of the valve controlling the product rejector which is used to deflect the product to be rejected from the main product stream.

Inventors

• 👤 R Wood

Bibliographic Details